The truth is leadership can be lonely. When you're on the frontline making the big decisions, heading up the team, taking on the responsibility, it can be tough.

That's why community matters.

Community plays a crucial role in our lives, impacting our well-being, personal growth, and our professional success.

It's a cliche, but really no-one is an island. At least no one that successfully – and happily – leads a business.

Trust and belonging

When we surround ourselves with people we can trust, people that understand our challenges, and people who we can turn to in tough times we increase connection and meaning.

That's why networks like Gather are so important, because they allow you to become part of a group of like-minded leaders and form peer-to-peer relationships that often go way beyond the programmes and events.

Lots of Gather businesses have gone on to collaborate on client work, provide services for one another, and even help each other make key hires.

Learning and growing together

While every business has unique challenges, there's huge value in learning and growing alongside a community of peers. Discussion and conversation can help to put the lessons we learn into real-world and actionable context. Plus when we learn alongside others, we stay engaged – and stay accountable.

Sharing experiences and viewpoints

Often, we can be too close to the problems in our business to see the best solutions. The joy of a community is the wide range of viewpoints and experiences that are offered. In our everyday it's easy to exist in an echo chamber but by listening to the experiences of opinions of others we can turn challenges on their head and unearth new opportunities to grow.

Getting together

If you struggle to switch off or give yourself permission to take a break from the day to day, you’re not alone. Being part of a community gives us the opportunity – and sometimes the little push – we need to take time out and take a step back. Whether it’s getting together for organised events, coming together to celebrate wins, or just meeting up to let off some steam, connecting and losing ourselves in something bigger than us is vital for our wellbeing.

Create connections

The ever-evolving community of leaders is what makes Gather different. From like-minded founders connecting on our programmes to collaborators hitting it off at events, people from all over the region coming together – in totally unexpected ways.

If you want to know more about how you can be a part of the Gather community or want to share something with our leaders contact Community Manager Sam at: [email protected].