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Women in Leadership
Name: Larissa Reed
Role: Chief Executive
Company: Swale Borough Council
A bit about you: I was brought up in Faversham and studied music at university with the aim of becoming a professional musician. I was a musician for a while but realised it wasn’t for me. I got a job as a housing officer and then moved to London to work in homelessness for a London Borough. I loved it and became a more senior manager.
Due to family commitments, and a need for more regular hours, I left and became the Head of Housing for Canterbury City Council. I stayed there for 10 years and then moved to Brighton to become an Executive Director of Neighbourhoods Communities and Housing. This was totally full on but again I loved it. I came back to Swale when the opportunity to be Chief Executive of the council came up. It is the best job in the world and I have a real respect for the place and the people.
What is it like working in your company? It can be challenging; we don’t get more money if we do more things, so we are often trying to balance different needs. We are a political organisation so our priorities can change. We also deal with people who really have nothing and have nowhere else to go. We can’t help everyone, so people do end up feeling dissatisfied with us. We have a staff team who join a council because they really care and want to provide a public service. This is great but often leads to people working too many hours and making themselves unwell. Residents have very high expectations. When Councillors (our politicians) get elected, they want to do lots of good things. We often don’t have the money or the staff to do this so we have to manage lots of expectations.
Why did you decide to go into your chosen field? I saw a programme called Cathy Come Home which had been on TV 30 years before I saw it. It was about someone becoming homeless and not being able to stop it. I thought I could stop that happening to other people. I didn’t really understand the job when I started but I learned very quickly.
What qualifications and work experience did you need to reach your current position? My current position required a degree (mine is in Music) to show a level of education. I needed to be able to show I had worked with politicians and understood how a council worked. I had to demonstrate I had experience of dealing with complex situations and working with people from different backgrounds
What do you enjoy the most about your job? I love working with so many people. In one day last year I met King Charles (he was still Prince Charles then) and someone who was homeless and thought we hadn’t done enough to help them. I love working with our staff and politicians who have a real passion for Swale and our residents. I have always enjoyed working with communities to empower and support them to make their place better.
What obstacles have you overcome in your career? When I started working for a council, they weren’t very family friendly. Most of the Senior Staff were men and there were a lot of evening meetings, followed by early morning meetings. This has got better, and we now let staff come to evening meetings virtually. This would have been great if we had this when my children were younger. I have also had some older (male) councillors asking my male colleagues the same questions as they asked me (to check I got the answer right). When I went for an interview as a senior manager, my husband worked for the same council and the councillors asked me what my husband thought of me having a more senior job than him!
Why do you think it is important to have a strong female representation in your industry? I do believe that female representation brings a different perspective in my area of work. My experience is that Senior female council staff bring an empathy that many of our male colleagues don’t have. A large percentage of our service users are women and female staff are able to bring a different dimension. However I have found that we do need a gender balance within teams.
What advice would you give those wanting to take a similar career path? There are many different roles in councils. If you are thinking of accountancy or law, don’t forget councils – we offer more flexible working that many private practices and due to the wide range of services we provide the jobs are interesting. If you want to work in operational services, I would advise getting some voluntary work, there are groups that work with all council services from friends of park groups to groups who work with homeless people.
