Greg Canty is a Managing Partner of Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork. Greg works with clients on their communications strategies and he develops social media strategies and implementation plans for clients and supports these with the Fuzion social media team.
Greg is a social media enthusiast, an avid writer and social commentator and is considered to be one of the leading B2B bloggers in Ireland. His regular B2B blog and the Fuzion blog, which he manages, have attracted a large following with many of the submissions featuring in national publications. Greg is an elected Council member of Dublin Chamber of Commerce,
Can leadership be taught? If so, how?
This is a tricky one – I don’t think leadership can be taught in a traditional classroom or by doing courses but you can definitely learn important things that can help you from practical courses, by reading great books and blogs, listening to podcasts, from mentors, from coaches, through the right peer to peer networking and from on the job experiences. You can learn what to do from observing others, as well as often learning what not to do from others! In my view, you have to get comfortable with your own personality style and then learn how to adapt it to be a successful leader. You are always learning – it’s a journey, not a destination!
When you are filling a leadership role in your organisation what qualities do you look for from candidates?
The first job you have to do is to figure out yourself if you are looking for a manager or a leader, as there is a big difference between the two. If you get confused between these roles you can make huge mistakes and end up with the wrong choice.
The qualities I look for in a leader are:
● Challenging thinking
● Communication skills
● The ability to influence upwards and downwards
● Genuineness
● No game playing
● Integrity
● Passion
● Courage
● Charisma
If you had to leave your organisation for 1 year what would you ask of your team and what advice would you give them?
Show me in a year that I can go away for another year! Just keep doing the great things that you do everyday, and stick by the core principles and our #WinHappy philosophy.
What are you doing today to make sure your organisation will be relevant in 10 years time?
We always stick to the basic principle that we are a Communications Agency – while the platforms keep evolving we need to evolve with them and keep reaching target audiences for our clients. We have always done this and even during the recession, which was catastrophic for our industry we expanded our business and grew our team each year.
What leaders outside your own organisation do you admire and why?
Donald Trump – just kidding! I am seriously impressed by Barack Obama – he is inspirational and always grounded and human. He never seems to get ruffled. While President, he coped well with the widest range of issues and he never put a foot wrong publicly, despite being in the spotlight 24/7. He motivated so many to follow him despite his low profile, background and his colour – I have never heard anyone who worked with him talking badly of him. After that I would have to add Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool FC manager to my list – he is very clever, honest, passionate and he motivates his team and the followers at the same time. He is a brilliant communicator. Beyond these examples I can’t think of any leaders that inspire me.
What are a few resources (books, blogs, podcasts, courses etc) you would recommend to someone looking to gain insight into becoming a better leader?
I have always devoured business books, but lately as I find myself commuting a lot between our offices in Dublin and Cork I tend to listen to a lot of Podcasts. I keep a close eye on some marketers such as Seth Godin and Christopher Lochhead. Seth Godin has written some fantastic books including “Purple Cow” and I also follow his daily blog posts and his videos on YouTube. Seth always thinks different and he challenges your own perceptions of things. Christopher Lochhead is a successful marketing guy who has a thought provoking Podcast called “Legends and Losers” and is the author of a book called “Play Bigger”. I love his no nonsense approach to business coupled with a big social conscience. The other person I follow is Simon Sinek, who writes and talks a lot about leadership. He has a fantastic audio series called “Leaders Eat Last”, which is very inspirational.
Finally there is a book by Jim Collins called “Good to Great”, which I consider to be a leadership bible – everyone should have a copy!
