Rotherham –

The Leadership Challenge & Response

Shokat Lal

Assistant Chief Executive

The Leadership Landscape

• Failure is more exposed than it has ever been

• Public sector organisations need to be more fluid

and supportive

• Hierarchical power is giving way to networked

authority

• The impact of austerity on leadership development

and skills

• Career ladders being replaced by ‘tours of duty’

(portfolio careers)

• A VUCA world….and then some!

The Rotherham Story

The Rotherham context

The Jay Report

The Commissioners

Leading in a VUCA World

• Retain a clear vision but with an agility to flex

• Provide clear direction and consistent messaging

• Capitalise on complexity

• Look out – look across boundaries, it can no longer

be about standing behind walls and defending

organisational self interest.

• Encourage networks rather than hierarchies

• Be curious – uncertain times bring opportunities

• We act courageously – we tackle the difficult issues

Leading in a VUCA World (2)

• Leverage diversity

• Get used to being uncomfortable

• Knowing when to be on the pitch and when to be in

the commentary box

• Cognitive readiness – leaders must be equipped with

the mental, emotional and interpersonal

preparedness for uncertainty and risk

• Know our communities

• Do the best work of our lives!

It’s a good thing to have all the

props pulled out from under us

occaisonally. It gives us some sense

of what is rock under our feet, and

what is sand.

Madeleine L’Engle

We can succeed only by concert. It is not

‘can any of us imagine better?’ but, ‘can we

all do better?’ The dogmas of the quiet past

are inadequate to the stormy present. The

occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we

must rise — with the occasion. As our case is

new, so we must think anew, and act anew.

We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we

shall save our country.

Abraham Lincoln,

Annual Message to Congress, Dec. 1, 1862

Thank You

Shokat.Lal@rotherham.gov.uk