How do you strengthen the commitment of your lazy subordinates?

 

Do you want to strengthen the commitment of your lazy subordinates?

There are managers who complain that they don’t have a committed workforce. This is actually a very valid observation there are really workers who exert half-hearted effort towards their work. 

What is the cause of this? Is this an attitude problem? Is this attributable to the inherent laziness of certain worker? This can be both an attitude problem and inherent laziness of some employees. However, when employees accept an employment offer.

It simply means that they commit themselves to follow the discipline and culture of the organization that they would be working for. If they agree to work for an organization why are they still lazy and why are they still less committed?  

We can somehow trace this indifferent attitude to their managers. A manager who is lazy and lacking in commitment would breed the same kind of subordinates. Therefore the key in changing the attitude of these workers lies in the hands of the manager himself. If he wants his subordinates to change then he must first change and lead the way.  

From being lazy and half-hearted the manager would now become very hard-working and committed. If we apply the principle of leadership by example it is expected that the subordinates will now become very hard working and committed also.  

Managers sometimes look very far for the solution to their subordinates behavioral problems especially laziness and lack of commitment. Not knowing that they are actually part of the problem and certainly would also become part of the solution provided they change their negative attitudes/behaviors. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The three primary leadership skills

There are three primary leadership skills: Technical, Human and Conceptual. Each of these skills can effectively help leaders/managers in exercising their function provided they know how to use it appropriately.

The third leadership skill is Technical skill: This is the knowledge of the leader/manager about the nitty- gritty or the specific details of the job of his direct reports and subordinates. For example, in a food business such as Mc Donalds the leader/manager must know every small details of the job that his crews are doing. Such as the preparation of hamburger, spaghetti, fried chicken and so forth. The proper mixture of fruit juices, dispensing of coffee and other drinks. Inventory and set up of supplies and every little detail that makes a food business work.

The second is Human/People skill this refers to the ability of the leader/manager to work effectively with his people; this is human relations in action. We all know that humans are the most precious resource of an organization. We also know that no human is an island, thus, it is a must for the leader/manager to know how to build teamwork. He must learn how to effectively communicate towards his people, he must be sensitive to their needs. He must know how to empathize and he must always start the communication process.

The leader/manager must also know how to mediate and ease tension brought about by the behavioral idiosyncrasies of his people. He should also know how to be vulnerable when there’s a need to be vulnerable this he can best do by asking questions. And by asking his people to teach him of the things that he needs to know.   

The number one leadership skill is Conceptual skill, this is the ability of the leader/manager to think on how he can best run his organization: In terms of expansion, profitability achievement of organizational goals, mission and vision. He must also know how to conceptualize strategic plans and solutions for his organization when it encounters problematic situations. 

Simply put, Conceptual skill is the ability of the leader/manager to think on how he can successfully Lead, Manage and Grow his organization. That will not only benefit his organization but also benefit his employees and the environment at large.  

Most especially during this era of Covid-19 pandemic wherein many business organization are finding it very hard to survive. Therefore, a good and effective leader/manager must harness whatever conceptual skill that he has and put it to good use. So that he can safely navigate his organization in the midst of the business disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.        

For leaders/managers to be successful, they must know how to properly utilize their Technical skills, Human/People skills and Conceptual skills. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

On jokes and leadership

The story is told about a leader who made light of the crisis that his organization was going through. So, he would make jokes about shutting down the organization which he leads and the lives of his people after they become jobless. To one male subordinate he said, “You will become a villain in a movie because you have a face that only your mother can love.” To another female subordinate he said, “You will become a nightclub bouncer because you are built like a male even if you’re a female.” His subordinates did not buy his jokes they simply smirked and left him.    

It’s not right for a leader to joke with his subordinates while exercising his leadership function. And it’s not right also to make jokes while the organization is in crisis mode. However, there are leaders and managers who cannot help but make jokes at the expense of their direct reports and subordinates even if the situation doesn’t warrant it. They sadistically love it when their people laugh at their jokes.

This is quite fun in the short run but as the leader does this every so often this becomes ineffective and insulting already. Until it reaches a point that the leader/manager is not being respected anymore and he himself becomes a joke to his direct reports and subordinates.

Does this mean that a leader should not joke with his direct reports and subordinates? Not really, because it’s OK for a leader/manager to banter with his people but he must see to it that this is done in the proper environment. For example, during activities not confined to official working hours wherein the leader/manager becomes just one of the guys.

