Leadership Shifts

I am starting 2024 with two interesting leadership shifts.  I’m moving from eleven years as an Executive Director to working in two roles that, so to speak, sit each side of that.  As Chair of the Birmingham Hippodrome I will have the CEO ‘reporting’ to me.  And as maternity cover for the Chief Operating Officer at the Old Vic I will ‘report’ to the Executive Director.  ‘Reporting’ doesn’t feel quite the right word - I should return to that in further thoughts.

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This is for me a moment to focus on the old adage ‘leadership isn’t about your job title’ and, given that, how best to exemplify good leadership in different circumstances.  

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I was struck by Charlotte Higgins’ words in the Guardian just before Christmas (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/21/british-museum-crisis-thefts-fossil-fuels):

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“What I know is this: if you recognise the name of the chair, it’s bad news.  Functioning institutions operate with their trustees in the background, quietly supporting and challenging.”  

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That sounds exactly right but there does seem to be a tension between that and the need to be visible externally and internally, and to be so without treading on the toes of the executive team.  Perhaps the way to think about it is to be sure that the chair does not become a story - and certainly not the story.

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Zahira Jaser has written about ‘connecting leaders’ (https://hbr.org/2021/06/the-real-value-of-middle-managers) a helpful way of describing how leadership within an organisation should work.  “Every leader is also a follower, and every follower is also a leader.”  Working in a role that is not regarded as the leader requires being “a proactive leader to direct reports” and an engaged follower.  For me this engaged following is as much to the charitable purpose as to the designated leader.

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