In September 2025, I was confirmed as Chief Executive of Chance for Childhood after serving in an interim capacity from May of that year. The appointment marked an important moment in the organisation’s history: for the first time in its 33-year journey, Chance for Childhood would be led by a Chief Executive based on the African the continent where the majority of the children and communities we support live and work, away from our London headquarters.
As I reflect on my first year in the role, I am often asked what the experience has taught me. While every leadership journey is unique, several lessons have stood out. They are less about charity management and more about what leadership demands in practice.
1. Leadership Is Built on Trust, Not Geography
One of the earliest questions I encountered was whether leadership from Africa could maintain strong relationships with stakeholders located elsewhere particularly in the UK.
The assumption was understandable. For many organisations, proximity has traditionally been associated with influence, relationship-building and visibility.
What I learned was that trust is not necessarily built through geography. It is built through consistency, responsiveness and authenticity.
Technology has changed the nature of leadership and interaction, but it has not removed the importance of human connection. Relationships still require investment, listening and presence. What matters most is not where a leader is based, but whether people feel heard, valued and confident in the decisions being made.
Over the past year, I have become convinced that effective leadership is less about physical location and more about the quality of engagement. In many respects, leading from within the continent where our work takes place has strengthened my appreciation of the realities facing the children, families and communities we serve, while reinforcing the importance of maintaining strong relationships across borders and oceans.
2. Stewardship Requires Looking Beyond Today’s Decisions
Leadership often demands immediate action. There are always urgent decisions to make, competing priorities to manage and risks that need attention.
Yet one of the most important responsibilities of a Chief Executive is to resist becoming trapped by the short term.
Strong organisations are built when leaders make decisions that may not show their full value for years. Whether strengthening systems, investing in people, improving governance or building organisational resilience, the most important work is often the least visible and painstakingly slow at times.
Leadership is ultimately an act of stewardship. It is about leaving an organisation stronger than you found it and ensuring that future generations inherit foundations that can support growth, stability and impact long after current leaders exit the stage.
The question I increasingly find myself asking is not simply whether a decision solves today’s challenge, but whether it strengthens the organisation’s ability to fulfil its mission five or ten years from now.
3. Be Decisive and Move Fast
One of the strongest leadership lessons I have learned through organisational mergers and major change processes is that many of the benefits can be lost during the period between the decision and final delivery on the decision.
Leaders rightly spend significant time assessing strategic fit, testing assumptions and undertaking due diligence. They should. Decisions of this scale deserve rigour.
However, once the decision has been made, the leadership challenge changes completely.
At that point, speed matters. Think hard, but think fast – decide, then execute the transaction and the integration quickly.
I have seen how easily organisations become trapped in transition. Every delay appears reasonable when viewed in isolation. One more consultation. One more review. One more operational dependency to resolve before moving forward.
The problem is that while leaders are delaying execution, the organisation continues to absorb the cost of uncertainty.
People futures are in limbo. Attention shifts away from delivery of normal day to day work towards managing transition. Momentum slows. Opportunities are delayed. Resources remain tied up in maintaining arrangements that everyone already knows will change.
In my experience, the benefits that justified a major strategic decision rarely diminish because the decision itself was wrong. More often, they diminish because execution takes too long.
The most successful organisational transitions are the ones where leaders move quickly once the evidence is clear. That does not mean being reckless. It means recognising that there comes a point at which further deliberation stops reducing risk and starts creating it.
My lesson is simple: be rigorous before the decision but decisive in execution. Organisations can adapt to change. What exhausts them is uncertainty.
4. Accountability Is a Culture, Not a Process
People often associate accountability with audits, policies and compliance requirements. While these mechanisms matter, they are not where accountability begins.
True accountability is the culture of the organisation. What is permitted and tolerated determines culture.
Over time it has become clear that accountability is not about establishing and assigning blame. It is about creating confidence that decisions are being made for the right reasons and in the best interests of those we serve.
It is reflected in an organisation’s willingness to ask difficult questions, examine evidence honestly and remain open to challenge. It means creating an environment where transparency is encouraged, learning is valued and decisions can withstand scrutiny.
Accountability starts with leadership. It requires humility to recognise mistakes, courage to confront difficult realities and discipline to maintain high standards especially when nobody is watching.
Organisations that cultivate accountability as a shared value become stronger, more resilient and more trusted.
5. Impact Grows When Power Is Shared
Working across multiple countries has reinforced a lesson I have long believed: sustainable change happens when leadership is shared.
In the development sector, we increasingly talk about localisation, partnership and shifting power. These are important conversations, but meaningful progress requires more than language.
It requires trust.
The best solutions are rarely imposed from above. They emerge when communities, local organisations, governments and those closest to the challenges are empowered to shape the response.
As leaders, we often feel pressured to have the answers. Yet some of the most effective leadership comes from creating the conditions for others to lead.
The future of our sector will depend less on who delivers the work and more on who owns it. Lasting impact is achieved when individuals, institutions and communities have the confidence, capability and authority to continue driving change themselves.
6. Never Lose Sight of Why the Work Matters
Leadership can easily become consumed by strategy, governance, finance and risk. These are essential responsibilities, but they are ultimately means to an end.
The reason organisations like Chance for Childhood exist is because millions of children continue to face barriers that limit their opportunities, potential and rights.
Whenever I spend time with programme teams, partners, families and children, I am reminded that the purpose behind the work remains unchanged.
The most important leadership lesson of all may be this: never become so focused on managing the organisation that you forget the mission the organisation exists to serve.
Purpose provides clarity during uncertainty, resilience during challenge and perspective during success.
It reminds us that leadership is not an achievement. It is a responsibility.
Looking Ahead
My first year has reinforced the truth that leadership is less about authority than trust, less about control than stewardship, less about individual achievement than collective impact.
Three priorities follow from that. Shifting power in practice rather than in language, so decisions, resources and accountability sit with the partners and communities who carry the work. Building an organisation that outlasts an individual leader, through stronger systems, deeper governance and more resilient income. And holding our impact to a higher standard of evidence, so what we say about children’s lives is something we can demonstrate and improve.
None of it is comfortable, and none of it delivers quickly. But these lessons are the compass I carry forward, and in leadership a clear compass is worth more than a detailed map.
Ven Nyamondo
CEO, Chance for Childhood.