Yippee, the summer is here!

Yes, yes, yes!!!! It was officially the start of the meteorological summer on Wednesday 1^st June and some say that we have much to look forward to over the next weeks and months.

The recent run of Mediterranean weather has set us all off on a “happy footing”, unless of course you are about to sit Junior and Leaving cert exams! It always amazes me that the weather, since records began, is at its glorious best just as we imprison our kids in stifling exam halls and subject them to two or three hours of trying to unpick the complex grey matter that resides between their ears. Good luck to all concerned!

The City and its wider environs have seen some positive stories recently. For example the berthing of the huge cruise ship, Celebrity Silhouette, just off Dunmore East and the thousands of day-trippers who visited the City Centre, giving a much needed boost to many a thirsty, dehydrated shop till. Of course the continued location filming of Redwater in this village, will undoubtedly add to the “Sunny South East” mantra and I am sure all involved in this production will be relishing the summer weather that currently betters most of continental Europe.

With many a festival also on the horizon for the City and wider afield there should be plenty to get our teeth sunk into and lots to do for residents and visitors alike.

“City In Bloom” will shortly burst into life and draping the Waterford in a magical multi-coloured coat of wondrous joy that will stay with us right up to September. Spraoi will be back before we know it and then there is Day Tripper, admittedly in a new venue, not the traditional City Centre location, but still promoting a line-up, that has once again something for everyone, whether you are young or an auld one! The much vaunted Summerval has much to live up to if it is to validate all the promised hype and we hope that the festival can deliver on its €138,000 funded budget. Actually adding significantly to the City Centre footfall? We will keep a close eye on this one.

If festivals are not your thing, then you only have to travel a few miles out of the City Centre to find the type of scenery that would whet the appetite of Allsopp and Spencer. “Now here’s a view!”, we could all confidently boast to this pair of presenters.

Our region has the best of both sea and mountain views. Depending on which way you drive our coast road, you get two completely differing panoramas and two vistas that would grace the cover of any Lonely Planet guide or a Michael Palin travel book. We really are spoiled for choice.

Sea swimming is of course a must and we have kilometre upon kilometre of hushed, unspoiled beaches just waiting to be discovered.

These, mostly free attractions, should and could be the envy of many another county. But sadly, once again, we seem to be possibly sinking to the bottom of the league when attracting these much vaunted International Visitors who seem to be spending many a Euro outside of the South East.

This has always puzzled me and bewildered many more besides. When so many citizens of Waterford, are aware of just what we have to offer, why oh why is this message not being spread, by those promoters of Irish tourism? 

Are we now finding ourselves, a regional tourist area, that has literally fallen between the two stools that are the Wild Atlantic Way and Ireland’s Ancient East? Are we the furthest away point from both of these behemoths and therefore seen as “just off the beaten track!”

Are we happy to be once again feeding off the odd crumb indignantly tossed to us by the powers that be?

If we are to compete with the other more established tourism brands then we must differentiate our product.

“People Make Waterford” so let’s make that happen!

Time to support your future generation!

As our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews prepare to sit Junior and Leaving Certificate exams, we can all I am sure, remember just how we felt as the exams’ deadline approached. We can all recall fretting and worrying about whether or not all of the information we had stored and crammed into every corner of our brain could be regurgitated in the right order, for the specific questions we were answering.

I know that some, uh hum, thirty odd years ago, I was studying hard in my bedroom in Pitlessie Village, just a few miles from my secondary school, Bell Baxter High School, in Cupar, in a wee county called Fife. I very quickly realised that I was not the brightest match in the box and that if I was to succeed in my future life, I would have to work very, very hard and more importantly I would have to find a study system that worked for me and the limitations I had personally identified in the various subjects I was studying.

Strangely enough, the subject that I found the hardest was English and those closest to me will know that in my whole life I have probably read, cover to cover, just a handful of books. Such was my inability to like this most necessary of subjects, that my parents invested in tutoring and by some minor miracle, or divine intervention,  I managed to pass, with a sufficient Higher Grade, enabling me to go further on to third level education.

Little did I know that in my future careers and work life, I would need English probably more than any other subject I studied?

Despite having an almost complete hatred of the whole subject of English, I now find myself writing more and more in my everyday life and I owe a very big thank you to both my parents, for persevering and investing their time and energy in me, to ensuring I passed that most dreaded of English exams.

As those nearest to us prepare to go through the very same exam pressures, I know that we as parents must give the necessary support, encouragement and guidance to allow our children to perform to the very best of their abilities. We must become coaches and perhaps more importantly mentors so that they know they are not alone in the difficult journey they are about to embark on. As exam mentors, we need to be cognisant of the fact, that we all learn and study in different ways and our children will differ in the way they study, the way they retain information and the way they set down that information on an exam paper.

