Humanize your leadership

The story is told about a slave driver manager who would always treat his subordinates as expendable machines. That needs to work hard day in and day out. This was always the scenario for so many months until the subordinates had enough of the slave driver mentality of their manager.

So they talked to the said manager and warned him that if he would not change his foul behavior towards them. They would petition for his replacement. Aware of the repercussion if his subordinates would petition him he therefore changed his way of treatment towards his subordinates.

Organizational leadership is not only about the achievement of organizational goals, targets and objectives. It is also about humanely treating our employees. What use would it be if we are able to achieve our organizational targets when we don’t treat our employees humanely? If we treat them like robots?

We have to be aware that organizational leadership is not all about meeting the organization’s objectives and goals. It’s also about treating our employees rightly and humanely. So, how do we humanize our leadership in the midst of the frenetic pace of an organization?

Number one is we have to be inclusive when exercising our leadership function as much as possible. To be inclusive means that we consult and solicit the ideas of our subordinates before we do leadership decisions. The beauty of inclusive leadership is we convey a message to our subordinates that they are not simply employees. That they too are decision makers and vital members of the organizational family.

Number two is we have to be helpful. Many leaders choose to stay in their ivory towers and look and lead from afar. For the reason that they are already leaders they choose to create distance rather than mitigate the distance by being helpful towards their subordinates. When we are helpful towards our subordinates we create an invisible bond with our subordinates. Invisible bond which we can always activate whenever we want to activate it.

Number three is we have to be up close and personal in the right manner with our subordinates. Some filthy minded leaders take advantage of being up close and personal with their subordinates by despicably trying to build sexual relationship with them.

Being up close and personal with our subordinates simply means that we try to get to know them better and personally. For example, we try to know their family and once in a while inquire about how their family is doing etc. And it ends there.

There are infinite benefits when we humanize our leadership primary among this is we increase the intrinsic motivation of our employees. Therefore, try to humanize your leadership and see the transformation that it would bring to the behavior and motivation of your subordinates. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Why is there a need for leaders to learn more?

The story is told about a young man that got promoted to a leadership position in the land development company which he works for. The Chief Executive Officer of the company saw a promising future for the man. She therefore told the young man: “Keep on learning: Learn from your mistakes, learn from your interactions with the people in this organization and learn by taking a post graduate course for it would help you ascend the organizational hierarchy.”

Why is there a need for leaders to learn? Because leaders who learn and who use their learning are effective leaders, why? For the simple reason that they don’t stagnate, they make their minds work and it strengthens mental activity which reinforces their leadership skills.

If exercise is for the strengthening and development of the body, learning is for the strengthening and development of the mind. If a person is not anymore willing to learn it certainly would hasten his/her advance to the geriatric ward of life.  Henry Ford the founder of the Ford Motors Company once said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”   

We increase our value as a leader when we have an appetite for learning. Because it open us new avenues for promotion and other opportunities in the workplace. And it makes us desirable for piracy by other organization that would offer higher compensation.

But many are not inclined with learning anymore for the simple reason that it would entail burning the midnight oil/candle. It entails sacrifice, effort and time however everything that is invested into learning is worth it. Perhaps not immediately but it surely will come in handy in the future when there’s an opportunity for promotion.

So, keep on learning: Read books, read articles and commentaries that relates to your field of interest. Use google to the hilt to learn more.   For learning is the elixir of the mind. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

An effective leader is not afraid to show his/her emotions

Are you sometimes afraid to show your emotions? For example, your direct reports failed to achieve their target accomplishments and you were naturally disappointed. As much as you want to express your disappointment you held back because you did not want to antagonize them. So, you simply reminded them about your failed expectation and that’s it.

Managers and leaders should not be afraid to manifest their emotion when there is a need for it. Even if it will antagonize those who would receive the emotional outburst, why? Because it’s when we manifest our emotions that we become more effective managers and leaders. A good and effective leader/manager does not paint brush, sugar coat and hide his true emotion in the exercise of his managerial/leadership function.   

