Bermuda's businesswomen had the chance to grill a top panel of CEOs on the burning issues affecting them at the Women in Leadership conference held at the Fairmont Southampton yesterday.

The CEO panel was chaired by Benjamin Zander, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and motivational speaker, and made up of Alan Thompson, of Butterfield Bank, Gil Tucker, managing partner at Ernst & Young, Sheila Lines, of KeyTech, and Belco's Vince Ingham in the first of several leadership events planned to take place on the Island.

They debated a number of hot topics ranging from the treatment of employees to the problems of attracting and keeping talented workers as well as answering a series of questions from the floor.

Mr. Thompson kicked-off the discussion by talking about the importance of treating staff with respect, based on how they perform.

Mr. Tucker went on to address the subject of inclusivity allied to diversity in the workplace.

"In our firm we are trying to be more inclusive," he said.

"We are trying to bring diversity in with inclusiveness and for staff to be successful, we have to make them feel valued for what they bring to the workplace.

"A lot of people have to leave what they are at the front door in order to come to the organisation and fit into the whole corporate structure."

He gave the example of Ernst & Young bringing in a cultural diversity specialist to find out what the different people within the organisation thought their company culture was, revealing that the leadership and white males believed it was the same as each other, while those from other backgrounds had a completely different idea to them.

"A lot of times when you are assessing people, you are assessing them with a bias in your corporate culture or the things that you bring to the table," he said.

"If you take a breath and step back and think, it is a style thing and not a performance thing, so you should assess the total person for the value and results that they produce instead."

Mr. Tucker said companies also needed to get over a fear culture where people are afraid to make mistakes, and instead be able to come up with innovative ideas and be enthusiastic about what they do.

Mr. Ingham claimed the most crucial thing was understanding your employees and helping them achieve their needs.

"I think, when you look at it and try to understand what people are thinking, that there is the opportunity to explore the unknown," he said.

"There is a power within them and the challenge with most organisations is to unleash that power."

The debate then moved on to the power of the union over institutions, such as utilities firms KeyTech and Belco, a topic Ms. Lines was more than qualified to talk about.

"I find the biggest impact on the way business is done was not the union or union members, but the management team," she said.

"It was the barrier of the management team much more than working with the union, who had legitimate aims.

"But business is business, and problems like this can be overcome."

Mr. Ingham added: "I take the view, at the start you have always got to understand and there is always a reason behind views people have and I think you have got to take time out and get to understand the basis for those views and once you have done that you can always understand the views you are hearing.

"If you fail to do that you just get into a downward spiral and you have got to interrupt that to get out of it and focus on the real matter in hand."

From a banking perspective, Mr. Thompson said the most important factor is the people who run the organisation.

"If you look at a bank, your most valuable assets are your people," he said.

"I probably spend more time with our head of human resources on recruiting, development and training of employees than any other head of department.

"I have an open door policy and will spend time with any employee that wants to see me."

Mr. Tucker said: "What we try and do is get it embedded in the day-to-day operations of what we do.

"It needs to be part of what we do every day and we need to make sure that we push the right levers all the way down the organisations and in making decisions because most communication is non-verbal and it is what is done in everyday life rather than what someone gets up and says that is important."

Ms. Lines added: "This is a changing world and this is about changing structures that have been in place for a long time.

"I think it is important for the CEO to try and be accessible.

"They are just a person at the end of the end of day within a whole organisation of other people and I think it is a healthy organisation where people are communicating effectively with each other."

The rest of the day consisted of a speech by Mr. Zander on 'The Art of Possibility', where he talked about how to become a leader.

There was also an executive women's panel comprising Denise Reviere, president and CEO of OD Solutions International, Julie Shaekel, chief auditor of ACE, Pam Ferreira, chairperson and owner of Marketplace, Marcia Woolridge-Allwood, director of corporate and financial services at Bermuda Monetary Authority, Michelle Wolfe, managing director of Butterfield Trust, and Fiona Luck, chief of staff at XL Capital.

The conference was concluded with a talk from keynote speaker Carolyn Buck-Luce, a partner at Ernst & Young in the US, officer and director of the Centre for Work-Life Policy, board member and vice-chairman of the New York Women's Foundation and co-founder of the Corporate Council for the White House Project.

For more information at the conference and any future events, visit the website at www.centreforleadership.bm