 In this instance he can freely exchange jokes for so long as he wants. It makes him more human and more approachable when he does that. It breaks the unseen barrier that separates his position from his direct reports and subordinates. And this also solidifies their team spirit.

It’s not actually bad to tell a joke for the sake of hilarity provided that this is done in the most appropriate situation.  And provided that the jokes will not infringe on our honor, office and integrity and the honor and integrity of our direct reports and subordinates as well. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Let us not let social media dictate upon us

Are we always tension filled caused by the Covid-19 pandemic? Many are tension filled these days and when we ask them where it emanates they conveniently point to the havoc caused by Covid-19. This is correct to a certain negligible degree! But what really cause the useless tensions that many of us are feeling right now? It’s our addiction to social media!

Many of us are so addicted to our smart phones and laptops that we always browse facebook and other online portals to get news about what is happening regarding covid-19. Many would even uselessly comment and share news items about it not minding the psychological injury that in can cause to themselves and to those who read and receive it.

When we do this we let social media dictate upon us, we let useless tension creep into our system of thinking. And we end up what? We end up like fools and neurotic people, we end up like headless chickens swarming an unknown environment, all because we let social media dictate upon us.

The Wise and Wisdom filled don’t allow social media to dictate upon them they instead dictate on social media. How are they doing this? For example, they purposely limit their time of exposure to social media for the simple reason that they know the psychological harm that it can cause them.

So, they set limited time to browse facebook and other social media platforms. Say, 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes before retiring at night and that is more than enough for them. And what are they doing for the rest of the day? They go about their usual routines: They clean the house, they read, they listen to uplifting music and useful audio books.

They pray the rosary, they read the bible and reflect upon the word of God. They tend their gardens with facemask of course :) and they talk to their plants but let us not overdo talking to our plants because our neighbors might accuse us of neurosis :) :) :).

We can still do so much outside of social media; we can plan on how to carefully walk the post covid-19 new normal. And then we set our sights and soon after sail and carefully navigate to a bright, hopeful and faith filled future ahead of us. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Leadership, Organizational Culture and the Covid-19 pandemic

Organizational culture is the standard, philosophy and shared ideal of an organization. Organizations that have competent culture are the ones that succeed.

For an organizational culture to be pervasive; it needs to be implemented from the top management down to the lowest ranked employee of an organization. A good and competent Organizational Culture is very contagious especially when it is thoroughly implemented and lived by its leaders.

For example, in the present Covid-19 pandemic many countries are struggling to fight this pandemic. On the other hand there are also countries such as Taiwan, Vietnam, South Korea, Germany  Singapore, Israel, New Zealand and Japan that are able to contain the spread of this Covid-19 pandemic. What separates them from the other countries that are struggling to contain the spread of this pandemic notwithstanding the draconian measures that they have instituted?

What separate these countries are the competent organizational Culture that they’ve put in place. And who is in charge of putting in place this competent organizational Culture? It’s their respective leaders! 

 A good and competent Culture also attracts the best and brightest work force. For the reason that everyone would want to work for a company that has a good organizational culture. Who would not like to work for an organization that has a competent organizational culture?

For an organizational culture to be effective, it must be inculcated into the minds of the employees during their very first day of work. This is normally facilitated by orientation wherein the newly hired employee is informed about the culture and other policies of the organization. The workers are introduced to the many guidelines of their new organization. And if competently done it is expected that these employees would follow every rules and regulations of their new organization.

Does your organization have a good and competent Organizational Culture? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

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

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

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

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 

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 

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   

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

Do you want to be more productive? Begin by trusting your subordinates

Gerry is a department manager in a semiconductor related organization. He is workaholic and a micro manager; he is always first to report for work and last to leave the office. He is very particular with every detail of the work of his subordinates. Therefore, it seems to him that there is not enough time for him to accomplish what he is supposed to accomplish.

Nothing is wrong with Gerry’s being workaholic but being a micro manager? A micro manager is a boss who is a control freak and obsessed with his power.  When a boss has this mentality it strongly signifies his lack of trust towards his subordinates. Lack of trust which constricts his productivity.  

When we throw out of the window our micromanagement styles, we also begin to invite trust to come into our doors. What can trust do to our workplace environment? Trust invites workplace productivity and our employees’ cooperation and engagement. Employees who are trusted are motivated to work hard thus they are productive citizens of the organization.