When a manager/leader is afraid to manifest his emotions he becomes hostage of his direct reports. He becomes an inutile leader subject to the whims and caprices of those under his supervision and care.  Emotions are what make a leader/manager effective. It galvanizes those under his care and supervision and it makes the leader/manager authentic to his direct reports.

What would happen if we are not afraid to show our emotions? We inspire our people to move towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. We create a magical but invisible motivational instrument that would push them to move forward and be positive no matter the odds in front of them. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

On handling a needy employee

How do you handle a needy employee? A needy employee is someone who often seeks your attention. Among many other reasons, he does this because he lacks confidence in doing his job. Where does his lack of confidence emanates? There are many behavioral reasons to this lack of confidence. If it emanates from his lack of knowledge on how to properly do his job. The solution available is to educate again the person on how to do his job properly.

After reeducating the person again the expectation of the manager is the neediness behavior would be cured or eliminated. But more often than not an employee’s neediness doesn’t only emanate from the lack of proper knowledge about the job. Sometimes it’s much deeper than what we think it is. And when this is so, the manager should sit-down and have a heart-to-heart talk with the needy employee to properly address the symptom of his neediness.   

One of the results of the heart-to-heart talk could be lack of freedom on the job. For the simple reason that the manager is micro-managing his direct report. The solution here is to loosen the grip and give the direct report freedom in doing his job. This freedom that is given is of course not absolute it should still be within the ambit of the rules and regulation of the organization. Lack of self-confidence of the direct report can be solved also by telling the employee that you would always be there to help if needed.

Needy employees exist. And an effective and good manager can easily address this human behavior issue by having a heart-to-heart talk with the concerned employee.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Do you want to enhance your leadership?

The story is told about a homeowners organization that was looking for a leader. During Election Day many names were nominated to vie for the presidency of the homeowners organization.

Prominent among those names were Nap and Pablo. Nap was a loudmouth and a voracious talker. On the other hand Pablo was the reserved type he seldom talks but when he talks he commands attention. After the votes were counted Pablo was declared the winner by a mile. 

How can you enhance your leadership? Many have this false notion that leadership is enhanced by being a loudmouth, blabbermouth and opinionated. None of these are actually true, leadership is not in anyway enhanced by these ego driven characteristics. On the contrary leadership is thrown into oblivion by a person that seeks attention. As the saying goes, “An empty can is noisy” so is a person who pretends to have leadership qualities.

Thus, how do you enhance your leadership? Be reserved, listen more; don’t seek attention and talk only when it’s necessary for you to talk. Silent water runs deep, right? The same is true with a person who has unfathomable leadership qualities.

This kind of person carefully studies and reflects on his leadership character. He/she thinks ahead regarding the outcome and the ramification of the words that he/she might say.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

When there’s resistance to change

The story is told about an organization that was planning to institute change in its working hours. From the usual 8:00 am-5:00 pm it would be changed to 6:00 am-3:00 pm. For the past thirty years it had always been 8:00-5:00 and the employees were used to that already. So the employees union resisted and told the management that they would not agree.

What are you going to do when there’s resistance to change?   The first action to do when there’s resistance to change is to call for a meeting among the parties involved. In this case the employees union and the management. In that meeting the fuzzy issues should be threshed out. Employees resist change because they have no clear understanding yet why is there a need for that change.   

Therefore the component of listening and flexibility are very important here. Management and the employees union should listen to each other’s viewpoints and be flexible if need be. There would naturally be initial disagreement about the change that is to be put in place. But there are also some valid points that both parties could agree.

For this reason, focus first on the points of agreements after that focus now on the issues of disagreement. Why is this so? Because when both parties focus first on the issues that they could agree it immediately creates an environment of calm. Which is very conducive as a starting point to begin threshing out the issues of disagreement.

