North East Together 15: The future of social leadership (February 2019)
North East Together’s first whole network event of 2019 explored social leadership. We asked: what is the future of leadership and its role in social change? How can we become even better leaders in the north east? And, what are the key questions we should be asking about the future of leadership? Around 75 social leaders gathered on 28 February to think about these, and other questions, together. The event’s advance information pack and slides tells you more about the event.
How did we get here?
Dr Joanne James, director of leadership development and organisation futures at Newcastle University Business School gave an overview of leadership theory and practice: past, present and future. Joanne’s engaging talk helped us to understand key ideas, theories and practices of leadership during the 20th and early 21st century and start to frame the questions we should be asking about the future of leadership.
We especially liked how she differentiated between ‘leader’ and ‘leadership’. And how thinking in terms of nouns (naming) and verbs (doing) reframes our thinking from people being leaders to people doing leadership, something a small group of people are to something we all can do as an every day practice. Joanne’s talk also outlined the challenges to the historical assumptions of leadership with a move towards a more collaborative, relational, leaderful organisations, networks and societies. Her concluding thoughts picked up on how the history of leadership is deeply ingrained, how much language matters, and how not knowing — perhaps when starting as a leader and in leadership — can feel exposing. There’s more in her slides (PDF).
What we focus on and why. How we see the future of social leadership
We also heard from three of our network friends who lead programmes developing leaders across the UK and internationally. Network friends is the term we give to organisations that support and encourage North East Together. We asked our speakers to talk about what they as organisations following their missions to develop leaders focus on and why, and how they see the future of social leadership. Our speakers were:
- Sue Osborne, CEO of School for Social Entrepreneurs Yorkshire and North East, told us how SSE’s work was driven by its vision: A fair and equal society where the potential of all people is fully realised and values of integrity, inclusivity and empowerment. The future of social leadership for Sue includes values-based leadership, a need to widen our influence and engage, and, in common with Dr James, also talked about the language we use. See Sue’s slides for her full talk.
- Patricia Stead, national engagement manager, Clore Social Leadership, shared information about the Clore Social Leadership capabilities framework and leadership development research. The framework’s six elements are empowering enabler, focused strategist, passionate advocate, generous collaborator, courageous changemaker, and inspirational communicator. See Patricia’s slides for her full talk.
- Marie Mohan, chief executive of Common Purpose UK, gave an overview of Common Purpose UK and its focus on developing leaders who can cross boundaries. She also shared the findings of their recent research: Leadership in the north of England 2018, which highlighted three key skills gaps: being collaborative, visionary and inclusive. See Marie’s slides for her full talk, and a short video about the research.
What questions do we need to ask about the future of social leadership?
And in the third main element of the event, we worked in small groups to reflect on everything we’d heard and develop key questions to explore with our panel of speakers. We asked each table to agree one question, representing the conversations the table had, and designed to further our learning and be generative.
George Gibbons
We also took a few moments to remember George Gibbons, who died earlier in February. Lyn Cole spoke of his work in the north east, working for the Cranfield Trust, and the important contributions he’d made to North East Together through being actively involved in the Better Governance working group and the Collaboration working group.
Thank you
Thanks to everyone who spoke at the event, to those who facilitated the groups, and to everyone who came and took part in the event. And thanks to Newcastle University Business School for providing the venue, refreshments, support and student ambassadors.
Next events in 2019
During the event two strong themes emerged — young people and leadership and climate change — these were also reflected in the feedback cards. We were heartened to hear how important both subjects were to network members, and will focus the summer (planned for June) and autumn North East Together on these subjects. Watch this space!
About North East Together
We believe that bringing leaders together to tackle social injustice will create positive change — in our communities, organisations and the social systems we live and work within. Our network inspires social leaders, enabling collaboration and mutual support. We offer a series of dynamic network events; self-organised collaborative working groups; pathways into coaching; and independent social change events. It’s for leaders from the voluntary, charity, social enterprise, education, public and private sectors. It’s for experienced, new and future leaders of organisations, work, and ideas.
