The way Croydon LBC's Denise Blair visualises things is perhaps one of the reasons she came away victorious in the Local Government Association's LG Challenge this year, and one of the reasons she will now be tipped as a future leader in the sector.

Ask her any question about local government leadership, or the world more broadly, and you're bound to be met with an imaginatively painted picture. For instance, if you ask her why she pursued a career in public health, she might start by asking you to picture an elephant with blindfolded individuals, representing council officers from different departments, clinging onto the tail, the ears, the tusks and the legs. The public health officer, she says, looks at each part of the elephant, or rather the system, to see how it interacts. From that, she is able to deduce and influence how the council can affect health and wellbeing.