The thorny part when an organization wants to implement change are the issues of disagreement. Therefore, management must not push its weight around it should extend its patience to the limit. This means that meetings and dialogues about the change that is to be implemented should continue until the nitty-gritty details of that change are ironed out.  

It’s not easy to implement organizational change however change is needed for an organization to evolve, upgrade and grow. Therefore change must be implemented for nothing is permanent in this world except change. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Competent and Effective managers/leaders delegate comprehensively

Do you delegate comprehensively? Delegation is one of the important functions of management. And many leaders and managers utilize delegation to achieve more than what are expected of them.  How are they able to achieve more than what are expected of them? They use the management function of delegation comprehensively.

To be an effective delegator of work we have to communicate the delegated work comprehensively. This means that all the details and all our expectations of the delegated work are communicated clearly. For example, the deadline, the quality of the output that we want, our expectations, just to name a few.

Many managers/leaders fail in the aspect of delegation because they don’t delegate comprehensively. They simply delegate and then they expect their direct report or subordinate to know everything of the delegated work. Or they just wait for their direct report or subordinate to ask them about the details of the delegated work.

Competent and effective managers/leaders don’t wait to be asked about the details of the delegated work. They see to it that all of the details of the delegated work are clearly communicated and already comprehensively attached to it. They think proactively thus they already anticipate the question/s that their direct report or subordinate might ask them.

The function of delegation is a handy and effective management and organizational tool available for all managers and leaders. So that they can multiply their accomplishment, influence and utilization.  They can easily unsheathe it whenever they want provided they delegate comprehensively.    

What does the word comprehensive mean? It means thorough. Therefore, this imply  thorough understanding of the delegated work which the manager/leader can actually do. But because of lack of time and for the reason that he/she wants to multiply his/her accomplishment, influence and utilization he/she is forced to delegate it.

Effective managers and leaders always delegate comprehensively they don’t delegate haphazardly. Why? Because this is what are leadership and management are all about. It’s about comprehensively understanding our leadership and managerial functions, duties and responsibilities which include comprehensive delegation. – Marino J. Dasmarinas    

Compassion in your organization

Alex is a manager of a home care facility. Every morning it had become his ritual to have scheduled visits to their patients. He talks to them and ask them about how they are feeling. This home care facility is always 100% full and the reason behind is the compassionate care that is administered by the manager and his staff.

To be compassionate is perhaps alien to many business organizations. Because as we all know the bottom-line of business organization is to earn profit. And maybe compassion towards its employees is the least of its priorities.    

What does it mean to have compassion with your employees or to be compassionate with your employees? To be compassionate is to do acts of kindness, caring and be concerned with the well-being of your employees.

To be compassionate is not only to understand your employees’ present emotional state. You also have that strong desire to help them soothe it with the end in mind of helping them cure that present emotional state. For example, if you notice that an employee is forlorn and has a sudden distant behavior. You can say to that employee that you are ready to listen and help in whatever way you can.

When we are compassionate toward our employees we establish connection with them which in turn will motivate them to work hard. Why? Because we cared when they were in that emotional state. We therefore have to establish a compassionate and caring organization not an organization whose only bottom-line is to earn profit.

Our employees are humans with feelings they are not machines they are very sensitive to acts of compassion, kindness and caring. Thus, the more compassionate we are the more that we reinforce their loyalty to our organization. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Positive feedback as opposed to Negative feedback

An organization that was downsizing was in a dilemma as to whom amongst their two managers would they terminate. Both had exceptional performance and both seemed to be loved by their subordinates. The top executives of the organization didn’t know whom they would give the pink slip.

Therefore, they decided to secretly conduct a survey among their employees which manager would they prefer to stay. The workers voted to retain the manager who always gives positive feedback as opposed to the manager who only knows to give negative feedback.

Hearing or receiving feedback is important in an employee’s work life. Why? For the simple reason that feedback also acts as motivator and demotivator for employees. It’s no brainer that positive feedback motivates and negative feedback seldom motivates but often downgrades employees’ motivation. It’s also no brainer that employees always lean toward the side of managers/leaders who give positive feedback more than negative feedback.

