Reflecting on the brave and energetic people at the heart of EF
This year has been really challenging for us. By ‘us’ I mean our business partners, commissioners, service users and staff. Often, with no easy solutions in sight, it’s been a case of holding onto our vision, doing what we can with our service users and believing in our people. During what now feels like a brief respite from working from home, I’ve been back on the road. It was great seeing colleagues face-to-face. Spending time on site allows me to pick up on atmosphere, local issues and focus in on the details that make a difference. It also helps reset my management perspective.
I realised the significance of that whilst interviewing for a front-line manager. Quite rightly, the candidate tells me that they would never ask a member of their team to do something that they wouldn’t or couldn’t do themselves. I realised I make that ask every day. I don’t have the skill set, mental fortitude, emotional regulation and energy to do what these inspiring people do. I simply work in a different part of the business. I can share my management experience, try to regulate our decision making to reflect our principles and values and be there when plans, well, don’t go to plan.
Investing in our workforce
Emerging Futures has an ambitious 3-year strategic plan. It sets out our plans to invest in our workforce, develop better ways of working and to do more of both. There is a common denominator here – our people. Without them we don’t have a business and can’t provide quality services to the ever-increasing numbers of homeless drug and alcohol users we work with. The reality of what staff on the ground have endured during Covid so far and their ability to keep coming back to make a difference is humbling. For me, it’s back to the spare room to play a small supportive role to these brave people.
