Leadership Challenges in the Charity Sector

We have recently worked with Craig Dearden-Phillips, Chairman and CEO of Speaking Up, the charity which gives a voice to people with disabilities.  Speaking Up use Facet5 in their recruitment process. 

Whilst working with him, we were inspired by his unusually innovative method of leadership within the charity sector. 

"Charity leaders are different to ones found in the private sector. On the positive side, I think they are more able to deal with complexity and more values-driven than public or private sector leaders.

On the negative side, they often lack focus, are frequently over-occupied with their staff and boards rather than their users and often less ambitious in their vision than leaders in other sectors.

Overall, leadership is not about a single hero-figure. Leaders are to be found all over my team. I don't actually buy the idea that organisations should have a single, preferably heroic leader. The evidence suggests that distributed leadership is much better in terms of producing great outcomes. We create opportunities for leadership by giving people who might otherwise be called middle managers a high degree of space in which to exercise autonomy and leadership."

We took the opportunity to ask Craig what the three key moments - both positive and negative - were on his leadership journey.

1. Finding a partner to help me grow the organisation, James Baddeley, my deputy. James is my opposite in many respects but we have a close understanding. It taught me that however capable you think you are, you won't have everything you need to succeed. The key is to bring people in around you who are BETTER at elements of the business than you are.

2. Getting venture philanthropy support from Impetus Trust. This was the biggest single breakthrough. I was ready to quit the charity sector after five years of winning awards and getting nowhere in terms of business growth. Nobody wanted to invest in success, I felt. Impetus gave me the backing, based on what we'd achieved and their view of our potential. This is relatively uncommon in the charity world, where grant decisions often don't take any account of track-record.

3. Learning to be a CEO, not just a social entrepreneur. Most founders quit within 5 years of setting up a charity. This is normally because their skills don't fit the ongoing operations. I resolved to learn what I needed to know so that I could do both. I think its vital for social entrepreneurs to develop themselves as brilliant managers, as many have this within them. This keeps their organisations entrepreneurial in spirit. If I had left Speaking Up five years ago, I am sure it would have been less entrepreneurial than it is now.
 

Craig is the founding chief executive of Speaking Up, a disability charity and social business with a turnover approaching £2.4m in 2006/7.  Speaking Up is the winner of Charity Awards 2006 and the Third Sector Excellence Award for Strategy. Craig has also been central in founding four new social-purpose organisations. He has just finished an MBA from the Open University.

For further information on Facet5, click here.

For further information on Speaking Up, click here.