Negative feedback silently diminishes the manager/leader power to motivate. While positive feedback loudly increases the manager/leader power to motivate. However, the power of positive feedback is hardly being utilized by managers/leaders. What they utilize more is negative feedback and the reason behind is very simple: Mistakes are easily highlighted than accomplishments.

We are generally quick to spot the negative than the positive, we are prone to be blindsided by the negative than the positive. Therefore, we have to reverse this mindset of bias towards negativity to a mindset of positivity. From now on we have to be quick to notice the positive than the negative. We have to praise more than criticize we have to highlight the positive more than the negative if we want to continuously have motivated employees.  

Why? For the simple reason that your employees would love it very much if they would hear it from their leaders/managers. It also makes giving negative feedback a lot more easier when the need arises. – Marino J. Dasmarinas           

The silent leader as opposed to the loud leader

Why are the silent types the best leaders? Because they let their achievements make the noise not them making their own empty noise. Many are easily taken by a leader who is loud, loud in the sense that they want their subordinates to know what they are doing.

However, loud leaders are generally empty inside they don’t think deeply. They act without careful thought of the consequence of their actions. They base their actions upon their whims and caprices and the popular demand of the subordinates that they govern.  What is important for them is to feed their bloated egos and to satisfy the popular demand of their subordinates. And when they are already able to feed their egos they now think of the consequence of their egotistical and thoughtless action/s.  

Upon musing of their thoughtless  actions they will come to the realization that what they’ve done was not right. Therefore, embarrassment and swallowing of pride comes next and the loud leader is exposed as incompetent, all noise and fury without any intellectual bite.   

The silent types of leaders are those who think profoundly and they think in advance. They are always head and shoulders above the rest. They get the job done albeit silently they don’t make noise to advertise their achievements they rather let their achievements and accomplishments make the noise for them. 

Silent leaders are also the humble ones, this don’t mean that they think less of themselves they rather purposely don’t highlight themselves. They don’t want the spotlight of leadership solely focused on them they want it focused on the entire organization that they lead.  

Do you have this silent type of leader in your organization? – Maarino J. Dasmarinas

On giving behavioral feedback

How do you give behavioral feedback? For example you noticed that your direct report is noisy at work. How are you going to correct this errant behavior without offending the concerned direct report?  

When we give the behavioral feedback we have to focus on the offensive act and not the person who did the offensive act. But before doing that we have to find an appropriate place where we can civilly talk with the concerned direct report.  The appropriate place could be in your office or a place where there is privacy and solemnity.

Be calm, objective and civil when you talk about the errant behavior so that you avoid antagonizing the person. Some managers do this without considering calmness, objectivity and civility. Hence they lecture the guilty person as if the concerned individual is their slave. So what happens is the concerned will push back and defend herself. This can happen most especially if the direct report has a strong personality.   

After talking about the errant behavior allow the person to speak and voice her sentiment and as she speaks listen with your attention poured into her. Your expectation here is she would talk also with calmness, civility and objectivity. Why? For the simple reason that this is how you approached the concerned person. We have to remember that we get what we give: If we give respect we would also get respect and vice versa.

Close the one on one conversation on a positive note by telling the person that she has your back anytime. Ever ready to listen whenever she has issues about work or even issues about his/her family. -  Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Connection and consistency of positive actions are the secrets to effective leadership

How are you as a leader? An effective leader is someone who is able to connect his leadership with the people that he leads. But how can a leader connect with the people that he leads? Among many other things a leader connects to his people by creating actions that has impact to his subordinates and his leadership.

For example, a leader/manager who is newly assigned to his department noticed that his office is cluttered with unnecessary things. So the first thing that he did upon assumption of his position is to rid his office with the unnecessary things. Thus, he made his office clean and orderly.

