Posts Tagged ‘self reliance’

Leadership & Entrepreneurship in Ireland – Course Wrap-up

Saturday, June 30th, 2012

I was quite fortunate to have had a great class again this year.  The students were committed, professional, engaged, punctual, and represented the university, the state and our country extraordinarily well.

By my count, the students have met with 19 leaders in the public and private sectors along with 5 grad students from UCD, and countless others at the companies where they worked for five days.

  1. Joe Dowd, Entrepreneur
  2. Jim Lyons, Ireland’s Honorary Consul for Denver
  3. Donal Cullen, CEO, Spanishpoint
  4. James Wolsey, Honorary Trade and Investment Representatives in Europe for the State of Colorado
  5. Ronan Loftus, Co-founder & Director, Identigen
  6. Alan Looney, CEO, National Chemical Company
  7. Kieran Daly, CEO, Shimmer Research
  8. Andrew Parish, CEO, Wavebob
  9. Colm McGoldrick, Founder, CEO, Maildistiller
  10. Paul Byrne, CEO, Trintek
  11. Bryan Keating, Angel Investor
  12. Norman Apsley, CEO, NI Science Park
  13. Willie McCarter, Former Chair, International Fund for Ireland
  14. Sir George Quigley, Chairman, Bombardier
  15. Lisa Bradley, International Program, University of Ulster
  16. Connor Walsh, CEO, Andor
  17. Deputy Bernard Durkan
  18. Peter Connor, Mentor & Entrepreneur, Startup Bootcamp Dublin
  19. Cyril Brennan, Deputy Director US Affairs, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
  20. Grad Students from UCD

The students attended an informal gathering of investors and entrepreneurs in the tech space, and also a briefing to 200 business leaders in Belfast on the potential of the cloud market.  We were in Northern Ireland for the Queen’s historic visit when she shook hands with a former IRA leader.  Two of the people we interacted with met the queen during our visit, and two others we met had previously received honors from the queen.

We learned about leadership, entrepreneurship, where the potential opportunities lie, and the similarities and differences of the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, the UK, and the growing influence of the EU.  Teaching leadership, I often refer to the necessity of understanding others’ values, assumptions, beliefs and expectations.  In Ireland, many of the leaders made multiple historical references as necessary to understand the likely implications of future decisions.  This in particular stands in stark contrast to normal conversation in the U.S.

The take-away for me is human relationships – past, present and future.  The effective CEO’s we met ask good questions, keep things as simple as possible, stay focused, empower teams, and provides opportunities for growth and development.  People work with, buy from, do deals with, help, mentor, teach, and assist people they like and trust.  And people in Ireland and Colorado have a tremendous amount in common when it comes to answering the three universal questions:

  1. Can I trust you?
  2. Do you care about me?
  3. Are you committed to my success

We answer those un-asked questions in a positive way by doing what’s right; doing our best; and treating people kindly.  The east coast has two hours on us when it comes to Ireland, but what draws people to our state are the values of self reliance expressed in entrepreneurs, risk takers, and deal makers.

I feel strongly that we’ve created an outstanding academic program for our students to gain international experience. I also believe we’ve strengthened the bridge that exists between Ireland and Colorado.  The Irish Network, the University of Colorado Denver, the Graduate Business School at the University College Dublin, the University of Ulster, the Governor’s office, and businesses of all types and sizes in both countries are collaborating better than ever to develop a highly skilled workforce that can compete in a global market.  We can focus on negative news, but we can take solace from history that adversity is the crucible by which each generation’s leaders are forged.  There are outstanding examples of breakthrough performance with the five generations in the workforce today already innovating, and leveraging strengths to boost prosperity for all.

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Leadership & Entrepreneurship in Ireland – Day Eleven

Monday, June 25th, 2012

The teams are back to work today, and we received terrific feedback from the Wavebob CEO on the work of the Dublin Team!  I will be with the Belfast Team tomorrow when they present their final findings and recommendation to the Maildistiller CEO.

