Business leaders must remain agile and refocus efforts

Despite the current economic and geo-political uncertainty being felt by every organisation in Ireland, 75% of Irish business leaders feel hopeful about the future of their organisation, according to the latest Organisational Resilience Pulse Survey released by the Irish Management Institute (IMI) and Cork University Business School (CUBS).

However, while respondents expressed a positive sentiment toward future business outlook overall, levels of optimism have dropped by 11% compared to the same time last year. In addition to the tumultuous business environment Irish organisations continue to navigate, staff engagement also remains one of the biggest concerns among Irish leaders with less than two fifths (37%) saying they feel their colleagues are fully engaged.

Based on the survey findings, many of the senior Irish leaders surveyed felt they navigated certain aspects of the pandemic well from an organisational leadership perspective, with many anticipating the positive changes will remain in place for the long-term.

Examples include:

• 78% of leaders feel there are high (including slightly and very high) levels of trust between senior managers and staff;
• 76% of leaders feel there has been a positive level of improvement in their practice of leadership over the past 2 years;
• 68% of leaders in 2022 feel their organisation has been able to balance short and long-term issues ‘well’ or ‘very well’;
• 62% of respondents feel that many or most of the changes introduced during the pandemic will be retained. 13% felt that the changes would be fully retained and that they would lead to even greater changes.

National Conference

The survey was results were announced in conjunction with this year’s National Management Conference, where over 200 of Ireland’s C-Suite executives gathered at the first IMI National Management Conference held in-person for the first time since 2019.

This year’s event examined themes including, ‘Refocus, Reimagine, Reconnect’. Specifically, the event examined how CEOs and leaders can refocus and thrive in a transformed business landscape, think differently as they reimagine the future path of their organisations, and reconnect with their people and purpose to deliver on the organisation’s long-term vision.