By doing so he subtly connects his leadership to his subordinates. And the message that he connects or conveys is he wants a clean and orderly office. How can the leader/manager successfully connect his message? It’s through the consistency of his actions, in this case the cleaning of his office of unnecessary things should be consistent and not a one shot deal.    

A leader becomes a real leader when there is consistency in his positive actions. And the consistency of his positive actions enables him to connect with his subordinates. It creates a ripple effect that transcends the invisible and visible boundaries of his organization.

Many leaders fail to connect their leadership for the simple reason that there’s no consistency in their actions. They are only good leaders when there are cameras, smart phones and videos in-front of them. However, when there are no cameras, smart-phones and videos they backslide to their real selves which are leaders in name only.

If you occupy a leadership position right now and you are consistent with your positive actions. Even if there are no cameras, smart-phones and videos to document your leadership, you are already made as a leader. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

On convincing your subordinate to do volunteer work

Thomson is a supervisor who was being convinced by his manager to do a little volunteer work for their organization.  When he was asked if he could do volunteer work. Thomson, immediately  said: “What kind of volunteer work would it be?” The manager replied, “I learned that you previously worked as a university lecturer, would you be willing to volunteer your time to do short lectures on leadership?” And Thomson immediately said, yes why not!

Convincing your subordinates to do volunteer work is a hard job to do.  But it’s actually doable provided that you offer the volunteer work to someone who would find interest upon it. And one of the measures to use to achieve success in this endeavor is to find out the personal background of your prospect.

If you find something out of his work history that you could somehow link with the volunteer work. Offer him the volunteer work because there is a good chance that he may accept it.  This simply means that when you are prospecting for subordinates that can do volunteer work. Choose first those who can one way or another relate with the volunteer work.

In this dog eat dog world that we are in, subordinates who are willing to do volunteer work are hard to come by. However, if you would do some research about their personal backgrounds that you could somehow link with the volunteer work. 

You would easily find them willing and able to do the volunteer work. Why? Because they can relate with it and it would also enhance their standing in the organization. -  Marino J. Dasmarinas

Your most precious organizational resource is your Human Resource

Drake, a forty something entrepreneur was contemplating of growing his Information Technology business. The first idea that crossed his mind was to infuse financial capital into his business. So, he borrowed money from the bank nearby to expand his business.

He bought state of the art computers and gadgets that would make his company at par with his competitors. After a year, his business went bankrupt and some of the serviceable assets were taken over by the bank. Why did the business fail considering that information technology related business is one of most profitable business around?  The reason behind is drake neglected to nurture his human resource.

He heavily invested financial capital through acquisition of state of the art computers and gadgets. However, he completely forgot to invest heavily as well on the human capital side of his business which is the human resource.

Many forget that in spite of the modernity of time. Human resource is still the most precious organizational resource that any organization could have. What is the use of having state of the art equipments, attractive product and good location if your human capital is neglected? Sooner or later your business will fail if you forget to upgrade the well being of your human capital.

Many are afraid to upgrade the wages/salaries of an organization’s human resource because it will certainly create additional cost for the organization. However, when you decide to pay your human resource higher than the prevailing wages. You’re creating a happy, contented and motivated human resource. You are offsetting the cost of labor turnover; you also create an engaged and mindful human resource.

There are also many more unquantifiable benefits that your human resource could bring into your organization when you begin to nurture them. And these many unquantifiable benefits are more than enough to cover the cost of increased wages and benefits.

Putting up a business or running a business is not only about earning huge profit. It’s also about taking care of the most important resource of your organization which is your human resource. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

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When there’s conflict in your organization

Erwin is a manager of a business processing company. One afternoon, a subordinate went to him to report about a shouting match amongst his subordinates. Erwin nonchalantly dismissed the report as irrelevant and not worth of his time. After a week, Erwin was a witness to a brutal fight involving the subordinates that had a previous shouting match. 

