Category Archives: leadership

How to appoint a chair or chief executive

In the second of our articles for Trustees Week, our guest columnist says when appointing a chair or a chief executive, charity trustees must be bold, imaginative and true to their mission John TIzard Some of the most important and critical decisions for any charity trustee board are the appointments of chief executive and chair.… Read More...

Accountability Matters And Should Never Be Ducked By Leaders

Accountability is core to good governance, democracy and trust. It enables lessons to be learnt and for mistakes not to be repeated. It requires leaders to take responsibility and where necessary accept the consequences for failure. This issue is both topical and important. There are two clear caveats to what follows: press coverage of disasters… Read More...

Successful Boards Avoid Artificial Consensus – They Celebrate Diverse Opinions And Robust Debate

After some thirty years serving on a multitude of boards across all sectors, my advice is – don’t obsess about always needing to reach a consensus, and never fudge decisions. I have served, advised and answered to more boards than I can now recall for over thirty years – boards in the public, charity and… Read More...

Leaders Make Greater Impact When They Are Values Led And Behave Accordingly

few weeks ago when writing a review of Ed Mayo’s excellent book – Values – how to bring values to life in your business” on this Huffington Post site I used the following words: Values matter. They can drive behaviours and performance in businesses, co-operatives, social enterprises, charities, community groups, the public sector and indeed… Read More...

Improving Corporate Governance and Company Behaviours – public procurement has a role

The Government’s recently published Green Paper on Corporate Governance is widely regarded as disappointing by many in the public sector and trade unions. Whilst there are some important and positive proposals for improving accountability and transparency, especially in respect of senior executive pay, the overall set of proposals falls short of what many had hoped… Read More...

Successful Change Requires Bold Leaders Stepping Outside Their Comfort Zone

The contemporary cliché that the “one constant is change and will be change” is tired and overused but nevertheless true.

Whether you are in the voluntary and community sector, a charity, a large or a small business or any part of the public sector you, your organisation and the systems in which it operates are almost certainly going to be...

Where are the revolutionary public sector leaders?

The government is pressing ahead with the privatisation of many services and outsourcing. In fact, central and local government, the NHS and wider public sector are relentlessly extending the reach, scope and volume of public service outsourcing. A change in Conservative leader could accelerate this.

In part, this is a direct result of government policy to redefine and reduce the...

Keep the relationship alive

Local government is changing and faces the most severe financial test for many decades, certainly in the experience and memories of both its political and executive leaders.

After more than five years of cuts in central government support, more are planned for the remainder of this Parliament. Worse still, the axe is not falling evenly across local authorities and nor...