Who is the ideal leader?

WHO IS THE IDEAL LEADER

One of the most desirable traits of the kind of leader I want to develop is his/her keen conviction that human resource is the most vital and most important asset of any institution. When talents and skills are given the right atmosphere to grow, time will come when a bountiful harvest of great and effective leaders will surely rise to the occasion. This leadership component is supremely important and is the reason why other countries lag so far behind in all areas of development when compared to others which might be similarly situated in many ways. Failure in this crucially important aspect of leadership can never be substituted for anything less. All the other resources like money, materials and opportunities might be in abundance but without the creative minds which connect all the missing links for all of these to produce the desired results will never come to fruition. It is therefore imperative that whoever might become the leader of the college should be abundantly imbued with this conviction and does everything in his/her power to promote and support activities along this line.

Corollary to this is the concept of teamwork. There is no better way to affirm the supreme value of human talents and skills which only wait to be tapped is the creation of suitable and timely opportunities for these talents to be used. Everybody should be made to feel that they are part of a team. Everybody is a star in his own right but nobody is indispensable though everyone is needed. Everyone therefore should have the right to be heard and once a particular line of action has been decided on each one is expected to do the utmost for the success of the project. The value of synergy should be so highly priced for it is the surest to attain the highest form of excellence. Promoting teamwork then is indispensable for the success of any endeavor. When team spirit cements the relationships of the members in an organization, jealousy, competition and back stabbing will have no place to grow.

Teamwork will be greatly enhanced if transparency in all aspects of the operation of the unit will be as common as the air we breathe. When everybody knows the ins and outs of the organization, when all the details are so clear no room for doubt can even be imagined. Everybody feels responsible for all the failures as well as all the successes that necessarily come along the way. The bonds that link the individuals become so strong that they are able to feels as one with a common cause in the pursuit of a shared vision. Everyone exactly knows what is expected of him of her and knows as well that nothing is expected from each one but only the best. While much room for creativity should be provided, innovations should be highly treasured and due recognition should be accorded to all deserving members.

Tracing the Thread of the Debate (Part One)

Heraclitus it seemed was right when he claimed

That the only permanent thing in this world is change.

You cannot step twice on the same river,

For the water you step on for the second time is

No longer the same water you have stepped on before.

Everything flows.

But consider this, thundered old Parmenides.

The water sure is flowing but is not the river the same?

Do not confuse the river with the water on it.

The river would still be river without water.

How can you call it a river if there is no water flowing?

Retorted feisty Heraclitus. It is precisely called a river

Because of the water that defines its contour and it always

Flows downward for whatever reason it may have.

I still would call it a river though water is not there.

Call it a waterless river, dried up river but river just the same.

So to say that nothing is permanent only refers to the water

And not to the river itself, so nothing has changed.

And they all died like all men do keeping close to their hearts

Whatever reason they might have had that made then navigate a river,

A river with or without water.

Plato and Aristotle picked the fragments where the

Old and wizened men left off. Plato was openly sympathetic

With Parmenides while Aristotle thought that there was more point

To what Heraclitus observed. Plato hammered into the mind of

Aristotle that it is only in an unchanging world that truth, beauty and goodness

Maybe found. The master of course should be given due respect. But when

The time came when the broad shouldered one was finally summoned to the world of pure forms,

The student made up his mind and made his own personal statement.

He agreed more with Heraclitus and put premium to the role of the senses

Without which nothing would be understood. And so down through the labyrinth

Of the ages the great debate showed no sign of reaching its end,

For somehow somewhere, somebody would take the cudgels

To defend one side or the other.

The medieval scholars immersed in it so that it did not take long

That a pitch battle was waged between the supporters of Augustine

Who could not countenance the likes of an Aquinas.

And exactly as before the battle remained undecided

As who had bested the rest of the participants, partakers and stakeholders.

They all have their entrances and exits on center stage but the drama moves on.

Tracing the Thread of the Debate (Part Two)

Descartes tinkered with the treasure chest which legend said

Came from Atlantis as reported by Plato. Leibnitz probed into

The inner chambers and saw monads quietly swirling around

In miniature vortices. A little while after Spinoza thought of geometric

Zings and thought this is for easy undertaking.

Locke could not restrain himself and said that Descartes was still in his

Usual dreaming state. Leibnitz’s intellectual fantasizing landed him in the

Best of all possible worlds while Spinoza agonized and found

Consolation by looking at reality sub specie aeternitatis. Venerable George Berkeley

Cringed in the possibility of the imminent eviction of God from the discussion, so he thought of

A way to convince his friends and enemies alike that everything is actually just in the mind of God

And would have all melted into nothingness were it left to its own nothingness.

The affable Hume laughed off the claim that reason could with all its power prove that what the Ancients and the schoolmen have been so sure about is nothing but wistful thinking and useless passions.

Strange indeed are the ways of men but stranger still

The man of means for as we see right down to where we are,

The world has changed not by anybody’s plan but purely by human hands.

Morning Blessings

Tugasanan on Jan 20, 2011

Tags: Beauty, blessings, brass arc loor lamps, coffee, Cornucopia, Douwe Egbert, Happiness, Senseo

An ode to the little blessings at the start of the day to help us navigate safely till the sun safely sinks away.

Morning Blessings

Waking up in the morning a little early than usual,

I notice a stronger flow of energy running through my veins.

Got my pen and a paper to catch it in midair just like what painters do;

Only they love colors more than words while I can only paint

My feelings with words to give them color.

If I would often dwell a little too much before

Of somber themes like struggling with demons

In the silence and terrors of the night;

This time I feel more like soaking in the fragrance of the moment.

Maybe beauty can provide better company,

And with just a little sensitivity I can go a long way through the day.

Isn’t it a sight to behold when the kids are snugly tucked in bed

With their favorite batman beddings with matching stickers to go with

In their nightly trip back to the land of innocence?

The smell of coffee lifts my spirit up though I may not have

Around with me a Douwe Egberts Senseo, the best of coffee pods.

Enchantment wafts the air with Aladdin’s lamp now materializing

As brass arc floor lamps without the genie of course playing around.

These are just but random samplings of blessings showering around,

Yet much more is in store for the day if you just but go the round;

And so unlike what I used to do before brooding sour faced all day long,

I started counting my blessings and the cornucopia for the asking is mine.