The Compassionate Leadership Interview

Tony Stacey is Chief Executive of South Yorkshire Housing Association, who own over 6,000 homes in the Sheffield travel to work area.There are around 1,000 housing associations in the country. SYHA is a standout: the social housing regulator has made a case study of it on account of the scope and impact of the initiatives that it has taken in service of its tenants. They answer their ‘why’ question by saying that “with SYHA, you can settle at home, live well, and realise your potential.”They maintain their focus on this purpose by deliberately limiting their activities to the Sheffield City Region. They are fiercely independent, resisting the popular trend for housing associations to merge and operate far from their original local roots. In recent times they have turned down invitations to take over other housing associations outside of their area.On the other hand, they are very open to working in collaboration and partnership with local organisations: Tony observes they would be more likely to merge with a health trust than with a housing association.In their “Housing First Programme”, SYHA first ask what strengths the tenant can bring to the tenancy and then what support they need to sustain their situation.SYHA is in the Sunday Times Best 100 Not-for-Profit Organisations to Work For. Tony puts this down to the time the organisation spends thinking about leadership and culture; “what is it that engages people at a human level and what is it that alienates people.” The organisation has taken Jim Collins’ book ‘Good to Great’ to heart and looks to develop the humility (as well as the steely determination to succeed) that is the hallmark of Level 5 leaders.A few days after he became Chief Executive, Tony was asked what he was going to do. He said he knew what he wasn’t going to do and that was sack the top team. “People feel they have to make their mark by being disrespectful about what happened in the past … bringing in people that are like them, with their kind of values … we do things differently [at SYHA].”SYHA puts a great deal of emphasis on the recruitment process. What a person stands for, how they behave and what motivates them comes before their knowledge – they can always acquire the latter through training.Tony is competitive and likes to see SYHA leading the pack, but by nature he is a collaborator: “Most of what we do, our big successes, have been in partnership with other organisations.” He is shortly to meet Ed Milliband, one of the commissioners of the Shelter report that considered the future of social housing post the Grenfell tragedy. He will be with tenants of and people who work for other housing associations, local authorities and ALMOs (arm’s length management organisations). Trust and accountability are key issues for SYHA, but Tony feels that they are far better off working through the associated issues with others than alone.I asked Tony whether the diversity of his tenants is reflected in the diversity of his management team. In the majority of his tenancies the head of the household is a woman. The director of development at SYHA is a woman, as is the manager of their new build programme and of their maintenance programme.Tony rates today’s SYHA as his greatest work-related achievement. In terms of its scale of activities and its ambition it is a different organisation to the one he took over. The workforce has grown from 90 to 750. They have set up an estate agency, they have a joint venture company with other housing associations to develop housing for sale, and they are running a randomised control trial on behalf of the Department of Work and Pensions.One of the managers in SYHA set up a session called “Oops, that’s interesting, I’ve made a mistake.” Tony was first up and one of his disclosures...

