Secure leaders vis-à-vis insecure leaders

In a faraway kingdom lived an insecure leader who was about to end his term. So he said to his underlings, “I want you to highlight all the accomplishments that I achieved during my term.” His minions were in a quandary about how they would undertake his order because he had nothing to show but his incompetence, arrogance, autocracy, and laziness. 

Effective, secure, and humble leaders would never be concerned about whether their accomplishments during their term of office would be noticed or not. Why? Because they are secure in what they have accomplished. They know in their hearts that during their incumbency, they had a laser-like focus on their mission and vision for their organization. They also saw to it that they were surrounded by the best intellectual minds to help them achieve their mission and vision. 

On the other hand, insecure leaders will always crave attention. They normally do this by using bombastic words or words that portray them as having a strong character and personality. Insecure leaders are not consultative; they decide based on their whims and caprices, without regard for the greater good. What is important to them is that they are able to bulldoze their own personal agendas. 

But a leader who is secure in his leadership will not be afraid to make decisions that are unpopular because he knows that these unpopular decisions will be for the long-term welfare of the people in his organization. 

At the end of the day, leaders are not judged by their present actions and accomplishments; they are judged by history and the legacies they have built and left behind. 

For example, how they have improved the well-being of their people, how they have enhanced the financial wealth of their organization or country, and how they have fought for the welfare of their people and organization against a bully organization or country, and so forth. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

How do you assign work/task to your Work From Home (WFH) employees?

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the work-from-home (WFH) arrangement is one of the ways organizations today continue their operations. But how are you going to assign tasks to your work-from-home employees when they are working in the comfort of their homes, and when you cannot directly supervise them?

The best course of action here is to maintain the status quo. Your WFH employees will have the same workload they used to have when they were not yet under the WFH setup. Is this still achievable? Yes, of course! Considering that there is no more travel time, less preparation in the morning to report to the office, and the same ease applies in the afternoon when going home.

WFH is the future of the work setup, and there is no turning back. Whether we like it or not, we have to adapt to this new work environment, which is very favorable to employees and to the organization as well.

The Covid-19 pandemic, along with the availability of high-tech modes of communication such as the internet, has forced organizations to take a closer look at the WFH setup. But WFH is not new; this arrangement has been going on for quite some time for some organizations. However, the pandemic has forced all organizations to harness the usability of WFH arrangements.

They now find this setup very useful, cost-effective, and practical in addressing the many work challenges organizations face today, challenges that have been primarily influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Profit Sharing/stock ownership as method of Motivation

Do you want to strengthen the motivation of your employees?

There are big corporations that offer creative financial schemes to further motivate their employees. One of these methods is called profit sharing, which is essentially the allocation of a certain percentage of the organization’s earnings to its employees. Another method is stock ownership, where employees own shares of the company in which they work.

This is a very viable means of motivation because workers are entitled to these attractive financial schemes. Who would not work hard if employees are given financial rewards from the net profit of the organization? Who would not work hard if employees are offered shares in the company they work for? Stock ownership is actually being implemented by big corporations worldwide. However, the globalized economy makes stock ownership quite risky.

For example, if an economic power such as the United States, China, Japan, or other economically powerful nations experience problems with their economy, there is always the risk that your local stock market will also be affected, which may result in the devaluation of your local stocks. Nevertheless, this is still a good scheme to impress upon employees that they are valued by their organization.

How about small-scale businesses? Can they also offer profit sharing to their workers? Of course, they can! This can be done by forging an agreement with employees that they shall be entitled to a certain percentage of the organization’s yearly net profit.

Profit sharing and stock ownership are very effective motivational tools that are seldom used by organizations. Why? For the simple reason that there are greedy business owners who only want the fruits of their organization for themselves. They do not want to share them with their workforce, who play a big part in the realization of organizational goals.

Why not try sharing a percentage of your profit with your employees? Why not offer them the option of stock ownership? See how they will plow back this goodwill in terms of motivation and concern for the well-being of the organization. – Marino J. Dasmarinas