But how are we going to communicate trust? Is it enough to tell our subordinates that we trust them and that’s it already? Of course not! Among other things, trust is communicated by loosening overly restrictive organizational control mechanism.

By sharing vital but not classified information to our subordinates. This we can best do during staff meetings or even during ordinary workplace conversation. When we share information to our subordinates, we communicate to them that they belong and are close to us. This solidifies the bond amongst the manager and subordinates and it also creates an invisible feeling of responsibility.     

When we bequeath trust to our subordinates, we also eliminate our micromanagement and control freak styles of management. Which are counterproductive to an organization for it stifles productivity and growth. 

But of course, we have to carefully choose the subordinates whom we would bestow trust. We should not trust our subordinates simply because they are close to us. We should trust those who are competent, hard workers and those who have potential for growth. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Do you allow pressure in your workplace to pressure you?

How are you handling pressure in your workplace? Do you allow it to pressure you or you simply let pressure be by itself?

Many managers and leaders allow pressure in the workplace to pressure them. Thus, it creates so many complications in their lives and health. When we allow pressure in the workplace to pressure us, we become stressed. We cannot function properly, why? Because we have allowed the pressure of work to pressure us and it results to stress at work.

Not only that it results to being stressed at work it also complicate our wellbeing. Our blood pressure shoots up, we become anxious. We unintentionally create conflicts with our subordinates and peers and so forth.

Some of us bring this pressure at work to our homes and what is the negative effect of this to our family’s wellbeing? Friction is easily ignited in the family. Sometimes there is shouting match between spouses and sometimes between parents and children. And who is the culprit? Our mishandling of pressure at work for we allowed it to stress us.

So, what is the cure? The cure is not to allow workplace pressure to pressure us. Let us let pressure exist by itself until it passes us. How are we going to go about it? We have to put things at work in its proper order and then simply work hard and leave pressure by itself alone.  

We can do this by concentrating in our work, pressure at work happens for the simple reason that we are not concentrating at work. By not concentrating we allow work to pressure us. For example, when we are given so many tasks by our boss, we become rattled and we already don’t know which work to do first.

So, what are we going to do? We simply have to concentrate on the work given to us according to its importance. Let us not allow it to pressure us otherwise it would create havoc in our wellbeing. We have to remember that we are humans and not machines. Even machines/computers break down when subjected to so much pressure.   

At the end of the day we have to remember that if not handled wisely and properly workplace pressure or stress can kill us anytime. We therefore have to manage pressure in the workplace by not allowing it to pressure us. We simply have to give it our all when we work minus the pressure and that is already enough.  -  Marino J. Dasmarinas 

How do you modernize without upsetting your employees?

Leni is a newly assigned production manager in a manufacturing organization. During the first week of her assumption of office she noticed the need to upgrade and computerize the manufacturing department’s equipment and machines. But she was in a dilemma because the upgrade and computerization would require the displacement of half of the current manufacturing employees. She was asking herself: “How would I go about this?”

Leni’s dilemma is not her own only. In this age of modernization and hi-technological advancement. Many organizational leaders and managers are also in the same boat as Leni. How would they modernize without antagonizing their employees?     

Organizational modernization is like a force of nature that no one of us can avoid. If an organization wants to survive its journey toward the 21^st century it must embrace modernization otherwise it would be left behind. But the sad part of modernization is the need for organizations to shed a sizeable number of its employees.   

The Catch-22 filled question now is, how would a leader/manager go about it without upsetting the employees? Since the need to modernize is inevitable, the leader/manager must not do it abruptly so as not to antagonize its employees.

Why? For the simple reason that the leader/manager is inviting trouble to come in when she/he antagonize the employees.  Therefore, a good and effective leader/manager must do it in such a way that modernization should proceed as smooth as possible.

This smooth transition to modernity should be done slowly but surely. Therefore, employees should not be kept in the dark regarding this matter. This transition should be done with utmost transparency and openness. And the employees who would be affected by the modernization shall be properly informed and compensated.

In hindsight, this should also the method that ought to be followed. When a certain organizational department/division decides to embrace change to enter the door of modernization. It should transition slowly but surely so as not to immediately upset the current organizational set-up of its employees.   

As the saying goes, haste make waste. Same goes when an organization decides to hastily enter the door of modernization. Therefore, organizational leaders and managers must carefully balance the pros and cons of their decision. Vis-a-vis the most important resource of an organization which is its employees or human resource. – Marino J. Dasmarinas