Nancy Fielder is editor of The Star, Sheffield Telegraph and Doncaster Free Press. She is the first woman to edit a newspaper in Sheffield.If you check out her social media feeds, football, art and the built environment emerge as themes. Of these, it’s the built environment she is most passionate about – “the city really needs to move forwards but has got a lot worth protecting.”She was nominated for the podcast by Dan Hayes, the Star’s business reporter. Does she think of herself as a compassionate leader? She tries to bring the same attitudes and thoughts she has towards her friends and family into the workplace. She speculates that it’s a sign of being compassionate that you acknowledge that you don’t always succeed in being compassionate.The foundation of her practice as a leader is listening. She has strong ideas on what she wants, but equally recognises that the local journalism landscape is changing rapidly. Listening and openness help her and the paper to adapt.In February last year the BBC ran a piece on the demise of the local newspaper and in May this year the Guardian claimed that the decline of newspapers is “starving communities of news.” Is it fair to say that local newspapers are in decline? Nancy says that while print is in decline, online news is thriving – The Star’s audience is as numerous now as it was when the print edition was at its peak.Staff numbers have declined but the remaining team is very tight knit and still manages to run some great stories. Bylines no longer have the kudos that they once have, but journalists can see the response of the public to a story in real time. Nancy doesn’t single out one person who has inspired her on her leadership journey, but lots of different people have helped her and boosted her confidence “and they are not the sort of people who would recognise they have done that because it is everyday acts of kindness and words of encouragement.”Having children helps her keep a sense of perspective and has compelled her to compartmentalise her life. And the children wouldn’t allow it any event. When Nancy last appeared on BBC Breakfast (21/9/19) one of the subjects raised was some of the comments John Humphreys has made since his retirement (about feeling frustrated as a journalist). Does Nancy have things that she wants to say but feels she can’t right now? She has learnt to put across her point of view in a reasoned way and it generally receives a favourable reception.Nancy has her finger on the South Yorkshire pulse perhaps more so than anyone, even local politicians. What single change does she believe would achieve the greatest improvement in the lives of her readers? She would want to close the divides that exists within the region, while acknowledging that this is no easy task. She would want to spread the know-how behind the pockets of manufacturing and educational brilliance more widely. It would help for a start if people from all sides of the city would travel more widely. Nancy tries to use her position to reach out to younger women and encourage them. She organised a “Women in Sheffield” awards last year and is looking to organise a bigger event in the future. She observes “it doesn’t take much from somebody else to make you question your lack of confidence.”Nancy works hard to listen to and understand diverse communities. She highlights that Facebook are funding local news reporters. The Star employs a Chinese and a Roma-Slovak reporter. They have helped the paper get stories across from a different angle.Nancy tries to promote independent thought among her readers. She sees the role of the press as informing people and encouraging them to vote, but not telling them how to vote.  She doesn’t read much specifically on the subject of leadership. Her advice would be to listen and read as widely as you can. “Pick up things you normally wouldn’t want to try and give...

Hugh Facey OBE is Chairman of Gripple and of the Glide group. In 2014 Management Today ran an article on him entitled “Is Hugh Facey Britain’s best boss?” and he has appeared on BBC’s The One Show.His career started at Tinsley Wire. He set out on his own with Estate Wire in 1984 and then sold it five years later to fund Gripple, the wire connector that he invented. 30 years on, the Glide group that he chairs is now some 1,000 strong and Gripple is known throughout the UK manufacturing sector as a pacesetter. Gripple is a hugely successful exporter with offices in 14 countries.His first and foremost business principle is that you should treat everyone as you would like to be treated. Other principles include that culture should be a priority, everyone should have the opportunity to grow and develop and all staff should share in the profits of the business.Hugh first started sharing the profits of the business with his workforce when he gave the Estate Wire team 10% of the sale proceeds when the business was sold (to fund the development of the Gripple wire connector). The rest of Gripple’s principles were developed bottom up – “from our staff saying this is what we believe in.” Humour is a big part of the business: “If you don’t have humour, business can be very, very dry.”Gripple is an innovator. It has a target that 25% of sales should arise from products not available 5 years ago. It has invested heavily in its development engineering team, but the sales team, continually seeking to identify customer problems that the business can address, is the leading edge of its innovation effort.Since 2004 it has been mandatory for new employees to buy shares in Gripple. In 2011 Hugh set up a company limited by guarantee Glide (Growth Led Innovation Driven Employee) and he and his vice chairman are in the process of gifting their personal shares to Glide (50%) and to a charitable foundation (50%) so that by 2021 the group will be owned