How do leaders really spend their time? Are they preoccupied with strategy? Are they focussed on the present or the future? How do they motivate their people and get ‘buy in’?

Jeff will identify the core skills and behaviour displayed by those leaders. He will examine how they deal with people – the steps they take to establish trust and understanding, the importance of communication and the approaches used to inspire top performance. Jeff will also discuss how leaders create and articulate a clear vision for their organisation and how they effectively lead change.

Jeff’s presentation style is straight-forward, accessible and rich with vivid anecdotes. The session is relevant to anyone who finds themselves thrown into a leadership role. It will also appeal to those who are allergic to management theory or frustrated by its apparent dissociation from real life.

The objectives of this workshop are to:

Provide insight into what leaders really do – Give the opportunity for you to reflect on your own leadership approach – Offer tools to add to you own leadership tool kit

And will examine:

-Differences between management and leadership
-Providing clear direction
- Successfully managing change
-Effective communication
- Knowing your people
-Letting go
- Coaching for performance
-Defining your leadership brand

To make sure you don’t miss put book now

Etain Doyle, Vistage Group Chair in Ireland is looking forward to Jeff Grout’s visit to talk to the members of her group and guests. Here is why you might press the registration button above and come along.

‘Vistage is all about enabling committed, experienced CEOs work smarter. They know that there are always other perspectives on their challenges, new angles to discover and skills to learn/refresh to succeed.

Set up by a businessman for businessmen and women, it brings to members the best of International practice and experience together with specific sessions on Irish issues. It provides a unique forum for discussion and review of today’s business issues with other experienced CEOs, and also provides a sounding board/coaching for them.

It is not easy managing a business in today’s tough environment. Vistage member businesses do better than they did before they joined and also better than the average.’

‘It’s important to spend a little time on the business in order not to spend too much time in the business’

ETAIN Doyle remembers sitting at her desk in what was going to be the Telecommunications Regulator’s office in 1996, leafing through the pages of the legislation and thinking: “I have to turn these pages into a living organisation that will deliver what is required. What do I need to do?”

The goal-setting process she went through then has stayed with Doyle and is a key part of her ethos now as chair of Vistage Ireland, which specialises in executive leadership development.

Having started in the US, Vistage in Ireland is dedicated to the enhancement of the performance of SMEs.

“A peer group of CEOs meets each month and one of our key phrases is ‘It’s important to spend a little time on the business in order not to spend too much time in the business’,” Doyle says.

“It’s terribly easy when you are going into a business every day dealing with the nuts and bolts and whatever crisis happens, to have very little time for stepping back and asking: ‘What do I really need to focus on?’ and ‘Where is it we’re actually trying to go?’. If you know clearly where you’re going, you’ve a far better chance of succeeding.”

When she was appointed director of telecommunications regulation in 1996, there had never been one before, so Doyle had a clean slate to work from. There are lessons to be learned from her experience for any type of organisation.

“I set a series of goals to achieve the type of organisation I wanted and the kind of outputs I wanted to have. I didn’t want a traditional hierarchy/civil service-type organisation. I felt this was inappropriate for a regulator’s office,” she says.

“At the time there were 17 grades among the civil service staff that made up my initial group. I reduced these levels and turned the organisation into more of a consulting business. A lot of what the Regulator did was project work, which needed different sorts of skills, such as economists and analysts.

“The [telecommunications] legislation had been done quite quickly and did provide for the possibility of recruiting externally, so that’s what I did. The regulator became an award-winning organisation and I wanted to stay on that and make sure I didn’t spend all my time on minutia and people’s rank.”

One of the things Doyle says she enjoyed about the regulator’s job was the ability in some way to enable Irish businesses to do more and do different things.

“From the start I wanted to enable the telecoms industry to develop. We started putting documents on everything we were doing on our website in 1997. Now it seems so obvious, but at the time the State was only beginning to do this.

“My objective was to open up the market in as many ways as possible as quickly as possible and get rid of barriers to making progress quickly.”

One of her initiatives in this regard was to provide an opportunity for companies who didn’t have major resources to use some of the radio spectrum as test spectrum.

“There was part of Ireland’s radio spectrum that was relatively unused. We designated that part of it could be used as test spectrum, to let companies try out experimental stuff. This helped Ireland to develop significant advanced technology in the radio space,” says Doyle.

