What makes an organization successful?

There are many factors why an organization is successful foremost of this are these three (3):

1   1. Communication – This means that every member of the organization is communicating or are able to communicate what they want to happen to their organization. For example, in the area organization mission and vision. The top management must be able to communicate the mission and vision that they want to perpetuate for their organization. This communication of ideas should be pervading to every member of the organization even to the lowest member of the organization. When the people under the organization are effectively communicating they therefore know their purpose in the organization.

2  2. Proper treatment of its Human Resource – In this era of internet communication, downsizing and rightsizing, does human resource still matter? Of course! Even if organizations today are trying its best to reduce their need of human resource. Nevertheless, human resource still matters for the simple reason that HR drives organization. Oftentimes we think of ways how to increase the value of organization yet we neglect to properly take care of our human resource. How could we increase the value of our organization if our human resource is left-behind or neglected?

3    3. Effective Research and Development – Organizations these days come and go, they exist today but they may not be existing a year from now even months from now. What is the cause of this organizational failure? One of the many causes is poor research and development. The business environment that we are in today is very dynamic and this is primarily driven by the advance of technology. What will happen to our organization if our R & D are poor or nonexistent? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Who is the loser if there’s triumph of favoritism in an organization?

Favoritism is the display of partiality toward certain individual or group of individuals. Unfortunately some managers succumb to this behavioral trap. They favor individuals or group of individuals in their organization without regard to the negative effect that it will create to their organization.  

For example during job promotion; there are many instances most especially in government   that an employee is not promoted based on his/her competence. He is promoted because he has connections or he is a favorite of some powerful people in the organization. This person is promoted not based on what he knows about the job, his promotion is anchored on his connections.

Who is the loser if there’s a triumph of favoritism in an organization? The first loser here is the person who exercised favoritism and the second is organization itself.  Consider here the damage that is done to his reputation and the dysfunction that it creates to the organization. This is one of the many negative effects when someone pushes his weight around just to get what he wants.

The second loser is the person who was promoted based on his powerful connections. There would be negative remarks about himself and questions also about his competence would arise. The third loser is the human resource manager. What if the competent person who was not promoted would question the decision of the human resource manager? What if there would be a groundswell of support coming from the employees union for this deserving person who was not promoted?   

Favoritism in organization is immoral because it will sooner or later destroy the organization. Just imagine an organization being run by undeserving employees and visualize the havoc that it will create in the organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Does Humility matter in Leadership?

Does humility matter in leadership? Yes it matters very much in fact without humility there would be no real success in leadership.

Take for example the many authoritarian leaders who were eventually overthrown by their people. These leaders showed authoritarian or iron fisted kind of leadership and they earned success initially. Their people followed what they want but after a number of years comes  resistance and soon this resistance will snowball. Eventually this would result to the arrogant leader being overthrown by his people.

This is for the reason that people normally don’t want arrogant and overbearing leaders. People may tolerate these kind of leaders for a while but eventually limits of patience woulc be reached and this arrogant leader would soon be overthrown or deposed.   

The same is true in an organization setup no matter what kind or how small the organization. Subordinates will always align themselves with a humble leader and their motivation would always be high if they are being lead by a humble leader.

Why is this so? Because this is natural human behavior, who would want to be lead by an arrogant and overbearing leader? Nobody! We always want a leader who has humility even if the leader is strict for as long as he/she has humility this leader will be respected and accepted by his/her subordinates.

Therefore, humility is one of the most important ingredients of a successful organizational leader.   Just look at Pope Francis, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Jesus, to name a few.

Do you use humility in your exercise of leadership? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Everything starts with planning

An effective organization is not created overnight, it is a product of pouring-in of hours of planning.

 For example, a manager who wants an effective human resource that could help him achieve his dreams for his department would spend hours of planning on how he would go ahead with his plan so that it could become a reality. Once he completes his conceived plan in his mind he then makes it a reality with all the resources and power available at his disposal.

He will now lay the groundwork for the actual realization of his plan. Of course the manager must be the lead person in the execution of his plan. For example if the problem of his human resource is lack of initiative and motivation he should therefore lead by example by showing his subordinates that he himself has the initiative, drive and motivation for work.

If this is not enough, he may conduct talks and seminars to equip his subordinates the tools so that they would know how to be driven and motivated. After these have been done it’s now time to monitor the results through their work behavior and work output. If the manager is not satisfied with the outcome he must think once again on how he could best address the issues inside his organization.

