Local government has rarely faced change on this scale. Reorganisation, devolution and sustained financial pressure are all landing at once, and together they are changing what senior leadership asks of people. For chief executives, directors and their teams, that means judgement, resilience and the confidence to lead when very little feels settled.
At times like these, even the most experienced leaders gain from having someone outside their organisation who understands the pressures they are under. Call that person a mentor, a trusted adviser or a critical friend. The role is the same: to offer an independent view, to question the assumptions everyone else has stopped questioning, and to provide a confidential space to think through the decisions that matter most.
Over the past year I have spoken with chief executives and directors handling reorganisation at the same time as financial recovery, political change and a hard recruitment market. Almost every conversation ends up less about structure and more about people. The most effective leaders rarely lead alone. Behind many of them is someone they trust – not to hand over the answers, but to help them ask sharper questions and reach better decisions.
One observation has stayed with me. Organisations put real time and money into finding and appointing exceptional leaders. Once the appointment is made, the structured support around that person tends to fall away. That is precisely when the real leadership challenge begins.
Penna has worked in this sector for more than 50 years, and in that time we have learned that leadership does not end at appointment. Finding outstanding people is the first step, not the whole job. Our Future Leaders and Aspirant Chief Executive programme, now in its seventh year, exists because supporting people through change, added complexity and bigger responsibilities matters just as much as appointing them well. As councils merge, restructure and rethink their future, many leaders are taking on wider briefs while managing political, organisational and cultural change all at once.
Leadership can be a lonely job and access to an experienced adviser gives leaders something many of them struggle to find, which is time to think. It is a confidential space to test an idea, talk through a sensitive issue, or draw on the experience of someone who has been through something similar.
The value is not only to the individual, organisations that back mentoring and peer support build stronger leadership, plan succession more effectively and hold up better when pressure comes. They also tend to develop cultures where people learn from one another rather than in isolation. That has led me to think about leadership support differently.
Rather than treating mentoring as a set of separate, one-off relationships, we have started to connect people more deliberately. What is emerging is a community of experienced public sector leaders who are willing to support one another through one of the most demanding periods the sector has known. We call it the Public Leadership Exchange.
The Exchange brings together experienced leaders from across local government and the wider public sector. It offers mentoring, trusted advice, peer learning and access to specialist expertise. Its thinking is simple.
Leadership is a journey, not an event
From spotting leadership talent and supporting senior appointments through to helping leaders succeed once they are in post, the Exchange works alongside the sector. It starts from a straightforward premise: appointing exceptional people is the beginning of building a strong organisation, not the end.
Over time, the Public Leadership Exchange will:
• Build relationships with experienced leaders across local government and the wider public sector.
• Create a trusted network of mentors, advisers and specialist experts.
• Offer sector expertise to support leadership development and organisational change.
• Encourage peer learning and the sharing of hard-won knowledge.
• Support recruitment, succession planning and team development.
• Strengthen collaboration, visibility and credibility across the sector.
This is, in the end, about investing in leadership when the demands on it are this high. Structures will keep changing. Trusted relationships, independent advice and shared experience are among the few things that hold their value through all of it.
Over the coming months we will develop the Exchange and invite experienced local government and public sector leaders to help shape it. If this resonates with you, whether you are after the support of a trusted adviser, would like to offer your own experience as a mentor, or simply believe leadership across the public sector is worth strengthening, I would be glad to hear from you.
The strongest organisations are built by leaders who keep learning, and who never underestimate the value of shared experience.
Pete John is a senior consultant at Penna, specialising in place, infrastructure and transport
