Following on from her interview welcoming Zoe as our new CEO, facilitator Emily reconnected with Zoe, six months on, to hear about her reflections on becoming Chief Executive Officer of a social enterprise.
Hi Zoe! Before we get started with the serious reflective questions, some quick-fires for you:
What’s your most-used emoji? 😂
Fruit or vegetable? Fruit
Summer or Winter? Summer
Movie or book? Book! I’m currently reading Friends and Purpose, by Maff Potts
What does your YOP induction mug say? Visionary, Font of Knowledge and Proper Northern Lass
So, Zoe, last time we got together to blog, we were introducing you, your priorities, and your experiences. This time, I’d love to focus on what you’ve been learning and thinking about since being in the CEO role.
First off, how have you been settling into the role?
Wow – I feel inspired and challenged. It’s a strange combo of feeling like I’ve been here for ages, to feeling like I’ve still got so much to learn.
Becoming a CEO has made me think a lot about my leadership style, reflecting on hierarchy, taking people with me, authenticity, humility, and boundaries. Inclusivity is also important to me when making decisions – I want people to be involved. The title of CEO can impact this, and there’s definitely discomfort with this for me. I’ve understood again just how essential it is for people to share their perspective, but how hierarchy can affect this – and I have been reflecting on ways to make it safe for colleagues to share their perspectives.
It sounds like you’ve had a lot of thought around how you lead in your role. Transition can also bring these considerations up, and reflection on the leadership style that has come before. Taking the reins from a Founder CEO must be a unique experience!
Yes, this isn’t something I’ve done before!
What has this been like? How has this challenged you?
I’m in awe of and have total respect for Your Own Place’s Founder and previous CEO, Rebecca White.
At the same time, I wanted to make sure I wasn’t trying to replicate her – but I also didn’t want to let her, the team or the partners down. I think it’s important that I am authentic to me, while not creating disruption for the team.
That’s a lot to balance – and I agree, we want you to lead as you! What have been the highlights so far of becoming CEO of Your Own Place?
The team are amazing people and each person brings their own talent. The team’s collective passion and commitment to Your Own Place’s values, mission and vision are inspiring and this passion and commitment both shine through in everything the team does. They work really hard, but also make sure they look after each other and have fun. The team has welcomed me in true Your Own Place style, and I feel accepted.
Another highlight is how receptive partners have been. Your Own Place has a strong positive reputation, and I’m loving making connections and developing our relationships for continued collaboration.
Oh, I’m so glad that we’ve welcomed you warmly! When we blogged before, you talked about our approaches being a huge attraction of Your Own Place. Where have you seen this in action?
I’m seeing the approaches in action all the time! The team consistently demonstrates the organisational values. They do what they say they will do, they recognise what matters to people and always approach from a place of equity and empathy, ensuring their support is asset-based, restorative and, above all, human.
As someone who is part of our amazing team, I’m blushing! We also talked about your purpose before, how is being CEO of Your Own Place aligning with your purpose?
My purpose is to challenge in the name of social justice; I have a strong desire to create meaningful change and contribute to building a more inclusive and equitable society.
Homelessness prevention aligns with these purposes: bolstering individual and community resilience, sharing important knowledge, and building confidence in individuals to seek help and challenge injustice – this is what gets me out of bed in the morning!
The Your Own Place team are skilled and well-placed to enable this through their workshops, community conversations and engagement work.
I feel rewarded from making a positive difference in people’s lives and thrive on the opportunity to innovate and develop effective solutions to complex and pressing social issues – the way that we at Your Own Place work flexibly to co-create with and meet the needs of the people and communities we’re working with exemplifies this.
Mind blown – thank you for summarising our work so passionately. Zoe, what is your vision and hope for the future of Your Own Place?
My vision is that everyone has a safe and sustainable home, that they are able to keep and manage effectively. The vision is to prevent homelessness wherever possible.
My hope is that there is more long-term investment in preventing poverty and homelessness. That Your Own Place can continue to build its presence in the prevention space through demonstrating its strength in building trusting, human relationships that facilitate change, and therefore deepen its contribution to community capacity for preventing homelessness.
I hope that we continue to participate in supporting people to recognise their potential, their power and their voice, as well as supporting communities to recognise their assets and use their power.
Thank you for sharing that, Zoe. What are your hopes for the team at Your Own Place?
I feel so confident that the team has the behaviours, skills and knowledge to enable Your Own Place’s growth – and I want us to do this together. We’ve undergone two significant transitions in a short space of time – a new CEO and an office move – and I can see that this can impact confidence in decision making. I trust the team wholeheartedly and want us to continue to work in a restorative way with each other. I want to continue to grow the confidence of the team and embrace the value of each individual’s perspective and strengths. I can’t say enough how incredible the team is – highly skilled and dedicated to the mission – and I want them to thrive. I also want to be able to offer the best possible working conditions.
Any other thoughts about the future of Your Own Place as an organisation?
Of course – I hope that we continue to work with our partners and develop new partnerships too. I’m interested in looking at homelessness prevention from all angles to find ways to embed it wherever it fits.
Organisationally, I aim for the freedom to shape our organisational structure in a way that is effective for us, and not just a traditional hierarchical structure. I want to provide opportunities for the existing team – they go above and beyond without exception and are encouraged to identify their “Big Hairy Audacious Goals” which supports us to consider growth opportunities within Your Own Place.
I also want to provide opportunities for new people to join our organisation, including people with lived and living experience. We were unable to secure funding for our previous model of a living experience informed advisory board, and I continue to explore how we can build this back into our organisation. It’s important that the people we work with are at the core of Your Own Place: their ideas, experience and knowledge woven through everything. Collaboration and co-creation are essential.
Amazing – the future is looking very exciting. Finally, what are you looking forward to more of over the coming months?
It’s high on my agenda to visit more workshops and community engagement time to see the team in action.
I’m also excited to continue to collaborate on our new office together, exploring how we make our new environment work for us. I know that necessity is the driver of change, and our new chapter at Carrow House gives us the opportunity to reset and review. It’s also a space where we can embed our roots in the community more, spending more time in the spaces that are already accessed by the people we work with, rather than asking them to come to us. This strategic shift towards place-based models is exemplified by the work we do with Colchester Borough Homes and Norwich Foodbanks – these projects demonstrate to us a different and effective way to reach people. Continuing to build on what we learn together will only make us more resilient and stronger.
Zoe, thank you so much for spending time catching up with me. I’ve really enjoyed hearing your insights into the journey of a new CEO and your hopes and plans for the future of Your Own Place.
Even as I sit here writing this there is a guy outside the cafe tapping his watch, falling over and seemingly very unwell. I’m not easily unnerved, but he makes me nervous.