It’s not ‘Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake’ but that one did for Mayo.
Jim Gavin is not one to rest on his laurels.
The Dublin manager has revealed that planning is already underway to secure Dublin’s fourth All-Ireland in six years.
At today’s Bord Gáis Energy ‘Leadership Conference’, Gavin declared, “I know it was only four days ago but what we did to win the All-Ireland will not be good enough to win it next year.”
To do that, Gavin says he is happy to take from all ranges of life, and sport.
He has a room, at home, that is full of books from a broad cross-section of writers, and studies on renowned leaders.
There are a couple of books on Napoleon Bonaparte and his writings. Gavin revealed the one Napoleonic maxim that has shaped his managerial career:
‘A leader is a dealer in hope.’
He takes bitesize elements from great leaders and uses that to shape his coaching approach. “I’m a magpie in my approach – I take ideas from various sources.”
You need to lose control to gain control… Jim Gavin talks about the need for delegation to be successful #leadershipconf
— Bord Gáis Energy (@BordGaisEnergy) September 24, 2015
Gavin says he prefers to empower his players and does not trade on fear factor elements.
Gavin is not the only manager that has looked to the man who took France to the brink of world domination.
In August, West Brom coach Tony Pulis said, “I’m interested in great leaders and people who have risen from the ashes and come from nothing.
“Napoleon is a great example of someone who was born on a small island — he wasn’t even French — and then he takes over and runs one of the greatest armies that has ever fought through Europe. He was a little Corsican. How did he get there?”
Wonder what Napoleon, or Gavin for that matter, would make of Tony’s cap-wearing proclivities.
