Erica Love, CEO, Culture Central
I attended my first residential Clore Leadership Pulse course last month, which was a great opportunity to reflect on my leadership journey, the present challenges and what the future looks like for region’s cultural sector and me. One of the things I really valued from the course was to explore those questions with a brilliant group of peers. It was a week filled with, curiosity, challenge and camaraderie.
Here at Culture Central we have been thinking about leadership and succession for a while now, especially how we can develop more leaders and opportunities to lead – and how to create space. We have done some of this through our Collective leadership programme for those traditionally excluded from careers in the cultural sector, with a focus on sector change. Our annual summit also creates an opportunity for sector leaders in the region to come together and consider our collective leadership. Last year we introduced two leadership associates roles working with Anthony and I as part of our succession planning.
Collectively Strategising Culture and our workforce strategy outlined three big challenges facing the region – Talent development, Equity; and Leadership opportunity. To develop that work and thinking, we have created a programme that addresses the challenges on leadership progression specifically.
Our role as Executives, CEOs, Founders and Chairs is to build and grow inclusive, resilient, accessible, and excellent organisations, who have the skills and knowledge to keep going long after we’ve left. As founders or long-term leaders, it can be difficult to envisage who and what comes next and how you can share your knowledge effectively to empower and enable those who pick up the reigns – something I am also grappling with as former executive director and chair of Partners in Creative Learning in Stoke-on-Trent for over 20 years.
I am acutely and personally aware of how challenging it is for leaders in the sector at the moment – with constantly changing and competing priorities, stretched capacity, limited resource and fewer opportunities to create and step into. When we are in the day-to-day it can be hard to focus on the future for our people; and for ourselves.
What happens to us? What is next for us as leaders too? How are we supported to consider our next steps and plan for not only the organisation and other people’s success but our own future?
Today we are launching our Leading Beyond Tomorrow action learning set, for up to eight leaders in the sector to work together to ask yourselves and each other just some of these questions within a supportive, confidential and action focussed, peer group. This action learning set will create a space for leaders to consider how you can embed inclusive leadership, organisational resilience, knowledge and skills retention and work through your own leadership development.
If, like me, you want to create the space and time to think about leadership and a plan for the future, you can apply to join here.