Are you afraid to fail?

 Are you afraid to fail? 

By: Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Many are afraid to fail because they think failure is not good for their life and future and failure itself is not good or is not a positive word. 

But if you are afraid to fail you will not achieve anything because the foundation of many achievements is failure the foundation of many successful lives are failures. These people who became successful went thru many failures first before they reached the pinnacle or summit of success.

If you are afraid to fail you will not learn because it is going thru failure that you will learn and when you learn from your failure you become wise and the ladder to success is much easier to climb. 

So, you have to keep going no matter how many times you fail. You have to stand up again and again no matter how many times you stumble or fall. 

Be not afraid to fail since the journey toward success is rarely a smooth, unbroken path. Instead, it is often marked by setbacks, challenges, and moments of failure. 

Each failure is a lesson, which helps us grow. Failure tests our resilience and perseverance. Success often demands an ability to endure setbacks and to continue despite failures. 

Failure if taken positively builds our character and makes us humble. It instills the importance of hard work, dedication, and positive mindset. The ability to acknowledge failure, learn from it, and move forward with humility is a sign that eventually you will become successful. 

In summary, failure should not be viewed as an endpoint but as a crucial phase in the journey toward success. As Winston Churchill wisely stated, “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.” 

Can consideration be an instrument of motivation?

The story is told about an employee who was requesting his boss a consideration if he could give him some days off. Because he will be attending to a personal family matter. After asking a few validating questions the boss said yes!

Consideration is a powerful instrument of motivation, particularly in the context of leadership and other Human Behavior in Organization relationships. Consideration points to the act of showing empathy for an employee’s need and wellbeing. When leaders and managers exercise consideration, it would influence motivation.

For example, Trust, Respect and Obedience are strengthened: When subordinates are listened, understood, and valued, they are more likely to trust, obey and respect the person giving consideration. This positive human behavior dynamics give birth to motivation.

It is a given fact of organization life that when subordinates are given consideration, they become more engaged and committed in their work. They feel a sense of ownership and commitment because they believe their contributions matter and are recognized. This engagement leads to increased motivation and dedication to achieving goals.

Consideration creates an environment of psychological safety. Where subordinates and direct reports feel comfortable taking risks, expressing ideas and being vulnerable without fear of judgment or even punishment. Such an environment encourages creativity, innovation, and intrinsic motivation.

To sum it all, consideration plays a crucial role in enhancing employees’ motivation. Because it creates a positive and supportive organizational atmosphere and it strengthen the leader and employee relationship. But of course, consideration is also subject to abuse by unscrupulous employees. Therefore, it is incumbent upon the leader/manager to carefully evaluate his granting of consideration. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

On positive mindset

The story is told about a mountain climber who desired to climb the highest mountain peak. So, he went to climb it. When he was a few feet away from the peak he saw thick clouds that concealed the highest peak which was already within his reach. 

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 would be tested by your superior/s. You might be given a job that may seem so hard for you to do; don’t refuse it, accept it instead. 

For all you know it’s just a test for you if you could handle bigger responsibilities in the future. Or it could be a test if you are ripe for promotion. 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.  Google and ChatGPT OpenAI are there also to widen your understanding about the new responsibility. 

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

If only the mountain climber in our story persisted and exerted more hard work he could have achieved his objective but he gave up. Life at work is full of challenges that will test your tenacity because this is a given fact of life at work. 

Always have a positive mindset because challenges no matter how difficult are more made achievable when you approach it with a positive mindset. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Are you a Positive Leader?

 

A positive leader is someone who uses humane and democratic methods in the exercise of his/her leadership. 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. And he does not shout to his subordinates he instead talks to them in a civilized manner. He does this to let them know that there’s always a chance for them to straighten up their behavior. 

This is consistently the behavior of a positive leader. His end objective is always to correct and motivate and not destroy the morale of his subordinates/people. He would at all times think of ways to make everyone in his organization 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 wear that optimistic smile every time on his face. And this is a very good demeanor for a leader because his positive and optimistic character will certainly rub off to his subordinates. 

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

Just imagine an organization with a positive leader he will certainly bring his organization to greater heights. And he will surely be a positive influence to his subordinates. We therefore have to use positive leadership in our exercise of leadership because this is the only way for us to become good and effective leaders. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Should you always reward an exemplary performance with money?

Do you always need to recognize an exemplary performance from your subordinates? Yes!  It’s always a must that you recognize every exemplary performance from your subordinates. Why? For the simple reason that recognition or reward is an integral part of motivation. 

