Welcome to our leadership spotlight series, where we ask each leader 10 quick-fire questions so that we can give a little insight into the person behind a leadership role.
What was your first job?
Local authority administrator, calculating daily pay for the men (all men!) who cut the grass.
What is the best piece of leadership advice you’ve been given?
Your job, above all else, is to think: make sure you give yourself time to do that.
What or who is your most admired purpose-led organisation or person?
Lucy Straker, one of the driving forces behind Charity So Straight. She is the most intrinsically inclusive person I know and I learn from her every time I speak with her.
What do you do to help ensure good mental health?
Control my working hours; you’ll never get to the end of the to-do list so don’t try. Do completely non-work related things at weekends and on holidays, things that totally engage your hands and your brain elsewhere – in my case, gardening, knitting, exercise, time with my kids.
What is the most impactful leadership decision you’ve made?
Moving my former organisation to a fully hybrid model of working – in 2017, so we were well ahead of the game when the pandemic hit! And the huge cultural/recruitment benefits that brought with it.
If you needed some sound advice, who would you call?
My ‘gang’, a group of women leaders that have seen me through thick and thin and that I trust with everything that matters to me.
What is your dream job? (Apart from your current one!)
Given the option I’d run my own specialist cheesemongers.
Favourite place to eat?
A very lovely pub just down the road from home.
Why are you in the purpose-led sector?
Because I came into it by accident and fell in love with it. And it is where everything else I’ve ever done has come to fruition in terms of having a real impact.
What are you currently watching or reading?
Strictly and GBBO! And any half decent nordic noir crime drama (Wisting is the current favourite)
Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, Jane.