Luckily, today’s children are assessed throughout the school year and their performance is not all based around just one examination. We all know that a one-off examination will suit some children but will not necessarily suit others. The fact that children are now assessed, will bode well for future careers in the workplace, where they are continually learning and benchmarked. The ability to continually perform and improve is a hard lesson to learn but a necessary one if our children are to continually improve.

The pain and concern all our children are going through this exam time, will stand them in good stead for third level education and their future careers. The more as parents, we can relate to the fact that we too suffered, panicked and bombed some of our exams, will help them through this tough period of their lives. We must find a way of relating our own experiences back to them at the right time and in the right place.

I would wage a bet that the best bosses are in general those who are less gifted, those who found exams very hard, those who may not have a degree and those who had to find the means to get across the line.

It is hard to fail but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.

No pressure, no diamonds!

As our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews prepare to sit Junior and Leaving Certificate exams we can all, I am sure, remember just how we felt as the exams deadline approached. We can all remember fretting and worrying about whether or not all of the information we had stored and crammed into every corner of our brain could be regurgitated in the right order for the specific questions we were answering.

I know that some thirty odd years ago I was studying hard in my bedroom room in Pitlessie Village, just a few miles from my secondary school, Bell Baxter High School, in Cupar, in a county called Fife. I very quickly realised that I was not the brightest match in the box and that if I was to succeed in a future life I would have to work very, very hard and more importantly I would have to find a study system that worked for me and the limitations I had personally identified in the various subjects I was studying.

Strangely enough, the subject that I found the hardest was English and those closest to me will know that in my whole life I have probably read, cover to cover, just a handful of books. Such was my inability to like this most necessary of subjects that my parents invested in tutoring for me and by some minor miracle, and divine intervention,  I managed to pass, with a sufficient Higher Grade, that I was able to go further on to third level education.

Little did I know that in my future career and life I would need English probably more than any other subject I studied?

Despite having an almost complete hatred of the whole subject of English I now find myself writing more and more in my everyday life and I owe a very big thank you to both my parents for persevering and investing their time and energy in me, to ensure I passed my English exams.

As those nearest to us prepare to go through the very same exam pressures I know that we as parents must give the necessary support, encouragement and guidance to allow our children to perform to the very best of their abilities. We must become coaches and perhaps more importantly mentors to them so that they know they are not alone in the difficult journey they are about to embark on. As exam mentors we need to be cognisant of the fact that we all learn and study in different ways and our individual children will differ in the way they study, the way they retain information and the way they set down that information on an exam paper.

Luckily, today’s children are assessed throughout the school year and your performance is not all based around just one examination. We all know that a one-off examination will suit some children but it will not necessarily suit other children. The fact the children are now continually assessed will bode well for future careers in the workplace where we are continually assessed and benchmarked. The ability to continually perform and improve is a hard lesson to learn but a necessary lesson our children must learn if they are to continually improve.

In a commercial environment we must continually seek to improve our performance and we must repeatedly seek to be ahead of our competition in terms of sales, marketing and the communication of those messages. Failure to strive for betterment will undoubtedly lead to the failure of a company or a brand. The pressures we put ourselves under will either make or break us in business, and how we individually cope and manage with those pressures does I believe go all the way back to our teenage school days and how we learned to cope with the pressures of examinations.

I know myself that I had to put a very precise structure in place in order for me to study efficiently, and this worked for me and has now given me the discipline to work on numerous projects and programmes all at once. This early study structure has also given me the ability to jump from one task to another at the flick of a switch. I believe we now call this multitasking and despite what some of the fairer sex may say, men are equally good at multitasking we just need to put a structure to the tasks at hand.

In fact, my own study plans varied wildly from those of my sister who seemed to get by in all of her exams by reading and studying the weekly “Jackie” comic, published by D C Thomson of Dundee. I did pick up the odd copy to check what study tips were contained therein. But there were none and I could never understand how Linzi passed her exams on the back of studying just the “Jackie” magazine! Perhaps someday she will tell me?

The pain and concern all our children are going through this exam time will stand them in good stead for third level education and their future careers. The more, as parents, we can relate to the fact that we too suffered, panicked and bombed some of our exams will help them through this tough period of their lives. We must find a way of relating our own experiences back to them at the right time and in the right place.

As we progress through life and if we are lucky enough to want to become senior managers, team managers, supervisors, CEO’s or influencers then we need to remember back to our days of study when we looked to our parents for encouragement and guidance. Those, like me, lucky enough to have parents who were enthusiastically involved in our future career outlook should remember just how we felt when we were encouraged, mentored and praised for the work and effort we had put into our study.

In business we all must remember that the right encouragement, at the right time, gets a much better positive reaction than simply shouting and swearing at your workforce and employees. Good “bosses” know when to say thank you, know when to put their arm around you, know when to give the hairdryer treatment and they instinctively know when to push or hold back as they have experienced it all themselves.

I would wage a bet that the best bosses are in general those who are less gifted, those who found exams very hard and are those who had to find a structured study plan. After all pressure is really only for turbos and tyres!

And finally always remember, “No pressure, no diamonds!”