An effective manager must always have an active mind. This simply means that he never stops thinking of ways and means on how to improve and maximize not only the abilities of his human resource but their well being as well. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Does it pay to be a proactive leader?

What does it mean to be a proactive leader? Does this mean that the leader will just have a wait and see attitude and wait for things to unravel before him and then react when its late aready? Of course not!  If a leader or manager is like this he is not anymore a proactive leader but a reactive leader which is actually very disastrous for an organization.

A Proactive leader/manager should have an effective self-awareness about his environment. In other words he must always be five (5) steps ahead of his subordinates , he must be like a radar or a sonar that detects objects before it gets near.

For example, an effective leader will be able to detect in advance if his subordinates are dissatisfied with his leadership or managerial skills. And the moment he detects it in advance he must competently adjust his leadership and managerial style to address the dissatisfaction.     

But how would he know in advance if there’s dissatisfaction in his organization? He should always be in-touch with his subordinates, he should mingle and talk with them for this is one of the efficient methods on how to have effective awareness in an organization.

It pays to become a proactive leader because you are able to detect and prevent problem/s before it occurs. You are able to think and create ways on how to address the problem in advance before it becomes a full-blown problem for your organization.

Are you a proactive leader? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Do you need a Paradigm shift?

Organizational life nowadays is always dynamic and seldom static this is brought about by the technological advances that we have now. Say, for example the advent of internet technology which hastened decision making and selling of goods/products.

Organization executives can now decide faster because they now have at their fingertips information that will guide them on what decision/s to take to maximize an organization’s profitability. With the availability of information; organization now can easily shift their paradigm based on what the business environment dictates. 

In the arena of marketing for example, twenty years ago we never heard of online marketing or internet marketing. But now its different online marketing is everywhere; therefore a shift in paradigm is needed as far as marketing of goods are concerned. As a result of this a big chunk of an organization’s budget for advertising is now allocated to online marketing for this is where majority of goods are sold now.

Therefore if we want our organization to survive we must have a shift in paradigm in allocating an organization’s advertising budget. From overly concentrating on print and media advertising the organization now trains its eye on online advertising for this is where clients are situated.  

In like manner effective managers must know how to shift their paradigm as far as how they relate with their subordinates. They now must be aware of what is the new trend in social media and they must connect with their subordinates through social media. Such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other available social media vehicles by doing so they create a tie that will bind them with their subordinates.

What if the boss or manager has a Jurassic mindset and he/she prefers to stay away from social media? Sooner or later he/she will be left out in the cold and will not be able to effectively connect with their subordinates for the reason that they refuse to shift their Paradigms.

Have you already shifted your Paradigm on how you connect with your subordinates? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Who is the most affected when a company closes its operation?

Because of the unstable economic environment and automation/computerization of organization and production processes. It is very ordinary to hear business organizations in different industries fighting for survival. 

Thus, to be able to survive they reduce the working days and hours of their employees. This is a very valid strategy for survival. If this strategy will not pull them through to survive the organization would eventually have to face the sad reality that it needs to stop its operation.

 When this situation comes up it is not actually the business owners that is severely affected. For the reason that they still have other businesses to take care. Others have safe financial investments that earn for them interest that will keep them financially secure for the rest of their lives.

Who hurts the most when an organization brings to a close its operation? It’s the employees: not the top or middle level management but the first level ones and the operative or rank and file employees. In this case they are the most affected. And the irony of it all is they are mostly the ones who have the longest length of loyalty and service to the organization. And many of them are already middle aged and not anymore marketable for employment .

Loosing ones job is not a joke; it’s actually a big dilemma for those who will be affected especially if they have mouths to feed. So before the organization folds up labor laws will dictate them to properly compensate all those who would be laid off regardless of their standing in the organization.

Some compassionate organizations/owners even sponsor livelihood business training for their soon to be separated employees. So that they could stand on their own feet and start their own little businesses that hopefully they could grow so that it could sustain them.

If there’s a temptation for workers to go on strike to demand higher wages, workers and union leaders must weight upon it properly.  For it may result to their permanent displacement from their work. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Should a Leader/Manager be wary of informal groups?

Informal groups exist within a formal organization and there are some leaders who do not mind these grouping of people. But there are also some who are very wary of this grouping of people.

How should a leader/manager react when he is informed that there is an informal group in his organization? The best reaction is to know more about the group and those who are behind it and not to immediately be wary of it.  Once the leader/Manager have an idea about the group and the people behind it it’s now the call of the Manager/leader on what to do with the informal group.

