Wisdom from the ANTS

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

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

 Here are the following:

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

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

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

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

What is the Culture of your Organization?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Are you a successful leader/manager?

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

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

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

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

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

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

The functions of Management and its effects in your Organization

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

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

The first function is Planning:

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

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

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

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

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

Then comes the next function is called Leading:

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

The last functions but certainly not the least is Controlling:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The crucial role of positive employee attitude

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

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

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

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

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

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

Learn to share you authority

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

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

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

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

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