Think back to the colleagues you met 10 or 15 years ago, on a course, a project or at a regional event. Do you still keep in touch? Now think about the last time you faced a genuinely difficult situation. Where did you seek support?
For most leaders, the answer is not a textbook or a framework. It's a person, someone they called for advice. A person, most often someone outside their own organisation who understands the context and will give sound, safe advice.
The leaders who thrive are rarely the ones with all the answers. They are the ones who know who to ask.
Change is the constant
Local government reorganisation is the obvious current example, but not the only one. Covid and Brexit asked the same of leaders: pivot quickly, manage partners, staff and politicians at once, then adapt again. Certainty never arrives. The skill is leading without it.
Careers are changing shape too. People move sideways for breadth, into health, the combined authority or the private sector – and sometimes back again. Not every good move is a move up, and not everyone wants to be a chief executive.
This autumn, an advisory group of chief executives and senior leaders helped us shape our regional leadership offer. They described new political realities, a more combative public landscape, the demands of devolution and place, and the need for personal resilience. The common thread being leaders are far more often tested by relationships and unfamiliar environments than by technical know-how.
Leadership is learned in company, not in isolation
Every one of those challenges comes back to emotional intelligence. Judgement, political awareness and resilience are not learned from a slide. They grow through experience, reflection and other people. Hearing how a peer handled a hostile meeting gives you something no textbook can, a lived example to test against your own instincts.
That is why stepping outside your own authority matters. It has never been easier to connect nationally, yet we can overlook the opportunities on our own doorstep. The diversity of West Midlands' councils and partners is one of our greatest strengths, and system leadership depends on those relationships existing before the crisis, not during it.
A good network gives you three things – connection, a trusted circle to call on for honest advice; learning, from masterclasses and leaders who have walked the path ahead, and perspective, the reminder that your challenges are shared.
Building the connections our region needs
Bringing leaders together is central to West Midlands Employer's Strategic Plan. The West Midlands Leadership Network (WMLN), delivered with Solace and championed by the region's chief executives, is designed to be open and accessible. Leaders can dip in and out, and it adds value to councils' own programmes rather than replacing them.
As Gereint Stoneman, head of corporate policy and strategy at Warwickshire CC, and chair of the WMLN says: I'm proud to call the West Midlands home. Throughout my career, coaching, mentoring and professional networks have broadened my perspective and reinforced the power of learning from others. As local government enters a period of significant change, we have a real opportunity to come together, share our experience and shape what comes next
‘Our personal and professional networks will all look different, but our aim is that we can all share in and grow the WM leadership network together.'
Jessica Mullinger, director at Solace, adds: ‘Strong places are built through strong leadership, and effective leadership is strengthened through collaboration and shared learning.
‘Solace is proud to partner with WME to create opportunities for leaders across the West Midlands to connect, share insights and experiences, and develop the system leadership capabilities needed to drive meaningful, sustainable change across the region.
Leadership does not start at the top, nor should our support. Good leadership has to cascade through every level of an organisation. That's why our Early Career Leaders Network, launching this autumn, gives people in roughly their first three years of leadership a regular place to connect, learn and talk honestly about leading in the public sector, so they leave supported, with ideas to try and a reminder that they are not alone.
The relationships you build now are the ones you'll call on later Leaders will need to keep adapting, and they will do it better with people around them. On 21 April 2027, we will bring leaders from across the region together with Solace for the West Midlands: Leadership Live 2027 event.
It is built around one question: what does it take to lead effectively in the West Midlands over the next three to five years? It is a chance to step outside the day job and meet the peers you may still be calling in ten years' time.
So my challenge is simple. Invest in your network the way you invest in your skills, and look beyond your own authority. If you are earlier in your career, start now. Local government is a great place to build a career, and the West Midlands is stronger when we lead together
Manny Sandhu is a director at West Midlands Employers
To find out more about the West Midlands Leadership Network, the Early Career Leaders Network or West Midlands: Leadership Live 2027, visit wmemployers.org.uk or email info@wmemployers.org.uk