If the leader or manager perceives that the informal group may be a threat to his leadership. Then, it is upon the leader to do something to extinguish the said threat. So he must investigate on how this group was organized and why was there a need to organize this informal group and so on.

If the result of his scrutiny tells him that it was organized to antagonize him. He must do something within the bounds of his power to defuse this group. For example, if the informal group came into being because of his lack of transparency and corruption he must therefore change his ways. And learn to become open to them before this informal group engulfs him. A wise and a good leader must not wait until he is overwhelmed by an informal group. He must at all times be proactive with his actions and judgments towards them.

However, if it does no harm to the leader and to his organization, he should just leave it alone. For the reason that it will be a big help for him in the future to advance  his many plans and advocacies for his organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Gentleness in Leadership

When we say leader we normally equate this with someone who has a swashbuckling personality. They are people who standout among the many because they dare to assume leadership positions when no one dares. They admonish their subordinates not only based on their position of leadership but it’s also rooted on the strength of their character and personality.  

How about gentleness? Does it have a place in a leader’s exercise of his leadership functions especially in the area of discipline? It has a place but this is something that many leaders tend to overlook because they have more bias with the strong personality of a leader. Rather than its gentle and humble character trait. 

One of the specific areas where we could fully utilize gentleness in leadership is during imposition of discipline. There are leaders who impose discipline based on the strength of their position and their bloated egos. They do this by personally berating the erring individual/s and this has become their usual practice already.

However, gentleness does more than strength of character and bloated egos. It has been proven time and again that a person is more open to change his ways for the better when we talk to them with gentleness rather than talk to them based on the strength of our character vis-à-vis with our authority.

 For example when we approach an erring person with gentleness he/she is more open to change and there is less resistance. Rather than approach them with our authority coupled with our bloated egos.

For a change why not try gentleness in leadership?  - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Don’t abuse your power

A leader has many power base inside his organization, for example his personal power brought about by his charisma and many likable characteristics. Another power base is his legitimate power entrusted to him by his organization. This includes his power to impose disciplinary actions and power to give rewards.

In his exercise of his power there’s always the temptation to get drunk with that power. It means that he might abuse it and use it for his own personal advantage. Here lies the danger once the leader takes advantage of his temporal organizational power. Why is it dangerous? Because it will eventually create problem/s not only for the abusive leader but for his organization as well.

Take for example, a leader who has been autocratically running his organization. Initially there will be no complaints. In fact almost everyone would seem to follow his commands. But sooner or later his subordinates will eventually have this realization that their leader has been abusing them. Therefore they would complain, if nothing happens with their complaint they will be forced to act against the leader. And who will suffer? It’s the leader and the organization that he’s leading.

The proper use of power is to always exercise it within the bounds of the law, never outside of the law or outside of the norms of an organization. We must not abuse it, we must always use it coupled with humility and responsibility.

Let us all remember that power is fleeting and it has a very limited shelf life. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

When there is conflict in your organization

Conflicts among workers are part and parcel of an organization’s life. In fact organization’s go through this kind of phase once in a while. This occurs for the reason that there is no perfect individual and no perfect organization. Each and everyone of us are deficient when it comes to our exercise of human and organizational behavior.

How would you resolve conflict in your organization?  The wise course of action to take the moment you notice that some of your subordinates are in conflict with each other is to privately call their attention. Bring the parties involve to a quite place where they could vent out their emotions.

 Before the start of the venting out of emotions among the parties involve start first with a healing prayer and invoke the healing presence of God. During the process of venting out of emotions be the man in the middle or be the referee, be objective and do not take sides.

After both parties have vented out their emotions be the healing agent urged them to shake hands, encourage them to agree to forgive. Then schedule another meeting among the involved parties you can do this after a week or based of the urgency of the situation.

What is the purpose of scheduling subsequent meetings? It is to update those who are concerned of the development about the healing process that you have initiated. Do this scheduling of meeting so long as you feel that there is a need for it.

What would be the agenda/s of your meetings? It’s about reconciliation and in other words it’s all about healing the conflict. There are times that conflict remains unresolved because there is no facilitator who will facilitate reconciliation and forgiveness among those who are involve in the conflict.

Be that person who will facilitate reconciliation and  forgiveness. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

What are your responsibilities to your organization?