entirely by future generations of employees. The gifting is crucial, because it avoids burdening the business with debt, which is the consequence of many trust type employee ownership structures.Glide also provides an effective vehicle whereby senior management can be challenged by staff on the running of the business.The value of shares bought by an employee in 1994 has since increased by a factor of 200.Gripple’s challenge to business orthodoxy doesn’t stop with employee ownership; it famously has no buying department, no HR department (people and culture instead), no job descriptions, no R&D department (ideas and innovation instead) and Glide is structured so that it can never be run by an accountant. Hugh maintains that there is no need for a buying department when you trust your people. Equally, recruitment decisions should be made by the manager for whom the recruit is going to work. “Job descriptions … stop people doing things.”The first thing Hugh did when he founded the business was to surround himself with highly capable people. The original board comprised of Roger Hall (now vice chairman), John McGee (formerly MD of Presto Tools), and John Heselgrave, an expert in recruitment and training.Along the way, other businesses have joined Glide and have benefited from Hugh’s investment approach: PMS Diecasting, supplier of the housings for the Gripple Connector, GoTools, and Laser Scanning. “So many businesses look at the bottom line, and not the top line and the investment.”Hugh doesn’t talk about any achievements of the business as his personally, but believes the greatest collective achievement of Gripple is the Gripple spirit; the willingness of people to work together, to support each other and also their charitable efforts.After “making a bog of” his O and A level results, Hugh went to Sheffield Technical College, where he sat an Institute of Marketing course, and took a job at Tinsley Wire

Sarah is Managing Director of Thrive Consulting Collaborative. She has a side hustle, Love Work More, with friend Richard Ferguson. Thrive is based on the premise that we all have enough time to prosper and works with organisations and leaders to achieve this. Love Work More provides people with tactics and strategies to find a working life that they love.Sarah originally qualified as a lawyer then moved into legal recruitment. After an MBA she moved into senior roles in professional services management and also joined the board of the Children’s Society. Subsequently she and her husband moved to Colorado where she became CEO of an autism school. “It was a job that was about meaning rather than making money” she says.18 months later, her husband Jonathan died in a car crash leaving Sarah with two young boys. She moved back to the UK and set up her consulting business. Six years on she reflects that “friendships and reading” have kept her sane. She has found that while “not everything has a reason, you can give everything meaning.” Sarah is a team player. “I think it is that sharing.” Sarah runs Thrive as a social enterprise and gives between 10 and 20% of her time pro bono. She is currently doing this with a programme at The Pankhurst Trust. During her career she often found herself the only woman in the room. Her sporting knowledge and background helped her cope, but in her coaching she tries to provide women with other strategies to flourish in what are often male dominated professions. There are 50 coaches and 50 coachees on the programme at the moment. Her current coachee runs a social enterprise in Manchester. “There is so much potential in all of us…”Sarah is disappointed by the current quality of political debate. She observed that in times gone by our politicians were our philosophers. She became involved in politics because she felt that the world was moving both environmentally and socially in a negative direction. She joined the Women’s Equality Party several years ago and has since enjoyed canvassing and discussing politics in the town centre on Saturday mornings. All the research shows that “more equal societies are happier.”One of her proudest achievements at work related to a major restructuring in 2009. “It was about courage and values.” The CEO wanted everyone to feel heard, listened to and supported, so he and Sarah met everyone in the organisation. Her advice to her 18-year old self would be to find a coach or mentor, and to learn about mindfulness, meditation and stoicism. Those things would have stood her in good stead for the events of the coming 30 years. She would have also told herself that “you’re going to be OK.” Your relationships and friendships will see you through.Sarah’s has to work hard at self-care. Running, hill-walking and pull-ups(!) feature prominently. She encourages everyone to take some physical exercise daily, if only 15 minutes. She is big on visual cues to make things happen and so has fixed up a pull-up bar in her hallway. The running developed as a response to grief.The death of her husband profoundly changed her life. It devastated yet also transformed her and “the results of it have been inspirational in some ways.” He was her soul mate. The feeling that “we don’t know how much time we’ve got on our clock” informs the way that she works with people. She was deeply moved by the response of people after Jonathan’s death. The community in Colorado brought them a meal three times a week for three months.Reading is one of Sarah’s passions, but she encourages all aspiring leaders to find their natural way of learning. There is a reading room on her website thrive.co.com. She is an enthusiast for medium.com. Regarding podcasts she recommends ‘Hurry Slowly’ by Jocelyn Glei – time and energy management is a common theme of her work with leaders – and also ‘How to Fail’ by Elizabeth Day. ‘How to Own the Room’ by Viv...

