A Day In The Life

The M53: How most days begin...

One of the most frequent questions I get is what a typical week is like, so here’s a snapshot of a standard day.

As mentioned in an earlier post it's quite difficult to define exactly what my role is as a CEO because you have to have at least an awareness of every element of the organisation. Of course the balancing act is to make sure that while you have a good overview, you are not trying to do everything within the organisation.

05.40I always try to start Monday early and this week was no exception. 05.40 alarm, straight into sports kit and a very familiar fifty mile trip down the M53 and M56 to Trafford – this morning the fact I’d had the car brakes done the previous weekend really showed, although thankfully no emergency stops needed. The journey itself is spent listening to the radio or often putting various thoughts in order so that I know what I'm thinking about when the working day begins.

07.15By seven I’m at the Leisure Trust in Stretford and on my bike by the time the spinning class starts at 07.15. James works us all hard for 45 minutes and then shower, change and I’m in the office, raring to go by...

08.32

First up, it’s a meeting with the Chief Executive of VCAT – the umbrella body for voluntary sector organisations in Trafford. They’ve got some challenges ahead as they have a key role in making the Big Society work, but in an era of cuts, have no certainty about their own funding. There’s a paradox for the policy makers.

10.00Two hours into the day and the second of several meetings. This one involves the key players on Trafford’s housing scene come and plan the final details of a partnership conference that we are hosting. It’s a challenging time and we feel pretty pleased by the end that there’s going to be an interesting and challenging agenda for the 50 or so people due at the conference.

11.38Just half an hour after that finishes before our fortnightly Executive Management Team meeting and I squeeze in a session with one of my Directors. At the moment I’m asking all the senior team to “give it to me straight” about what they’d like me to do differently. The most consistent things to come out so far are to stay focused and make sure there is greater rigour and vigour about keeping everyone on mission to drive up performance. It's an interesting challenge!

12.14Spurred on by my discussions with the Directors I chair the EMT meeting with more vigour and rigour! And as we finish half an hour earlier than the allotted time I have a moment to do some emails and post. Then it's into a briefing session with the wider leadership team to brief them on the key things to have come out of EMT.

How Monday's usually end.

16.00 As soon as that finishes, we all get a briefing on the Sunshine event that is due to take place later in the week. This starts with our HR Director Elaine telling the assembled company that there’s not very much for them to do this time, before revealing the reason – I have to do three consecutive 30 minute briefings to about 120 staff at a time – so basically I’m doing all the work!

16.50And by now, with the clock ticking round to 17.00 I’d ordinarily be on the badminton court near home by 6pm.

It’s a men’s four and we’ve been playing together for about 15 years and its one of the things that keeps me sane! Thrashing a shuttlecock around is the best stress reliever I know. But this week, two of the guys can’t play, so the day ends with a wander round the building and a few casual chats, followed by a last clearance of emails.