Rebecca Hobbs, social media executive at Educational Social Media, explains why John Kelleher should win the Leader of the Year category of the Guardian Small Business Showcase competition:
John Kelleher is a leader who most definitely stands out from the crowd. He is driven, focussed, ambitious and confident. But he also has those rare qualities that can be absent from busy directors: patience, kindness, humour and humility.
Despite heavy workloads, he always has time for you, to patiently explain a task in further detail, to wisely give guidance and support and always says thank you. He makes staff feel that whatever task they’ve worked on is amazing. This in itself makes you strive to do the very best and go the extra mile.
One of the core values at Educational Social Media is the personal development of everyone on the team. I’ve never worked for someone who has said ‘it’s ok to make mistakes, it’s how we learn’. As a consequence, I approach tasks more creatively, confidently and ultimately successfully.
It is important for John that we walk the talk of being an organisation that values education, and he has set up a fund to allow team members to continue their studies part time whilst working for him.
John’s enthusiasm for his business is contagious, and he has created a positive happy business, where everyone is eager to be part of his vision.
All entries which meet the competition criteria are published and our judging panel select a shortlist of the top three for each category. Winners are announced at an awards ceremony in summer 2016.