But there is this misconception that when we say recognize it means money or something that is material. Not true!  We can actually give rewards even without a price tag attached to it. 

For example, just calling up the attention of an effective employee during meetings is more than enough recognition. A tap on the shoulder coupled with a short pep talk is another priceless form of reward or motivation. 

We should not always look at money as our vehicle for reward because it's temporary and impersonal.  Besides it does not convey a lasting impression in the heart of the recipient. For a change why not try something that is not visible or not measured by money yet will be forever felt by the heart? 

What are these? Verbal recognition during meetings, banners that conveys positive message and so forth. Motivation’s true purpose is best served when you reward your subordinates with things that are not quantified by money. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

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 for their employees to further motivate them. One of this method is called profit sharing; this is basically the allocation of a certain percentage of the organization’s earning to its employees. Another method is stocks ownership, here employees own shares of stocks in the company where they are working for.  

This is a very viable means for motivation for the reason that workers are entitled to this attractive financial scheme. Who will not work hard if employees are given financial rewards from the net profit of the organization?  Who will not work hard if employees are offered shares of stocks by the company that they are working for? Stocks ownership is actually being undertaken by big corporations worldwide. But on the other hand the globalized economy makes stock ownership quite risky. 

For example, if an economic power such as the United States, China, Japan and other economically powerful nations have a problem with their economy. There is always that risk that your own local stock market would also be affected. And it might result to the devaluation of the value of your local stocks. Nevertheless this is still a good scheme to impress upon the minds of employees that they are valued by their organization.   

How about for 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 an organization’s yearly net profit.  

Profit sharing and stocks ownership are very effective motivational tool that is seldom used by organization. Why? For the simple reason that there are greedy organizations/business owners. They only want for themselves the fruits of their organization; they don’t want to share it with their workforce who plays a big part in the realization of the organizational goals.  

Why not try sharing a percentage of your profit with your employees and why not offer them stocks ownership option? And see how they will plough back this goodwill in terms of their motivation and concern for the well being of the organization.  - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The power of positive mindset #mjdasma

The story is told about Jacinda, a Chief Executive Officer who noticed the weary behavior amongst her subordinates since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The usual happy, alive and bubbly behaviors amongst her subordinates were not there anymore. So, she thought of a way to bring back their motivation otherwise if she would not it would surely be the end of their organizational life.

Hence, she called for a meeting of the entire human resource in their organization’s gymnasium. And she told them, “We have to have a positive mindset notwithstanding our present predicament if we want our organization to survive otherwise we would be all out of job sooner or later.”

But what is positive mindset? Positive mindset is a mental attitude that expects nothing but the best despite of all the negativity, gloom and adversity that surrounds us. Positive mindset is also the beginning of having a positive life for without positive mindset there would be no bright future ahead of us.

Positive mindset opens new avenues, new doors and new windows for life’s opportunities and success. It ushers us to uncharted lands that give us nothing but the best. Helen A. Keller the famous blind and deaf author has this to say about positive mindset: “No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new heaven to the human spirit.”   

Positive mindset is also the secret of athletes in winning and achieving success in their chosen sport. Michael Jordan the greatest basketball player of all time has this to say about positive mindset: "If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it."

Positive mindset is the best mental attitude that we need to have during this trying times. Because it programs us to have a laser like focus on the brighter side of life. It blinds our eyes to all the negativity of life. And when we are focused on the brighter side of life we naturally invite it to come eventually into our life. 

Going back to the story of Jacinda. She was able to bring back the sagging morale of her subordinates and their organization is still vibrantly existing right now. Simply because she encouraged them to live with a positive mindset.

This too we can apply in any arena of our life: Family life, organizational/work life, married life, personal life, retired but not tired life or whatever area of life that we are in right now. We will be able to survive and eventually win this battle against pessimism, gloom and negativity brought about by Covid-19. Because we will use to the hilt the power of positive mindset. Aye! – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

How do you motivate yourself?

Can you still find the motivation to work in this era of Covid-19? 

Motivation is a positive energy that fuels an individual or group of individuals to achieve their organizational and personal goals. Usually there’s a person who motivates and there are people who are being motivated. This is usually the scheme of things.

But can we motivate ourselves considering that the pandemic called covid-19 is ravaging the world? Yes we still can! Notwithstanding the discouraging business and societal environment! We have to remember that motivation is a positive state of mind. Everything begins in the mind, if we have a positive mind and heart sets motivation is within us already.

What is important is we persist and believe in what we are doing. And for as long as we continue with what we are doing sooner or later there would be realization of what we are aspiring for.