“It would be great if Government agencies could follow this model in finding a way to provide opportunities for small Irish technology firms to do work for them on an experimental basis.”

In practice, this would mean firms developing IT programmes and having the opportunity to run them in Government agencies for a year, for example.

Doyle left her post as director of Telecommunications Regulation in 2003. “I wouldn’t want to take all of the credit for what happened as a result of the Regulator being set up. The market was opened and expanded and companies had the opportunity to buy a much wider range of services in the communications area.

“A lot more companies came in, offering different ranges of services. Ireland got away from everything having to be done by Eircom. Prices came down and the quality of services improved.”

In her role at Vistage Ireland over the past couple of years, Doyle has observed that Irish companies in general have learned a great deal.

“In the first year a lot of companies started cutting costs every which way and battened down the hatches. Now to succeed it’s about finding gaps; new markets, ways of delivering products in a different way. It’s no longer about saying: ‘Here is a product or service’ and finding someone to buy it. Companies need to look at the market and what issues potential customers have. They need to move ever more in that direction.”

Written by Sorcha Corcoran

'This article was originally published in
Owner Manager magazine, a Business & Leadership publication

In this highly interactive workshop tailored specifically to meet the needs of Vistage participants, Gary makes his case for the abolishment of conventional methods of performance evaluation and teaches participants how to replace them with a more effective and efficient system that he
calls “Catalytic Coaching”.

The workshop will give participants a complete overview of an employee development system designed to accomplish five key business objectives:
• Change behaviour
• Motivate employees to work harder
• Reduce turnover
• Develop people for assuming greater responsibility
• Minimise legal exposure

Participants are given instruction on how to use the system to deal with common but challenging special cases like: The Problem Performer (a poor performer with good attitude); The Liability (a
poor performer with poor attitude); The Climber (a good performer with high potential); The Unreliable (a good performer but radical nonconformist). The workshop includes an exercise in which participants complete a coaching worksheet in preparation for a session with at least one real direct report.
Gary Markle is an Atlanta-based management consultant with more than 20 years of experience in the field of human resources, he has helped companies, both large and small, tackle an extensive range of people-related challenges. Gary’s consulting firm, Energage, provides a variety of products and services related to the design and implementation of performance management systems. Gary and his associates conduct “Benchmarking Workshops” and “Coaching Clinics”. They perform individual and team-based interventions and enjoy the role of being the “coach’s coach”. Energage also helps firm’s client companies range in size from two to 50’000 employees. Before starting his consulting practice, Gary served as Vice President of Human Resources for a global chemical company. Other work experience includes a variety of HR positions with three internationally prominent companies, including two that were in the
Fortune 100.

Watch what Gary has to say

To register for this event click here

However, especially in difficult times, they can find their discomfort with finance and what their accountants are presenting to them a source of worry rather than information to act on.  Jo   provides a crystal clear and no-nonsense guide to banish that discomfort and to enable participants ask the questions that get the revealing answers…..  

 Kyran Fitzgerald interviews Jo Haigh

A bestselling author of business books, Ambassador for a middle sized North of England Town (Huddersfield), part time academic, partner in a leading corporate advice firm, MGR, and non executive director to five companies, Jo Haigh has amassed an impressive portfolio of business activities while finding time to raise four children with her businessman husband.

She will be in Dublin shortly to run a workshop for Vistage Ireland members and guests on Finance for Non-Accountants.

Jo is Yorkshire through and through.

Born in Huddersfield, a Yorkshire mill town around the same size as Cork, her parents both ran small businesses. Her father made children’s’ clothes. Her mother worked as a sheet metal engineer – she died when Jo was sixteen.

“Everyone says that I’m very much like her .. a bit feisty. Her death was a seminal moment.”  

Later, her father became a casualty of Britain’s infamous ‘three day week’, a period when the country’s economy went into a virtual lock down following the Yom Kippur War in late 1973/early 1974. “We ended up living in rental accommodation. It turned me into a survivor. I was determined to be absolutely self sufficient.”

Jo trained initially as a lawyer. “Finding that the law was not boring enough, I went into accountancy, instead”, she jokes.

Her first proper job was as company secretary and financial controller in a food and wine importing business. The firm also owned several restaurants.

