The Honest Question Every Charity Leader Is Avoiding!
Hello there,
How is your October going?
I know it is the season of the viral bugs flying all around us (I was hit by one just last week!) but you know, I actually love October- there is a lovely autumnal vibe in the air (if that is a thing!), the leaves are all sorts of mesmerising reds and yellows and oranges and it is also the start of lots of fun Hindu festivals! So this time of the year, I always find myself feeling grateful for the amazing diversity in our lives- experiencing autumn while also celebrating our culture and our roots!
Anyway, I pop myself back in here because we have been having far too many interesting conversations with charity leaders through our work at TPL and through my work as Chair of Third Sector Leeds. All these conversations and all our work this year has got me to dive deeper into understanding what will help us as sector leaders in this current fragile, volatile world?
Context- Setting some more context here, earlier this year, TPL Consultancy surveyed charity leaders across the UK. We wanted to understand where they genuinely stood, not the version presented at a board meeting, but what it actually feels like to lead right now. The picture that came back was consistent, and sobering.
We put the full findings together in a report, A Stretched Third Sector, From Survival to Intentionality. It holds real reflection, the questions we asked leaders to sit with, and a good deal of what we continue to work through with clients since.
But in true TPL style, we did not want to close this conversation with just stating the facts, we wanted to do something to respond to it as well. And that is how Navigating Change was born!
Navigating Change is our response to that reflection, and to years of work in the sector, in the decision making space, and in the rooms where, as Chair of Third Sector Leeds, I see first hand how the sector itself is responding and finding its way forward. What we kept hearing, in the data and in the rooms, was not a shortage of ideas. It was a shortage of space to think clearly about what actually matters most right now.
Does any of this sound familiar?-
• A team already stretched thin, being asked for more
• Funding or income shifting under your feet
• The need to reshape your services
• Governance falling apart
• An organisation restructure
• A culture and values refresh
• AI making you feel burnt out and busy all the time
If even one of those landed, you are not alone, and you are not imagining it. The sector is under real pressure, and most of the advice aimed at it assumes you have more time, more budget, or more certainty than you actually have.
Four places to look, not forty
From that research, and from years of working alongside leaders in arts, culture, and charity organisations, we built Navigating Change. What we noticed, again and again, was not a shortage of ideas. It was a shortage of a space to think clearly about where to actually put one’s energy right now. If it helps, think of it as a reflective, coaching led version of the Eisenhower matrix, not urgent against important, but where the real pressure sits right now, across four territories-
Understand asks whether you genuinely know what is changing and why, not just the headline version, and whether you know how it is really landing with people, not just how it was intended to land.
Hold Close asks what must stay protected while everything else moves, the purpose, the people, and the values that should never become casualties of speed.
Capacity asks an honest question about energy, not just budget, whether your people have the headspace to actually carry this, and whether you are being realistic about what you have, rather than hopeful about it.
Create Movement asks whether intention is turning into anything visible yet, and whether you are willing to act without complete certainty rather than waiting for clarity that change rarely offers in advance.
Most change guidance treats these as sequential steps. We don’t think that is honest. In practice you are usually short on all four at once, and the leaders who cope best are the ones who know which one to prioritise this month, not the ones trying to fix everything simultaneously.
A free, honest diagnostic
We built Navigating Change as a fillable resource you can work through in 20 minutes, alone or with your leadership team, trustees, and staff. There is no scoring, no maths, and no wrong answers- only honest ones.
It closes with a simple reflection you can act on this month, and a note on where to focus next for each of the four spaces.
Get your copy
Download Navigating Change here, and if anything in it surfaces something worth talking through, thirty minutes with us is free. Book a clarity call by clicking the link here or email me at minoti@tplconsultancy.com.
We build capability, not dependency. This is simply where that starts.
I hope you find this resource useful, I am always keen to recieve feedback and hear from you (no spam please!)
Much love,
Minoti