Follow the Rules (The Olympics & Armed Security - Glasgow, Scotland)
Megan Billnoske
Leadership Trainer ● Keynote Speaker ● Coach ● Everything DiSC? & 5 Behaviors? Authorized Partner ● Artist
It was my first trip across the pond, and I was ecstatic to have an adventure. I was traveling with two coworkers from Houston to Manchester, England and then by car up to Glasgow, Scotland. Between the lush scenery and the charm of old castles, I had no idea that I would be staying at a hotel with all of the Women's Soccer Olympic athletes! To keep them (and us) safe, the amount of security and armed soldiers was extremely intimidating, even for someone from Texas.
As with most of our work flights, we left at noon-ish on Saturday and would arrive at our hotel about 7 am in the morning (UK time), which is 1 am Texas time. Now, I had never pulled an all-nighter to cram for an exam in college, and I, in fact, become pretty unfriendly and quiet when I'm low on sleep. Mostly, the day we landed, my small flicker of excitement was the only thing keeping me going. Afterall, we were in a land of castles.
We drove down to Sheffield, England for a part of our work trip. It was my first time meeting everyone in person, so I enjoyed all of the accents and laughs during my training sessions with them. After a few days there, a coworker and I drove north to Glasgow, Scotland for more training sessions. I was the company's only corporate trainer, and my trip was designed to help our employees learn all about how to use their new internally built software program.
We plop down in our rental car, and away we went. It was small but comfortable for us both, with plenty of room for my huge Pelican case for 6 training laptops.
It was black with huge side buckles, and it looked like something security might not like...
A few hours later, we drive up to the Hilton entry way in downtown Glasgow.
Immediately, we see it's completely blocked off by armed soldiers and barricades. Following the signs and hand gestures of the troops, we stop at the entrance. In what seemed like forever, a fully armed military soldier comes to the driver's side door. My coworker (we'll call him Jake) rolled down the window to speak to him.
In the meantime, I'm in the passenger's side, watching three more soldiers walk to, and around, our vehicle. One has a mirror on a long stick to look under the car, and the other has a dog that is anxiously sniffing all over our car.
Where exactly... are we?!
The soldier asks Jake to "Pop the boot and the bonnet". I am thinking these people have lost their mind. What is a bonnet and why do they want my cowboy boots?! And if we can't pop it fast, they might think we have something to hide. I'd like to do what they ask, but if they only spoke English!
In a shaky voice, Jake told the solider he didn't know how to open the bonnet since we were in a rental car. Go figure! There I sat - stunned and sitting in shock thinking maybe I can call my family from a red phone booth in jail.
Finally, after pulling enough levies, buttons and handles, we open the trunk and the soldiers then see my bomb-looking suitcase of laptops.
Oh geez. Of course I am carrying THAT huge case right now.
With nothing to hide, and in complete confusion, we follow what they ask for, as best we could. They open everything up, seem satisfied that we are harmless guests, and let us go into the hotel parking to check in.
We park, and the next challenge was a security check line before we can event go into the door. After taking all six laptops out of that case, scanning them and getting them back into the case, we migrated to the front door. Here, the door greeters were two officers with machine guns.
Now, for a first timer in the UK, I was mind-blown at how this was all happening. What a different world, I thought. I had nothing to hide, so I followed the rules and what they asked us to do. Afterall, I'd like to go to my home country when the week was up.
Once we got into the hotel with all of our stuff, we found out the reason for the extensive security.
All of the Women's Soccer Olympic teams were staying in that hotel.
Many of the floors were designated to an entire team, and they were heavily protected. France was on floor seven, the US was on floor 9, and so on. They even had a bus taking them to and from games.
It's important to emphasize that in the UK, civilians are not allowed to have guns, as Americans do in the United States. So, the visibility of these weapons was especially shocking to many people there. Heck, it was shocking to me because it's not every day you see a machine gun at the door of your hotel.
It was pretty neat to be in the hotel with them, though.
One evening after work, we were in the hotel lobby having a few beers, when the US Women's Soccer team was gathering in the lobby. About an hour later, we saw them on TV in the hotel lobby, still drinking our beers. We. were. there!
As per the usual, I couldn't help but explore the city in between working hours. One of my favorites was George's Square, where they had a full set up of displays for the Olympics! Not to mention, a handful of beautiful ancient buildings just beaming with glory.
Our training sessions went great, except for this Texan (that's me) plugging in US adapters and blowing the entire office electricity. My coworker Jake came bolting into the training room suddenly and mentioned that it smelled like smoke. Ha! Note to self, don't use the cheapest adapters you can find. The sparks are not worth it and the entire office will talk about you when you leave, haha.
Let's just say it was fixed eventually, but class was delayed that day due to no electricity and several trips to the computer store.
As a leader, it's important for us to know when to challenge the status quo, and when to follow the rules.
** That federal regulation regarding timecards, time-off and the approval process for your direct reports.
** That safety precaution to wear your seatbelt and a hard hat on the forklift before driving in the warehouse.
** That executive meeting where you're restricted to only use one slide for a presentation to keep the schedule on track. (Animations don't count, right?)
** That situation where you have to document events the specific way the employee relations department requires because of things happening with a direct report.
Knowing when to follow the rules is a key trait for leaders - they know their boundaries and understand the risks that lay outside of them. For us in Scotland, we knew to follow the security rules. And as someone who likes to challenge the status quo and innovate, I'll admit that the rules are critical in certain times like that.
And remember, what rules and guidelines you respect, are the same rules that your team will respect.
Lead where you are.
Written and lived by Megan Billnoske, owner and founder of IMSPIRE, LLC. She specializes in working with students, leaders and teams who are hungry to grow, ready to say YES! to elevating their skills and like to have fun along the way.
In her 12-year corporate career, she's trained 14,000+ leaders, had 27 bosses, launched 14+ brand new training programs, led countless international teams, worked in 12+ industries throughout the globe and loves what she does.
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