Mike is an employee of a five star hotel, he enjoys his job very much because he is able to see beautiful people and he works with a very professional human resource. He is well compensated he could not ask for anything more from the organization that he works for.     

But in-spite of all these perks that he receives from his organization he still has the temerity to defraud his organization. Being an accountant he manipulates the figures in their books of accounts to favor selected suppliers which in turn give him something in return.

Some employees are like Mike, they take advantage with whatever valuable things that they could corrupt from their organization. They do not care if the organization that they have been working has been good to them. Is this right? Of course not!

Considering that the organization that you are working for is your lifeline. It is therefore your responsibility to work very hard for that organization. It is your responsibility to be honest with all of the things that you do inside and outside of that organization.

But there are those who are guiltless, hard-headed and opportunistic. They are only after their own welfare and they purposely forget the welfare of the organization that they have been working for. The very same organization that has been giving them their salaries so that they could buy the necessities of life. 

What will happen if we continue with these guiltless and sometimes criminal actions? Can we become rich? Maybe yes but eventually all it will also be taken back in some ways. What we accumulate through our illegal actions will eventually be taken back from us with a heavy price.  

It is always best to walk the path of honestly, to always be hardworking even if no one is observing you. And to be concerned with the welfare of the organization that you are working for. For the simple reason that these are your responsibilities as an employee of your organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The five (5) measures of a successful leader

There are many who want to be called leader. For example, there are politicians who want to exercise leadership but they miserably fail for the reason that they are not able to comprehend the true measure of a successful leader in politics which is actually servant leadership.

There are also executives of private corporations who exercise position of leadership but after a year or two they resign because they miserably fail to measure-up to the pressure and high standards of successful leadership in the private sector. 

What really are the measures of a successful leader? Here are five (5) feel free to add some more. 

1. The first measure is the willingness to lead by example. You show and lead the way, you do not just lay around your office you instead work hard for your subordinates to see so that they will follow.

2. The second measure is to ensure that you are always accessible to the people that you lead. One of the many leadership pitfalls is to isolate yourself in a room while your subordinates are outside of it working. When you limit your accessibility and when you seldom mingle with your people. It simply means that you do not want to be disturbed that you are an important person and your people are nonentity.

3. The third measure of a successful leader is to have human skills. This simply means that you can skilfully and honestly relate with every individual in your organization.  Your people will certainly respect you if you know how to respect them and if you know how to honestly relate with them.

4. The fourth measure is to be competent and knowledgeable about every aspect of your job and the job of your subordinates. There are managers who are well versed with their own job description but when it comes to their subordinates they know very little about it. A good manager/leader must also aspire to know the job of his subordinates.

5. The fifth measure is to ensure that you will always be humble, this simply means that a leader must at all times be ready to serve and not to be served. He must not look at his job as a means for him to be exalted. 

There are leaders who have this mindset that they are already situated in an ivory tower. That people below them must always bow to them. True and dedicated leaders are not like this they will remain humble at all times. The higher they ascend in the organizational hierarchy the more that they plant their feet firmly on the ground. - Marino J. Dasmarinas     

Job Enrichment and the role of Managers

A manager was looking for an organizational method to further boost the motivation of his deserving subordinates.  In his research he stumbled upon the topic of job enrichment and  it immediately created an interest in him. So he implemented it in his organization and this method did well because it increased the motivation of his subordinates which resulted to higher efficiency and production output.

Job enrichment is an organizational process used by managers to see to it that their subordinates are continuously motivated. It gives the deserving subordinate the responsibility and this creates a very good reason for a manager to stay in his organization.

However job enrichment is always fused with accountability. This means that the subordinate is always accountable for his every action to his manager. The more that a subordinate is given freedom and control in his assigned task or department the more that he becomes accountable to his superior/s.

Job enrichment is actually an instrument of motivation it satisfies the growth and self actualization needs of an employee. But not every employee or subordinate is deserving of this motivational method only those who are competent and responsible deserves job enrichment.

Therefore the manager must be careful in dispensing job enrichment, he must not dispense it for the reason of favoritism.  Job enrichment must always be dispensed side by side with competence and responsibility. It must never be given based on favoritism or any other form of biased decision. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Wisdom from the ANTS

How many times have we seen ants patiently falling in line to get their food? Countless times already, we have seen it practically everywhere. When there’s food that they could partake of, they are there not only to partake it. They are there to bring it to the place where they stay, they save it as they say, for the rainy days.

We can derive a good deal of wisdom from the attitude of ants that we can apply to      our organization and even to our own lives.

