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Sunday, May 20, 2018

Day 1 - Leadership Plan and Kilmainham Gaol


It was wheels up from Denver four days ago. Nine hours to London Heathrow from Denver, a three hour layover and an hour a half back track across the Irish Sea and alas an arrival into Dublin. Aspirations of school work and reading turned into movies and attempted red eye sleep. Dublin greeted me with blue skies and sunny days for the three days I had in the city before starting our course. The locals say it’s the best the weather gets here. Today, the first day of the course, overcast draped itself over the island as if to signal its time to get down to business. Our first team event was a quick introduction in the courtyard of our Victorian style hotel. We assembled as a group, did a quick run through the planned schedule of the next few days, and went around the table for a quick introduction. Most of the class had already met up in Dublin prior to our formal introduction meeting so going through everyone’s background was mostly a formality. But one question we were asked to address, what we are trying to get out of this experience was less so. So as a precursor to the upcoming days, I write the following to my future 9-day self:

The development plan is an assignment that will be completed following this trip as a leadership model to address future development. Included in the plan are challenges I expect to face, organizations I expect to lead, and core leadership principles I plan to adopt. These aspects of my leadership model can best answer what I plan to get out of this experience. My company entered into a joint venture with an Israeli medical device company about two years ago and since then I have become an increasingly more prominent player in leading activities between the two companies in support of a co-development project. Based on past success and relationships I have fostered, I’ve been asked to move into a new role with our partner to manage quality improvement initiatives. The new role promises the challenge of walking into a successful, innovative and established company and influencing them to change past behaviors and to invest in new tools and processes that are necessary for the success of both firms. To be effective in this type of position, I will need to implement the core leadership principles that I have been studying over the past two years in my MBA. Although I did not accomplish the reading I intended to during my flight, I was able to read Jan’s book on Self Reliant Leadership and found the chapter on coaching particularly applicable. Specifically, to gain followers who are committed and not compliant a coach must get agreement that a problem exists with the group, discuss solutions with the group being coached so that they feel the idea was theirs to act on, and agree on action with the group so they are motivated and empowered. My focus and what I hope to get out of this trip is how to lead and influence change as an effective coach.

In the coming days we will have the opportunity to meet with and work with business leaders. During which, I hope to learn more on the following topics:
  1. How can a leader gain trust with a new group?
  2. How can they motivate a group and empower bottom up improvement?
  3. How do young entrepreneurs and leaders motivate a more experienced group?
  4. How can a leader adapt to different situations to lead in the most effective way?

More to come on these…

The day’s post could not be complete without diving into the team’s first activity, a visit to Kilmainham Gaol (Jail). The team assembled outside the main gate of the jail around the memorial for those executed for signing the proclamation of the Irish Republic. In typical grey and dreary Irish weather, a fitting setting for the somber history of the jail, we were directed first to the two markings above the main gate where the dual gallows used to hang. From these gallows, political prisoners would be hung to the death in front of crowds that could number as high as 60,000. The tour went through the tragic history of the Irish that found themselves imprisoned at Kilmainham, through the courageous leaders that paid the ultimate price for their mission, and took us through the cold, dark, and tiny cells that housed political prisoners. Towards the end of the tour, looking out through the steel grated window of an old cell, I caught a view of the Irish Museum of Modern Art which is positioned directly across the street of the jail. It didn’t hit me at the moment (reason why included picture doesn’t fit the description that follows) but as I walked away I realized it was the perfect juxtaposition. The Museum shares the same street with the dual gallows used to hang the poets, artists, and idealists that lead Ireland’s independence movement. Now across the street from the historic jail, only the free expressions of modern art are left hanging. The jail and the art museum capture the duality of Irish history and offer insight into effective leadership when the stakes are highest. Irish independence was not popular until leaders of the independence movement were executed by the British. In order to gain life for their country, the signers of the Proclamation of the Republic had to die. An effective leader is courageous and places the needs of those being lead above self-interest. Courageous leadership requires sacrifice. Of note was a letter written by an 18-year old sentenced to death during the Irish Civil War. In the letter, the man sentenced to death wrote about his pride for dying for Ireland and his happiness in being at peace with God yet at the same time his empathy for his family that would miss him and his sorrow for not being able to see those that he loved. Pride is quickly humbled by empathy.



The day wasn’t all tragedy as the group moved on to tour Guinness and enjoy a group dinner. It’s the end to the first official day but the group has already grown close. Time to conclude and join the team for a night cap where I fully expect to catch a hard time for my long-winded post. Tomorrow to Trinity College.


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