King Cody, Kilkenny hurling manager’s road to greatness

Learning from winners

Malachy Clerkin talks to Billy Linehan and a number of top managers to find out what makes this serial winner so special

Excerpt from the Sunday Tribune, 29 August 2010

“Billy Linehan of Celtar business consultants is a board member of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers. He compares managing a county team to being in charge of a small or medium-sized business and sees in Cody a natural leader more so than a manager. “A leader challenges the status quo,” he says, quoting another management guru, “a manager accepts it”. I think if you are going to be successful on a continuous basis, you need to be challenging it.

“There’s an honesty and a consistency in the way he treats people and that’s the key to keeping people involved and motivated over a long period of time. You rarely hear about tensions between clubs in Kilkenny or hear people complaining that their man didn’t get a fair shot at making the team or even the panel. All you can take from that is that there’s a general acceptance across the board that the man at the top is a man of integrity. That he’s prepared to treat everyone with consistency. I think his personal style is a huge factor. There’s very little mouthing off or bringing attention to himself. You never hear him telling the rest of the world how good he is and all the different ways he’s affected the team.”

For full article see http://www.tribune.ie/sport/hurling/article/2010/aug/29/king-cody/

For more on Celtar business and management consultants see www.Celtar.ie . Celtar provides management advice to leaders of organisations, assisting them to reach their goals.

For more on the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers see

www.IMCA.ie