 Here are the following:

1.) Discipline - Notice how ants fall in line with discipline when they get their food. Every organization needs discipline for without discipline there would be chaos and problems. Just imagine an undisciplined human resource that would only go to work whenever they want to. 

2.) Saving for the rainy days - For so long as there’s food that they could partake they’re there, not only to eat they are there to bring to their dwelling some of it.  They save it when their unable to go out to hunt for food due to rainy weather, this is simple inventory method. In any organization inventory of supplies, materials and even potential employees are very important to sustain its operation.

3.) They are very united or they have that team mentality - Notice if you accidentally disturb them or hurt them they fight back not as an individual but as a group or as a team. In an organization team esprit or esprit de corps is very important this is precisely the reason why an organization conducts team building sessions.

The application of this wisdom is not solely restricted to organization we can also use this in our lives. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

What is the Culture of your Organization?

Organization culture or corporate culture is the soul of an organization it is unseen but you can easily feel and perceive it. For example, how the employees behave (shared values), their esprit de corps, their organizational beliefs and ideals.  

Those in charge of implementing this culture are the top management and their main responsibility is to see to it that the culture that they want to implement is cascaded down to the lowest level member of the organization.

Let us take for example a successful technology based organization. If someone is asked of its organization’s culture what comes to mind is its continuous culture of innovation. And its competent workforce that is why it is always ahead from its competitors.

Positive culture in organization is implemented by means of effective communication using the methods of lectures, training and workshop. Then, there will be specific time frames to measure its effectiveness in terms of employee attitudes and shared values directly related to their productivity.

Aside from achieving profitability the main agenda of Organization Culture is to create a collective positive identity inside as well as outside of the organization. This is the reason why when a successful organization is mentioned we immediately have an idea about its competitive identity simply because that is their culture.

What is the present culture of your organization? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Are you a successful leader/manager?

A successful leader is someone who focuses not on himself or on his authority he zeroes in on the people that he serves.

For example, if a university lecturer will focus on himself he would naturally want to impose his authority and discipline on his class. He would shun all suggestions from his students on how to further improve the transmittal of learning. 

Would he be a successful leader that imparts knowledge if his attitude is like this? Of course not! He would instead impart fear and disrespect from his students.  So how could he become a successful leader of his class?  He needs to listen to the inputs of his students on how to further improve the exchange of learning and if the inputs are helpful and reasonable then by all means use it.

In an organizational setting be it private or government; managers/leaders should also learn to listen to those that they serve. They must not allow themselves to be blinded by their momentary power. The mistake of some managers/leaders the moment they ascend to their leadership position is they also become aloof and they start to isolate themselves from their subordinates.

They situate themselves away from thier subordinates thus they start to lose contact with them. So what would happen if this is the case? Sooner or later there will be a failure of leadership that will eventually result to organizational failure as well.

Therefore a successful leader/manager should learn to listen, he should learn to always firmly plant his feet on the ground no matter how high he may rise in the organizational hierarchy. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The functions of Management and its effects in your Organization

They say that no man is an island, thus all of us belong to an organization: Family organization, company organization, church organization, government organization or any other organization.

For these organizations to function properly there must be someone who will take charge and run it using the four functions of management namely: Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling. A very good leader must know how to properly engage these four functions of management otherwise if he doesn’t know how to use these four functions there will be failure in the organization.

The first function is Planning:

In Planning, a very good leader/manager must set realistic goals and he must strategize on how he could best achieve these goals. For example if the goal is to put up a new business, let us say a restaurant. The first step if we like to put up a restaurant business is to conduct a feasibility study so that we would know if the business has a chance to succeed (the traffic of people, the location, the financial capability of the population etc…). If the outcome of our FS is favorable then we must set in motion the goals and how we could best achieve it.

The next Management function that we must do is to Organize:

In Organizing, the leader/manager should see to it that the human and non human assets are properly organized so that the anticipated plan could be successfully carried out. The process that goes here are the following:

1. Recruitment of human resources and seeing to it that they are qualified and could effectively carry out their job description.

2. Procurement of the non human resources that the restaurant needs for it to begin its operation we must also see to it that these are of best quality so that we could maximize its usefulness and effectiveness.

Then comes the next function is called Leading:

A good leader must be hands on in a restaurant business or in any business for that matter. So that he will have a firsthand experience about the many  environments within the organization. He would have to influence and lead the way for his workers so that they will have a positive work attitude that will result on the achievement of the goals of his organization.

