For some weeks now I have been reading up on resilience, and tonight I came across this very good article published by staff at the Mayo Clinic.
I recommend that you also complete the Resilience Scale online questionnaire at: http://www.resiliencescale.com/en/rstest/rstest_en.html
Resilience: Build skills to endure hardship – MayoClinic.com.
Listen to Patrick Awuah speak about the education of leaders in Africa.
more about "Patrick Awuah on Leadership", posted with vodpod
Abolish the Political Class!
It is clear from media reports coming from the UK that Ireland is not the only country that is suffering from the immoral behaviour of professional politicians. Charles Moore has a good article (May 22nd) in the Telegraph [LINK] calling for the end of their Political Class.
“The “political class” which most of us heartily dislike is not an accident. Commentators rightly note that all parties have colluded in the creeping growth of perks and allowances, which goes back, in relation to second homes, to Edward Heath’s Tory government in 1971. But the big money in this game only began under New Labour. It is only since 1997 that property fortunes have been made through taxpayer largesse.”
We should do the same here in Ireland. This will create the space we need for new forms of leadership to emerge and new leaders.
This will have to lead to a form of politics that is founded not only on the law, but on morality and ethics as well. It seems that nothing unlawful was done by the MPs in Westminster, but no one doubts that it is unethical and immoral.
Comments always welcome.
Penny has dropped: political talent pool is far too shallow
The system needs to change so that the right people can find their way.
Sunday May 10 2009 [from the Sunday Independent]
Note: John and I were school friends in Newbridge in the 1960s.
There has never been a time when the world needed talented political leadership more than it does now. The set of global challenges which will face our children and their children are simply staggering in scope, scale, and complexity. Gross overpopulation, global warming, nuclear weapons proliferation, shortages of food, water and energy, all pose existential threats to our societies, and possibly to our species. The decisions which our politicians make in the next decade or two will have lasting impacts for generations. We desperately need smart, thoughtful, well-informed and, above all, far-sighted leaders.
Do we have them globally? Do we have them in Ireland? The penny seems to have dropped with the American population. The strikingly impressive thing about the 2008 US presidential election was not that the electorate choose an African American, but that after eight years of the “keep drillin’, burnin’, breedin’ and shootin”’ school of public policy, they embraced such a cerebral and nuanced intellectual as Barack Obama. True to his word, Mr Obama appointed a non-political Nobel prize winner as his Energy Secretary, a leading educationalist as his Secretary for Education, and a career military officer and intelligence leader (who incidentally was a political opponent pre-election) as his Secretary of Defence. His Secretary of the Interior (equivalent of our Environment Minister) is a former farmer and environmental lawyer. His Secretary of State (another former opponent) had travelled to virtually every country in the world, meeting most significant leaders in the process.
Do our current political structures make it likely or even possible that we in Ireland will get leaders of this calibre? I believe not. The central problem is not that the pool of talent is too thinly spread across the parties, but that the pool itself is too shallow. With few exceptions, the people who do opt for political careers have political skill sets which do not equip them to make bold decisions, decisions which might be electorally dangerous in the short term. The principal attribute that an aspiring Dail deputy brings to the table is not vision or leadership, but rather the ability to emerge from a local party machine. The pool of people available for cabinet appointment is thus deficient in expertise. We may get a teacher as Education Minister, but are unlikely to get an educationalist. We have had doctors in health, but have never had a thought-leader in health policy.
Our island status tends to give us a quaint view of global problems. The rest of the world might sink into a teeming, starving, overpopulated morass of nuclear-armed religious conflict, but not us. The fact that we rode out the Second World War like truculent teenagers, loudly proclaiming our independence while depending entirely on the protection of US, British and Soviet adults to keep us safe, has given us the impression that we can afford the luxury of perpetually parochial and relentlessly petty politics.
We can let our international parents worry about the big global issues. As long as we have the annual pilgrimage to hand a begging bowl of shamrock to the US president, we can delude ourselves into believing that we are globally influential. Again, like “daddy you’re so stupid” adolescents, we knew it all. During the Tiger years we were actually beginning to persuade some of the more gullible European grownups that we had a unique font of economic expertise. The hubris! A truer reflection of international opinion regarding our politicians can be seen in the recent “Erin go Broke” article in the New York Times.
The penny finally seems to have dropped with us, too. Decisions made by our government do make a difference. We can no longer afford the luxury of affable incompetent politicians, or hereditary seats. Anyone watching the Late Late Show debate last Friday night will realise that the penny has not dropped with the politicians themselves.
We have, as a nation, become blasé about our democracy, and allowed it to debase itself, both ethically and intellectually. We need to reinvent ourselves politically. To do this we need a change in system, one which incentivises talented individuals to enter politics, and which immunises them from the wrath of geographically defined pressure groups when they make the common good decisions which are necessary.
Professor John Crown is a consultant oncologist
Authentic Leadership Cafe – Dublin – April 29, 2009
Let me give some space to recommending and promoting the Authentic Leadership Cafe that will take place in Dublin, April 29, 2009.
This will be a great gig for anyone who is interested in change and leading change in Ireland and internationally.
Follow this link: http://tinyurl.com/c7ktmb
Peter Sutherland’s article in the FT is good news for Ireland! After many weeks of bad news in the international media concerning the Irish economy, it appears that we are taking the right action to medicate our sick ecomomy.
It does look like our leaders have started to lead. That’s just as well as the opposition politicians have been damp, with the possible exception of Eamonn Gilmore of the labour party.
FT.com / Comment / Opinion – Celtic Tiger sharpens its claws for recovery
Posted using ShareThis
Can also be found on the Irish Times site: http://tinyurl.com/cfcb7c
Saint Andrews University in Scotland recently appointed and Irish woman as their principal. In doing so they have broken a number of moulds, taboos even. [read the NY Times article, linked below]
It is heartening to see that Ireland’s contribution to significant leadership positions continues. We are still hitting above our weight it would seem.
Louise Richardson, the new principal, is not looking for “revolution”, but is looking for “accelerated evolution”.
The Saturday Profile – In Scotland, New Leadership Crumbles Old Barrier – Biography – NYTimes.com
Posted using ShareThis
We are use to reading and hearing about bishops that don’t give leadership. Recently the FT published an article about the Right Rev Peter Hullah. He is giving inspirational leadership in the area of education in England. Read the article to find out more – including an unexpected connection to Harvard. Comments always welcomed.
FT.com / Business education – A new dynamism
Posted using ShareThis
The Centre For Creative Leadership have a great White Paper on coaching senior leadership teams. You can get it by following this link:
https://www.ccl.org/leadership/pdf/research/SeniorLeadTeamCoaching.pdf
Posted using ShareThis
The Leadership Balls site has a lot of useful tips for leaders. You can find them by following this link:
leadership training, leadership tips, theory, skills, for leadership
training and development
Posted using ShareThis