In this show, Chris Whitehead turns the tables on Chris Hill. Chris regularly interviews young people in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ environment in his role as CEO of Element Society.Element Society is a charity that “empowers young people to make a positive change in their communities.” Over 2,700 young people have participated in the programme since its inception six years ago. Element Society facilitates young people to tackle social issues that the young people believe are important. At the moment those issues include mental health, knife crime, and community cohesion.By way of example, the young people have designed a peer-to-peer support project on “how to be a friend to someone with mental health problems” that has been delivered to 2,000 teenagers across Sheffield. They assembled a hard-hitting video from mobile phone footage to counter child sexual exploitation that has been adopted by the NSPCC at a national level. The teenagers involved spoke at the NSPCSS ‘red carpet’ event about how they researched and built the video. Making use of his business background Chris has secured funding for Element Society from the National Citizens’ Service Trust, the English Football League, the People’s Postcode Lottery, The National Lottery Fund and also Sheffield organisations such as Westfield Health. As CEO Chris does everything from strategy, through governance, to “hoovering and mopping.” He has 10 in his core team, 50 in his delivery team (working on a sessional basis), and 400-500 young people on the programme every year. By the end of summer 2019 Elements Society will have delivered 150,000 volunteer hours in Sheffield.Chris’s key leadership principle is to act as a facilitator, recognising that his young volunteers are “closer to the issues than I ever will be.” The charity has a youth board that helps shape the strategy which is then shared with the volunteers, who in turn are empowered to design initiatives that fits with the strategy.Chris’s involvement in the voluntary sector started in his undergraduate years at Newcastle University. His masters at Sheffield concerned the measurement of poverty in the UK. On leaving university he became a consultant in the youth and health sector, then a consultant to social enterprises. Element Society arose from a desire to fill the gaps he had observed during his early career.Chris has drawn his inspiration from local business coach Jill White, who assisted him initially as a business mentor, and local businesswoman Faye Smith. He advises leaders in a similar situation to “look locally” when it comes to advice and inspiration.One of the highlights of his career is putting a care plan in place for Jack Marshall, a sufferer from Moebius Syndrome, in order to enable him to participate in the Element Society programme. Jack went on to win the Stephen Sutton Award at the Radio One Teen Awards for his fundraising efforts. He was named Law Student of the Year at his sixth form college and has now made it onto a law degree course. For Chris, self-care is about maintaining relationships and spending time with friends and family.His goals for the future include providing more services for young people with special educational needs or disabilities, and creating a platform for youth voice in Sheffield, a vehicle that permits them to have a stronger influence on local decisions.His advice to up and coming third sector leaders is to learn to say no. You need to develop the ability to prioritise and delegate. His recommended Youtube video is Simon Sinek’s “Start with Why.” At Element Society they have developed a Theory of Change, which explains why they do what they do, how they do it and what they aim to achieve through it. It’s Chris’s roadmap as Chief Executive. Julie McEver of Local Partnerships helped Elements Society develop this.

