A 75 minute live, unrecorded conversation about resilience as a modern leadership capability: staying able to think, choose, adapt and act when pressure is high, support is uneven and the right course is not obvious.

What is this session about

Resilience is often talked about as the ability to bounce back, keep going or cope with more. That can place the burden on the individual and excuse systems, cultures or workloads that are not sustainable. For a CEO, resilience is more demanding and more useful than that. It is the capacity to remain thoughtful, connected and able to act when events become difficult, public or uncertain.

Drew and Nick bring two different but complementary perspectives. Drew has lived through serious public scrutiny, loss and the process of rebuilding, which he explores in his book ‘When the Clouds Come’. Nick has repeatedly chosen to challenge established ways of working in housing, often before the wider sector felt ready, and knows what it means to hold a course when others doubt it.

This will be an honest conversation about what pressure does to judgement, identity and relationships; the difference between courage and stubbornness; how leaders avoid passing their anxiety into the organisation; and how they recover without pretending the experience has left them unchanged. The aim is not to offer a resilience toolkit or celebrate heroic CEOs. It is to help aspiring and newer CEOs think more intelligently about the personal and organisational capacity needed to lead when there is no neat answer and no guaranteed applause.

About The Contributors

Nick Atkin – Chief Executive, Yorkshire Housing

Nick is known for his straight-talking approach and his willingness to challenge long-held sector norms when they no longer serve residents or colleagues. As Chief Executive of Yorkshire Housing, he has been vocal about the need for innovation that delivers real impact rather than activity for its own sake. Nick brings sharp insight, honest reflection and a practical focus on doing things differently in ways that genuinely improve outcomes.

Drew Povey – Leadership Coach and Former Headteacher

Drew brings deep experience of leading through scrutiny, pressure and change, most widely known for his role as headteacher featured in Channel 4’s Educating Greater Manchester. His leadership journey is grounded in resilience, values-led decision-making and navigating setbacks with integrity.

Drew is also the author of When the Clouds Come, in which he reflects candidly on leadership, failure, recovery and staying true to purpose when things feel at their toughest. His perspective adds a powerful, real-world edge to the session.

Who the session is for

This session is designed for aspiring CEOs and senior executives who are preparing for a future CEO role or actively exploring whether CEOship is right for them. It is also for new and newer CEOs in the early stages of their CEOship who want to lead well as expectations, technology and the wider operating context continue to change.

It will be particularly relevant to leaders thinking about the personal shift involved in becoming a great CEO: carrying whole organisation responsibility, making decisions without complete certainty, leading through scrutiny and building the support and resilience needed to remain effective without becoming fixed, isolated or overly self-reliant.

What participants should take away

· A more useful definition of resilience for modern CEO leadership.

· A clearer understanding of how pressure can distort judgement, behaviour and relationships.

· Ways to distinguish courageous persistence from ego, denial or stubbornness.

· Practical insight into building support, preserving perspective and responding to isolation.

· Permission to adapt, recover and lead differently, rather than trying to return unchanged to who they were before.

Joining Information

Your joining link will be sent via Eventbrite 7 days before the session, and you will also receive a reminder from events@dinetwork.co.uk approximately 2 hours before the session.

Sessions are recorded where possible; however, slides and presentation materials are not guaranteed to be shared afterwards.

If you have any questions about the event or your booking, please contact events@dinetwork.co.uk.