What does a week look like when you’re helping lead a 24/7 social care organisation, developing its next generation of leaders and juggling life as a working mum?
For Sarah Colling, People Director at Northern Healthcare, it involves everything from Monday morning debriefs and big-picture strategy sessions to getting out into services to find out whether those ideas discussed in meeting rooms actually work in practice. And, as she readily admits, the carefully organised to-do list doesn’t always survive the week.
Colling has spent more than 13 years in senior HR leadership within health and social care and now sits on Northern Healthcare’s Executive Leadership Team, where she leads on its people strategy, with marketing also within her remit.
Northern Healthcare provides specialist supported living services for adults with complex mental health needs, learning disabilities, autism and other support needs across the North of England.
From developing future leaders and building a strong workplace culture to the realities of hybrid working, childcare and trying to crack the elusive work-life balance, Colling takes us through a recent week in her life…
Monday
I’m one of those people who genuinely likes Mondays. Yes, really. There’s something satisfying about starting the week with a clean slate, getting my to-do list into some sort of order, meeting with my teams, understanding priorities and creating a plan for the days ahead. I like feeling organised, even if experience tells me that plan will inevitably meet reality by about 10.17am.
I work alongside our Chief Operating Officer and Chief Executive Officer, and because our services operate 24/7, supporting people living with mental health conditions, Monday morning is always an opportunity to reflect on the weekend. What happened? What do we need to know? What needs our attention? And, importantly, what can we learn from it?
Our People Team meeting is another Monday staple. The Human Resources, Recruitment and Learning and Development teams are incredibly interconnected, particularly in a sector as busy and demanding as ours, so creating the space to understand each other’s priorities is essential. Marketing also sits within my remit. They are, quite rightly, the experts in their field, so my role is often less about having all the answers and more about asking the right questions, providing direction and being available when they need me.
And, of course, all hail grandparents. Their support with childcare means I can spend the full day physically in our Manchester office with the teams. I’m a huge advocate for hybrid working and what it enables people to achieve, particularly working parents, but there is still something incredibly valuable about being in a room with your team. Leadership is about relationships, and sometimes you simply can’t beat being there.
Tuesday
Northern Healthcare is a social care business with 20 services across the North, and with three of us leading the organisation, Tuesdays are generally reserved for strategic planning. Not that strategy politely waits until Tuesday, of course. It tends to follow you around all week.
But, Tuesday gives us dedicated time to come together, ideally in person, to focus on the bigger picture and keep each other connected across our respective areas of the business. We have strong relationships at the top of the organisation, and I think that matters. Culture isn’t something that belongs exclusively to the People Team. It is shaped by how leaders behave, communicate and collaborate every day.
In social care, collaboration is particularly important. I strongly believe that the best outcomes come when functions work together rather than retreating into their own corners. Our approach to co-production is a big part of what sets Northern Healthcare apart. We don’t work in silos because the people we support certainly don’t experience our organisation that way. When we are aligned, they get the best version of us.
Wednesday
One of the highlights of my time at Northern Healthcare has been developing our internal management development programme, Future Leaders. Taking ambitious, talented people through a nine-month programme designed to develop their leadership capability has been incredibly rewarding. We have a fantastic Learning and Development function, but I still personally deliver one session a month. That’s important to me.
Developing future leaders isn’t something I want to delegate. I want to know the people coming through our organisation, understand their ambitions and help them see what they are capable of. We’re now in Year 3 of the programme and it continues to go from strength to strength. Seeing people develop, step into bigger roles and grow in confidence is one of the best parts of my job – particularly when you see people who perhaps didn’t initially see themselves as ‘leaders’ realise that they absolutely are.
And yes, we make sure there are plenty of treats to get us through whichever challenging topic is on the agenda that month. Leadership development is important. So is cake.
Thursday
Thursday is often about getting out into our services and spending time with the people who make the organisation what it is, our Service Managers, carers and wider teams. This is where you find out whether the things we discuss in meeting rooms actually work in the real world. Are our key messages landing? Are our priorities clear? Is that brilliant idea we were all very excited about actually brilliant when someone has to implement it on a busy Thursday afternoon? Our teams will tell us. And they should. Good leadership isn’t about assuming you have all the answers. It’s about creating enough trust for people to tell you when you don’t.
Today I’m working from home, which means I can put the kids on the school bus at 8am and be there when they get home at 4pm. Once they’re settled, I’ll inevitably open the laptop again. This is the reality of being a working mum. We’ve spent the last decade or more being told that women can ‘have it all’. I’m still not entirely convinced we can – at least not all at the same time, and certainly not without occasionally questioning where my children are or what day it is. But I’m going to give it a very good go.
I’m incredibly proud to know so many powerhouse women who are leading businesses, running households, raising families, supporting their teams and, perhaps most importantly, raising other women up with them. That matters. Leadership shouldn’t be about proving that you can do everything yourself. In fact, I think some of the strongest women I know are those who have built brilliant teams, asked for help when they need it and created space for others to succeed alongside them.
We have a fantastic team at Northern Healthcare, and everyone is navigating their own version of work, family and life. Social care can be demanding both physically and emotionally, so creating an environment where people can do great work while still being human is something I care deeply about. If anyone has genuinely cracked the work-life balance, please do let me know.
Friday
There’s rarely a dramatic drop in pace just because it’s Friday. In social care, the Monday-to-Friday rules are more of a loose suggestion and some weeks seem to gather momentum as we approach the weekend rather than slow down.
But, Friday is also about reflection. Our Friday meeting is where we talk honestly about the challenges of the week and, importantly, celebrate the wins. There’s something to be said for deliberately starting and ending the week on a positive note, particularly when the work we do can be challenging. The stereotypical ‘pink and fluffy’ People Director moment, perhaps – although I’d argue that recognising achievement, building morale and making sure people feel valued is a pretty serious leadership responsibility.
By the end of the week, I’m usually hoping I’ve conquered my to-do list. I rarely have. But perhaps that’s the point. Leadership isn’t about getting to the end of every week with everything neatly ticked off. It’s about moving the organisation forward, developing the people around you, making good decisions, learning from the ones that weren’t quite so good and creating the conditions for other people to succeed.
Then Sunday comes around, and I start preparing for Monday again. Ready to attempt to change the world – one Monday at a time.
