Page 11 - Linkline Spring 2017

Managing Performance On and Off the Pitch
Dublin Senior Football Manager and Assistant Director with the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), Jim Gavin was the keynote speaker at CILT’s Annual Alumni Lecture in April. He sat down with Linkline to chat about how performance management is key to life and business.
Photograph by Michael Miley
“My life has been about failure in sport and in my career”, Jim Gavin told a packed room at CILT’s
Annual Alumni Lecture in April. Not what you would expect to hear from the man who has led Dublin to three All-Irelands in five years and is an assistant director with the Irish Aviation Authority. The audience, familiar with Gavin’s credentials, strained to pinpoint just which part of the Dublin man’s illustrious career could be anything other than a paragon of success.
Mention the name Jim Gavin to most people and the first thing you’ll hear is “Dublin manager”. What’s many don’t know is that the man has had an extensive flying career. He first took control of an airplane over 30 years ago when he flew out from Weston Airport with the late Darby Kennedy, the founding father of Irish civil aviation. The experience instilled a lifelong love of planes and led to him joining the Irish Air Corps where he rose to the rank of Commandant. During his 20 years in the Defence Forces he served as a ministerial air transport service pilot, a chief flying instructor, a display pilot and as chief of military aviation on UN missions in the Central African Republic and Chad. Currently, Gavin works in the Safety Regulation Division of the Irish Aviation Authority. As assistant director he is responsible for safety regarding civil air traffic management, air navigation services, airspace and aerodromes, as well as command of civil aviation security standards.
Outside his aviation career Gavin, as we know, has flown to great heights in sport. A Dublin player from 1992 to 2002, he won an All-Ireland, the National Football League, as well as multiple provincial honours. As manager of the Dublin Under 21’s he led them to three All-Ireland’s and four provincial titles before taking the reins of the senior team in October 2012. In just five short years Gavin has proved himself to be one of the greatest GAA managers Dublin has ever had, collecting three All-Ireland’s, four Leinster Championships and four National Football League titles. So when he says that his life has been about failure, you can understand why there were many raised eyebrows in the room.
As Gavin delves deeper into the topic of performance management though, it becomes very clear the importance he places on failure, in both his aviation and sporting career. For him failure is less a hang-up than a point of departure from which to grow a team: “Developing a growth mind-set is an integral part of commercial air transport”, he explains. “There is an acceptance of failure and that’s why aviation is so safe. The industry has learned hard from its mistakes. When there is an accident or incident in commercial travel the regulators will take a long hard look at it, not to disperse blame or responsibility but to dispose of any negligence. In my experience 90% of air accidents and incidents are pilot error, crew error, engineering error or air traffic control error. What matters is how we can learn from that to ensure it doesn’t happen again. That’s my current role within the transport system.”
Within football he also believes failure is critical in achieving success, when an issue arises he approaches it in a methodical way, seeking out the underlying reason so it can be addressed effectively.
“In a sporting sense, looking at the game of football, when a player makes a pass and it goes astray, the first thing I ask is was it a good decision? If it was, then I’ll ask, was the execution good? And if it wasn’t, I’m not going to the player, I’m going to the skills coach, and I’ll ask them ‘why is he kicking the ball that way?’ On the other hand, if the problem was the decision the player made, then I’m asking why he didn’t understand the game plan. I’m asking what the root cause is so that we can address it, not blame the individual. That’s performance management.”
As Gavin talks about leadership and management he weaves seamlessly between his time in the Defence Forces, his career with the IAA and his role managing Dublin’s senior team. Each aspect of his life has informed a management philosophy that prioritises best effort over results, and a leadership style designed to enable rather than enforce.
“A key lesson for me at a very young age was that you should serve to lead rather than the other way around; rather than leading to be served. As an officer of the Defence
The Chartered Institute of Logistics & Transport 11
JIM GAVIN