The Spirit of Leadership: the National Leadership Centre in Manchester
The NLC and it’s partners in Manchester hosted conversations about leadership and inspiration
The National Leadership Centre collaborated with North West Employers for the first in a series of local events. The event was held in Gorton Monastery, a venue and space which has been lovingly restored by the community over a number of years. The purpose of the event was to bring leaders of public services and the voluntary sector to explore what it means to be leaders.
The NLC works to bring public service leaders together through national, regional and small group events. This allows peers to make time, outside formal governance or partnership structures, to work together to address the most complex and pressing problems that they face.
Hosted by Gillian Bishop, Chief Executive of North West Employers, this event aimed to bring senior colleagues from across public services in Manchester together; to have conversations at a personal and professional level about their leadership practises. Special emphasis was put on the need to get to know one another as people and to explore topics not usually covered when meeting colleagues to build rapport, and hopefully lasting relationships, between the delegates.
The speakers at the event were Dr Carolyn Wilkins OBE, (Chief Executive of Oldham Council, part of the leadership team at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and Accountable officer for NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group), Jesse Dufton (GB Paraclimber), Eamonn Boylan (Chief Executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority) and the National Leadership Centre’s Kristina Murrin.
Kristina Murrin, our CEO, started off proceedings by speaking about the importance of leaders working across sectors in order to deliver the best service possible for the public. Whilst speaking predominantly under the Chatham House rules Kris gave delegates an insight into systems leadership and they had the chance to get their questions answered.
Eamonn Boylan and Dr Carolyn Wilkins both spoke in detail about the importance of working across the public sector to deliver integrated services to the public and highlighted how it’s difficult but necessary to ‘wear different hats’ and to be the ‘choreographer of purpose’. Following this, attendees were asked to consider their response to the new forms of leadership required in systems working in a session facilitated by NW Employers and the North West NHS Leadership Academy. Attendees concluded that systems leadership is increasingly important; leadership should be about identifying a shared purpose under conditions of uncertainty.
Carolyn also discussed the role of leaders to be drivers for diversity and think about what is truly important as both a leader and from a user-perspective. She finished off by leaving people with the following points to consider:
- ‘How do we think differently?’
- ‘How do we drive for diversity?’
- ‘Who are you trying to help and how?’
Jesse Dufton, known for being the first visually-impaired person to lead a climb of the Old Man of Hoy, focussed on the importance of shared efforts and problem anticipation in leaders; it is important to be able to plan for the worst case scenario in order to be prepared for it. Jesse inspired all those who attended to think about how your leadership style may need to adapt and change in challenging or stressful conditions.
Overall, the event was a huge success and we were delighted to partner with Leaders in Greater Manchester and North West Employers to host our first NLC Local Event in Manchester.
Keep an eye out for upcoming events near you — we’re hosting a research event with Newcastle University, exploring “What Does It Take To Lead in Times Like These” with Collective Leadership for Scotland in Edinburgh and looking at Climate Change in Birmingham. If you’d like to attend, do email us at NLC@CabinetOffice.gov.uk
