A new podcast series from the Community Support North Yorkshire team at Community First Yorkshire aims to support and encourage existing, new and aspiring leaders in voluntary, community or social enterprises (VCSEs) across the county.

The first episode in the ‘Ordinary Extraordinary Leaders’ series is out now, featuring Community First Yorkshire’s leadership development specialist, Mike Hickman, with a thought-provoking look at ‘What I’ve learned from bad leaders’.

Helping to build capacity and capability

Community First Yorkshire is a charity that provides support and guidance to other charities, voluntary groups and community organisations in North, South and West Yorkshire. This podcast series aims to help build capacity and capability in the sector by offering leaders an easily accessible and flexible development opportunity – with something for everyone, no matter where they are in their career.

“We have a brilliant VCSE sector in North Yorkshire, largely thanks to the wonderfully dedicated and talented leaders driving their organisations forward,” said Jane Colthup, Community First Yorkshire’s Chief Executive.

“However, it’s clear that all voluntary groups and community organisations are facing a very challenging operating environment at the moment, hard-hit by the cost of living crisis and a real shortage in the number of volunteers post-covid.

Easy to download

“This series of podcasts is designed to support and encourage individuals to become the leaders they know they can be or want to be. Each one will be quick and easy to download and will be no longer than 15 minutes, meaning they are easy to access and fit around even the busiest schedule. We really hope they will be well received, and that people will let us know what they think of them.”

The first podcast looks at what a ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ could look like – painting a composite picture of what makes a bad leader. Forthcoming podcasts in the series will consider ‘Sex, power and politics in the VCSE sector’ and ‘How not to break someone.’

Community First Yorkshire offers a range of training and development opportunities for the VCSE sector including a popular leadership mentoring programme.

The first episode of the podcast can also be downloaded here.

The Community Support North Yorkshire team is funded by North Yorkshire Council and NHS North Yorkshire.