Covering for the chief executive

I am covering for Penny Thompson this week and I apologise to the non-sporty among you but this week’s blog has a very active theme! 

Like many others I was relieved last weekend that the weather forecasters were unduly pessimistic about the heavy rain predictions on Brighton Marathon day. The overcast conditions were welcomed by runners and then the sun shone in the early afternoon which was appreciated by the supporters and well-wishers. I was lucky to be at the finish line to see the winning Kenyans William Cherbor and Alice Milgo who burst through the tape held by the Mayor and Paula Radcliffe. Thanks to everyone who worked to make sure the event ran smoothly and helped with the clear up afterwards.

Have you entered a team in the Reaching Rio challenge? It’s not too late to get together a group of five together and take part, more than 70 teams from the council have already entered. Find out more on the Wave page. You earn “miles” to Rio for a whole range of physical activity from dance classes to cricket – and a new category of gardening has been introduced thanks to the enthusiasm of one of our teams. It gives more credit to those who are normally less active so don’t be put off if you think you can’t compete with marathon runners! 

I also wanted to mention our new development programme for managers – part of our culture change programme, Living our Values everyday, which is being introduced over the coming months. I’ve nearly finished the development part of the programme, and it’s been a powerful opportunity to reflect on my approach to performance management – of myself, of others and of my service. It’s made me reflect on how I can bring into the workplace some skills I have developed elsewhere. I really enjoy netball coaching and I think really hard about how to develop the skills of the players I coach individually and collectively of all ages towards a common team goal. I’m trying to put this thinking into practice as I work with colleagues to review our performance over the last year and plan for next year through our business planning and PDP processes. 


I hope you all have a good weekend, whether active or not! 

Catherine Vaughan