How should you react when there is a report of conflict in your organization? Should you simply dismiss it as a quarrel amongst children or you immediately act to resolve it? The wise course of action to do is to immediately resolve it. Because when you simply dismiss it, it will grow and have a natural life that could result to something tragic.

However, many of us perhaps put it aside or we outright dismiss it because we are too busy with work. But the crux of the matter is conflicts are disturbance of smooth organizational life. It creates dysfunction not only in the organization but also in the respective lives of those who are involved. So, when there’s a report of conflict don’t dilly dally immediately act to resolve it. For it will save you and the organization from unwanted trouble.

How are you going to resolve it? Don’t take sides, be objective and be impartial. Be as calm as possible and don’t overemphasize your authority. Let them speak and attentively listen to the parties involved and act more as a friend than a judge. Why? Because in doing so you’ll be able to gain their trust and confidence. Thus, you’ll be able to ferret out the truth immediately.

After hearing both sides, mediate and let those who are involved be reconciled. And after that give them time to speak if they want to speak then urged them to shake hands. Then  close the meeting with a prayer.

Whether we like it or not the ugly head of conflict will come out every now and then. Nonetheless, a good, calm and effective manager/leader can easily navigate the organization towards its immediate resolution. – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

How do you develop your influence as a leader?

A story is told about a Chief Operating Officer of a conglomerate of business who wanted to increase her influence as a leader. He tried to project a swashbuckling personality but it failed. He tried to project an image as Mr. Approachable  but it failed again because it was only for show and superficial.   

Do you want to develop and increase your influence as a leader? Of course, you do! Why? For the simple reason that leadership is influence no more no less. The more that you increase your influence as a leader the more that you become an effective leader. But how do you develop and increase your influence as a leader? 

There are three important foundations that you need to have:

Number one is Humility, humility is construed by many as weakness. However, humility is not weakness, in leadership humility is strength.  The humbler we are the more influential we become. Why is humility a driver of influence? Because it has been proven time and again that we love leaders who are humble. We gravitate towards them not away from them.  Humble leaders are always respected and revered by their followers. Think of someone who is arrogant and egotistical as opposed to someone who is humble. To whom would you want to be identified with? Whose command would you follow? Of course, you want to be identified with the humble one. And you would easily follow the command of the humble superior and not the egotistical one. 

Number two, leaders must always lead from the front. Who are these leaders? These are leaders who leads by example and who walk their talk. They lead the way, show the way    and light the way for their followers. This doesn’t mean that the leader is always in front giving orders. Because it defeats the purpose of leadership which is to empower and develop future leaders.  This means that the intellectual and ideological shadow of the leader is pervading in the entire department or organization that he/she leads.   The leader ensures that his followers know what they are doing even if he is not physically present in the organization.

Leaders who lead from the front are always influential and respected by their subordinates. Think here of a person who always see to it that the organization which he leads can effectively and efficiently function even if he is not physically present.  

Number three, a leader who wants to be influential must be knowledgeable. Knowledge is power and influence, this is something that we can all have. We can have this by reading, listening and studying. Nowadays, there is no excuse for a leader who wants to be influential not to be knowledgeable. Why? Because the internet is there to help him/her to gain knowledge. Unlike before when we solely depend on books for knowledge. Now we have the internet to help us gain knowledge, we can simply search on google. We search it and in a few seconds; it is there to feed our curious minds. Imagine, the influence that we can command from our subordinates. If we can teach them and if we can answer and articulate their questions.       

So there, the three (3) important foundations that you need to have in order to develop your leadership influence. Don’t only try it, use it and live it and see for yourself how influential you will become. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Can a job be transformed into a vocation?

Danilo is a tech-savvy young professional who applied for a middle-level managerial job in a technology driven organization. He applied there because of the high salary that it pays. After going through a battery of examinations he was eventually hired. However, after a year he resigned; when he was asked by his superior why he is resigning, he said, “I don’t’ find my purpose in this employment.” 

