Today our class went our separate ways to work on our
company projects. My team of five headed
to Maynooth, but first we walked over to the Dublin Castle – which is (and
looks more like) a current government building.
Most of the original medieval castle was destroyed and then later
rebuilt, but we did see an original tower and a bit of wall (now
underground). It wasn’t at all an
opulent Versailles-ish sort of castle, and it didn’t have the dramatic flair of
Neushwanstein, but it was fascinating to learn some of the Irish/Dublin history
as we went through it. I hadn’t realized
Ireland is such a young republic, only having gained independence in 1922. Likely due to the facts that their buildings
are still old and cool and their history goes back much further.
After the castle we ate lunch at KC Peaches, took a quick
swing through St. Stephen’s Green, and then retrieved our bags from Trinity and
headed to Pearse station to catch the train to Maynooth. Our ride was slightly delayed due to the fact
that at one stop the conductor announced the train was terminating and we all
had to get off and wait for the next train (that’s one of those times we were
really thankful we were in an English-speaking country and could understand
what was going on:), but we still made it to Maynooth in under an hour. Armed with directions from a very friendly
Irish woman, we found our hotel and then cabbed it over to the Wavebob
offices. We met Andrew and got ourselves
settled in, then conducted another phone interview for our leader study and got
ourselves ready to go for the next day.
Andrew then took us to a great spot in Strawberry Bed for dinner –
Anglers Rest – after showing us the really cool university in Maynooth…we’ll
have to walk around it sometime! Dinner
was great and we really enjoyed talking with Andrew! So much so that all of a sudden it was 10:45
and we realized we probably ought to head “home!”
Lia provided us with multiple laughs today. She has curly red hair and freckles and is
not Irish, but she’s been asked a lot if she is. So today she had our cabbie believing (and us
dying of laughter) that her last name is O’Leary and she’s visiting family
here. She was also coerced into trying
Guinness and Irish Whisky for the first time at dinner, and invented a nickname
that stuck – J Tickle. All somewhat inside
jokes, but they gave us a good daily dose of humor.
Circling back around to business, we were impressed with our
host CEO tonight. One thing we’ve
noticed here is that everyone is SO friendly.
Andrew told us that the Irish don’t think they’re friendly – they think
Americans are – but he is wrong. People
have regularly gone out of their way to be kind and help us out – even strangers. Andrew was no exception, and we realized on
the way home his graciousness throughout the evening inspired us to really try
to deliver a valuable project to him. Hmmm
– sounds like a leadership principle at play…treat your employees well and make
them feel good, and they’ll want to work hard and do a good job. Goes back to the James Clawson definition of
leadership Jan shared Monday – “…the ability and willingness to influence
others so that they respond willingly.”
Andrew took the time and made the effort to pour into us a little bit by
treating us to dinner, explaining his company/project, and answering all our
questions, which just naturally made us want to deliver results. The other leadership principle I was reminded
of was that achievement and confidence are powerful motivators. Andrew gave us a big goal with somewhat lofty
expectations. He isn’t asking us to do
something impossible, but he is pushing us and giving us the opportunity to
achieve something worthwhile and that will require significant input. And as we heard Monday, that is actually
empowering, motivating. We’re the ones
working “for free” (or rather, we paid a course fee to work:), but I have a
feeling we will be getting an incredible amount from it.
P.S. Happy Birthday
Darlin! Love you!
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