Welcome Day

Taking place in person in Central London, our Welcome Day will offer you an opportunity to meet your fellow participants; find out more about what to expect from Established Leaders; and set your personal objectives for the programme.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

  • Welcome from Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link
  • Getting to know your cohort
  • Introductions and programme overview
  • Expectations of the programme
  • Introduction to Action Learning Sets
  • Panel of guest speakers
  • Q&A

Workshops

Our workshops are designed to take you on a journey, from you as an individual leader; to you as the leader of your organisation; through to collective leadership of the sector. Each session will be facilitated by a subject expert, with CEOs and other leaders providing best practice examples and learnings about each topic. Sessions are designed to be interactive and participatory, with a practical rather than theoretical focus.

The leader in you

Every leader is different, taking a different style and approach to leadership. To be a successful leader, it’s vital to understand the real “you”, the values you are driven by, and how to use your strengths to best benefit your organisation. Now more than ever, ensuring you are an inclusive leader is paramount. And in tough times, protecting your own wellbeing, as well as finding clarity about how your work aligns to your personal and career goals, becomes increasingly important.

In this workshop, we will discuss the concepts of authentic, values-based and inclusive leadership, and how to apply them in practice. We’ll use strengths-based assessment tools to explore your natural leadership style. We’ll also explore together how to remain resilient in tough times and sharing effective mechanisms for managing stress .

Finally, we will consider you as a “whole” – how to align your personal values and goals with your work, and how to plan your future career path accordingly.

The workshop will cover:

  • Understanding yourself and your natural leadership style
  • Being your true self: authentic leadership and its practical application
  • Building trust among those you lead: how to be open and vulnerable while remaining credible and inspiring.
  • Values-based leadership: aligning your personal values with your organisational vision.
  • Defining your personal career goals and planning for the future accordingly.
  • Inclusive leadership: being aware of your own biases and actively seeking out diverse perspectives.
  • Remaining resilient when the going gets tough: techniques for managing stress.

It's tricky at the top

In the first of two facilitated workshops, CEOs will consider the issues and challenges which keep them awake at night.

From how to recruit and retain talented staff to how to respond to a death in service, this half-day session will allow CEOs the chance to determine the topics covered and learn from one another.

You're not alone: leading a happy, well-governed organisation

CEOs are in a unique position, with no direct peers within their organisation, and accountability to both the Board of Trustees and to the staff team. Being a CEO can be a lonely place without the right support network.

This workshop will consider how to build a happy, flourishing workforce with an effective leadership team, whatever the size of your organisation.

This workshop will cover:

  • Values-based leadership: understanding the values of your workforce and reflecting these in the organisation’s strategic planning.
  • Building and developing a high-performing Board of Trustees who are representative of your service users and the communities you work in.
  • Creating a CEO-Chair relationship which is nurturing and fruitful.
  • Building a supportive senior staff team, including in smaller organisations.
  • Developing and supporting a diverse pipeline of future leaders within your organisation.
  • Strategy development: meaningful co-production between the Board, staff and service users.

Creating a robust organisation that thrives in difficult times

The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated that crisis management isn’t just a paper exercise. Risk management and disaster recovery planning should be embedded in daily practice. With reserves depleted, funders increasingly stretched, and staff costs and overheads rising, many homelessness organisations are facing the imminent realisation of one of the biggest strategic risks on their risk register: not having sufficient funding to stay afloat.

In this workshop we’ll look at how to embed strategic risk and crisis management across your organisation. We’ll consider the skills and attributes you as a leader need to not only cope, but to thrive, in difficult circumstances. We’ll identify how to draw on a diverse talent pool, including lived as well as learnt experience, for idea generation, problem solving and recession proofing.

We’ll discuss realistic approaches to financial planning, how to think creatively about funding streams, and how to create structures that are agile and can quickly adapt to changing circumstances.

This workshop will cover:

  • Ensuring risk management is owned at every level of the organisation.
  • Creating agile structures which are quick to adapt to changing circumstances.
  • Bringing together diverse minds and talents, including learnt and lived experience, for idea generation, problem solving and recession proofing
  • Realistic financial planning and diversifying your income streams.

Strengthening our collective voice

With homelessness expected to continue to rise this winter, advocating for protections for those at risk of homelessness will be more important than ever.

This workshop will offer practical insights and tips on how to amplify the voices of our service users and to challenge systems that aren’t working. Along with experts by experience, we will collectively discuss our shared view of the most pressing issues to address and identify the best way forward.

This workshop will cover:

  • Understanding how you can get involved in campaigning and influencing policy.
  • Amplifying the voices of our service users and considering the views of all stakeholders.
  • Communicating with impact, including adapting your communication style for different audiences.

Out-the-box thinking about homelessness

In the second of two facilitated workshops, CEOs will consider the issues faced by the homelessness sector, aiming to challenge the status quo and come to topics from new perspectives.

From the government's role in creating migrant homelessness to whether we as a sector are part of the problem, this half-day session will allow CEOs the chance to determine the topics covered and come up with creative solutions.

Celebration session

Taking place in Central London, this session will offer you an opportunity to come together with your fellow participants in person to close the programme. Together we will celebrate collective achievements, reflect on learnings and plan how to continue implementing the learnings from the programme. We'll also agree how to continue as a peer network moving forward.

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

  • Reflections from a senior leader at Homeless Link
  • Sharing successes
  • Reflecting on progress against objectives
  • Planning for the future
  • Focus group - a crucial part of our evaluation of the programme.