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The Unwritten Role
The Unwritten Role episodes
- The Loneliness at the Top, with Steve Veevers
What does nobody tell you about becoming a chief executive?
In this episode, Matthew Masters is joined by Steve Veevers, Chief Executive of HFT, a national charity supporting adults with learning disabilities to live with greater choice and independence. Steve began his career 28 years ago as a care and support worker and now leads an organisation supporting 2,400 people, alongside 2,500 colleagues.
Steve speaks candidly about the vulnerability that comes with ultimate responsibility, and why the top can be a lonely place. He reflects on how leadership has built his resilience while lowering his tolerance for persistent underperformance, and shares a surprising truth: the more senior you become, the less job security you actually have.
They also explore why Steve has turned down far better-paid private sector roles on principle, the platform senior leaders have to champion civil society, and the real personal cost of 50–60 hour weeks during busy governance periods.
Steve closes with two unwritten lessons every future leader should know: be kind to yourself when making hard decisions, and learn to listen to your gut.
24 min
About The Unwritten Role
From the publisher's feed
The Unwritten Role is a podcast about the parts of leadership no job description can prepare you for.
In short, focused episodes, Matthew Masters explores the psychology and…
human reality of leadership through conversations with experienced CEOs and senior leaders from different sectors around the world.
Each episode goes beyond career stories and conventional leadership advice to examine what leaders have learned through experience: the decisions that tested them, the assumptions they had to unlearn, the realities they were unprepared for, and what they wish they had understood before stepping into positions of significant responsibility.
Through honest conversation and evidence-informed exploration, The Unwritten Role examines the relationship between leadership and identity, judgement, authority, authenticity, conviction, emotional intelligence and effectiveness.
It is not about presenting a formula for becoming a great leader. It is about understanding leadership more deeply, through the experiences of the people who have actually had to do it.
Because every senior role comes with a job description.
The most important parts are rarely written down.