Archive for category: Leadership

Watch our short video that explains how to be an effective leader. It covers the six essential features of a good leader and six skills recognised in the Social Leadership Capabilities Framework that can help leaders in social and ethical organisations.

To be an effective leader, you need to know the difference between management and leadership. There is considerable overlap between the two, but an organisation needs both. Inspiring leaders must be someone with management skills who can convert a vision into action. A manager would focus on planning, improving today, and organising the future.

A leader would focus on vision, shaping tomorrow, and creating the future.  In a large organisation, the chief executive focuses on leadership. In a smaller organisation, leaders don’t have that luxury. The director may be dealing with strategy in the morning and reorganising office files in the afternoon.

Here are six essential features of a good leader.

• Building trust by being a role model for the organisation, but remembering trust is a two-way process.
• Demonstrating courage by taking firm action when necessary, making difficult or unpopular decisions.
• Challenging views when needed, but with a focus on improvement and encouraging individuals.
• Providing focus to a team and their priorities and striving towards the vision for the organisation.
• Communicating effectively by listening as well as talking.
• Consulting people before making decisions to gain commitment from the wider team and being clear about what they are asking.

Here are six skills recognised in the Social Leadership Capabilities Framework that can help leaders in social and ethical organisations.

• The Empowering Enabler who empowers others to take on new challenges and training.
• The focused strategist who continuously seeks organisational improvement for their people.
• The passionate advocate who is committed to the mission and their people.
• The generous collaborator who seeks to establish and grow collaborative partnerships and relationships.
• The courageous changemaker who drives change and is unafraid of taking risks in a responsible way.
• The inspirational communicator who relates to others with authenticity.

Leaders can use this framework to reflect and assess their current skills, identify leadership gaps and plan the personal and professional development for themselves and their team.

Watch our short video that explains how lead through challenges.

During your time as a leader, your organisation will encounter challenges and periods of change. This can be difficult for you and the team, so it’s a good idea to have some strategies in place to get help.

When you are faced with a challenge or crisis, you often need to act quickly – sometimes even before you have all the facts. Despite this, it’s important to make sure that you bring your team along with you and one of the key factors is communication. Information should be provided to everybody involved in a transparent and open way.

Information is powerful as it:

• reduces the emotional distress caused by the unknown
• diminishes fear,
• provides tactical guidance, and
• demonstrates to employees that their leaders are concerned, involved, knowledgeable when dealing with a situation.

During challenging times, it’s more important than ever for a leader to take charge and show they are in control of a situation. As a leader, make sure that you are accessible, and that people know how to contact you. Recognise people’s emotions, show respect by listening, and also consider what is not being said.

When the challenge or crisis subsides and things go back to normal, it’s useful to look at what happened and consider ways that can make your organisation more robust for future challenges.

Managing change within your organisation is often strategically necessary but can fail more times than it succeeds. To ensure you have a better chance, be clear about the outcomes and results you expect. What you say and do as a leader affects how people respond, and in turn, how successful the results are. Although formal processes can be put in place, it’s useful to remember that understanding the practical side can take time and the human side of change can be forgotten. When change happens, an effective leader will recognise the importance of engaging everyone involved whilst remembering that people need time to adapt.

Effective change is about leading people and not just the process. If you have the commitment from the people involved, then change is more likely to happen.

This five-step framework is useful for leading through change.

• Let go of what you can’t control and lead on what you can. This enables you and your team to focus and achieve what’s needed.
• Change can be an opportunity to learn and grow, and in turn, brings the chance to explore new ground.
• Communicate clearly at all stages by being open and honest with your team. Give them as much information as you can, and make sure you let them know what’s happening.
• Let your team know the changes that are taking place. Help them build upon their existing strengths and skills, this will help them to continue feeling motivated and engaged.
• Recognise the efforts of your team by telling them their positive response to the changes is valued. Highlight specific instances where you valued their support and ability to adjust.

Watch our short video that explains good governance.

To ensure that you have a well-run, efficient organisation that complies with laws and regulations, and that sustains a good reputation whilst making a difference based on its targets it will need good governance.

Although a board of trustees are responsible for governance, they rely on employees, volunteers, advisors and other stakeholders.

A useful tool that helps charities and their trustees with their governance is called the Charity Governance Code. The code is also useful for not-for-profit organisations that deliver a public, community or social benefit but is not a legal requirement.

The code has the following set of principles.

• Organisational purpose
  The board is clear about the charity’s aims and ensures that these are being delivered effectively and sustainably. Charities exist to fulfil their charitable purposes. Trustees have a responsibility to understand the environment in which the charity is operating and to lead the charity in fulfilling its purposes as effectively as possible with the resources available.

• Leadership
  Every charity is led by an effective board that provides strategic leadership in line with the charity’s aims and values. Strong and effective leadership helps the charity adopt an appropriate strategy for effectively delivering its aims. It also sets the tone for the charity, including its vision, values, and reputation.

• Integrity
  The board acts with integrity. It adopts values, applies ethical principles to decisions and creates a welcoming and supportive culture that helps achieve the charity’s purposes. The board is aware of the significance of the public’s confidence and trust in charities.  It reflects the charity’s ethics and values in everything it does. Trustees undertake their duties with this in mind.

• Decision-making, risk and control
  The board makes sure that its decision-making processes are informed, rigorous and timely, and that effective delegation, control and risk assessment, and management systems are set up and monitored.  The board is ultimately responsible for the decisions and actions of the charity, but it cannot and should not do everything.

• Board effectiveness
  The board works as an effective team, using the appropriate balance of skills, experience, backgrounds, and knowledge to make informed decisions. The board has a key impact on whether a charity thrives. The tone the board sets through its leadership, behaviour, culture and overall performance is critical to the charity’s success.

• Equality, diversity and inclusion
  The board has a clear, agreed and effective approach to supporting equality, diversity and inclusion throughout the organisation and in its own practice. This approach supports good governance and the delivery of the organisation’s charitable purposes. Addressing equality, diversity and inclusion helps a board to make better decisions.

• Openness and accountability
  The board leads the organisation in being transparent and accountable. The charity is open in its work unless there is good reason for it not to be. The public’s trust that a charity is delivering public benefit is fundamental to its reputation and success, and by extension, the success of the wider sector.

The code can be found at www.charitygovernancecode.org