Thursday 29 November 2012

25 Years and Still Leading

Well, there were plenty of Lords, Knights and other hot polloi at our Anniversary Gala dinner in the City last night. But I was sitting next to a holder of the Victoria Cross! Not often you get to chat to a real live hero. Corporal Johnson Beharry VC has become an inspirational speaker on leadership and he is speaking to our Conference later today.

A rather lovely dinner. Tani Grey Thompson was a brilliant speaker and gave out our new Leadership Fellowship Awards which are sponsored by ACEVO member, the Leadership Trust.

We also launched our ACEVO/Attenti pay survey last night. David Fielding spoke about the findings and the need for us to get sorted on diversity at the top. Let me give you the highlights.

•The headline finding this year is that median CEO pay has fallen by around 3% over the last 12 months - down from £60,000 to just over £58,000

•With Retail Price Inflation running at 3% this represents a fall in real terms of over 6%

•51% of CEOs had no pay increase at all in the past year- which means a real terms cut when you factor in inflation.

•Of those who did receive a pay rise, 65% saw their pay rise in line with inflation only- that is a 0% rise in real terms

•This shows that the sector’s leadership has responded to the challenges facing our sector with significant pay restraint (in contrast to some other sectors I could mention)

•However, it’s a mistake to think that cutting back on CEO pay is the recipe for solving financial problems. The sector needs the best possible leadership as we respond to the challenge of doing more with less - meeting higher demand for our work with fewer resources. That means both attracting and retaining the best people.

•Perhaps the real story of this year’s data, however, is that the sector’s leadership remains passionate and optimistic despite the challenges we face.

•85% of CEOs are either very optimistic or optimistic about the future of their organisation

•overall job satisfaction is as high as 92%

•What’s more, over 98% of CEOs responding to our survey expressed their commitment to the cause that they and their organisation serve.

•These figures show that we as a sector remain passionate about what we do and confident in our ability to meet the challenge of doing more with less.

•That can only be good news, both for our organisations and for those people all over the country who rely on our hard work, passion and commitment.

The dinner was a superb affair. The launch of our new member benefit; the energy basket. See here. http://www.energycentric.co.uk/acevo-energy-basket/

Now I'm listening too William Shawcross, the new Chair of the Charity Commission. Our regulator. I'm not sure we will be getting a progressive approach: but I may be surprised. No mention of charities being allowed to pay trustees. We shall see if he supports the Hodgson Report. He made some slightly odd remarks on the role of Government and independence which reflect a somewhat old fashioned view of the 21st century third sector. But it is early days and I'm sure he wil be listening carefully to the views of the sector's Leaders!

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