Poise (& Balance)

Absolutely! I agree with Gary Henry on this one- Poise (my emphasis: and Balance), is one of the greatest qualities for leadership success, most especially in the turbulent environment of transformational leadership.



It has (poise) has always kept me out of trouble, and always alert to those little funny detractors of my transformational agenda...

Amplify’d from wordpoints.com

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Poise (November 10)

“The big things of life are never done by a fussy man. Poise is one of the earmarks of mental strength” (Preston Nolan).

POISE IS NOT A QUALITY THAT MANY PEOPLE PURSUE NOWADAYS, BUT WE WOULD DO WELL TO APPRECIATE ITS VALUE. It sounds like something from the Victorian Age, and these days, being Victorian is not very high on anybody’s agenda. But let’s not be too quick to poke fun at or write off a character quality like poise.

In its most literal sense, poise has to do with “balance.” If, for example, a basketball is “poised” on someone’s index finger, it is in a state of balance or equilibrium. As a character trait, then, poise means that a person’s THINKING is stable and not thrown “off-balance” by awkward or stressful circumstances. We often describe the poised person as “assured” or “composed.” By contrast, the person without poise is unsure, unstable, and unhelpful; he tends to panic and “lose his cool.”

In one of his poems, James Russell Lowell wrote, “Ah, men do not know how much strength is in poise, / That he goes farthest who goes far enough.” There is indeed some strength in poise, and we would do well to acquire it. Many good things come from the ability to keep a “level head” when difficult situations arise and hard decisions have to be made. It is poise that tells us how many steps are enough — and when taking even one more would lead to imbalance.

“The ability to keep a cool head in an emergency, to maintain poise in the midst of excitement, and to refuse to be stampeded are true marks of leadership” (R. Shannon).

Gary Henry – EnthusiasticIdeas.com Read more at wordpoints.com

 

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