Four reasons why we have Co-CEOs at Peer Power Youth

1 September 2023  |  Blog

Co-CEO leadership is becoming more and more common. But why is this? 

Anne Marie Douglas and Nic Kidston, reflect on being appointed as Co-CEOs and four reasons why we chose for Peer Power Youth to move in this direction. 

 The four reasons include: 

1. Skillset  

Small charities will understand the range of difficult duties and responsibilities that their CEOs’ hold. We realised this can be exceptionally tricky for one person, and that two brains are better than one at sharing the varied responsibilities of the role. 

We’re seeing the benefits of this type of leadership for the organisation as well as ourselves. Applying our strengths in our roles with distinct and divided responsibilities gives better outcomes for the charity and brings joy and excitement as the roles mirror our expertise and passions, rather than simply job-sharing.  

2. Sharing power 

Staying true to our values and principles, we embed shared decision-making processes across Peer Power Youth.  

The move to Co-CEO’s has removed the ‘deputy’ layer in our organisation and has further helped to share power by working in partnership with a brilliant team of young people, staff, advisory forum and trustees, maintaining our principles to share strategy and decision making.   

3. Modelling Empathy and Trust 

Empathy is central to Peer Power Youth as is prioritising well-being for the whole team, preventing burnout. The Co-CEO role allows us to model boundaried working, empathy and care for ourselves and each other through sharing duties and responsibilities. We want the team to have complete trust in each other and to be able to lean on each other when they need to and have self-empathy. 

We are also demonstrating the power of harnessing lived and learned experience across the Peer Power Youth, in our Senior Leadership and as Co-CEOs. 

4. Achieving our mission  

It is exceptionally difficult for one person to hold on their shoulders the weight of the charitable mission and values, safeguarding and adherence to Charity Commission and other statutory responsibilities.  

In a post Covid world when all aspects of Charity leadership and income generation is increasingly tough, we believe that the Co-CEO roles will lead to broader, wider impact and we can prioritise achieving our mission whilst maintaining the wellbeing of our team, including the leadership. 

Founding a charity with the individual and system impact that Peer Power Youth has, is one of the best things I have ever done. It is also one of the hardest things I have ever done.

Through the last seven years, and most notably during Covid times, I have become very unwell under the massive strain of a growing charity, lived experience of trauma and undiagnosed ADHD.

Nic joining the charity two years ago was a pivotal moment in the experience, and today I am so proud to be co-leading this progressive organisation into the future with the most committed team.

– Anne-Marie

 

For me this is the ideal model of leadership. The working world is continuing to adapt to allow more flexible working for employees and this model shows how the CEOs can also benefit. Leading a small Charity has always been challenging and is an extremely big responsibility for one person to shoulder, which takes its toll. Not only are Anne-Marie and I able to share that load and work to our strengths we can also bounce ideas off each other and the results are more creative and impactful and work is more enjoyable. Of course, the Co-CEO model can only work if you have complete trust in your Co-CEO and have open communication and commitment to vision and mission of the Charity. 

I feel privileged to be leading Peer Power Youth with its Founder and to work with such a talented and committed team. I am proud to see the tangible change we make as a team for young people and the systems that support them and I am looking forward to taking the Charity forward.

– Nic

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