Week 153: Leadership Training!

elenalilamartin
Dec 13, 2025
5 min read

Week 153: December 7th-13th, 2025

Back in Week 59, and then again in Week 68, I wrote about my job at ICANN and a bit about what I do for the organization. Now, about 85 weeks (or 595 days!) later, I'm back again to continue sharing a bit about my job. Please keep in mind that some of what I am working on is actually confidential at the moment, so I am forced to be a bit vague here! I can obviously also provide details on my outfits, food, and other experiences, which I'm sure some of you find much more interesting than internet governance and policy.

This past week, I participated in a leadership training program at work. This was held in person in the LA office, so I drove up at 6am on Monday and spent the week staying at the Hilton in Culver City. A grueling 3-hour commute in LA traffic was a great way to start the week, right? Joking aside, I was glad to be able to walk from the hotel to the office after the first day.

I was honored to be asked to participate in this leadership program as a part of the "new guard" being brought in. ICANN plays an incredibly important role in the global internet and it feels quite empowering to be a small part of that. My role as a Business Process Specialist so far has been to work on processes and procedures for different programs within the Next Round, or 2026 Round, of new gTLD applications. (If none of this makes sense to you, don't worry... its still a lot for me to wrap my head around, too.)

Moving forward, while my exact role is not really defined, I will be stepping into more of a leadership role in 2026 and having a larger impact on the new gTLD application program. The leadership training this past week was an opportunity to learn, but to also connect with coworkers that I only interact with virtually. I was so exhausted every day because my social battery was being put to the test, but I feel like I got a ton out of it. I made great connections with people from other departments and grew closer to people I currently work with. I will also be participating in a "Leadership Academy" for nine months from January through September 2026, which will increase my visibility among executives and help me gain skills I need for this next chapter.

A great perk of being in the office is that ICANN takes care of its employees. Everything is paid for, and the hotel is quite nice. It is only about a 5 minute walk from the office, but if I had to Uber, that would be covered by ICANN as well. I was happy to walk though, since I didn't have as much time or energy to work out every day like I normally do.

While the group doing the leadership training was about 12 people, I got to interact with a ton of other people from different teams and was surprised when I actually enjoyed a 14-hour work day. Despite the early mornings, back-to-back meetings, working lunches, team-bonding activities, and work dinners, my exhaustion was outweighed by the feeling that I like my coworkers and the organization I've been at for almost two years.

Every day, lunch was catered at the office. I was really thankful when I realized there would be lunch every day, because I did not have room in my work bag for a full lunch box. I did end up going to Trader Joe's one evening to get some quick snacks like yogurt, but I relied heavily on leftovers from all the ICANN-paid-for dinners and lunches.

One of the in-office lunches was a Create Your Own Korean bibimbap bowl - super good!

Some of the in office lunches were from Luna Grill, Tocaya Mexican, and Seoul Kitchen. We also got an amazing dinner at Din Tai Fung on the first day, and participated in a hilarious team building activity at Glow or Go at the Beverly Center on Wednesday. Many of us were a little apprehensive because the invite said to wear athletic clothing and sneakers, and we were coming straight from the office in our work clothes.

The hesitation to participate immediately went away when we were separated into two teams, Team Lars and Team Marika (two of the program leads who are from the Brussels office). I was on Team Lars. Fueled by competition, we all got really into each of the levels. The first level, or room, was called "Pink Panic," and involved hitting buttons that lit up in different colors. The second level was called "Red Reflex" and was a classic avoid-the-lasers obstacle run. The third level was a dark room filled with plastic balls that we had to work together to throw at targets and complete prompts on the screen. That one was called "Yellow Yell." The last room before the big finale was a floor-is-lava style game called "Orange Outrun." The big finale, "Solara," required us to put on full-body haz-mat-style suits and shoe covers to work together remembering sequences of shapes and ended in a big paint explosion! You can see more about it on the Glow or Go website here.

After Glow or Go, despite being sweaty and tired, we also got dinner at Yardbird and had one of the best servers I've had in a while. I wish I remember her name. She was hilarious, efficient, and made me want to return to try more items on the menu. My shrimp and grits was great, but she really sold me on the chicken and waffles, so I've got to go back sometime.

After getting back to the hotel at 9:30pm on Wednesday after Glow or Go and Yardbird, I was dreading another long day at the office. However, the owner of the building puts on a Holiday Breakfast every year, and it just so happened to be this past Thursday. They had a great spread for all the tenants in the building (even though ICANN is one of the only tenants since we take up so many floors...) and even had a live harpist playing holiday music.

This was the set-up for the holiday breakfast in the office building lobby

I was super thankful to be able to take my Friday meetings from the hotel room and then drive back to San Diego midday to avoid Friday evening traffic. Being in Traffic County-- oh, sorry, I mean Los Angeles County -- made me so thankful to not have a commute in my normal life. I would literally lose years off of my life if I had to live in LA and need 1.5 hours to go just 8 miles.

Anyway, I may be "girl-bossing too close to the sun" and risking some imposter syndrome, but I do feel very good about this past week at the office. It was weird being the youngest in the room sometimes, but I felt reassured with the positive feedback my boss gave me. I also loved having the opportunity to dress up and actually wear some of the clothes that have been collecting dust in my closet.