“Eventually, I was made finance director at the age of twenty six. We became very acquisitive, we bought and sold. We did an MBO (management buyout). Eventually, the business was sold to Cannon Street Investments and floated on the stock market.”

By then Jo had four children. She felt herself being pulled in various directions.

She felt guilty if she was away from work attending a school event, and guilty if she was at work, missing such an event. And the solution? Start her own business, which Jo duly did – at the age of twenty nine.

“We rented out finance directors to people (firms) with particular needs.”

As it was a service business, she did not have to rely too heavily on the banks for financial support.

“I worked from home. I was very hot on debt collection. The first person I employed was a marketer. It was the best thing that I ever did. One can be too busy delivering to find time to look for the next job. At the time, it was a much less fashionable thing to do.”

Haigh also believes strongly that people should not undervalue themselves.

“I have always charged the appropriate industry rates. I have never been cheap and cheerful.”  

Jo sold the business and went to work for the accounting firm, BDO Stoy Hayward, helping to set up their corporate finance practice in the north of England.

Tips for business success:

Over the years, Jo has developed strong views about the sort of people she likes to work for, or with, in the world of corporate finance: “I have only wanted to work with people who have a clear vision of where they want to go. I never wanted to work with ‘ lifestyle’ companies. My skill set is in the strategic development and disposal of businesses.”

Over the years, Haigh has developed considerable expertise both in the craft of corporate finance and the arts of promotion and publicity.

She has become a bestselling author with titles under her belt including:

“The Business Rules 100 pitfalls that business should be aware of “Buying & Selling a Business” an entrepreneurs guide. and “Her book, “Tales of the Glass Ceiling: A Survival Guide for Women in Business” achieved sales of more than 500,000 in 2008.

“My last work was based on interviews with more than a hundred businesswomen, some of them in senior positions, some in the professions and some running their own businesses. The book is about hearing people tell their stories.”   

So what did she learn from the experience?

“I was very pleased to hear that ninety nine in a hundred of those interviewed hated ‘networking’ events. I have always hated them. The other thing I learned is that a lot of them had experienced prejudice at the hands of other women in senior positions.”

“The more mature women were a bit more pragmatic, more forgiving, accepting, better able to laugh things off.”

Vistage involvement:

Jo has been a member of Vistage for the past five years, and a regular presenter at Vistage meetings over the past eight years.

“I would not regard it (membership  at Vistage events) as networking in the traditional sense. It is about education. I have made lots of contacts – this is a side benefit.”

“I have been exposed to all sort of educational topics. The afternoon session is like a mini board meeting.” 

There is a strong sense of mutual obligation. “If you do not commit to it, you are letting the other board members down.”

Jo notes that in her group “Fifty per cent of the executive sessions are given over to personal matters. We have had people discuss their marital lives – and a lot more besides.”

“For CEOs, MDs, majority shareholders, it provides an outlet, an arena for debate. The people involved are not in competing businesses. My own group in Yorkshire includes people running a textile firm, a marquee provider, a crèche as well as a headmistress and a solicitor.”

“Our group, with a membership of sixteen is full. Any bigger and it would not have the camaraderie..”

These days, there are no shortages of problems to be discussed: falling sales, redundancies, a lack of bank finance. The impact can be seen on peoples’ personal relationships. It can be lonely at the top.

Coping in a Great Recession:

Jo specialises in providing strategic advice to people interested in developing, or disposing businesses. 

How has the recession impacted on the way she conducts her business?

“I t depends on whether one is buying or selling”. Without being glib, her view is that the downtimes clearly throw up opportunities as well as serious, even grave challenges.

Her advice to business people, in these times, is pretty down to earth :

“You have to control the cash. Don’t gamble. Be flexible.”

“Be flexible. My own business is flexible. When I am not doing M & A (merger and acquisitions) work, I help people to do ‘pre packs’, helping people to liquidate their debts, protecting personal assets.”

In these times, it is best to be patient: “It takes longer to do a deal, nine to twelve instead of six months.” Jo agrees that right now, there is good parallel with the time taken to sell a house in what is a fairly slow market.

As for the prospects of recovery?

“”I am a naturally optimistic person, but I am a realist. The banks will take a fair time to recover. The recovery will be slow. We are in for a less prosperous time.”     