As a child growing up overseas, Danyal Sattar witnessed destitution at first hand. It was a profound experience that has coloured his life’s work. Having worked for Joseph Rowntree and the Esme Fairbairn Foundation he now heads up Big Issue Invest, providing finance to small and medium sized social enterprises, all of which positively influence the lives of people across the UK. He is CEO of Big Issue Invest, the social investment arm of The Big Issue, the magazine for homeless and vulnerably housed people across the UK. In setting up The Big Issue Magazine, Lord John Bird realised the difficulties of obtaining investment as a social enterprise. From this experience came Big Issue Invest, originally conceived as a ‘social brokers network.’Loans under £150,000 to charities and social enterprises are the “bread and butter” of Big Issue Invest. It’s a niche that is unattractive to the high street banks, but Big Issue Invest have made it work, with low bad debt. While deploying and growing their existing portfolio the business is also looking ahead at products that will meet the needs of their lenders in 18 months time.With more than one million people in a position of destitution in the UK, the need for the transformative services provided by their borrowers is acute. Examples include a Scottish organisation that is replicating a Dutch model for community care where technology permits reduction of the management overhead and consequently more money is available to pay the front line staff.On leaving education Danyal spent five years with the New Economics Foundation think tank. His application for this role was inspired by seeing the living conditions of the previous wave of Rohinga Refugees in Bangladesh and appreciating that their position at that time was partly due to the economic driver imperative to clear fell trees in support of the Burmese/Myanmar economy.Danyal explains the virtues of having the Big Issue brand behind Big Issue Invest: they are a social enterprise set up by a social enterprise. The third sector recognises them as “one of them.” And trust between lender and borrower is an important part of the equation.Before taking up the role, Danyal asked the advice of other CEOs in the sector. David Gold asked Danyal to tell him what Danyal admired in other chief executives. This included trust, and consistent clarity of direction. Campbell Robb, at that time his CEO at Joseph Rowntree Foundation, cited focus, and prioritisation and the continued question, why are we doing this? Other CEOs pointed to the importance of repetition in relation to key messages and priorities and also continued explaining of the thinking behind them.Danyal talks about the responsibility of following in the footsteps of inspiring entrepreneurial leaders and the responsibility for him and his staff to generate the next wave of ideas. The big challenge Big Issue Invest faces is growing into the autonomy and responsibility that has been delegated to the team. An innovation process has been put into place to ensure that everyone’s ideas receive due consideration.Danyal practices Tai Chi for recreation, but it resonates with his leadership philosophy – the idea of dealing with violence without becoming violent yourself. Listening and self-awareness are at the heart of this. He particularly likes the 2008 commencement speech at Smith College by Margaret Edson.In addition to the humanitarian crisis that Danyal witnessed in Bangladesh, he also draws his inspiration from the letters of Martin Luther King. He observes that “institutions can make us behave worse than as individuals” and cites the Macpherson Report as a further example. He underlines the importance of self-awareness.Cycling is a big part of Danyal’s self-care regime. He describes it as “a reflection of childhood.” Danyal reflects on climate change: “[It] didn’t happen by accident; we have meticulously...

Jodie started her own law firm, Thrive Law, at 29 and 15 months later she has 10 staff. Thrive Law is a specialist law firm, based in Leeds. The company specialises in employment law, with a focus on HR and mental health in the workplace.She graduated from Leeds Beckett in law in 2009, trained as a barrister and a solicitor, became qualified while working for Milners and at the same time started lecturing in law part time. She has worked pro bono for Mind and has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health for her contributions to mental health in the workplace. At the same time as setting up Thrive Law, she has set up two networking groups, Thriving Minds and Thrive Women.Her prolific output is partly the outcome of a prodigious amount of energy and partly motivated by her personal experience, specifically a breakdown in 2017. Jodie has started a campaign for mandatory mental health risk assessments for workplaces. Anyone can sign the petition, which can be accessed via the Thrive Law website under mental health.Thrive Law is going to be trialling a four-day week based on the condensed hours model in August. This is all part of Jodie’s goals to empower women and to empower people with disabilities. Flexible working helps both of these categories (everyone has a disability at Thrive). If it is successful it will be introduced for all staff next year.Jodie manages people the way she would like to be managed. Authenticity is important to her – “I practice what I preach.” She is honest about her own struggles. The outcome is high productivity, high engagement, low sickness and great client feedback.Setting out on her own at 29 is quite an achievement, especially in the legal field, where the average age of qualification as a solicitor is 35 and the average of a partner 65.The greatest learning challenge has been recruiting the right people. This made her re-evaluate her processes. Now she has a two-phase process with a telephone interview followed by an interview that explores both technical capability and attitude. Getting the induction process right is important to her.Jodie’s personal development plan combines learning within the business with the parallel development of her general wellbeing. She does a lot of reflection and journaling. She sets herself short term and long-term goals every year. At present she is learning Spanish. Prior to setting up Thrive she was “consumed” by the world of work. Now she has a life outside of work.Every member of staff has a personal development folder and Jodie has a 360-appraisal process where her staff give her feedback on her own performance.Then we talked about Thriving Minds and Thrive Women. Thriving Minds was born out Jodie’s own experiences. She wanted to empower employers to deal with mental ill health in the workplace. It offers various bespoke training. There is an associated Facebook group, a series of breakfast and an annual conference. This year’s conference on 19th September will feature over 150 employers, will take place at Leeds Civic Hall and be opened by the mayor.Thrive is a networking group that meets quarterly. The group is open to men, providing those men empower women. Once again there is a Facebook group. The group only started in March this year but already has 200 members.She has been inspired by Lady Hale, President of the Supreme Court and a fellow Yorkshirewoman, and Baroness Mone, founder of Ultimo: she “came from nothing” and sold Ultimo for £39m.Other aspects of Jodie’s self-care regime includes daily exercise: netball, yoga, weightlifting, or walking her dog. She also meditates using Headspace. She eats well, sleeps well and drinks plenty of water. She says “I understand what my triggers are and what helps me and doesn’t help me.”One key ambition for Jodie is to be able to change the law in relation to mental health.

