Building Your Crew: Reflections On Positive Leadership

The Housing LIN’s Future Leaders Programme has given me an opportunity to see beyond the housing association that I work for. It’s helped me to hear different perspectives and appreciate the challenges that others may have been facing. Through the interactive sessions, there were three main takeaways that stood out to me:

Find the Good Energy

Surround yourself with people who lift you up – the ones who bring curiosity, optimism and a willingness to embrace change. When you can manage challenges within a supportive environment, the process of growth can feel more natural.

Make Time to Reflect

Especially early in your career, reflection is extremely important. Setting aside time to think about your progress, your interactions and your own mindset can help you understand the direction you’re heading in and whether you want to steer that direction down an alternative path.

Looking inwardly can help build self-awareness and creates a space to think about how you come across, what support others can give to you but also how you can create space for others to shine.

By focusing on your strengths and recognising where others complement you, you can grow as an individual but also can build a strong team.

Prioritise Feedback

The CLEAN feedback model has been a helpful framework for approaching harder conversations, accepting that they may be uncomfortable but are essential to helping people grow. Feedback is just as important to highlight success: clearly naming what someone has done well and why it matters.

Whether it's within your organisation or through programmes like the Housing LIN Future Leaders cohort, having a supportive crew makes a huge difference. Becoming a strong leader is shaped by the people you talk to, learn from, and grow alongside.

And finally….

The Housing LIN programme has given me space to explore all of this: to find the good energy, to intentionally build in moments of reflection, and to practise giving and receiving meaningful feedback. Listening to leaders’ stories and seeing how their experiences have shaped them has brought the idea of leadership to life.

Rebecca’s blog is one of many by members of the 5th cohort of Housing LIN’s Future Leaders Programme who have agreed to share what they learned on the 2025/26 programme. We are excited to publish these ahead of recruiting for the 2026/27 Future Leaders programme, sponsored by Sovereign Network Group.

And, if you found this of interest, do check out the other blogs in this series, along with the TikTok videos recorded, which will be available here.