The bare essentials

Grahame Hindes

Chief executive, Octavia Housing
Best companies to work for rating: One to watch
Staff: 230
Properties: 4,000
Turnover: £33 million
Leadership essential: Google

‘Google - it’s the one thing that I think has become a must-have. I use it every day and look for research papers, biographies, pictures for presentations and phone numbers. Google is particularly good if you’re looking at something you don’t know about on a new project - you can get someone else’s perspective on it. For example, we took on some charity shops - something we didn’t know much about, so [via Google] we were able to get an insight from a whole lot of people quite quickly.

‘[It makes me a better leader] because it helps you enrich your understanding of what’s going on - there’s generally more than one way to look at something and you can get a broader perspective. You have to be careful, of course, because it gives you lots of stuff. It’s the one thing we now take for granted.’

What I would swap it for: ‘Chrome - the Google update. But I’m not sure I would swap it.’

Julie Fadden

Chief executive, South Liverpool Housing Group
Best companies to work for rating: Two stars
Staff: 90
Properties: 3,413
Turnover: £12.23 million
Leadership essential: a sense of humour

‘The only way I can lead is with my humour, really, getting alongside people and trying to lift them when I see they’re down. For instance, the World Cup’s just been on and one of the managers said why don’t we decorate the work stations? I was judging the competition and there was one team supporting Brazil that had made a six foot Jesus standing on one of the desks with piñatas, everything.

‘We had Uruguay downstairs with a five foot teddy. None of that would have happened if they didn’t have the empowerment to just get on with it, I’ve encouraged that sense of humour. It keeps my feet on the ground - the key for me is that there’s the serious side but it’s the way you take people through that.

‘I’d describe my sense of humour as a kind of Peter Kay-type humour, seeing the funny sides of things. We’re managing the most deprived ward in the country - Speke - people are getting shot all the time.

‘Our staff have very challenging jobs to do and very difficult people to deal with. So if everything was dull and boring and miserable, life is too hard. But it helps if you can lift people and generate a bit of light-heartedness.’

What I would swap it for: ‘If I had to be miserable for a lifetime, [I’d swap it] if that lifetime was spent with Kevin Keegan - he’s my hero

Chan Abraham

Group chief executive, Luminus
Best companies to work for rating: Three stars
Staff: 300
Properties: 6,843
Turnover: £29.19 million
Leadership essential: transformation of employees

‘Leadership is a journey during which you must set the vision, enable others to see that bigger purpose and help them achieve it. I find tremendous inspiration in how the people around me change, develop, grow in confidence and are transformed. 

‘We have seen this in our employees, who are not fearful of new challenges. We have also witnessed this in growing numbers of residents actively participating in our representative groups and regular conferences. It really is inspiring to see employees, residents and increasing numbers of other stakeholders and businesses capture the vision that we can change the world where we are. I am inspired to see people living with a sense of purpose and direction, combined with their growing confidence summed in the frequently exclaimed phrase - “Yes, we can”.’

What I would swap it for: ‘I believe leadership should be replicable so I am also inspired when I see those I invest in rising to the challenge of being ethical leaders.’ 

Keith Loraine

Chief executive, Isos Housing Group
Best companies to work for rating: One to watch
Staff: 349
Properties: 11,626
Turnover: £42 million
Leadership essential: iPhone and jumbo markers

‘The iPhone’s so blooming useful. I use it for its diary, its connections, its links, its email, all of that. I do use apps - I even have the vuvuzela app, [that apes the trumpets sounded at the South African World Cup]. Very chief exec like!

‘But it’s not different from any other handheld device - as our electronic world moves forward, you really cannot afford to be out of contact for very long these days. As much as I try to avoid using email any more than I have to, it is a remarkably powerful tool when you’re on the move.

‘Also, the volume of reading we have to do, despite electronica, means you can’t go anywhere without a jumbo highlighter or marker. I actually have a whole series of eco-friendly highlighters.

In my job I’m almost permanently reading either internal papers or documents or keeping up to speed with a whole raft of stuff. So, especially for committee papers, you need a good jumbo marker to make sure you’re pulling out the right things. They come in most handy for late night board preparation.

What does it say about my leadership style? That I still live in the real world!’

What I would swap it for: ‘A red biro.’

John Giesen

Chief executive, Broxbourne Housing Association
Best companies to work for rating: One star
Staff: 137
Properties: 4,315
Turnover: £17.19 million
Leadership essential: face-to-face communication

‘Talking to people is important - getting them face-to-face rather than via technology. I’ve worked in many organisations that work on the basis of fear. I wanted to be in the position, when I became chief exec, to be different, to have staff who enjoy getting up and coming to work and feel they can try new things without being afraid.

‘In terms of gadgets, what makes you a better leader is people - gadgets don’t make places great. I don’t have a Blackberry or anything like that. I have a computer and a telephone but in terms of dealing with staff, it’s far better to walk and talk to them rather than send them an email - that’s true of partners as well.

‘When I’m not here, I trust my staff to deal with what comes up. [It makes me a better leader] because people see you - it’s not just a message coming down, they see your emotion. So if you’re talking at a staff conference, for instance, people can see how you react and if you have a lump in your throat, they can openly see you’re genuine.’

What I would swap it for: ‘I wouldn’t swap it. We could join a group, grow more quickly, do other things differently but I wouldn’t swap face-to-face communication.

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