The last functions but certainly not the least is Controlling:

The function of Management Control is not an end function of management. It could come while the Planning, Organizing and Leading functions are on-going. For instance in the business Planning stage once the owner realizes that his plan is somewhat unrealistic already, then that’s the time where the function of Controlling will come in. the same scenarios goes for Leading and Organizing. Basically the function of Controlling is a regulatory function that creates check and balance in an organization so that actual performance will measure up to forecasted goals.

Management is an on-going process, this simply means that for as long as the organization exist these four functions of management will also continue to move and operate. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Management: The process of effectively getting things done through the effort of other people?

During the last two minutes of a very close basketball game the coach will normally call a timeout  to carefully diagram a number of winning plays to ensure his team would win the game. 

He will tell his players to follow the designed plays to the letter. Once the plays are followed it would ensure their triumph. In that process the coach got things done through the efforts of his players.

But it is not actually easy to get things done through other people because leaders/mamagers need to do thier own homework too. As Managers/Leaders they need to show to thier subordinate that they know every aspect of the things that they want them to do.

For example, if a leader/manager's objective is to increase his organization's sales for the second-half of a calendar year. It’s therefore incumbent upon the leader/manager to masterfully study the marketing strategy that he/she will be using.

Before he/she cascade it to his/her subordinates in that process when workshop time comes on how to operationalize the marketing strategy the leader/manager will now be able to answer every question that they will be thrown at him.

Let us always remember that before we can get things done through our subordinates we need to know every detail of the things that we want them to do. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The crucial role of positive employee attitude

The attitudes of employees are catalyst to organizational success and failure. If employees have a positive attitude towards their work, it will make the achievement of organizational goals a lot easier for management.

But are there sure-fire methods to ensure that employees will have a positive attitude towards their work? Yes there are here are three:

1. Equitably treat your employees. For example on the aspect of salary, give them what is rightfully due to them. If your organization is earning it is just right that you plough back some of the earning to your employees’ salary and non-salary benefits. But the reality is some organizations are very selfish for the reason that they don’t want to give what is rightfully due to their employees.

2. Respect their dignity by way of providing them habitable and humane working conditions. If workers are not provided humane working conditions their productivity is always affected. How could they meet their goals if their working condition is not suitable?

 3. Lead by example: If you say that you want them to render overtime work because there is a sudden increase of the demand of your products. It is proper that you also render overtime work even if it is an unpaid overtime.  Be there with your subordinates your presence is essential to their motivation.

In this age of cutting-edge technology your human resources or employees are still the most vital component of your organization. Treat them well because their positive work attitude is vital to your organization’s success. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Learn to share you authority

One aspect of leadership is it deals with authority that emanates from the leader. This authority cascades down to the lowest level in the organization. As such there are some leaders/managers who exploit this authority to the hilt. They become too autocratic that they centralize every organizational decisions and power.

But is centralization of authority and power correct? A good leader is someone who knows when and how to share his authority. He must learn to trust his subordinates by sharing some of his authority with them. In return the leader is enhancing his subordinates’ commitment   and dedication to his job and to their organization as a whole.

We must remember that a leader doesn’t exist for oneself alone; he deals with his people and he motivates them to work hard. Therefore it is a must for leaders to know how to share their authority with their subordinates.

Being the one who directly know their abilities the leader should calibrate the authority that he will be sharing with his subordinate. He must also ensure that there is a responsibility and accountability attached for every degree of authority that is shared.

Think about sharing some of your authority, it will be good for you, for your subordinates and for your organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Maximizing your subordinates’ full potential

There are many ways how to fully maximize the usefulness of your subordinates without incurring additional cost to your organization. Maybe, you could think of closely monitoring their job performance. You could also think of reassigning them to a department where you know that they are most qualified and competent.

For example if you have an accounting graduate who is working in the production department. If there's an opportunity it is best therefore to transfer him/her to the accounting department. where the organization could make full use of his/her  knowledge in accounting.

Another method is not to limit your subordinates’ job to their assigned task only. We could think of using job rotation every now and then. This is for the reason that there are subordinates who truly desire to know more than what they presently know. And job rotation is the perfect management tool to address this desire.

