Realising potential is a topic often discussed in various walks of life, with numerous training schemes, tips, and anecdotes offered. It sounds straightforward – everyone has potential, we just have to work hard and it will flourish, right? However, my experience has shown that it’s neither easy nor straightforward, and it has very little to do with how much hard work is applied.
Recently, I found myself reflecting after something unexpected happened: I was awarded an OBE in the 2025 New Year’s Honours list for my services to Trade and Investment in the North of England. I was humbled and delighted in equal measure, and as I looked back on the variety of work I’ve done and the people I’ve met along the way that has led to this point, I realised that my passion has always been about unlocking the potential of others. What I’ve enjoyed most is the work – often relatively small contributions – that has helped unlock that potential. Not simply seeing what’s here now, but what could be possible in the future.
Early in my career, I worked with disadvantaged communities to help improve their access to community sport and recreation facilities. We took difficult, often derelict sites, and turned them into thriving places for people to enjoy. While seeing the transformation of these places was always brilliant, what struck me most was how the people involved changed too.
At the start of projects that could take several years to complete, many were doubtful they would succeed, thinking, “Why would funders invest in us? It’s not something that has ever happened here before.” Slowly but surely, we worked through, giving practical help and advice. When the funding arrived and the vision was realised, the people involved were often transformed just as much as the place. The power of someone believing you have potential – and demonstrably backing you – is something I now see as key to realising potential.
While I’ve gained so much from supporting others to develop their potential – in my paid work, through mentoring others, or volunteering with charities – I’ve also benefited enormously from having someone back my own.
"The power of someone believing you have potential – and demonstrably backing you – is key to realising potential."
In the 1990s, starting out in my career, I struggled to see how I would ever be successful. I’m a shy introvert – a word not commonly used in business back then. Even speaking on the phone was difficult, and the thought of speaking to a group of people, even colleagues, was a nightmare. I looked at others in leadership positions and could not see how anyone like me could get there.
Fortunately, I had a progressive boss who saw something different. They said to me, “You will be a Director in the future.” Although it wasn’t obvious at the time, looking back, it changed my how I saw myself. Someone who was a leader thought I had that potential – and it started something. When I was then supported by the Churchill Fellowship in 1999, it built momentum.
My Fellowship focused on learning about best practice in Austria, Belgium, and Spain in their use of European Funding to support community development. With the experience and information I gained, I helped multiple communities in the UK.
While my work has changed over the years, the principle has remained the same: seeing and backing the potential of a place or a person as a transformative catalyst. I still use that belief today in my work supporting businesses around the world to understand why the North of England is a great place for them to locate and grow. Not the “dark, satanic mills” that are often their first preconception, but the North as it really is – and its potential that is yet to be realised.
So, thank you Churchill Fellowship for seeing the potential in me – and in so many others. It really is lifelong support, and I hope to continue paying it forward for others.
The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Visiting cities across the East Coast of the USA, I explored how parent-led organising is creating change in education – from winning funding for school buildings to building trust between families and institutions. My Churchill Fellowship is now helping shape how we grow our Parent Power programme at The Brilliant Club, embedding lessons on community, leadership and long-term impact.
By Jimmy Pickering,
My Churchill Fellowship took me to Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand, Canada and the USA to explore how fatality review systems can help prevent domestic abuse-related deaths. That learning now underpins my ongoing research and my new book ‘The Potential and Peril of Reviewing Domestic Abuse-Related Deaths’, which brings international insights into dialogue with current practice in England and Wales – highlighting both the opportunities and challenges of meaningful review.
By James Rowlands,
We spoke to Churchill Fellow Cath Snow, survivor advocate at APPEAL, about her upcoming Fellowship to the USA. Her project explores how the UK’s approach to exonerees could be enriched by learning from American innocence networks. She’ll meet exonerees and grassroots organisations to understand how the UK could better support survivors of miscarriages of justice – not just at the point of release, but as they rebuild their lives.
By Cath Snow,
We spoke with Churchill Fellow Lucy Vincent, founder of the charity Food Behind Bars, about her journey from journalist to campaigner and her vision for improving food quality and culture in UK prisons. Lucy shares insights from her Churchill Fellowship research in Scandinavia, the challenges facing UK prison catering, and her plans to support prison catering teams through training and a new podcast.
By Lucy Vincent,
