Gentleness in Leadership

When we say leader we normally equate this with someone who has a swashbuckling personality. They are people who standout among the many because they dare to assume leadership positions when no one dares. They admonish their subordinates not only based on their position of leadership but it’s also rooted on the strength of their character and personality.  

How about gentleness? Does it have a place in a leader’s exercise of his leadership functions especially in the area of discipline? It has a place but this is something that many leaders tend to overlook because they have more bias with the strong personality of a leader. Rather than its gentle and humble character trait. 

One of the specific areas where we could fully utilize gentleness in leadership is during imposition of discipline. There are leaders who impose discipline based on the strength of their position and their bloated egos. They do this by personally berating the erring individual/s and this has become their usual practice already.

However, gentleness does more than strength of character and bloated egos. It has been proven time and again that a person is more open to change his ways for the better when we talk to them with gentleness rather than talk to them based on the strength of our character vis-à-vis with our authority.

 For example when we approach an erring person with gentleness he/she is more open to change and there is less resistance. Rather than approach them with our authority coupled with our bloated egos.

For a change why not try gentleness in leadership?  - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Don’t abuse your power

A leader has many power base inside his organization, for example his personal power brought about by his charisma and many likable characteristics. Another power base is his legitimate power entrusted to him by his organization. This includes his power to impose disciplinary actions and power to give rewards.

In his exercise of his power there’s always the temptation to get drunk with that power. It means that he might abuse it and use it for his own personal advantage. Here lies the danger once the leader takes advantage of his temporal organizational power. Why is it dangerous? Because it will eventually create problem/s not only for the abusive leader but for his organization as well.

Take for example, a leader who has been autocratically running his organization. Initially there will be no complaints. In fact almost everyone would seem to follow his commands. But sooner or later his subordinates will eventually have this realization that their leader has been abusing them. Therefore they would complain, if nothing happens with their complaint they will be forced to act against the leader. And who will suffer? It’s the leader and the organization that he’s leading.

The proper use of power is to always exercise it within the bounds of the law, never outside of the law or outside of the norms of an organization. We must not abuse it, we must always use it coupled with humility and responsibility.

Let us all remember that power is fleeting and it has a very limited shelf life. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

When there is conflict in your organization

Conflicts among workers are part and parcel of an organization’s life. In fact organization’s go through this kind of phase once in a while. This occurs for the reason that there is no perfect individual and no perfect organization. Each and everyone of us are deficient when it comes to our exercise of human and organizational behavior.

How would you resolve conflict in your organization?  The wise course of action to take the moment you notice that some of your subordinates are in conflict with each other is to privately call their attention. Bring the parties involve to a quite place where they could vent out their emotions.

 Before the start of the venting out of emotions among the parties involve start first with a healing prayer and invoke the healing presence of God. During the process of venting out of emotions be the man in the middle or be the referee, be objective and do not take sides.

After both parties have vented out their emotions be the healing agent urged them to shake hands, encourage them to agree to forgive. Then schedule another meeting among the involved parties you can do this after a week or based of the urgency of the situation.

What is the purpose of scheduling subsequent meetings? It is to update those who are concerned of the development about the healing process that you have initiated. Do this scheduling of meeting so long as you feel that there is a need for it.

What would be the agenda/s of your meetings? It’s about reconciliation and in other words it’s all about healing the conflict. There are times that conflict remains unresolved because there is no facilitator who will facilitate reconciliation and forgiveness among those who are involve in the conflict.

Be that person who will facilitate reconciliation and  forgiveness. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

What are your responsibilities to your organization?

Mike is an employee of a five star hotel, he enjoys his job very much because he is able to see beautiful people and he works with a very professional human resource. He is well compensated he could not ask for anything more from the organization that he works for.     

But in-spite of all these perks that he receives from his organization he still has the temerity to defraud his organization. Being an accountant he manipulates the figures in their books of accounts to favor selected suppliers which in turn give him something in return.

Some employees are like Mike, they take advantage with whatever valuable things that they could corrupt from their organization. They do not care if the organization that they have been working has been good to them. Is this right? Of course not!

Considering that the organization that you are working for is your lifeline. It is therefore your responsibility to work very hard for that organization. It is your responsibility to be honest with all of the things that you do inside and outside of that organization.

But there are those who are guiltless, hard-headed and opportunistic. They are only after their own welfare and they purposely forget the welfare of the organization that they have been working for. The very same organization that has been giving them their salaries so that they could buy the necessities of life. 

What will happen if we continue with these guiltless and sometimes criminal actions? Can we become rich? Maybe yes but eventually all it will also be taken back in some ways. What we accumulate through our illegal actions will eventually be taken back from us with a heavy price.  

It is always best to walk the path of honestly, to always be hardworking even if no one is observing you. And to be concerned with the welfare of the organization that you are working for. For the simple reason that these are your responsibilities as an employee of your organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

The five (5) measures of a successful leader

There are many who want to be called leader. For example, there are politicians who want to exercise leadership but they miserably fail for the reason that they are not able to comprehend the true measure of a successful leader in politics which is actually servant leadership.

There are also executives of private corporations who exercise position of leadership but after a year or two they resign because they miserably fail to measure-up to the pressure and high standards of successful leadership in the private sector. 

What really are the measures of a successful leader? Here are five (5) feel free to add some more. 

1. The first measure is the willingness to lead by example. You show and lead the way, you do not just lay around your office you instead work hard for your subordinates to see so that they will follow.

2. The second measure is to ensure that you are always accessible to the people that you lead. One of the many leadership pitfalls is to isolate yourself in a room while your subordinates are outside of it working. When you limit your accessibility and when you seldom mingle with your people. It simply means that you do not want to be disturbed that you are an important person and your people are nonentity.

3. The third measure of a successful leader is to have human skills. This simply means that you can skilfully and honestly relate with every individual in your organization.  Your people will certainly respect you if you know how to respect them and if you know how to honestly relate with them.

4. The fourth measure is to be competent and knowledgeable about every aspect of your job and the job of your subordinates. There are managers who are well versed with their own job description but when it comes to their subordinates they know very little about it. A good manager/leader must also aspire to know the job of his subordinates.

5. The fifth measure is to ensure that you will always be humble, this simply means that a leader must at all times be ready to serve and not to be served. He must not look at his job as a means for him to be exalted. 

There are leaders who have this mindset that they are already situated in an ivory tower. That people below them must always bow to them. True and dedicated leaders are not like this they will remain humble at all times. The higher they ascend in the organizational hierarchy the more that they plant their feet firmly on the ground. - Marino J. Dasmarinas     

Job Enrichment and the role of Managers

A manager was looking for an organizational method to further boost the motivation of his deserving subordinates.  In his research he stumbled upon the topic of job enrichment and  it immediately created an interest in him. So he implemented it in his organization and this method did well because it increased the motivation of his subordinates which resulted to higher efficiency and production output.

Job enrichment is an organizational process used by managers to see to it that their subordinates are continuously motivated. It gives the deserving subordinate the responsibility and this creates a very good reason for a manager to stay in his organization.

However job enrichment is always fused with accountability. This means that the subordinate is always accountable for his every action to his manager. The more that a subordinate is given freedom and control in his assigned task or department the more that he becomes accountable to his superior/s.

Job enrichment is actually an instrument of motivation it satisfies the growth and self actualization needs of an employee. But not every employee or subordinate is deserving of this motivational method only those who are competent and responsible deserves job enrichment.

Therefore the manager must be careful in dispensing job enrichment, he must not dispense it for the reason of favoritism.  Job enrichment must always be dispensed side by side with competence and responsibility. It must never be given based on favoritism or any other form of biased decision. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

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