This week, Oliver Johnston – Founder of Stepping Out from the Top Team goes under the Belfast Live spotlight.
Stepping Out from the Top Team is a consultancy that specialises in succession planning for large firms.
Founder Oliver Johnston set the business up using his own experience of leaving a high-powered job just before the pandemic. Here he tells us his dream day off in NI, the item he wished he had invented and his plans for the future.
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What do you do (in 10 words or fewer)?
We support business leaders to retire successfully.
Three main attributes you need for the job:
Positivity and empathy but with strategic thinking to help support the individual and the business. All our coaches are professionally accredited and have gone through their own stepping out journey which I think makes all the difference.
Path to this position:
Stepping Out is my second 'encore career’. I retired as Director of Leadership Consulting, Penna PLC 8 years ago, established and ran my own coaching practice very successfully for 5 years and it’s grown and reshaped into Stepping Out.
What’s your dream job (present position excepted)?
I have had a great career and live my dream job every day. At 70-years, my next move will (probably) be to retire, but not just yet. One of my loves outside of work is photography. I have a simple objective – to take one photograph on purpose that I’m proud of. Any photographer knows that that it requires lots of time and effort to explore, experiment, and learn, so I admire those who have made a career out of this passion of mine.
What are you most proud of (workwise)?
Coaching is truly a privilege. I am most proud of the great things those I have coached have gone on to achieve.
What are you most proud of (in life)? That’s easy - my family - Rosie and twins, Dan and Kate.
How did the coronavirus pandemic affect your organisation and how did you adapt?
I launched Stepping Out just before the pandemic hit which brought much of my coaching practice to a standstill - not because the need wasn’t there, but because businesses had to guard their cashflow. So like many, we switched to Zoom and Teams for coaching sessions. This actually meant we had more flexibility as it became the norm and expanded globally. We’re now seeing a surge of workplace change in post-pandemic life and an appetite for stepping out like never before.
What lessons did you learn about yourself during lockdown?
Bounce-back-ability – the need to face challenges head-on, pivot when necessary, and adapt smartly to the new normal. Also, the importance of staying loyal to colleagues and clients through the tough times. I offered to keep coaching my clients free of charge until the situation improved.
Who is Northern Ireland’s brightest business brain?
Sir Michael Ryan of Bombardier must be up there at the top. I’ve worked closely with the team there for over 20 years and since his appointment, Michael has led from the front, never flinching in the face of the immense challenges that running a global aerospace business presents.
What do you wish you had invented?
I love elegant simplicity - so I’d like to have designed the wooden clothes-peg. It does a great job, at low cost, by simple design using sustainable and commonly available materials.
Favourite App on your phone:
Google Maps – it just works! Especially getting back out and about again to meet with clients.
Apart from Belfast Live and your own, what’s your favourite website?
Currently, it’s got to be ChatGPT, a chatbox launched in November 22 (one month later it had over 1 million users). It’s breath-taking… and scary to see generative-AI at work. AI will change how we work, think and create.
If you were spending the day in Belfast where is your dream breakfast, lunch, dinner and drinks?
Definitely East of the city for me. Breakfast at SD Bell & Co. - I think some of the café customers have been there since the first day in 1887. Lunch at Cyprus Avenue, the team there epitomise resilience and its innovative menu keeps things fresh. Having spent a career travelling and endless nights in hotels, I like to have dinner and drinks in my favourite place - at home.
Where’s your hidden gem in Northern Ireland?
Just a stones-throw from NI it would be Shannon Pot or Legnashinna, a pool in the townland of Derrylahan near Cuilcagh Mountain in County Cavan, the traditional source of the River Shannon.
Where’s your favourite place in the world?
New York City. When I was in the US on business, I would try to take an extra couple of days to spend in Manhattan. It’s not one thing, it’s everything. The noise, the brashness, the yellow cabs, the sore neck from constantly looking up, the art galleries, the music. It’s the epitome of an enterprising spirit, built on a celebration of the diversity of countless generations of immigrants.
How would you describe Belfast to someone who’s never been?
It will be one of the best experiences of your life - if you enjoy the craic and don’t mind a sleggin. We also punch well above our weight in business here from that fighting spirit.
In 10 years’ time I’d like to:
Still be doing what I choose to do and not living to other peoples’ ‘shoulds’.
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