Having taking a collective sigh of relief in early 2022, those leading organisations in 2023 continue to find themselves being challenged by factors beyond their control. Double digit inflation; political instability; restricted liquidity; pressure on supply chains and a continued focus on sustainability; delivery of high quality services with customers and users at the heart of them – the priorities are numerous. Despite these challenges, leaders across our sector have shown us time and again the opportunity to build on the positive connections and the focus on our local environments that were developed during the pandemic.
Our Social Housing and Built Environment practice group is committed to finding and supporting excellent and authentic leaders across infrastructure, local and regional development, housing and transport to deliver tangibly positive benefits for existing, emerging and new communities across the UK.
If the recent months have taught us anything it is that as leaders our capacity for resilience needs to be boundless, our ability to solve problems ongoing, our optimism about the future never ending, and through all of this our recognition of self-care high. We must learn lessons, but we must also embrace change and the ability to evolve, especially where it can bring positive outcomes in society at local and national level. We are delighted to be able to demonstrate this with two very capable and compassionate leaders operating in very different organisations. Both these individuals are great examples of leaders who have lead in multiple sectors and they show the value of taking experience from one sector and using it sensitively to solve problems in another.
We were privileged to speak to Anna Swaithes, in a newly created role as Head of Sustainability for the Crown Estate. Anna shares how she is embedding an organisational wide approach to sustainability, to bring impact across all its assets over the longer term and support how it engages with communities around the United Kingdom. As custodians of the long-term prosperity of the nation, The Crown Estate is a unique organisation in this country. Anna’s new role highlights the importance of sustaining the environment, communities and individuals, whilst balancing it with everyday priorities such as feeding and fuelling our daily lives.
We are also delighted to chat to Neil Sachdev MBE, sharing his wide-ranging experience and particularly in his current non-executive roles at the Houses of Parliament, East West Railway Company, Energy Savings Trust and LCR Property. Neil’s pedigree of property and infrastructure experience is augmented by his long executive career across the retail sector. Neil’s belief in a positive change delivered through partnership working is evident, and balanced with a need for looking beyond our island to look and learn from others to help sustain our future community-development and placemaking potential.
Saxton Bampfylde’s Leadership Services team works as an extension of organisations across the UK to help them recruit and develop the very best leadership. We are therefore delighted to include insights from Business Psychologist and Partner, Cassandra Woolgar as she considers the power of cross sector leaders grounded in values, respect and approach for executive and non-executive leaders in today’s society.
Our own Partner community is what makes us different in the marketplace and in each edition of CANVAS we like to share some further personal and professional insights, so I stepped up to the podium or riverside here (it is called View from the River) to talk about more about why leading the Social Housing and Built Environment practice is important to me and the sorts of leaders the industry is looking for as we move ahead.
We do hope you enjoy this edition and welcome any feedback you may have.
Partner, Head of Social Housing & Built Environment Practice
