Ian Lawson look at how the sector can create outstanding leaders, even during times of low trust in charities.

In June 2016 the Charity Commission revealed that public trust in charities had reached an all-time low, with the charity sector thought to be less trusted than the ordinary man in the street.

One third of people surveyed said their trust in charities has decreased over the last two years. A third of these attributed this to general media stories, one third to specific coverage about how charities spend donations and a fifth said that they were unhappy about the “pressurising tactics used by charities to elicit donations”. Only 6 per cent said their trust in charities had increased over the past two years.

Given these pressures, arguably charity leaders need to step up their performance and be the best they can be to operate in this environment, but what does this require?

What behaviour and qualities do charity leaders need to demonstrate to successfully lead their organisation through these difficult times? How can leaders elevate their performance from "good" to "outstanding"?

In my view, one of the most interesting studies into leadership behaviour in recent times was carried out by the Work Foundation. Its qualitative research unearthed insight into what really constitutes high performance leadership.

The research highlighted that there are clear differences between good and outstanding leaders. The main difference was that outstanding leaders take a systemic, people-centred approach to leadership. But what does this mean?

They think and act systemically

Firstly, outstanding leaders are thoughtful and reflective. They have broad horizons and a deeply connective philosophy that gives them the ability to see how the people and systems in an organisation fit together.

They also have a vision that extends from the past, through the present and into the future. They don’t just focus on the here and now – the immediate tasks in hand, but instead, they are always looking to the future and at further opportunities to improve things.

When they are planning, they focus on their people and how they can be given greater responsibility and opportunities to develop their competence and confidence because they view them as an essential part of the organisation’s future.

People are the only route to outstanding performance

Outstanding leaders not only like and care about their people, but believe at a deep level that the capability and engagement of people is how the organisation will achieve exceptional performance.

For good leaders, people are an essential group who will influence performance, but to an outstanding leader, they are the only route. They therefore devote much of their time and energy developing people and creating a supportive culture where people can innovate freely and develop – even if this means making mistakes.

Their philosophy is that it is better to try and fail than fail to try. Just as the famous female US Admiral Grace Murray Hopper said: “It is better to beg forgiveness, than ask permission.”

Trusting others to come up with solutions

Outstanding leaders are highly motivated to achieve excellence and are focused on organisational outcomes, vision and purpose. However, they know they can’t achieve their goals on their own so they focus on building capability and confidence of others and coach them and encourage them to step up.

Whilst outstanding leaders ask their people to share their problems, they don’t propose any solutions because they believe that most of the time, people know the answers themselves. They recognise and trust that people just need a bit of encouragement to work through a problem.

They also focus on positive things. Too often in meetings people reflect on what has gone badly recently but outstanding leaders do the opposite. They look at what went well and how success can be replicated and improved.

Lastly, outstanding leaders are authentic to their leadership role. Like all of us, they may wake up in a bad mood or feel under the weather on occasion, but rather than call in sick they think about their role as a leader and what impact and message this will have on their teams first.

By adopting these attributes charity leaders will improve their own performance and the performance of others, which in turn will impact the sector and go some way towards winning back public confidence.

Ian Lawson is joint programme lead for leadership development and course leader for the Outstanding Leadership series at the Centre for Charity Effectiveness, Cass Business School, City, University of London. The next series starts in autumn 2017. 

Civil Society Media would like to thank Cass for its support with this article.