Leadership at NDTi

NDTi is led through a shared Co-Executive Director model. We have chosen this model because it reflects how NDTi works best. It helps us bring together different kinds of expertise, share responsibility, and make good decisions through trust, honesty and constructive challenge. 

Both Co-Executive Directors hold responsibility for NDTi as a whole. Each role has a clear lead focus, but neither role is a separate territory. The distinction between the roles is there to strengthen clarity, not to divide the organisation. 

The role we are recruiting to has a particular lead focus on Growth, Partnerships and Delivery. It will lead on relationships, opportunities, income and programme coherence, helping NDTi extend its impact, secure sustainable income and stay grounded in delivery. It will also share responsibility for organisational health, culture, governance, sustainability and how NDTi works as a whole. 

The other Co-Executive Director role, People, Assurance and Organisational Health, has a particular lead focus on the conditions that help NDTi work well, including people and culture, governance, assurance, systems, organisational resilience and effectiveness. Both roles remain jointly accountable for NDTi’s strategy, performance, governance, culture, values, reputation and sustainability. 

Co-Executive leadership at NDTi is collaborative, relational and non-hierarchical. This does not mean a lack of clarity, pace or accountability. It means we do not assume that insight, leadership or good ideas only sit with the most senior person in the room. 

People contribute through their knowledge, experience, relationships, role, lived experience and closeness to the work. For this role, non-hierarchical leadership means being confident enough to lead and make decisions, while also being humble enough to listen, involve others, share opportunities and recognise the leadership held by people across NDTi’s wider community. 

This way of working connects closely with the strengths-based practice NDTi brings to much of its work. We believe people, teams and communities hold knowledge, assets and possibilities that need to be recognised, connected and strengthened. The same principle applies inside NDTi. Leadership here is about creating the conditions for people’s strengths, insight and relationships to shape better decisions, better work and greater impact. 

Decision-making at NDTi uses a mix of shared, distributed and role-based approaches. Some decisions need to be made together. Others sit with an individual role holder where there is clear lead responsibility, relevant expertise, urgency or agreed delegation. What matters is that the right people are involved at the right time, with enough openness, challenge and clarity to support good decisions. 

This role will work closely with the other Co-Executive Director, the Board, Business Management Team, Leadership Group, colleagues and NDTi’s wider associate community. These relationships help keep leadership connected to practice, delivery, governance, learning and the different forms of expertise held across NDTi. 

In practice, successful leadership at NDTi means the two Co-Executive Directors are visibly connected, mutually supportive, able to challenge each other well, and clear in the shared leadership they provide. Colleagues should experience leadership as clear, values-led and joined up. 

Growth and sustainability should be built through the knowledge, relationships, courage and shared purpose of colleagues, associates and partners across NDTi’s wider community.