Who is the most affected when a company closes its operation?

Because of the unstable economic environment and automation/computerization of organization and production processes. It is very ordinary to hear business organizations in different industries fighting for survival. 

Thus, to be able to survive they reduce the working days and hours of their employees. This is a very valid strategy for survival. If this strategy will not pull them through to survive the organization would eventually have to face the sad reality that it needs to stop its operation.

 When this situation comes up it is not actually the business owners that is severely affected. For the reason that they still have other businesses to take care. Others have safe financial investments that earn for them interest that will keep them financially secure for the rest of their lives.

Who hurts the most when an organization brings to a close its operation? It’s the employees: not the top or middle level management but the first level ones and the operative or rank and file employees. In this case they are the most affected. And the irony of it all is they are mostly the ones who have the longest length of loyalty and service to the organization. And many of them are already middle aged and not anymore marketable for employment .

Loosing ones job is not a joke; it’s actually a big dilemma for those who will be affected especially if they have mouths to feed. So before the organization folds up labor laws will dictate them to properly compensate all those who would be laid off regardless of their standing in the organization.

Some compassionate organizations/owners even sponsor livelihood business training for their soon to be separated employees. So that they could stand on their own feet and start their own little businesses that hopefully they could grow so that it could sustain them.

If there’s a temptation for workers to go on strike to demand higher wages, workers and union leaders must weight upon it properly.  For it may result to their permanent displacement from their work. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Should a Leader/Manager be wary of informal groups?

Informal groups exist within a formal organization and there are some leaders who do not mind these grouping of people. But there are also some who are very wary of this grouping of people.

How should a leader/manager react when he is informed that there is an informal group in his organization? The best reaction is to know more about the group and those who are behind it and not to immediately be wary of it.  Once the leader/Manager have an idea about the group and the people behind it it’s now the call of the Manager/leader on what to do with the informal group.

If the leader or manager perceives that the informal group may be a threat to his leadership. Then, it is upon the leader to do something to extinguish the said threat. So he must investigate on how this group was organized and why was there a need to organize this informal group and so on.

If the result of his scrutiny tells him that it was organized to antagonize him. He must do something within the bounds of his power to defuse this group. For example, if the informal group came into being because of his lack of transparency and corruption he must therefore change his ways. And learn to become open to them before this informal group engulfs him. A wise and a good leader must not wait until he is overwhelmed by an informal group. He must at all times be proactive with his actions and judgments towards them.

However, if it does no harm to the leader and to his organization, he should just leave it alone. For the reason that it will be a big help for him in the future to advance  his many plans and advocacies for his organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

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