The students and I were discussing how failure is viewed culturally here in Ireland.  I am not sure if what we’ve heard is widespread opinion or not, but whereas in America entrepreneurship is looked at quite nobly, and failure is viewed as a learning event, failure here seems to be considered more a permanent black mark.  We’ll have to speak with more people to see if that’s a majority perspective, and whether it’s changing as Enterprise Ireland and others are encouraging young people to venture out.

A good friend here often says, “Life ain’t a dress rehearsal,” and in the pub tonight, another fellow said, “You only get one lap around.”  Those sentiments aren’t consistent with a culture that doesn’t accept risk and failure.  There is great pride here in the industrial history, technical savvy, and innovation that make Ireland’s labor highly desirable.  I still see large gaps in the “commercialization” side of things, and in the understanding of how strategic branding can be an extremely powerful competence.  I believe more strongly than ever that Colorado is well positioned to leverage the unique strengths of the Irish professional due to complementary skills, similar values with regard to self-reliance, and a common sense of pride and work ethic.

There’s much more to be said about the ever-changing political climate here, but to get it right, one needs more space than a blog posting to insure that nothing is taken out of context or misconstrued.  Interesting times here in Ireland, and the Queen’s visit over the next few days should provide to be historic, and enlightening as to what it will say about where things are, and where they’re headed.  I ran 5 miles this morning in Derry, which included crossing the Peace Bridge.  The bridge represents much more than a passage over the River Foyle, it’s a bridge that would have been impossible to cross even if it had existed just a few years ago.

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The Secret Ingredient for (Team) Happiness

Sunday, March 4th, 2012

“What is the nature of human happiness?”  That’s the seminal question Daniel Gilbert is focused on answering in the latest issue of the Harvard Business Review.   I have heard managers say their co-workers are family, and creating a happy environment is part of the culture.  My question, “Is employee ‘happiness’ a realistic goal for today’s leaders?”

Gilbert’s research thus far shows the things we correlate with happiness (e.g., new house or more money) don’t last long.  In fact, a recent study showed that good or bad events only have about a three-month effect.   That is, we’re good at seeing the silver lining in things no matter how dire they seem at first.  Another aha is that we’re not good at predicting what will actually make us happy – much less those we lead.

Back to my question, is creating happy employees a realistic goal for today’s leaders?  Gilbert found that being bored is what makes people really unhappy.  Creating a challenging environment with stretch goals and rewards works far better than one where fear and anxiety reign.  Another finding is that a person’s social network is the single best indicator of overall happiness.  Given the drive for teamwork, transparency, and innovation, it seems that today’s leaders have much to gain by fostering a highly interactive and social work environment.  Psychologist Ed Diener found that it isn’t “big” experiences that make us happy – it’s many small ones.  In other words, we don’t need to focus on huge reward plans as much as creating a highly social environment where the rewards are simple and frequent – comfortable chairs, a kitchen to congregate, easy to deliver attaboys, etc.

The secret ingredient?  It wouldn’t be a self-reliant blog if I didn’t add in the leader also needs to teach and model personal responsibility.  There is a will power component to happiness that requires a commitment to exercise, meditate, rest and demonstrate benevolence.  William Deresiewicz wrote a short essay called, “Forever Young” where he observed, “Authority, responsibility, sacrifice, discipline, duty, restraint: we no longer know how to value the qualities of adulthood.  The very words are ugly to us. We reject them, because we know, deep down, that we aren’t equipped for them.”

I beg to differ.  The act of losing or surrendering something by sacrifice is a critical component of willpower.  In a recent article in Time on the subject of willpower, Jeffrey Kluger summarized, “fatigue becomes strength and ache becomes commitment.”  Only through an intense desire to prefer the altered state will someone be ready to give up something.  When people sacrifice something important, like precious time, only then are they ready to start to bring new ways to perform.  Chances are, you are comfortable with the way things are today.  Achievement from the status quo requires challenge and discomfort, and as humans, we are geared to conserve energy.  It might be cliché, but great achievements require willpower and sacrifice, but that is also the key to our happiness and that of the teams we lead.

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