Established Leaders for Senior Leaders - Programme Outline

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

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

• Welcome from Rick Henderson, CEO of Homeless Link
• Introductions and programme overview
• Expectations of the programme
• Introduction to Action Learning Sets
• Setting personal objectives
• Panel of guest speakers
• Q&A

In this introductory workshop, you will explore who you are, how you may be seen by others and what you can do to improve your performance and working relationships through increased levels of self-awareness and appreciation of colleagues. The session will include:

• Perception and our unconscious biases
• The business benefits of improving self-awareness
• The Insights Discovery model of behaviour
• Personal Profiles
• Strengths, weaknesses and value to the team
• The impact my working style has on me, my work and my colleague

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 becomes increasingly important, as does clarity about how your work aligns to your personal and career goals.

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.
• Remaining resilient when the going gets tough: managing stress.

In this workshop we will explore your organisation’s culture and values and its link to your organisation’s strategy and governance. We will explore together the different values organisations define themselves by and how they impact your charity’s culture, and decision making. We will understand where your organisation is strategically and how your governance is helping or hindering your success.

This workshop will cover:

• Exploring organisational culture and how it is defined by your values.
• Strategy development and linking it to your culture and values.
• Striving for governance excellence – how the Charity Governance Code can help you on the journey.

Equity, Justice and Inclusion is increasingly important in the homelessness sector. From offering development pathways for staff from marginalised backgrounds to creating inclusive physical environments to increasing diversity on Boards, there is much work to be done in this area.

This workshop will explore how leaders can work towards an equitable, just and inclusive homelessness sector. From offering development pathways for staff from marginalised backgrounds to increasing diversity on Boards, there is much work to be done in this area.

This workshop will cover:

• The relevance of equity, justice and inclusion to delegates’ understanding and practice of leadership.
• Some different approaches to support your thinking about leadership.
• What it means for an organisation to be equitable, diverse and inclusive, using Homeless Link’s EDI tool.
• Action planning.

In this session, senior leaders will consider real-life issues currently faced by the homelessness sector, putting into practice systems leadership principles to tackle the topics.

From the impact of changes in government policy on migrant rough sleeping to whether we as the voluntary sector are part of a system which creates dependency, this half-day session will allow senior leaders the chance to determine the topics covered and come up with creative solutions.

In advance of the session, you will be invited to consider a “wicked problem” facing the homelessness sector. Joined at the session by people from different parts of the wider system, including people with lived or living experience of homelessness, you will work together to think holistically and collaboratively about the topic.

The facilitator will guide the discussion, but the learning and problem solving will come from within the group.

After the session, you will continue to work together on developing solutions to the wicked problem. You will be invited back together two to three months later, along with the other two Established Leaders cohorts, to discuss your findings and reflect on the systems leadership approach.