When you use job rotation you also maximize your subordinates’ full potential and you expand their job knowledge. When you do this you are actually enhancing their job motivation because you’re addressing their psychological need to learn more skills.  - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The Coaching function of a Leader/Manager

Once in a while a leader/manager must harness his coaching skills most especially when he observes that a subordinate is performing below of what is expected of him.  For example, a car salesman’s output that is always on the rise suddenly drops to an alarming level.  A production worker who previously exceeds his work output is unexpectedly not anymore able to meet his production targets.

The coaching skill of a leader/manager is very useful during this kind of situation. To do this the Leader/Manager should talk to the person concerned so that he could discover the problem and eventually find a solution. After discovering what bothers the concerned person he must once again motivate the concerned person.

Therefore the leader/manager must know how to empathize and listen to his subordinate. After empathizing and listening it is incumbent upon the leader to inject life and motivation to the subject subordinate and this is done thru effective coaching.    

Because it requires personal interaction coaching is ideally done on a one-on-one basis. This is to facilitate effective transfer of ideas, motivation and inspirations. - Marino J. Dasmarinas 

The significance of empowerment

Empowerment is an organizational technique that is used by leaders and managers to fully harness the effectiveness of an organization and the human resource inside it. By using empowerment managers and leaders are able to free themselves of unnecessary work pressure. 

Thereby enabling them to focus more attention on other important responsibilities. When you use empowerment you are actually multiplying your authority. You create an extension of yourself through your subordinates.     

But before using empowerment as a means to efficiently manage your human resource and organization. You should see to it first that they (HR) are mature and competent enough to understand the responsibilities attached with empowerment. Otherwise if they are not mature and competent, empowerment then becomes an exercise in futility.

Among many other attributes, empowerment provides autonomy with accountability it frees the organization unnecessary centralization of power and resources. It helps develop competence, motivation and leadership on your human resource.

The end result of empowerment is you create an effective organization that can immediately respond to any organizational contingencies. Your subordinates are immediately able to decide and solve organizational issues based on the authority that you’ve empowered to them. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Is your leadership influence diminishing?

If there is a leadership influence arrow, the direction of the leadership influence arrow must always be upward never downward. The moment the direction of the leadership arrow goes downward it simply means that the leader is losing grip of his leadership.

But is it possible for leaders to lose their leadership influence? Of course it’s very possible for leaders to slowly lose their leadership influence. This could happen when leaders become complacent that they would think that they are already indispensable in their possession of authority.    

Therefore the leader stops motivating himself and his people; he will not anymore lead by example. He instead will just be satisfied with the status quo and assume that his subordinates are not anymore in need of his leadership. Instead of leading by example he would be content on delegating his functions and so forth.

What would be the net result of this kind of diminishing and complacent leadership? Targets will not be met, the leader will not be anymore respected, and there will be breakdown of discipline just to name a few. 

So what must a leader do to re-assert his diminishing influence? Very simple actually! He must once again have the fire in his belly to inspire and motivate his subordinates by means of walking his talk, by reinforcing his competence and by leading by example once again. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Consideration as method of motivation

Mr. X is an employee in a production intensive organization as such his organization requires him to be present for work most of the time. This is for the reason that their product is a basic necessity of life. His manager wants from him his utmost work commitment. And if he is on a day-off he would ask him to always leave his mobile phone open for any work related issues that he may be called upon.

Mr. X being a widower is both a father and mother to his young children as such there are times that he is forced to absent from his work. If he is asked to render overtime work he sometimes is not able to do so and he would always ask consideration from his boss to understand his plight.

As a boss or manager, is it Ok to stretch the limits of your consideration toward an employees such as Mr. X? Of course, we must at all times be considerate to workers such as Mr. X for he has a valid reason. Aside from that, it will not be all the time that workers such as Mr. X would be asking for consideration.

There would also be instances in the future that you as their boss/manager would be asking consideration from them. When the time comes that you would ask them work related favors such as extended working hours if they are available you could be assured of their commitment.

Why is this so? Because we are rational people with emotions; we keep and remember in our hearts good things that are done to us. When the appropriate time comes for us to pay back the good deeds that were extended to us we would gladly do so.  This is actually basic human nature: We give back the good things that are done to us.

Consideration is a very good tool for motivation. Consideration is also an effective motivational instrument to gain the wholehearted commitment of your subordinates. If we are still in doubt about this premise?

Just try being reasonably considerate to your subordinates and see for yourself their enhanced motivation and commitment. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Be hard working and accept challenges

A mountain climber desired to climb the highest mountain peak. So he went to climb it; when he was a few meters away from the peak. He saw thick clouds that hid/concealed the highest peak. Thinking that he was still very far from his objective, he gave-up. If only he knew that his objective was within his reach; he could have climbed-on and achieved his goal.

