Superbosses identify, motivate, coach and leverage others in remarkably consistent, yet highly unconventional and unmistakably powerful ways.

That’s according to Sydney Finkelstein, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Leadership at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, a keynote speaker at the IMI National Management Conference on September 29.

The event, which is sold out, has a theme this year of ‘Managing Disruption, Seizing Opportunity’.  Around 250 C-Suite executives are expected to attend.

According to Finkelstein: “Imagine a world where the work you did really mattered. Where the person who you call your boss changed your life by helping you accomplish more than you ever thought possible. Where your own opportunities would multiply in ways you may have been afraid to even dream of.

“That’s the world of ‘superbosses’, leaders with an incredible track record of generating world-class talent time and again. By systematically studying business legends and pop culture icons like Lorne Michaels, Ralph Lauren, George Lucas, Larry Ellison, Miles Davis, Charlie Mayfield, and Alice Waters, what superbosses actually do comes into focus. And anyone can do these same things.

“Superbosses identify, motivate, coach and leverage others in remarkably consistent, yet highly unconventional and unmistakably powerful ways.

“Superbosses aren’t like most bosses; they follow a playbook all their own. They are unusually intense and passionate — eating, sleeping, and breathing their businesses and inspiring others to do the same. They look fearlessly in unusual places for talent and interview them in colourful ways.

“They create impossibly high work standards that push protégées to their limits. They partake in an almost inexplicable form of mentoring, one that occurs spontaneously and with no clear rules. They lavish responsibility on inexperienced protégées, taking risks that seem scary and foolish to outsiders.”

The event will also hear from Eoin Kennedy of event sponsor New Ireland Assurance, who will discuss ‘Pension Disruption and the Paradigm Shift’, along with Adrian Furnham,  Jonathan McCrea, George S. Yip, Frances Ruane, and rugby union coach Pat Lam.

Photo: New Ireland director Denis Kelleher (left) with IMI CEO Simon Boucher. (Pic: Conor McCabe)