Tarnia's Story

Even successful business people can do with a helping hand to build confidence.

Tarnia Robertson, MD of Ufford park hotel, golf and spa,  is no stranger to success. A finalist in both the Business Woman of the Year and Service Excellence awards, Tarnia puts her success down to a supportive team of people that always have her back - her Vistage group. 

Tarnia describes her strong foundations built with Vistage as ‘worth its weight in gold’.  She also speaks about her growing confidence which has helped her develop into the successful MD she is today. “You’d have to ask someone that knew me personally five years ago to know how much Vistage has transformed my life.”

Taking over the family business - Transforming from marketer to MD. 

Tarnia’s transition from marketing to managing director didn’t come without its challenges —   she was taking over the role from her parents. Ufford Park is a family run business and, at the turn of the millennium, asked if she fancied joining the business. They needed someone to set up the marketing department, and with some experience in marketing, Tarnia took on the role. 

In 2013 Tarnia’s parents started to seriously talk about retiring, giving Tarnia a chance to step up. Although this was an exciting prospect, Tarnia was lacking self-confidence and was nervous that she wouldn’t fulfil the role. However, with a healthy attitude and a drive to succeed Tarnia agreed to relinquish her marketing role, get replacements in and spend the next 18 months learning the trade! 

Tarnia worked across many different departments and stayed in competitor hotels. She also met lots of hotel owners and managers, learning as much as she could to fulfil the high demands of the role. 

“What I really needed was to mix with people who were doing my role in different businesses.”

Six to nine months into Tarnia’s new role as MD she was approached by entrepreneur and former Chairman of Ipswich Town FC, David Sheepshanks. David was looking to bring together like-minded MDs and CEOs to form Suffolk’s first Vistage group. On hearing about Tarnia from a mutual contact, David rang to ask if she’d be open to joining Vistage.

Tarnia tells us the story of her journey from working entirely alone to being part of a strong and supportive Vistage group. 

“I’d already done a year’s work-related counselling, and been part of a sales organisation that did seminars and recommended books, but what I really needed was to mix with people who were doing my role in different businesses. Vistage sounded ideal.” At the time, she didn’t have anyone she could share her business problems with. She couldn’t expect other hotel owners and managers to share their trade secrets with me, and she didn’t want to talk endlessly about business with her husband. With her parents, every family meal would often lead to heated discussions about work  — despite ’retiring’ her parents were finding it  difficult to let go.

She explains, “In short, I was so convinced Vistage was what I needed that, after a couple of interviews with David, I signed up without discussing it with my parents. I felt so strongly that the investment in money and time, were exactly what I needed in order to succeed in my new role.’

“Discovering that people skills are the most important skill you can have, especially within the hospitality industry, really boosted my confidence.”

One of the main attractions for Tarnia was joining David’s 1-2-1s, and the group meetings. But she admits she was nervous about attending: “I knew I’d learn loads from the other leaders, but I couldn’t see how I could give anything back. I just kept thinking ‘why am I here?’ surrounded by all these amazing MDs and CEOs of companies much larger than mine. I’m not going to be able to teach you anything! I now know it doesn’t matter how big or small your firm is, all business leader’s issues/causes of stress are related to either staff or their customers.” 

“Finding out we all shared the same problems was definitely a ‘Yay!’ moment. I’d been brought up to think my natural skills, which for me are people skills, were pointless and that, if you don’t understand finance or other aspects of business, you’re commercially unaware. But discovering that people skills are the most important skill you can have, especially within the hospitality industry, really boosted my confidence. I can get someone to support me with the financing and the other important tasks I had little experience in before. 

“That said, you need a team of people with more than functional expertise. A few years ago, I had a big problem with a Senior Manager who was negatively impacting the team culture. The group said in order to work on my vision, and to change the culture within the business I must first tackle the manager issue, but I hated confrontation. 

“Every year, we have visits from tourism inspectors and I remember one lady saying ‘I can see what you’re trying to do but I’ll tell you now your Senior manager is not into it and if he’s not on board, no-one will be’. For me, that was the final straw. David, the Chair, was able to coach and advise me on how I could handle the problem. For about a week I remember practising what I was going to say in the mirror, much to my kids’ Amusement! Long story short, I now have the right organisational structure i.e. the right people on the bus who are supportive and have been amazing during Covid.”

Staying calm and riding the wave of COVID-19

Like many people working in the hospitality industry, Tarnia’s business was hit hard. Covid has been something that’s affected all of us in some way or another. And it’s been tough. But, through this hard time, Tarnia’s ability to remain calm has been her saving grace. 

Tarnia describes how one of the Vistage instilled the mantra in her that what we put out is what we’ll get out. Breathe out negativity, and you’ll inevitably breathe it back in again. 

“We recently had a speaker that said every MD or manager casts a shadow, meaning the way you behave can have a positive or negative effect on your team. I’m acutely aware of seeing how my parents react, that all visible stress does is worry people, meaning no- one wins. With everyone watching me, and looking to me for answers, especially during the early days of lockdown, I thought the best thing I can do is stay calm and focused. This really paid off, and I even had a few emails from staff thanking me for the way, I handled the situation. Some staff even said they’d noticed how much stronger and confident I appeared (I can tell you now, that’s not always how I felt!).

Of course, joining Vistage is an investment in terms of time and money, but I can honestly say it’s more than paid for itself. Without the support of my peer group, David’s ‘hand-holding’ and expertise, and the advice of the speakers, I’d have the wrong staff, the wrong culture, and there’s no way I’d be the leader that I am today or have coped with the enormity of the pandemic. Vistage has been worth its weight in gold.”