John McCarthy
Motivation and Overcoming Challenges

Tues 20th Mar 2007
10am – 1pm

Key messages
• Survival in business
• keeping one step ahead
• creating lasting partnerships

In 1986, John McCarthy was snatched at gunpoint from his car in Beirut and held hostage for five years. Imprisoned by the militant group Islamic Jihad, his extraordinary story is one of courage, overcoming despair and reaching hope and happiness. John inspired businesses in today’s challenging environment, to see beyond the negative and realise that their goals are within reach.

John explained how to handle the pressures of business and daily life from experiences that speak volumes. He shared insights into handling the most challenging relationships based on his encounter with his captors and highlighted the strength in taking a risk to maintain core values.

Throughout his incarceration, John developed techniques to overcome seemingly impossible times, self-doubt and despair – situations faced by business leaders at one point or another. John’s story is dramatic, motivating and inspirational.

“Truly Inspirational” The Challenge of Leadership Conference, The Training Agency

Best Practice Seminar – Moving Beyond Challenges

Tues 20th Mar 2007
2pm – 4pm

Guest speakers:
Gaynor Coley – Eden Project
Janet East – Yellingham Farm

The morning Master Class will encourage you to see beyond challenges or difficult situation that you face. Indeed, it may alter your viewpoint when addressing future strategies.

How can I adapt my approach to integrate this thinking and assist in overcoming new challenges?

Find out how by joining us for an extremely rewarding afternoon, learning from individuals representing a wide range of tourism and hospitality businesses, both large and small.

The speakers have been hand picked from businesses within the industry that have been recognised for their improvements in developing their business successfully. By generating opportunities from these challenges, adapting strategies and facilitating change, businesses have transformed and in some cases ensured market place survival.

The speakers will share their experiences, focusing on how and why they chose to place such importance on addressing change proactively. They will also explore the practices adopted, the benefits gained from embracing change and the challenges they have faced throughout the transition.

Richard's Post Event Thoughts

“So humbling, so beautiful". These were the most common words said to me after John McCarthy's talk at our third executive event. Interestingly, a talk that had little to do with business on the surface, resonated with every business person in the room. So much so, that during John’s hour-long talk hardly anyone moved and you could hear a pin drop. John ever so gently forced us to be reflective and as a result he was emotionally very challenging for us all; indeed it was clear that the messages from John's plight were very applicable to the commercial world in which we all operate.

Contained within John’s story were some key messages:

- Being out of control: John seemed to be able to cope with the stress inherent in his situation except when he felt that he wasn’t in control. In contrast, when he took control of Frank's situation he felt stronger. He also felt out of control again when routines were changed without explanation or when threats of physical harm were imminent.

- Negative and positive energy: I was continually impressed with his ability to turn around his negative thoughts (e.g. on a wasted life) by focusing his energy and thoughts on the future and what was possible.

- Laughter: the importance of being able to laugh at yourselves and the circumstances in which you find yourself.

- Talking: the opportunity to converse in depth with others; to understand each other’s points of view and accept them; to appreciate people’s different experiences of life; to be able to talk about the future and the possibilities for the future.

- The team: the importance of sharing a vision of the future with others and to work together to get through very challenging circumstances.

- Taking risks: John challenged us not to be frightened and stand-up for what we believe in.

- Sharing: an abiding theme was the need to care for others, share problems and support one another.

- Perspective - John reminded us all of the need to put matters into perspective. As he says "at least I'm free".

On the back of John’s presentation and some fascinating questions by delegates, we explored the implications of his talk for us as individuals and in our roles in managing our teams. The key messages that came out during the discussions were:

For ourselves:

• John expressed no anger despite the way he was treated
• Managing and controlling situations is very powerful
• Never take anything for granted
• Stop and reflect – keep things in perspective
• Value other people’s opinions. Give true value and space to our team members. Try to avoid naïve listening where you have already formed your opinion.
• Manageable chunks allow us to approach tasks with ease
• What is your key message? Could you articulate it in 30 seconds?


For our teams
• Positive listening can lead to positive action
• Empowered staff feel more able to deal with situations
• Humility is important in relation to customers
• Push the boundaries and challenge the status -quo
• Everyone has different ways of articulating and processing
• View the working relationships as equal supportive partnerships
• Everyone has a vital role to play
• The role of leader is partly to ensure that our own skills are available to enable others to maximise their own skills
• Each person's skills set is unique and invaluable - don't be blinded by their job title
• How do we respect people?

In the afternoon Gaynor Coley of the Eden project and Janet East of Yellingham Farm, picked up on John themes and evidenced that the ‘willingness to take risks’ underpins their approaches to business.

Gaynor firstly assessed the degree of bravery in the room and complemented this by highlighting the risk she took in joining The Eden Project team and big risks in the project. With a tiny capital base the team managed to build the "eighth wonder of the world" by challenging assumptions and pursuing three key themes:

Dare to dream ……… Organise to deliver ……. Have courage

Plan and evaluate ………. Then go with your instinct…… Build trust

People …….. Think about the whole person…….. Focus on attitude

An abiding memory relates to Kevin, the land train driver and the importance of recognising and identifying the skills in people that they didn't necessarily think they had, and giving people the opportunity to flourish and develop for the benefit of the business, guests and most importantly the individual themselves. I am sure there are people like this in every one of our business and I wonder whether we really release their potential.

And then there was ‘Mrs East’ - passion personified. Calls of "we want more of Janet" rang loud as we packed up at the end of the day and that really was no surprise. Janet East had delivered a presentation full of humor, drive, focus, energy and passion - and we loved her.

Personally, I got the feeling that the speech mirrored the progression of her business. It started slowly and possibly a little objectively and was formerly structured. But as she (and her business) got going, the pace picked up, the emotions became more evident, the stories more vivid, delivery more effective and powerful, and the results more substantial.

Janet showed us that the only limitation on our business is the limitation that we impose ourselves. Thank you Janet for inspiring us.

Lastly, we had some fun with numeracy and literacy in a way that showed us that perhaps everyone has hidden challenges and may need some development in this area. If you would like more information on Skills for Life, please do let Annabel or Claire know and they will get more information sent across to you. Tel: 01275 370913 or email admin@tsnsw.org.uk.

The future

During the day we looked ahead to the next round of the events. There is a stunning programme booked and we would like you to join us as we continue our journey:
- Improving the performance of our teams
- Marketing with real impact
- The practical realities of employment law
- New ways of looking at change.

On top of this we are joined in October by Sir Gerry Robinson.

It is already clear from our early bookings that places are going to be in demand, so please book early by ringing or e-mailing Claire or Annabel.

I look forward to seeing you all on 2nd May with Dr Frank Dick OBE.

_________________________________________________________

Back to Executive Programme

Back to Previous