Dan Archer, founder of Visiting Angels UK, will headline Leadership Unleashed, an insightful and thought-provoking celebration of true leadership.
Returning on 5 March 2026, Leadership Unleashed is into its second year after a hugely successful inaugural event in 2025, where it sold out in under a week.
The one-day conference was inspired by SHEAF – an informal support group of senior female leaders in Sheffield – and is led by Sheffield Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), supported by Headline Sponsor PWC. It aims to provide opportunities to meet and connect with a diverse network of forward-thinking leaders.
Founder of Visiting Angels UK, Dan Archer, will headline the event and share how a radical people-first approach has driven both commercial growth and sector leading retention in his own organisation.
Visiting Angels was founded after Dan witnessed his grandmother’s poor treatment in social care. Shocked by a system where carers were undervalued and leaving in huge numbers, he built an organisation that flipped the traditional hierarchy.
For this, Visiting Angels places caregivers at the top of the organisational chart. Senior leaders, including Dan himself, sit at the bottom. Dan believes their job is to serve those delivering the work.
The results challenged conventional leadership thinking – and worked. In just six years, Visiting Angels has grown to 80 offices employing around 2,000 staff. It generates approximately £39 million in revenue, whilst staff turnover stands at around nine percent, compared with sector averages of 60 to 70 percent.
Dan said: “I lost my nan to a system that wasn’t working. I didn’t want to criticise from the sidelines, so I built something different. When you genuinely put the people doing the caring at the top, everything changes. We focus on making a difference first. Profit follows.”
Leadership Unleashed brings together cross sector leaders to explore what real, people-centred leadership looks like in practice. The event focuses on empathy, humility and systemic responsibility – qualities often overlooked in traditional leadership models but increasingly critical to retaining talent and building resilient organisations.
Louisa Harrison-Walker, CEO of SCCI, said: “The impact of bringing people together to share real stories cannot be underestimated. The power of this event is having leaders from public, private and third sectors all in the room and being active participants – they themselves are the conference. It’s such a different experience to a traditional sit and listen event.”
Katz Kiely, CEO at Beep, works closely with the SCCI team to help organise and deliver Leadership Unleashed. She said: “For more than 20 years I have worked alongside senior leaders across all sectors. The evidence is consistent about what drives performance: psychological safety, clarity of purpose, humility, service and trust. Yet we continue to reward and promote the wrong behaviours. We still confuse dominance with strength and control with leadership.
“Leadership Unleashed exists to change that narrative. The format is intentionally different. Rather than talking at leaders, we bring them into honest, story-led conversations that build collective thinking, connection and a genuine sense of community in the room. When leaders are prepared to be open and speak truthfully, rather than to perform for one another, something shifts.
“Dan is living proof that servant leadership is not soft. It is commercially intelligent and operationally rigorous. If this approach can transform retention and growth in social care, one of the most pressured sectors in the country, then leaders everywhere need to ask what might be possible in their own organisations. It is time we move from outdated, ego-driven leadership models towards leadership that truly serves.”
Leadership Unleashed takes place on 5 March 2026 from 1pm to 7pm at the Showroom in Sheffield. Tickets are available now: https://www.scci.org.uk/events/leadership-unleashed-050326/