Jo appears to be in a happy space when it comes to her own life.

“I am fifty this year. I have decided to enjoy the journey. My youngest is in her third year at university. I am going to stop continually striving and to enjoy what I am doing more.”

Jo’s husband, Mike Rosser was MD of the Ad Agency,. Walter Thompson.

Fourteen years older than Jo, he has blazed a trail into an active ‘retirement’ with five non executive directorships under his belt.

But Jo has no plans to tune out.

“It is great fun getting paid for doing what I love. I’m a bit of a workaholic.”

“It is important to remain positive without being unrealistic. One of my daughters is called Pollyanna ..she has always been the most positive, optimistic person, she has us in stitches and asks the questions we all want to ask but don’t dare.”

No better antidote when it comes to banishing those demons of depression..

In the last few weeks, two leading State groups, FAS and the Innovation Taskforce, have produced major reports suggesting that further shifts up the technological tree can produce major dividends in the area of job creation.

According to the latest FAS Manpower Forecasting Study, the number of employed scientists, engineers, business and IT professionals grew strongly in recent years, with employment in each of these categories at least doubling between 1996 and 2008.

This trend is expected to resume as a recovery in exports, particularly in services, begins to gather momentum.

FAS predicts that there will be 22,000 lab technicians and 19,000 programmers employed in Ireland by 2015, exceeding levels recorded at the peak of the boom. 

An Emerging Skills Gap?

It is worth posing the question: how many of these jobs will be filled by Irish people, and how many from among the 440,000 or so currently on the live register?

In recent years, much ink has been devoted to the ongoing problem of falling enrolment in third level science courses and there are as yet few signs that this trend is being reversed.

We are just not producing enough people from our schools and colleges to fill all the new positions that could potentially be created in the next few years.

There is a huge mismatch between available ‘manpower’.  Males under the age of twenty five are bearing the brunt of the current downturn.

The task of ‘retooling’ many of the unemployed in order to bring supply closer into line with demand will present a formidable challenge to the authorities.

Educational Shortcomings 

Drawbacks in the area of linguistic attainment could also serve to retard job creation for even the better educated Irish people in the emergent areas of the economy.

RTE recently broadcast a report about a group of girls in Loreto College, Bray, who are studying mandarin, with a view to combining this with a business studies degree.

According to the report, this is the only secondary school in the country where mandarin is being taught yet a working knowledge of Mandarin, or for that matter, Arabic, Hindi and Spanish could prove of great importance. Wider dissemination of a real capacity to work in Spanish would surely represent a start.

We can no longer just pick and choose from jobs where English alone will suffice, if a new generation of export-led high-end service companies are to carve out market share in the high growth areas of the world.

Has the Department of Education been really up to speed in responding to the rapidly changing demands of a global economy which has shifted in its axis towards Asia, and away from the old OECD heartland?

Perhaps it is time for the Department to offer double Leaving Cert points for those willing to study not just honours math, but also challenging languages such as Mandarin.

Creating ‘The Knowledge Economy’

The Innovation Task Force talks of transforming Ireland into a “global innovation hub” for Europe. 

It is easy to be cynical, yet worth recalling that we managed just this sort of transformation between the mid 1980s and 2000. The Task Force sees the following as critical to the attainment of this objective a second time round:

- Entrepreneurship and enterprise which “must be at the centre of our efforts.”

- The availability of smart capital to “start, grown and transform enterprises.”

- An education system “which fosters independent thinking, creativity and innovation.”

- State encouragement for flagship projects.

- A “sharpening in focus” of the national research system on areas of “potential strategic and economic advantage for Ireland.”

 It highlights some indigenous success stories such as Eirgen Pharmaceutical, which four years after its establishment launched an early stage breast cancer drug and has developed a partnership agreement with a leading Japanese pharma company.

The Task Force talks of attracting people to Ireland to start up enterprises and calls for a transformation in the scale and nature of Irish venture capital investment.

Certainly, the low availability of risk finance has been a major problem, here, for many years, with available bank finance being sucked into speculative property.

The Task Force and the authorities in general, need to devote much more attention to the matter of how to secure alternative forms of start up finance and working capital for projects.

