Leadership 2025 Welcome a New Chair
Leadership 2025 are thrilled to announce our new Chair of the Board of Trustees, Tolu Oke. Tolu brings a wealth of experience and insight to the role and currently works at Diageo as Global Head of Inclusion and Diversity. Tolu has led important Diversity and Inclusion work nationwide and across sectors since 2016 and we are looking forward to the next phase for the charity under her leadership.
This also means we are saying farewell to our outgoing Chair, Olu Olanrewaju. Olu was integral in the inception of Leadership 2025 and its development into a programme, a movement and a charity. We wish Olu all the best in his new ventures and would like to thank him for his invaluable work and contribution to Leadership 2025 and the sector.
You can read the full appointment announcement here: https://leadership2025.co.uk/leadership-2025-appoints-a-new-chair-of-the-board-of-trustees/
LSE Research and Knowledge Exchange Event
Our research with LSE, ‘Supporting Ethnically Diverse Leaders in Housing’ is now nearing completion.
The research includes the stories and lived experiences of housing leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds, exploring what the barriers to progression and inclusion are and what has and hasn’t worked in navigating or eradicating these structural inequities. The piece includes insights from ten interviews with leaders, including Leadership 2025 alumni, a focus group to understand organisational perspectives and challenges and a literary review of past initiatives, in and out of sector.
On the 15th January, stakeholders across the sector gathered at LSE to listen to some fantastic speakers, engage with the research findings and sense-check its recommendations for the sector. The event facilitated fascinating discussions and ideas about how we can finally shift the culture and start to see much overdue progress in the ethnic diversity and inclusion of housing’s leadership.
Participants and speakers examined the experiences faced by leaders from ethnic minority backgrounds, including the complicated relationship between authenticity, representation and progression, non-typical or non-linear career paths, stagnation and over qualification for roles and non-inclusive recruitment practices. The role of organisational culture, mentorship, sponsorship, secondments, staff forums and anti-racism training, as well as how to make these impactful, were areas of investigation too. An examination of initiatives in other sectors that have had successes and the value and viability of these was also highly useful.
The conversations were candid and thought-provoking. There remains a sense that the appetite and commitment for change that we saw in 2020 has been diluted and that progress is too slow. However, there was also a sense that the will and the energy to reignite these efforts and affect sector-wide change does exist and can be harnessed to galvanise others.
Leadership 2025 would like to thank you, our supporters, for enabling this important research. The report looks set to be illuminating, thorough and supportive and we look forward to sharing it with you in the coming weeks.
Leadership 2025 Programme
We are currently in the process of updating and redesigning the sixth iteration of the Leadership 2025 programme. To do so, we have utilised feedback from our alumni, mentors and our research with LSE to ensure optimum impact for participants and sponsoring organisations. The programme will also benefit from the expertise of a renowned Business School and partner.
We are looking forward to sharing more information, including timelines, programme structure, content, application processes and more very soon.
Leadership 2025 Winter Conference – Serving Customers: Diversity Matters
Our winter conference took place on the 9th December and was hosted by Trowers & Hamlins in central London. The event focused on the role of ethnically diverse leadership in meeting customer need and included a range of wonderful speakers and attendees.
Our speakers shared insights into:
-The power of data and how organisations can and are using it, not only to understand but to improve, the diversity of teams and leadership and satisfaction for teams and customers
-The far-right riots of the summer: their context and impact, the response to them and lessons learned as well as the role of leadership and ethnic diversity in understanding and supporting tenants and teams during such times
-Lessons housing can learn from other sectors and an interrogation into the role of leaders in improving ethnic diversity and inclusion. Why it matters for teams, it’s real impact for customers and their lives and to whom leaders are ultimately accountable
-The sector’s history of ethnic diversity and inclusion, how this supports its core social purpose, the role of inclusion in quality services for all, allyship and the current picture and culture
-The experience of ethnically diverse leaders in the sector and their relationship with communities. The avoidable tragedies we have seen in housing and the critical importance of representing and understanding unheard voices
-The next steps for Leadership 2025 and for the sector in driving real, lasting progress
The event included a question-and-answer session with the panel in which participants explored difficult themes. These included the role of recruiters and recruiting organisations, how to create a truly inclusive culture, succession planning, the glass cliff, fatigue, the role of role models, middle management and how to evidence and fully utilise the benefit of diversity for customers.
We look forward to further opportunities and conferences to continue these important conversations and work towards progress.
Our Director goes on Maternity Leave
At the end of January, Jess Parsons leaves us to go on maternity leave. We wish Jess and her family all the best and look forward to sharing the details of her cover and our new director soon.
Leadership 2025 Expansion
We continue to build relationships, momentum and support outside of London. This year, we look forward to inviting applications from across the country for our leadership programme and to hosting and attending conferences, research events and conversations across the regions.