. In this video Paul talks of four leadership styles he’s experienced: (1) in his father’s bookshop (2) in London Transport Buses (3) in the National Trust in UK (4) in Toastmasters International .
Paul also highlights some quotations he likes from contributions here by Alastair Herbert, Betty O’Callaghan, Frank Hannigan, & Paul Freeney
For the rest, watch the 12 minute video.
Total Words
154
Reading Time in Minutes
1
Key Takeaways:
Question your leadership style.
Reflect: are those you lead trust-worthy?
Experiment : see whether you can be a servant leader
Learn from experience which style of leadership works best in your situation
Communities are Conversations. Conversations attract Collaborations. Collaborations change Communications. I have noticed strong communities are nearly as strong as poems fit for purpose.
In this day & age, and in this place & stage, the melody of metaphors, allegories and similes is the best way to cut through cant. Unfortunately for many communities, the gestation of the foetus is done, the birth of the Individual has come. Recently …
The Magician turned her back to the sea and spoke to the Wind:
“Come join us in our unity.
Take your place at the table, you belong among us.
Together we grow stronger than our surroundings.
We rise above the ground that supports us.
Feel yourself hugged by a multitude of villagers eyed with affection from every squinting window.
Come inside your birthright, and sign the book of your life written in invisible ink.
Let us understand you better than you understand yourself.
Let us guide you past the temptations that fester under your skin.
Let us make you whole.
Our health, your health, Your health, our health.
Unity in unity.
Lose yourself in magic.
Speak wind, speak our language.”
The Wind spoke:
“You touch me in every orifice.
Your smell invites me into your cave.
I see your shadows beyond the fire where I was forged, your reflections on my mind.
Have I the right to resist, the power to deny, the authority to cry ‘NO’?
I shall not be bent into shape like a plashed hedge” whispered the wind.
This breath is not for turning.
You can keep your unity Community.
I’ll be no village clone, I am grown to live alone.
I belong to a grander table, better fed, vulnerable as the weather, fragile as glass. I am an elementary particle.
Call me Neutrino, I am so small I pass through your imaginations unimpeded and undetected.
Surely you see my city, Diversity.
May you understand yourself so poorly you sink slowly from your throne.
I am the Authority authorised to sing louder than your choir. That’s what you mean to me.”
And the Wind blew the Magician into her sea where she went in search of a victim weaker than an Individual Gust.
In the beginning…
I’m up to my eyes, emptying ideas out of my sack of distractions. Travelling to Cong in the spirit of a leaky bucket. Trusting you to offer me too many ideas for my own good.
If you have a feather of an idea, let it blow in the breeze as you shoot. Be light-hearted, leave your brain at home, let your imagination out of prison.
Neither of us are a figment not a segment of the ONE GRAND IDEA. Before our idea were our feelings. Contrary to every idea we’ve ever shared, the idea is secondary. Our emotional health is primary.
4 Key Takeaways:
Keep your ideas short – in case they take too long to express.
Kill your favourite ideas – that way lies salvation.
The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of bad ideas.
Stop thinking ideas – start feeling ideas.
About Paul O'Mahony:
Mature man living in Cork since 2005. Son of bookshop owner, grew up in Limerick, university in Dublin, 30 years in UK. Grandfather. Member of Toastmasters International.
Poet since 1995. Blogger since 2005. Big communicator via Internet. Huge into “social audio” – uses Anchor, Limor, Audioboom, Periscope, Twitter… Profession: marketing.
Loves: talking, opera, golf, black sole & tuna, gin, apples, cooking, ironing, writing, CongRegation, Eoin, Chicago, Italy
Motto: MAKING MEANING NOT WAR
“If at first, the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.” – Albert Einstein
I hope to hear a lot of absurd ideas at Cong – not just during huddles – because I think every idea is a disguised hope.
“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” – Oscar Wilde
All my life I’ve lived dangerously, on the edge of owning an idea – even my conception was dangerous.
“Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them.” – Alfred North Whitehead
There’s nothing like stale ideas to keep publishers & booksellers going. I was born among stale ideas & ate plenty of bread & butter pudding.
“A new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a quip and worried to death by a frown on the right man’s brow.” – Ovid
I only spawn crude ideas – crudités become me. I hope I won’t yawn at Cong.
“No grand idea was ever born in a conference, but a lot of foolish ideas have died there.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Birth is overrated.
“An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.” – Charles Dickens
I’d like to talk with people who speak to themselves.
“Everyone is in love with their own ideas.” – Carl Jung
I only rent ideas, don’t believe in owning them. I love women.
“Why is it I always get my best ideas while shaving?” – Albert Einstein
My most satisfying ideations come when I’m shaving away superfluous verbiage.
“One’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” – Oliver Wendell Holmes
I’m always in two minds – a eclectic Taoist.
“A mediocre idea that generates enthusiasm will go further than a great idea that inspires no one.” – Mary Kay Ash
To go further than Cong is unnecessary – it may be attractive but it’s not essential for my wellbeing.
“We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.”- Friedrich Nietzsche
Atonality matters.
“Once upon a time I had an idea. It lived with a wicked stepfather in a crooked house full of children who screamed for attention.” – Paul O’Mahony
You have to put your children to bed – or out to grass. Your best poems have to be buried like acorns – those that rot turn to ballast.
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