Name: Noreen Hynes

Title: Noreen Hynes Author

Organisation: Semi Retired

I started my career in Irish Distillers, which is now part of the Pernod Ricard Group. I began as the Internal Auditor and became the Financial Controller and a Director of Irish Distillers Ltd.

After ten years, I joined a new radio station that went bust after two years. After some consultancy work in the IT and communications business, I moved to the fuel business and became the CEO of Irelands, the largest Solid Fuel company. After six years, I sold the business on behalf of the shareholders and eventually started my own business.

I set up and operated a property marketing business, which was successful until the downturn in 2008. I then created a plastic recycling company, which I closed after two years as the raw material supply dried up. In addition to working, I got involved in my profession as a Chartered Accountant. I was elected Chairman of the Leinster Society of Chartered Accountants and the Council of the Institute.

I also worked with Government Departments pro bono to help introduce accrual accounting to the Irish Civil Service and co-authored a report for the Government on the subject. I have always enjoyed being involved in the property business, and my husband and I have invested in it over the years. In summary, I have experienced success and failure in my career, but as an optimist, I always see the upside in life and try to learn something from my failures. Looking back on my career, I see that raising my three children, who are now confident adults with professional careers, as my most outstanding achievement.

My son has ADHD and I gave up my corporate job so that I could supervise his learning and be more available to him every day. I learned a lot at the time about his struggles and how best to support him. In the nineties, it was hard to get children diagnosed, and I knew it was essential to get a diagnosis early so that I could get a support system around my son.

I always believed that my son could thrive if he got the proper support, and that was my responsibility to ensure he had all the support he needed right through his educational life and afterward if required. He achieved an honors degree in computer science, went on to have a successful career, and married a lovely girl he fell in love with.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Noreen's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

As a startup entrepreneur, I found managing the stresses of the business as well as people management tough. I loved spotting talented people. I was passionate about helping talented people who wanted to progress in their lives. I worked with a very talented young man in my early career who I knew would be successful as a leader if given the right opportunity.

He told me one day that his father wanted him to join his small company business, but he would prefer to work elsewhere to get more experience. I phoned his father and met him for lunch so I could explain to him how talented his son was and that he could be a great leader if he got the right experience and opportunities to work in different companies rather than joining the family company.

The man went on to become a great leader and successful company CEO. I was lucky in my career to have mentors whom I respected and valued. I was always hungry for knowledge and learning and I continue to learn into my retirement. I hope to release my second book in a few months called She's Got This Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs to Overcome the Odds and Achieve Success. My first book, Start-up Checklist For Success- The Essentials You Need to Know by Noreen Hynes and Eugene Savage, which is available on Amazon, won two book awards in 2023.

Writing is my way of giving back and I enjoy it. When my second book gets published I will do some promoting. I understand you need at least two books published before you gain traction with readers. I have a fiction book written but it needs some work done on it before publication so hopefully it will get published in 2025.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

In my first job, I realized that I could be a leader if I got the opportunities to develop and learn from experience. I was lucky to have had a great mentor who helped me along the way, and my bosses always had interesting projects lined up for me, so I was always challenged.

It's the reason I stayed in my first job for ten years. I had three very generous mentors in my life who each gave me the help and confidence I needed to push forward as a leader. I knew that being a CEO did not make me a leader, so I continued to learn every year about what motivated people to work harder and improve themselves. I learned that helping people, supporting them, and giving them every opportunity to excel was a win-win for the company and them.

Whenever I came across those I helped who did not respond for whatever reason, I was disheartened and disappointed but accepted that not everyone wants to move forward. I became a leader by constantly learning from experience, reading various management and motivational books, and attending management courses. I also listen to blogs these days.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

Now that I am semi-retired, I take life easier and rise at around 9 am. I exercise two mornings a week, and I cycle on long cycle rides on Sunday with friends and sometimes during the week with my husband. We sometimes cover around 70 km. I am reasonably fit and walk daily, trying to achieve an average daily 10k steps.

I eat a late light breakfast and try to write for a few hours every day. I walk in the afternoons, and two evenings a week, I play the Bodhran, which is a traditional Irish instrument, with an Irish Music group in local Irish Pubs in Lanzarote, where I live with my husband for a few months annually.

I do not play the Bodhran much in Ireland. We eat out about two evenings a week with friends, and because it is sunny all year round in Lanzarote, we can enjoy more outdoor life than in Ireland, where we have much shorter evenings in winter. I also play table tennis most days and I like a game of darts occasionally.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

Only some things you do will be successful, and you need to learn how to cope with failures as well as successes and not internalize the failures. Successful entrepreneurs have to develop thick skin to succeed, and that is a lesson leaders learn as well. Most new businesses fail so there are a lot of disappointments in Entrepreneurship. I wrote about this in my book because not enough people talk about it.