“I can tell you exactly when I made the decision [to step down] … I remember the moment because I was waiting outside the operating theatre to see if my husband was going to survive or not,” says Léann Hearne.

The chief executive of Livv Group, a housing association on Merseyside, announced in April that she was standing down as leader of the 13,000-home landlord after seven years in response to a series of “personal challenges” involving her family.

Hearne’s husband had a serious medical event involving a heart attack and suspected cancer. “He was whipped off, so I’m waiting in the relatives’ room for them to come and tell me if they saved him in surgery. I sat there and thought, ‘I have prioritised work so much for so long. Now I need to prioritise family.’ It was an instantaneous decision,” she says.