Do you know the purpose of your employment? Many of us think that the purpose of our employment is to earn a living. This is partly true but to earn a living is not the sole purpose of our employment. Otherwise there would be no resignation of high-salaried employees and executives.

The purpose of our employment is to find meaning and connection in that employment. This simply tells us that we need to look at our jobs as a vocation and not simply a means of livelihood to sustain us everyday. If we treat our jobs as a vocation we surely would find meaning and purpose in that job that we hold or occupy. 

However, this is not the reality on the ground, many of us treat or look at our jobs simply as a means to sustain our everyday needs and that’s it. How can we have the mindset so that we would look at our jobs as a vocation and not simply as a means of livelihood?

The brunt of responsibility rest upon the executives of the organization. How would they craft an idea or a method so that the job would also be a vocation? A job is simply a job its an activity in an organization in exchange for payment. A vocation is very different, this is something that we do because we love to do it: this is a calling and a career. 

So, how would organizational executives transform an ordinary job to a vocation? They have to create a meaningful reason for the employees to do that job. They have to create a deeper connection between the employees and the job that they do.

When the organizational executives are able to discover that meaning and connection. Then and only then would the job morph into a vocation. A vocation that will not only benefit the organization but the employees as well. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Avoid the blame game

Homer is a newly promoted Chief Operating Officer in a conglomerate of business. Part of his promotion was to head a company owned by the business conglomerate overseas. When he took over the business, he found out that its financial, production and human resource records were in disarray. The company was in near bankruptcy.

He asked himself, what should I do? Should I blame the past administration for this mess? Or should I simply work and try my very best to fix the mess that they’ve created, institute reforms and move forward. Homer chose the latter.

To employ the blame game is the easy way out of this mess. Homer, could have simply washed his hands and said, “This is all caused by the past leadership.” Yet, Homer realized that he was not brought in to point fingers or to put blame on others. Homer perfectly knew that he took over because he has a job to do and he must do it right and to the best of his abilities. So that he can positively guide his organization moving forward.

Are you quick to harness the blame game when your organization is in trouble? Or you avoid using the blame game like a plague and take full responsibility of the task given to you? When you avoid the blame game and simply do your job to the best of your abilities. You are silently telling you bosses and your subordinates that you will solve what needs solving and then move forward.

To blame the past is already useless and futile. Yes, you have to look back not to blame others or to point fingers. You only have to look back to learn the lessons of the past so that you could use it as a springboard for the future.

The future that will serve you well if you do your job to the best of your abilities without employing the blame game. – Marino J. Dasmarinas      

Acknowledgment as a tool of motivation

Are you quick to acknowledge your subordinate’s achievement? For example, good work performance or exceptional sales achievement. Do you immediately compliment such positive behaviors? Or you don’t mind it simply because you see it as ordinary and without meaning?

Words or actions that acknowledge a positive behavior fulfills our need to have a place in an organization. In Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, this is number three in the hierarchy which is the need to belong. When an employee feels that his/her need to belong in an organization is fulfilled. He/she would naturally be motivated to work hard or work even harder.

Human as we are, we feel good when we are recognized or complimented. For example, remember when you were still studying? And when your professor complimented you for correctly answering his question during recitation? How did you feel during that moment? You felt good and you were raring for another session of class recitation. Right? What influenced your positive behavior? It’s the acknowledgment and recognition that was given to you.

In the same vein, acknowledging or complimenting your subordinate’s achievement no matter how small is motivating as well. Therefore, we must not be stingy in giving well deserved compliment and acknowledgment for a job well done. This is for the reason that this gives an employee a purpose and meaning in his existence in the organization. and it fulfills the number three hierarchical need under Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs which is the need to belong.

Hence, we should be quick to acknowledge positive achievements and behaviors and we should do it as often as the opportunity gives us to do so. Try it and see for yourself the motivation that it will give your subordinates.  And the positive impact that it will create in your image. – Marino J. Dasmarinas