In your work environment there would be times when your patience will be tested by your superior. You might be given a job that may seem so hard for you to do; don’t reject it accept the responsibility. 

For all you know it’s just a test for you if you could handle bigger responsibilities in the future.  If you think that your knowledge on the newly assigned job is lacking, don’t be afraid to ask help from your superior/s: They are there to help, assist and guide you and not to intimidate you.

Perhaps you’re just being challenged by your superior: He wants to further test your work attitude, patience and motivation. Your success in an organization would always be determined by your persistence and by your positive work attitude.

If only the mountain climber in our story persisted and exerted enough hard work he could have achieved his objective. But he gave-up.

Therefore, be hardworking, be persistent and always accept challenges. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Do you have these qualities of a Positive Leader?

Positive leaders are leaders who use humane and democratic methods to make his subordinates follow him. For example when imposing discipline such as verbal reprimand he would always see to it that the reprimand is done in private wherein nobody will be aware of it except the parties involve. 

He should not shout to his subordinates he should instead talk to them in a civilized manner. This is to let them know that there’s still a chance for them to straighten-up their behavior.

This is always the behavior of a positive leader. His end objective is always to motivate and not destroy the morale of his people. He would always think of ways to make them a contributor to the growth of the organization.

Another quality of a positive leader is his infectious positive outlook in life. You would never see him frown even during trying times he would always wear that optimistic smile on his face. And this is a very good behavior for a leader because his positive and optimistic behavior will certainly rub-off to his subordinates.

A positive leader is also very accessible to anyone of his subordinates; he does not create walls that only creates division in his organization. He is not egocentric nor a power tripper he instead is a model of humility and hardwork.

Just imagine an organization with a positive leader he will certainly bring his organization to greater heights. And he will certainly be a positive influence towards his subordinates.

Do you have these qualities of a Positive Leader? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The folly of knee-jerk reaction

Managers are leaders also; as such they are called to manage and lead their organization with efficiency and civility . However there would be instances when their abilities as managers and leaders would be tested by their subordinates. In such instances it is best for them not to react in haste.  It’s best to stay calm and composed under stressful situation.

For example if an ego tripper subordinate is challenging your authority to prop-up his high sense of himself. Be cool and be patient do not spontaneously react to his ego tripping because the moment you react without careful thought you will be at the losing end.

So how would you address this troublesome situation? Approach it with calm and civility by pretending not to mind it. Then after an hour or two schedule a personal meeting with the concerned person and during the meeting point to him/her mistakes. 

Clearly emphasize your authority and his duties as your subordinate after you’ve done this.  The concerned individual will be enlightened and he will surely appreciate your civility and diplomacy.

The mistake of thoughtless reaction is you will not gain anything from it except another troublesome situation in your organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The Importance of Consistency in Leadership

Mr. X is a newly designated manager in a government office, upon his assumption of his new leadership role. He spelled out what he wants to achieve in his new office, he stated the targets and he emphasized the discipline that he wants to be strictly observed by his subordinates. He was successful with his function of leadership during his first few months.

After a year he noticed that there was an obvious decline with the achievements of his subordinates and the discipline of his people has already waned also.     

He pondered on the decline of his subordinates achievement and behavior. He did not find anything that would say that he was the cause of the decline of his people’s achievement and behavior. Until he consulted a university professor who was an expert in organizational behavior. After a week of analysis and study the professor zeroed in on how the manager exercised his leadership and managerial function. Thus, the manager was asked by the professor: Are you still consistent on how you exercise your leadership functions?

This question made the leader think on how he exercised his functions as a manager and leader of his office. After honestly evaluating himself he found out that he was not as disciplined as before. He found out that he was not anymore people oriented like before for the reason that he hardly mingled with his subordinates anymore.

So the professor told him that his problem was his lack of consistency with his leadership functions. He was further told by the professor that he needs for bring back the same drive and fervor that he initially had when he first assumed his position of leadership.

The manager followed the advice And the office was back on its feet again. The targets were again meet and the discipline of his subordinates was at its best again.

Every now and then the problem of leadership consistency is a dilemma that every leader/manager encounters. The passing of time makes us complacent and this is not a good sign for a leader. A good leader is someone who is always consistent with his exercise of leadership all the time. He doesn’t waiver nor vacillate. - Marino J. Dasmarinas