Mentor Dinner #4: How do we help people and places feel safe(r) in such volatile times?
That was the question we put to our guest speaker at May’s Future of GM mentor dinner, when 45 senior leaders gathered in Ancoats for another evening of connection and inspiration (plus lovely food). It’s our way of thanking the brilliant volunteers who support the next wave of cross-sector GM leaders.
Future of GM’s mentor network brings together leaders from housing, infrastructure, regeneration, all levels of government, planning, transport, design, education, work & skills and social impact (and more!). Some know each other well, others meet for the first time, and what unites them is a shared commitment to helping develop the next wave of place leaders.
The dinner was hosted at independent restaurant Elnecot and sponsored by PA Consulting, whose commitment to place-based work in the North West aligns closely with the conversations we’re enabling through our network.
Future of GM Chair Angela Harrington opened with a memorial toast to Eamonn Boylan, celebrating his huge contribution to Greater Manchester and his role in founding and sustaining Future of GM, and with a reminder that no matter how much change is underway, strong place leadership must be a constant.
Guest speaker Caroline Field – partner at PA Consulting and a leading voice in resilience, infrastructure and urban security – brought decades of experience in infrastructure, counter-terrorism design, organisational resilience and city systems, including physical security consulting for multiple clients.
Rather than focusing on the physical, though, Caroline challenged the group to think more broadly about what safety means now, in what felt like a welcome mentoring session in itself. A few takeaways:
- She argued that leaders must think beyond CCTV, bollards and emergency plans. Feeling safe is also about communication, trust, visibility and compassion – whether people feel heard in times of uncertainty and whether organisations respond in ways that build confidence rather than fear. Leaders must stay grounded in their values, particularly during crises, and be the calm beacon teams need.
- There was also frank discussion about the fine line between resilience and stress. Too often, senior leaders are praised for pushing through exhaustion without recognising the cost to themselves or the people around them. Caroline encouraged leaders to think more like athletes: high performance requires preparation, recovery and support, not just endurance.
- Caroline used a conversation with Tesco’s Director of Resilience to highlight the importance of planning ahead. In just two weeks at the start of Covid, Tesco rapidly transformed its delivery capacity, thanks to focus and practice as well as operational capability. Check out the ‘Doomsday Exercise’ organised by Tesco’s former CEO well before the crisis.
These conversations matter, and Future of GM’s mentor dinners create space for leaders to step outside the day-to-day and engage with big questions and with thinking from different fields. They also remind us that leadership does not happen in isolation. The relationships built through this network strengthen collaboration across Greater Manchester and beyond.
Today, more than 350 mentors across the UK support over 1,100 cross-sector candidates and alumni through Future of GM and Future of London programmes. Together, those leaders are shaping regeneration, housing, infrastructure, climate action, inclusive growth and social impact across the country.
We are hugely grateful to everyone who joined us, to PA Consulting for sponsoring the evening, and to Elnecot for hosting us so brilliantly.
