Supporting Leaders through Ancestry Work #23 #cong21

In my career I have had the opportunity to work with great leaders in the tech, automotive and the entertainment industry as well as many others. In my role as a tour operator and researcher, it is my heartfelt wish to support these leaders in a way that gives them more purpose by allowing them to talk freely without any bias on my part about their fears, wishes and discoveries in their ancestral line.

When researching someone’s ancestry the best way is the holistic approach of homing in on why someone wants to do this ancestral work in the first place and bringing their family story to light. Sometimes it is surprising for these leaders to realise what came before them and what their own role in the world is. As they peruse what came before and have that ah ha moment about their impact on the world down the road, I feel a sense of accomplishment of helping someone be a good leader by helping them see what might be affecting their leadership from the legacy of the ancestor.

When you can reach back to include the discovery of the new world and the role of the ancestor, the stories impact people differently depending on their experiences and views. Were they attacked by Indians? What does that mean in our current climate of inclusion or exclusion? Were they new world leaders that held slaves? Were they ministers that led their congregations across the Atlantic Ocean to find religious freedom? Were they founders of Harvard or some other institution that still impacts the lives of many? Were they founders of towns in the new world? The first to make landfall and establish a new way of living? Fighting for Freedom against tyranny? Were they musicians? Did they forge the way in the Golden Age of film in Hollywood? What impact did the ancestor have on present day?

Or should we wander all the way back to early Ireland, Scotland and England and the fight for the throne? Did they flee as Earls or as followers? Were they involved in what led to the Flight of the Earls? Were they Red Hand O’Neills and how does that affect your predisposition for tyranny or brutality? Were they once the King of Scotland or notorious like Marie Antoinette? Does their legacy still exist in a thatched cottage or a castle that offers a way to go and feel what that ancestor might have felt, seen or experienced?

All of these ancestors left a mark on our DNA and sometimes it is etched in memories or what I call existential genealogy. This manifests itself in present day as we feel their echoes in the fears we harbour and as we feel their presence in the places they walked. You may not know why you are drawn to your neighbour, your client, even your wife as the discovery sometimes leads us to realise, we are very distant cousins, or our ancestors experienced something traumatic together. We have always travelled in packs and that otherworldly realm impacts how we lead and are in the world.
Supporting clients in these trying times through ancestry work has helped them guide their businesses and employees in some of the most trying times of their careers. It has taught some of them that tyranny is not the way and it has taught others compassion for the ancestor experience in the time that they lived, thus helping the client navigate present day quandaries in leadership surrounding such things as virtue signalling and critical race theory. It has taught critical thinking minus the trigger verb attached to the action. Why? Because knowledge is power and insight.

So, what is your leadership style? Has your ancestry impacted the way you feel and think about certain events or people? I personally think that carried over beliefs of our ancestry is a huge trigger in present day Ireland. It impacts the way I do business in Ireland and how I choose to guide my clients with their ancestry research. My style of leadership is one of inclusion because I am American and that affords me a very different viewpoint from the norm. For example, when on tour I make sure that both Catholic and Protestant viewpoints are offered. As I watch events unfold in real time, I am often hit with the very lack of knowledge Ireland has of its shared history that dates back centuries, not just the just the 100 years of freedom. Will we take this opportunity to lead people using compassion and inclusion? Or will we be one that helps tyranny win because we know no different way other than our experience of being abused and thus become the abuser?
In closing and as a thank you for Frederique Murphy’s fantastic leadership guidance this week to get me into writing this all down. In her new book on leadership and shifting the narrative, Lead Beyond the Edge, she says…

‘Knowledge gives us the confidence to move forward. Gaining more awareness about something makes it more tangible thus increasing its reach and your ability to work on it. The more aware you are, the better you are at leading your life where you want it to be’