Roger Manners profile
Scanning through Roger Manners’ biography it’s easy to be impressed by his experience: staff development, re-structuring and grant funding with The Bureau of Business Management; experience in sectors from engineering and construction through to magazine distribution; and funding work in places as diverse as Europe, China, South Africa and the Caribbean.
Roger says: “I have been fortunate enough to work with all sorts of businesses in my time as a consultant, in quite a mix of industries and cultures. As a result I’ve encountered a lot of different scenarios, each bringing its own set of challenges. But people are people at the end of the day – regardless. Whatever situation you’re in, you have to remember that.”
And it’s just this attitude that led Roger out of the boardroom and down to the driving range. Since 1997 Roger has worked with both elite-amateur and professional golfers, helping them use their minds to maximum effect to achieve success. Clients have included amateur county champions (individual and teams); 8 PGA European Tour winners and 2 Ryder Cup winners. Roger comments: “Businessman or golfer, your mindset needs to be the same: unshakeable self-belief and the knowledge that with bloody-minded perseverance you can achieve great things.”
This stems from Roger’s personal ethos, to always strive to be the best that you can, which he applies with vigour to every individual and organisation that he works with. He says: “There is a common factor between the business and sporting worlds in which I have worked and that is that I’ve always worked with winners – the best attract the best!”
A belief in personal betterment is evident in Roger’s performance and lifestyle coaching work within schools and businesses. He also counts performance enhancement and succession planning among his many skills. Roger says: “I am a strong advocate of constant assessment. Reward should be based upon achievement of targets, whether that’s increased profits or winning more tournaments, without which both organisation and individual often find themselves on unstable ground.
However, assessment has to be conducted in the right way and with robust support structures in place. You can demand better performance all you want, but if you don’t support employees along the way, people won’t have the motivation or desire to take them to the next level. Business is about people as much as it is about money: they aren’t diametrically opposed. Like Michael Richards, I firmly believe that looking after and understanding your people is key to ongoing success.”
An example of Roger’s talent in this area is his ability to build specialist teams. In his time Roger has put together teams for numerous projects, in areas such as funding, training and tax management. Teams he has used to project manage amongst others, the construction of two golf driving ranges and a 15-bed care home. Roger says: “Very few individuals have all the skills you need to make a project a success. Not to mention the physical ability to manage the workload. The secret is to combine complementary skills of select individuals – those who will work together well and support each other in meeting deadlines.”
So it’s unsurprising that Roger counts Richard Branson amongst his many business heroes, “I admire the way that Richard Branson is aware of his shortcomings, but I put his fortune down to hiring the right people to develop successful teams.”
On his own qualities, Roger says: “I like to think that I’m approachable and friendly – a good listener, as any consultant should be. I’m also pretty observant and I use this to help me assess a client’s situation when I’m working with them. Naturally I have good people skills and it’s this facet of my personality that makes me such a great fit with 2nd Head.
Of course my belief in self-improvement means I’m always looking for the next challenge. I have to do things that interest me, but there has to be a bit of a challenge in there too to keep me on my toes.
I also try to have fun in the workplace. If I can’t get people to enjoy what they’re doing then I’m simply not doing my job.”
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