Housing leaders should hand over power

That is the message from Mags Lightbody, director of business development and growth at Wheatley Housing Group, the parent company of Glasgow Housing Association. She told housing managers gathered at the Chartered Institute of Housing conference in Manchester that they must empower their staff to say ‘yes’ to tenant requests, ignoring the constraints of rules, regulation, policy and budget.

‘You should be a mentor and free staff to do great things,’ she said.

Glasgow Housing Association changed its staff structure to pass decision-making down to front line staff after a critical report in 2011 indicated the radical improvements it had made to customer service since 2009 were slipping.

‘The relationship with staff should be adult to adult, and respectful,’ Ms Lightbody said. ‘You want to get to a position where you are designing [services] and responding to what customers need.’

Following the introduction of the new management policy staff and customer satisfaction at GHA both increased.

Judy Hart, head of business development at Investors in Excellence, agreed that strong leadership was important as the housing sector faces a difficult period.

‘Transformation is not a comfortable process. It’s hard work. It’s unsettling,’ she said. ‘During the recession the executive’s office was a lonely place to be. We could see over the horizon but others could not. Trust was lost and cynicism came in.

‘In reality, leadership is essentially a relationship through which one person influences the values, attitudes, behaviours and actions of other people. What a responsibility.’