There are plenty of would be entrepreneurs and small business ideas but with existing businesses being starved of capital, the whole idea of expanding an Irish enterprise culture appears distinctly hollow in current circumstances.

Clearly, securing overseas projects remains a priority. However, securing a flow of finance from European, North American or Asian financiers interested in backing potentially viable ventures, existing or putative, must also be examined as a matter of urgency.

Denis O Brien has suggested that if he were to start a business now in Ireland, he would start a bank, in view of the current ratio of funding to entrepreneurs.

The Government should – while it seeks to prop up our existing system – explore all possibilities for establishing alternative financial outlets for a business sector in danger of withering away.

Views of the Sceptics 

It is worth noting that the Task Force has come in for some criticism in economist circles.

The most withering is provided by the ESRI economist, Richard Tol:

According to Professor Tol, the grand aims are out of line with reality. He suggests that the innovation strategy is in need of a major overhaul. “The Government must subsidise innovation… but at the moment, it is spending money in the wrong fields.”

In a recent article he suggests that the State is subsidising inputs, not outputs in the field of innovation: “Targets are set for things that are easy to measure like the number of PhDs .. university bureaucrats respond to such targets by lowering the standards for acquiring a PhD.

He accuses politicians of “pursuing the technological fad of the day (green energy), these days.”

Policy is led by middle aged men yet world beating companies are often founded “by young men in garages.” He suggests that universities “should act like venture capitalists hiring out staff and facilities to start up companies in return for shares.”

Above all, he calls for an abandonment of the strategy of picking winners. “Predicting winners is hard and politicians and civil servants are notoriously bad at it.”

“The target areas for Science Foundation Ireland do not build on Irish business success stories.  We have a number of world beating companies in fields like food, packaging and innovation.    

Kim Majerus, MD of Cisco Ireland calls on the country to look at the potential of selling Irish educational services via the Web, using our existing talent in education, IT and the arts.

She, too, expresses bemusement at the current preoccupation with the Green Economy at a time when firms are failing to take advantage of more straightforward opportunities provided by teleworking which inevitably reduces employees’ impact on the environment.

Such questioning voices also need to be heeded and the points they make examined and either refuted or taken on board.  Even more, we need to listen to the voices of a growing army of young entrepreneurs who are starting up micro enterprises and occasionally managing to build buoyant sectors ( such as the games industry ) largely off their own collective bats.

Written by Kyran Fitzgerald

And yet, every CEO has to get up and lead his or her business every day, and find ways of dealing directly and through his/her staff with a myriad of issues, all of which are more complex and time-consuming today:-
- retaining existing customers and maintaining the relevance of service offerings and products……
- finding new customers and products, determining if a revamp of the website be cost-effective….
- dealing with suppliers seeking ever tighter credit terms and sourcing new ones……..
- finding ways of cutting costs and improving operations, maybe logistics, IT, financial management, CRM etc without damanging the business………..
- finding ways of using scarce working capital more effectively……….
- dealing with the banks and shortage of credit…….
- making the right decisions about employees, whether it is deciding to stay on course, cut numbers, reduce pay or taking a risk with new specialist hires….
- and maintain morale in the workforce so that the firm can operate to the best of its capability.

Leadership and management has never been so challenging, nor the stakes so high for businesses.  Whether managing a large organisation with many senior professionals or a smaller organisation with a limited staff, the opportunity that Vistage gives to CEOs to meet in a Vistage designed, confidential setting to thrash out these challenges and identify the opportunities with other experienced CEOs can make all the difference…….

Vistage was set up by an American CEO for CEOs over 50 years ago and it has honed its service to its 15,000 members over the years to provide relevant and reliable support, advice and expertise.  If you would like to know more contact me at 01 4968460/01 2916039.

Kyran Fitzgerald, a well known business journalist will provide monthly articles commenting on business subjects and the first ones are published here. You have the opportunity to tell us what subjects you would like covered, by emailing …… or to post your comment below the articles…

It is not easy to ask people to challenge and perhaps abandon established ways of working, traditional structures, or settled arrangements. In a very uncertain world, it is not easy to determine which of the massive market changes are transient and which are the ones to build on for the future.

Many chief executives feel a need to test their ideas  in such an environment.

However, given inevitable time constraints and the need to maintain the confidence of and support those around one, the process of engineering such a discussion can be anything but straightforward. 