Adrian Brown wrote the foreword to the book Compassionate Leadership.After running a series of design agencies, he joined his father's medical devices business. He deployed his design skills to reinvent the business, putting an emphasis on clinician education and training. He has also deployed his communication skills internally, creating a culture that is open and engaging.His leadership style involves trusting his team, empowering them and "a lot of listening."He maintains that the written word can be a barrier to communication and extols the virtues of visualising, drawing and facilitating.His advice to aspiring leaders is to live an entrepreneurial life and try new things. "There is no finishing line to your training and education." Stretch yourself and others: you can't settle for "it's good enough." Get good people around you and listen to them. Be passionate - it's contagious.He takes long walks with his dog, both for exercise and inspiration.

Laurie Cottam is director and owner of Race Cottam Architects (RCA). Before he was an architect he toured the world singing with Oxford a capella singing group 'Out of the Blue.' A comparatively young leader in terms of his profession he is learning his trade alongside running the practice.He worked in London for a number of years before moving north to work alongside his father, Dave, one of the two founders of the practice. He describes how the narrowing window of opportunity for him to work alongside his father was a catalyst in making the move.He talks of his pride in both building a significant new secondary school in Sheffield and also in co-creating a new office for RCA with his colleagues. They worked hard to deliver something to which everyone felt they had contributed. His model for business is his own family, a place of belonging and a place where everyone is looking out for each other. One of the highlights of his last year was cooking Christmas dinner for the entire office. Everyone went out to pub and then when they returned, the office had been transformed into a winter wonderland! Balance is the key to his self-care regime, and social networks and exercise play a key role. He plans them into his week intentionally.He wants to be remembered as someone who saw the best in people and brought out the best in people.

Auriel Majumdar is a coach, thinker, speaker, teacher and poet. She is a regular broadcaster, recently featuring on the BBC's Naked Podcast. Formerly a senior manager with a local authority she gave up a well-paid secure corporate job to follow her heart and pursue a more satisfying portfolio vocation. She describes the pivotal event that catalysed the change. It was liberating, fabulous and traumatic in equal measure.Several years on she has a newfound sense of creativity and playfulness. She describes her new role as "creating space for people to do great thinking and reflection and connect with their values." Teaching at Sheffield Hallam University is another thing she has fallen in love with. She says "My art is my living."She is currently completing a PhD on coaching creative businesses, with a particular emphasis on conceptual artists. In the process she has developed an empathy with the artistic experience. "That feeling of being rejected that artists know from day one." Part of the lasting difference she is trying to achieve has an "emancipatory" quality to it. "Leaders ... are demanding something different."She reflects on the contribution art can make to coaching.We discuss the challenge of maintaining the balance between working and motherhood. She compares the current stage of the climate crisis to the end of the phoney war. We close with some sage advice for aspiring leaders. "If you can give as you go ... for me it has come back in buckets ... don't be jealous and proud with your resources."