An Cosantóir

www.military.ie THE DEFENCE FORCES MAGAZINE | 23 when you are a young Lieutenant. But as you progress that changes. From the rank of Captain onward, in my opin- ion, they won't follow you because of rank, they'll follow you because of your experience, your values and how you do your work." This is what Mark refers to as a style of leadership, which he learned through constantly chal- lenging himself to develop as a leader. He believes that while someone's personal style is adaptable to various situations, their behaviour is something far more immu- table and is the defining trait of a leader. "When it comes to leadership, behaviour is the most important means of communication. How you deliver your work is far more important than what you say about it. As Officers we are supposed to hold dear values like integrity, physical courage and moral courage. How we behave as leaders is how we act on delivering within this framework of values." Although readily acknowledging the world-class leader- ship development programmes which the Defence Forces implement for their leaders, he believes that nothing beats actual operational command in terms of honing one's leadership skills. But to hone those skills, there needs to be considerable learning, which comes via learning from mistakes and constantly re-evaluating how to deliver best as a leader. "My father, who served 40 years in the Defence Forces, said to me when I was starting out that I should never be afraid of making a mistake, but to always learn from it. That is an element that I try to bring into my private-sector business. Creating an environment where people are comfortable to challenge themselves and if necessary make mistakes, allows learning and growth as a leader," he adds. DELIVERING ON DEPLOYMENT As Officer Commanding the 48th Infantry Group on the Golan Heights in 2015, an operational deployment that SIGNAL had the privilege of reporting from, Mark had the opportunity to lead troops in as challenging an environ- ment as is currently faced by the Defence Forces. The deployment came after two months of pre-deployment training, where the 48th Infantry Group was effectively forged through the management of senior Officers and the delivery of junior Officers. "When you deploy to an environment such as the Golan, particularly bearing in mind the current turmoil in the region, there is no room for errors. There is no time for micro-management. I needed to trust my Officers, and prior to this deployment I had never worked with many of them before. Inherently there is a trust-gap until you learn how to work with someone, and that was definitely the case with me. Also, bear in mind that I spent seven years in command at The Cadet School, so I tend to set a high and hard bar for junior Officers to measure up to. But they did measure up, and they delivered when it mattered on deployment. In developing that envi- ronment, I was quite transactional in how I engaged with

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