For those who are losing heart already and is soon to give it all up. Don’t raise the white flag of surrender motivate yourself by doing the following:

1.) Pray and ask God to strengthen you!

2.) Think positive and believe in yourself because nobody else will believe you if you don’t      believe in yourself!

3.) Post inspirational quotations that will inspire you to continue!

4.) Be inspired by Motivational stories.

 5.) Work hard and never ever give up!

Saint Augustine once said: "Pray as though everything depended on God. Work as though everything depended on you."  - 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

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 

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           

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

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

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 

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  

How do you approach motivation?

The story is told about Romy, a forty years old supervisor in an online retail store. He had no negative and derogatory record in his almost twenty years of working. However, his manager noticed his lack of motivation.  He was simply going thru the motions of his work: no drive and no enthusiasm whatsoever.

So, the manager talked to Romy and asked him if he could help him if he has problem in his work or whatever is going on in his life. Romy curtly replied, “Nothing everything is ok.” Another two weeks had passed and his work behavior and performance were still mediocre. Considering that he was paid well and the non-monetary package of benefits was also excellent.The manager was clueless on what was the cause of his demotivation. 

Like the manager, many of us may think that money and benefits are the be all and end all of motivation.  Money and benefits are only a component of the motivational puzzle. Therefore, it’s not the be all and end all of motivation. There’s more to motivation than money and benefits.

Since these two were already out of the question of his demotivation. The manager engaged this former productive employee more often. This he did by talking to him more often, by giving him more responsibilities and giving him voice during staff meetings. Slowly but surely the performance of Romy rose up again and he was even promoted to the next higher rank.

Motivation is a complex thing, it’s not simply about money and benefits. It involves human relations and behavior. It involves employee’s social engagement inside and outside of their work. Motivation is the fusion of efforts and ideas by the employee and manager. Motivation is also about having a safe and conducive work environment and the like.

Motivation is dynamic and not static that’s why effective and good leaders think every now and then how to fuel the motivation of their subordinates.   

How are you as a motivator? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

On winning respect in an argument

Have you been involved in an argument in your workplace? Arguments occurs in the workplace every now and then. It happens during meetings, lunchbreaks and discussions. By virtue of their senior status in the workplace these arguments are normally won by the person who occupies the higher position. 

But the fact is not everyone who wins an argument earns the respect of the person whom they’ve argued with. So, how does one win an argument and respect at the same time? There are four (4) ways that I want to suggest:

1. Don’t bully your way to win an argument. By virtue of their higher status in the organization many managers/leaders would try to bully their way to win an argument. They are usually successful using this bullying tactic. However, when it comes to earning respect of their subordinate whom they’ve argued with, they actually fail. Therefore, don’t use any form of bullying tactic during arguments.

2. Be mindful when the person whom you are arguing with is talking. Listen and be present, in other words; don’t be physically present but mentally wandering elsewhere.

3. Acknowledge the thoughts and ideas of the person whom you are arguing with even if its wrong. And then in a gentle manner put forward your own thoughts and ideas.   

4. Close the argument on a positive note by saying, “Thank you for your time and ideas or any words to that effect.” – Marino J. Dasmarinas

The folly of shock and awe mentality

Jonathan, a newly retired general was invited by his friend to become the Chief Executive Officer of his business conglomerate. John accepted the offer with the thought in mind that he will use the shock and awe strategy in running the organization. So that he could immediately dominate his subordinates and impose his will upon them.

He therefore immediately buckled down to work. His first act was to call for a meeting among the managers of the business conglomerate. During the meeting John immediately emphasized his authority by dominating the meeting. And not allowing the anyone to question his pronouncements. The meeting ended with the managers feeling threatened and paralyzed by their new Chief Executive Officer.     

Shock and awe strategy is useful as a military tactic when you want to immediately conquer and decimate your enemy. This require rapid and swift dominance by the attacking force to immediately destroy the will to fight and morale of the enemy.

However, in a civilian/private organizational setting this shock and awe mindset will never work. Why?  Because in a private organizational setting there’s no human enemy to conquer. What is to be conquered is the flawed behaviors of the human resource. The flawed system and processes of the organization. And no C.E.O can conquer a flawed behavior, system and processes by using this shock and awe strategy.  

A leader/manager who would use this shock and awe strategy is an egocentric and autocratic leader/manager. And this kind of manager/leader has no place in our modern and technologically driven organizations today.

Organizations today thrive in dialogue, communication and democracy. The same with our leaders and managers today. They also are successful when they are open to dialogue, communication and democracy. – Marino J. Dasmarinas