Weirdly enough it's someone I haven't known for too long, so I'm not sure he'd qualify as an actual mentor, but I've been very inspired by him.

Recently I've been working with Donal Caul"eld of LM Developments and I have never worked with anyone as motivating as he is. People often talk about "gures like Michael O'Leary or Denis O'Brien but Donal is one of the most entrepreneurial types I've come across and he doesn't have a smidgeon of the same public pro"le. I've worked with an awful lot of people and an awful lot of very different styles, but he's a real entrepreneurial spirit.

How is he inspiring?

He's the man behind a lot of very ambitious projects around the city and I can see why he's done so well. I understand now how they get done! He has a totally 'can-do' attitude. He's incredibly motivational! It's all - 'let's do it! Make it happen!' And he's very quick with decision making. There's no hanging around. No wasting time or humming or hawing. All his feedback is very direct. He just makes a call and goes for it. And that's because he has real vision, which is a very rare thing.

So it's about leadership?

Well, I believe that leaders are born not made, so there's not really a ton of them out there. I haven't met too many of them in business to be honest so he's a pretty unique kind of guy. I've found him very motivating to work with. He knows what he wants and he knows how to make a success of the projects he's driving.

How does he lead?

Well you can really sense that the people who work with him genuinely admire him and respect him. He's an incredibly positive person. I've never heard any negativity from him. I've watched the builders and all other staff around him and I can sense that stuff happens because they buy into what he's saying. Maybe it's because he knows how to say 'thank you'. He lets people know that he appreciates their efforts. It's simple good manners but that's missing a lot nowadays. Often people call each other if somebody misses a deadline or if something goes wrong, but people don't ring just to make sure everyone feels appreciated!

In conversation with Patrick Freyne