Employees need to hear what's going on in their company, but the leaders seem to think it's none of their business, Nigel Stirlingis told

MANAGEMENT guru Frank Maguire has some soothing words for today's under- fire business leaders: every cloud has a silver lining.

Or in 75-year-old Maguire's own somewhat folksy idiom: "Every time you find a pile of manure, there is a pony somewhere."

Maguire, a former member of the inner circles of US presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, who subsequently held senior roles at FedEx and American Airlines to boot, has been plying executives with leadership advice the world over for nearly 40 years.

He arrives in Dublin next Thursday, for one of "30 or 40" similar talks he gives every year, to offer advice to Irish executives in troubled times.

Maguire believes many of the world's current economic woes, not least in his own country's own banking sector, arise from the failure of business leaders to communicate effectively - both with employees and customers.

"They have not shared with their employees the core values that it takes to run a good company. Whatever business you are in what is important is people . . . take care of your people, take your customer."

The chief executives of some of America's largest investment banks, who are now largely ousted as multi-multimillion dollar losses mounted, knew what they were getting into and promoted a rotten corporate culture, Maguire says.

"You know something is bad when you see it. You cannot sell anybody a loan they will not be able to afford.

"This whole mortgage crisis that we are in, in my opinion, was started by industry leaders who became greedy.

"The soul of every corporation is the corporate culture and a rich corporate culture is built on . . . a shared vision.

"Companies that have a vision succeed. Companies that don't but are just managed . . . just exist," Maguire proclaims.

Maguire says chief executive officers should embrace transparency, clearing away as many obstacles to the clear and timely dissemination of information to employees and customers as possible, as a means to avoid similar calamities in the future.

"It is really interesting that in this day and age to share as much information as we possibly can, but that so many employees go to bed at night not knowing what is going on in their company.

"Obviously there are limits. You cannot share information with your employees to do with the inside financial information of a company.

"But there is much more information that can be shared. Sharing information is not done as it should be. Leaders don't think that it is any business of their employees."

Maguire uses global logistics company FedEx, where he was the company's first senior vice-president responsible for employee relations, a post he held for 20 years, as a tangible example of how this can be achieved.

"FedEx informs employees how many packages are passing through the hub each and every day.

"The employees know full well how they are doing - they get a daily report card."

Such information, however, is only useful if it is accompanied by employee empowerment, he says, another of Maguire's "immutable" laws of corporate leadership. "I approve of companies that give their employees the opportunity to fail.

"If they know the vision of the company, they have the information . . . believe me, they will take care of it [the company's and their own interests]," says Maguire.

On an individual level, he says corporate leaders need to be sure of their own commitment to the company they lead.

"You have to be passionate about what you do and if you're not, you need to find something else to do.

"I ask them to get inside their hearts and be aware of how much passion they bring to each day when they rise.

"The passion comes from your heart, your attitude comes from your head. What I tell people is that you need to connect the head and the heart. Either one alone will not give you success. If you connect the head to the heart, you cannot fail."

Maguire, who last travelled to Ireland at the height of the boom five years ago, says he is confident that the current economic downturn can be weathered if these basic tenets are followed.

"My confidence is very high. When it comes down to it, the Irish economy will be as successful as its people. And the Irish people are known the world around.

"Sure, there will be a bump in the road. This is a temporary moment of difficulty that will be overcome."

Frank Maguire will give a talk in the Royal College of Surgeons, St Stephens Green, Dublin on Thursday, July 17th, at 6.30pm