With over 25 years in leadership, Terry Nitman is something of a legend at MDHUB. Since joining when it was still the Hub100 in the early 2000s, Terry has led two successful businesses and spent time on the MDHUB Advisory Board. Crucially, he continues to demonstrate how excellent leadership is not just about hitting goals: it’s about people.

Terry joined the Hub100 after a recommendation from another business advisor. Since then, it has proved an asset to both his personal business journey and his teams.

“As a business leader, it can feel quite lonely. You can feel that the world’s problems are on your shoulders; that you’ve got nowhere to turn. You learn very early on in MDHUB that everybody is dealing with the same challenges and actually, you’re not alone.”

In both regular workgroups and one-off Wildcard sessions on specialist topics, Terry has found support and insight that have helped his businesses to flourish. Terry told me that, when it comes to his regular workgroups, having that support network, that safety net of someone just to bounce ideas or someone to vent your frustrations with or whatever, has proved invaluable.

After several years as a member, MDHUB’s Managing Director, Fiona Shafer, approached Terry to invite him to join the Advisory Board. His positive influence on MDHUB has helped the organisation adapt to new pressures and issues affecting its business leader community.

At the start of his career, Terry was given some invaluable advice by his manager: “Remember how you treat people on the way up, because you never know who you’re going to meet when you come back down.” Over time, this has emerged as some of the most crucial advice Terry has received, and he has used it to help him succeed.

When Terry joined Cheesmur Building Contractors, it needed some major changes. He explained that at this time, every challenge seemed to be the biggest challenge in the world. “As time went on, I learned how to assess each challenge as it came up. Once you’ve assessed, you can deal with it in a calm and efficient manner. Learning to take a step back before diving into each problem has helped me become a more measured leader.”

Leadership today is very different to how it was when he started. “The word I would use is ‘relentless’. It’s always been challenging, but today’s business world seems much more full-on. Managing time pressures, response times, and people’s expectations is quite a challenge these days.”

To ensure he succeeds, he builds downtime into his schedule. “You should work to live, not live to work. You need to enjoy what you do but have a life outside of work.” He ensures that this extends to his team, too. At MacConvilles, where he is Operations Director, he ensures his team have some downtime, whether that’s going out for a walk during the day, getting away from their desks to have lunch, or catching up over a cuppa on the balcony.

A huge part of Terry’s role at MacConvilles is finding ways to improve efficiency in the business. This role has encouraged him and the MacConvilles team to adopt new technologies. “I like to allow people to do what they do best, and let technology pick up the slack.”

This improves efficiency in the company and increases employee satisfaction, as more routine administrative work can be handled through online tools. Terry is quick to point out, though, that any new technologies introduced are designed to complement the excellent MacConvilles team.

“This industry has always been about people, and long may that continue,” he states. “While technological advances are welcome, they cannot replace an individual’s experience, their nuance when dealing with a task and gut instinct. At least, I hope it doesn’t.”

Looking to MacConvilles’ future, Terry is optimistic. “Ben and Toby [joint owners at MacConvilles] have a very clear vision. That vision has been communicated to the team, they’re fully on board, and the potential is really exciting.”

We’re looking forward to seeing how the company continues to flourish over the next few years, with Terry’s crucial work as Operations Director having a positive impact. Despite 25 years of senior leadership under his belt, Terry’s not retiring any time soon.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my years (45 and counting) in the industry. Wherever I have worked, my focus has been on shaping high-performing teams, developing people and helping them to become the best versions of themselves. I want other people in MacConvilles to enjoy it too, so I want to put the building blocks in place to help them do so. When I do eventually sail off into the sunset, I’ll be able to look back on that with pride and know that I’ve done my bit to mentor and prepare the next generation.”