Life less lonely at the top

Back in 1957, one Wisconsin based US businessman, Robert Nourse, stumbled on a solution to the problem of how best to put to the test business propositions in an atmosphere where confidences will be respected.  

Nourse’s ‘ Eureka moment’ consisted in the following deceptively simple idea:  the formation of peer learning circles of CEOs, where ideas can be tested in relaxed surroundings, where no hostages are surrendered to fortune.

A half century on, Nourse’s concept has taken root. His membership organisation, known as Vistage, has 15,000 members. In 2008 alone, 1,800 new members came on board. 

An Irish application :

According to Etain Doyle, Group Chairman for Vistage Ireland, Vistage has been operating in this country since shortly after the turn of the Millennium.

Etain runs two groups in the Republic. There are several more in operation in Northern Ireland.

The first  group which she took on in 2008 has membership restricted to Chief Executives. The Chairperson plays an important role in the selection of candidates.  It is important that CEOs are open to change and to participation in the group.  To discuss issues openly, a CEO will not wish to find themselves in the same group as someone with whom they already have a business connection whether as a rival, customer, or supplier.

As I recruit someone, I find out quite a bit about their business and I check to make sure that there are no conflicts of interest with any other person already in the group. Incumbents have priority.”

Meetings take place monthly on a regular basis. “What members find useful is the fact that their ideas can be threshed out within the group from a lot of perspectives. They may not necessarily take the advice of the others in the group, but even so, they can go ahead and make their decision with greater confidence, in the knowledge that it has been stress tested.”

Regular workshops

Workshops included in the meeting are led by specialist experts and take place six to eight times a year. Examples of topics covered include the following:

- Sales management in a challenging market environment.

- What CEOs from a non financial background need to understand about finance.

-Maintaining morale in recessionary times

The workshops are practical and focused. There is an opportunity to try out key techniques. This helps ensure that participants are in a better position to implement change on their return to their organisations.

Well known Irish people are brought in regularly as guest speakers. Recent visitors have included Professor John FitzGerald of the Economic & Social Research Institute, the insolvency practitioner, Tom Murray, and HR specialist, Ann O Callaghan.

CEOs also have monthly one to one sessions with the group Chairman. According to Etain, “the one to one sessions are an opportunity for a CEO to keep track of what they are doing with the aim of ensuring that they are working ON their business as opposed to merely working IN their business.”   

“The idea is that people should step back and look at what is really important.”

“The only person who can do the CEO’s job is the CEO. If the CEO is buried in tasks, he or she will lose sense of direction.”

At present, all the current members in the Irish Group are drawn from the private sector. However, this has not always been the case. “There have been members from the commercial end of the public sector; likewise members from not for profit organisations.  What is important is that members are focussed on improving their business and sharing their experience with others.”

Says Etain: “People are pretty frank with each other. There is no value to be had out of people politely listening to each other, or clapping each other.”

Membership is very flexible with quarterly renewals, rather than annual contracts.

Recent innovations : 

Etain is developing a second group geared to the needs of smaller enterprises which have passed beyond the start up stage.

Executives below CEO level in larger organisations are also participating in this group.

Since taking over as Chairperson in January 2008, Etain has dealt with a membership group drawn from among large retailers, suppliers of fast moving goods, large software developers, a wide range of distributors, bankers, lawyers, and hotel management entities among others

“I would like to see more Vistage groups emerge. But what really matters is that each current member is increasing his or her effectiveness, and is finding that their life is being enhanced by virtue of being able to work in a smarter fashion.”

“The temptation for a CEO is to go on doing the bits of the job that they are good at. People, under stress, tend to retreat into their comfort zone. Vistage helps, in ensuring that members concentrate on the things they need to concentrate on to ensure their businesses survive and thrive..

Etain Doyle: CV.

1997 – 2004: Head of the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation, subsequently Comreg.

In this capacity, Etain was Ireland’s first sectoral regulator, responsible for putting in place the regulatory framework driving liberalisation for a sector which was experiencing rapid technological change.

In the early 1990s, Etain worked in Poland, and then in Russia, managing the inspection service for the EU bilateral aid programme at a time when these countries were emerging from Communist rule.

Etain is a qualified accountant (FCCA) and a UCD graduate.