As a new academic year begins with much anticipation, hope and opportunity ahead – as well as plenty of continuing challenges to address – we thought it would be helpful to share some key developments of relevance in your role as Chief Executive.
National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference 2025 ‘Being the CEO in 2025 and beyond: An evolving role’
Our eighth annual National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference, which takes place in a few weeks’ time, and it has been fantastic to see so many people signed up for this event. If you haven’t yet booked on yet, there is still time to do so. This year’s theme is ‘Being the CEO in 2025 and beyond: An evolving role’ and we have some leading and highly respected education and cross-sector CEOs and thinkers to help us in horizon scanning and planning for the year(s) ahead. If you haven’t already booked, here’s the link: National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference 2025 | Forum Strategy
Consultancy support through Forum Strategy
As you begin a new academic year, you may be thinking ahead to key strategic areas where you would benefit from some high-quality external expertise. At Forum Strategy, we offer a range of consultancy support services ranging from vision and strategy development days and board development days to executive coaching and CEO mentoring, as well as expertise in a number of other critical areas (such as trust-wide SEND reviews, attendance strategy support and employer of choice strategy development). Please email us at admin@forumstrategy.org to explore this further.
CEOs and the power of time management
We’re mindful that this time of year often means reflecting on how you spend and invest your time as CEOs – ensuring we manage the reactive and the pressing, with the need to be strategic and to plan ahead. This Forum Strategy article on how CEOs approach time management is a useful and timely reflection, and we hope provides some inspiration as you get on the front foot for a new year: Being The CEO – the power of time management | Forum Strategy Our Forum Strategy CEO Blog will also build on this theme and will be shared early next week.
CEO performance management process
The start of a new academic year also means that Chairs and CEOs will be thinking about performance management and setting goals for the year ahead. This Forum Strategy article, together with a video briefing from Michael Pain and our commercial partners at Wrigleys Solicitors, is a helpful resource to reflect upon as we begin that process – with plenty of hints and tips to consider: Is it that time of year? CEO performance management; some hints and tips | Forum Strategy
Improvement at Scale: Access our Hub
We know that continuous improvement remains a key priority for you as CEOs and you will be thinking ahead to how this is driven forward across your trusts for this coming academic year and beyond. Our improvement at scale hub, brings together our wide range of resources, developed over a number of years, drawing on education experts as well as cross-sector perspectives, and also includes a growing range of case studies from trusts who are leading this well: Improvement at Scale Hub I Forum Strategy
Cutting edge thinking for CEOs: thriving trusts and system leadership
Two big areas of development over the last two years at Forum Strategy have been the thinking around thriving trusts and system leadership in the trust sector. Both pieces of work are receiving a significant amount of engagement from trust leaders as you develop your strategic planning and reflect upon how the role of CEO and the trust can add even greater value to schools and their communities. Our collection of Thriving Trusts thinkpieces can be found here: Thriving Trusts Thinkpieces | Forum Strategy and system leadership thinkpieces, can be found here: System leadership | Forum Strategy with our new fourth paper focused on locality leadership, to be shared next week.
Top Tips for New CEOs (and a helpful refresh for experienced CEOs too!)
A new academic year may see new people stepping up to the role. In this article we set out how can CEOs approach the job in a sustainable way that keeps them energised and allows them and their organisation to thrive for the long term: 10 top tips for new CEOs I Forum Strategy
Dates for your diary
We continue to add events to our members events page throughout the year so please keep an eye on our page here: Events page I Forum Strategy Our national network meeting dates have been set well in advance and can be viewed on this same page (just scroll to the bottom).
Wider networks through Forum Strategy
We also run two other highly successful national networks for trust leaders – one for COOs and operations leaders and one for Education Leaders (leaders of improvement and/or specialisms across trusts). The feedback these networks receive in terms of inspiring, informing and supporting colleagues in these roles is exceptional, and if you are keen to invest in your executive team members this year, please do share links to these networks with them.
We hope this is helpful and we look forward to working with you in the weeks and months ahead.
Best wishes
