National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference 2023
21st September 2023, Nottingham
Thriving Together: How we thrive together as CEOs, trusts and communities through uncertain times
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE 2024 CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE ON 19TH SEPTEMBER 2024. PLEASE SAVE THE DATE!
On 21st September 2023, our sixth national #TrustLeaders CEO conference, took place setting the agenda and bringing together our multi-academy trust CEO network members from right across the country. The theme of this year’s event was: ‘Thriving Together: How we thrive together as CEOs, trusts and communities through uncertain times’, linking us back to the concept of what it means to be a thriving trust and exploring this through several viewpoints – thriving as CEOs, thriving as children, thriving as a workplace and thriving as communities.
We explored what it means as CEOs to thrive and how you develop thriving places to learn, to work and to connect to – drawing on the work of executives and exceptional thought leaders from across sectors, as they shared reflections and lessons on thriving as leaders of purpose-driven organisations.
At this year’s conference
Alice Gregson, CEO, Forum Strategy
Leading a Thriving System
Forum’s CEO, Alice Gregson, opened this year’s conference by acknowledging and thanking colleagues for the incredible work they all continue to do in their trusts and wider communities; recognising once again, the multitude of challenges we continue to face as a sector.
Alice emphasised that, during such challenging times, it is even more vital to consider what thriving means to us as leaders. Because when times are tough, it can be easy (and understandable) to adopt a survival mindset; but living in perpetual survival mode eventually holds us back from our goals, our vision, and our purpose and ultimately from personal growth and fulfilment.
Alice highlighted the work Forum Strategy has been undertaking since the beginning of the year on system leadership, building on previous work but looking at it now through the lens focused in on the role of trusts and their CEOs; and including Forum’s recently published second thinkpiece, produced in great collaboration with our CEO professional learning communities over the Summer.
Sir Steve Lancashire, Chair of Forum Strategy’s National #TrustLeaders CEO Network
Thriving as CEOs
Sir Steve shared some personal reflections on the concept of a ‘thriving CEO’ and why this is such an important idea. He suggested that thriving is not a passive state of mere existence; it is an active pursuit, an unwavering commitment to growth and evolution. To thrive is to flourish in the face of adversity, to embrace change as an opportunity, and to inspire transformation in ourselves and others. Thriving is the dynamic interplay between resilience, vision, innovation, and leadership. It’s not just about weathering storms; it’s about harnessing their energy to propel forward.
Steve emphasised that thriving CEOs take seriously their social and moral responsibility to contribute to broader societal well-being, set standards for ethical behaviour that ripple through their organisations and inspire others to follow suit, and drive innovation and creativity.
Steve also commented that CEOs need to be ‘expert enough’ in the key elements of their role; but also need to develop a number of key characteristics in order to thrive, including visionary leadership, adaptability, strategic agility, effective communication, decisiveness, ethical integrity, humility, and perspective.
Also appearing at this year’s conference
Kelly Beaver MBE, CEO, Ipsos UK & Ireland
Key strategic trends and what these mean
for CEOs in 2023
Mark Russell, CEO, The Children’s Society
Thriving children & young people
Poppy Jaman OBE, Global CEO MindForward Alliance
Leading thriving workplaces
David Price OBE, International Speaker & Author
Leading thriving communities
The Special Recognition Award
Retiring CEOs Liz Anderson and Simon Bramwell receive Special Recognition awards from Sir Steve Lancashire at the National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference 2023
Our Partners
Partner reflections
You can read some reflections of the 2023 National #TrustLeaders CEO Conference from our valued partners
