This blog features my insights and commentaries on Human Behavior in Organizations. I conduct Lectures/Talks on Organizational Behavior and Values.

This blog features my insights  and commentaries on Human Behavior in Organizations. I conduct Lectures/Talks on Organizational Behavior and Values.

Your words can build or destroy the confidence of your subordinate/s

Do you always see to it that the words that you say are always motivating and remarkable? For example in your workplace, do you always see to it that you avoid negative words or words that create a stigma on those who hear and receive it?

Your words are very powerful it can build or destroy your subordinates. If your words are always words that condemn or words that bring down the dignity of your subordinates. You can be sure that your subordinates morale and productivity will be affected. He/she will lose confidence in himself which is very important for your subordinates growth and development.

When you speak to your subordinate/s see to it that you only speak words that build, words that inform and words that motivate. Why? Because this is how it should always be, what if a subordinate is at fault? Doesn’t he/she deserve to be lectured or treated more strictly than the others? No, for the reason that this is not the right way to solve this problem.    

Harsh words will never correct a faulty behavior it could even aggravate a defective behavior. The correct method to approach this problem is through composed and calm face to face communication. When the boss is calm it follows that the subordinate/s will be calm also but when the boss is angry and feeling superior there’s always the tendency for the subordinate to be angry also.    

If you always approach with diplomacy and respect your problem subordinates you could even build their confidence. You will also be highly respected by your subordinate/s for the simple reason that respect always begets respect and disrespect begets disrespect also.  

Therefore be careful with your words for it can build or destroy the confidence of your subordinate/s. It can also enhance or destroy your own reputation as a Boss/Manager - Marino J. Dasmarinas

What makes an organization successful?

There are many factors why an organization is successful foremost of this are these three (3):

1   1. Communication – This means that every member of the organization is communicating or are able to communicate what they want to happen to their organization. For example, in the area organization mission and vision. The top management must be able to communicate the mission and vision that they want to perpetuate for their organization. This communication of ideas should be pervading to every member of the organization even to the lowest member of the organization. When the people under the organization are effectively communicating they therefore know their purpose in the organization.

2  2. Proper treatment of its Human Resource – In this era of internet communication, downsizing and rightsizing, does human resource still matter? Of course! Even if organizations today are trying its best to reduce their need of human resource. Nevertheless, human resource still matters for the simple reason that HR drives organization. Oftentimes we think of ways how to increase the value of organization yet we neglect to properly take care of our human resource. How could we increase the value of our organization if our human resource is left-behind or neglected?

3    3. Effective Research and Development – Organizations these days come and go, they exist today but they may not be existing a year from now even months from now. What is the cause of this organizational failure? One of the many causes is poor research and development. The business environment that we are in today is very dynamic and this is primarily driven by the advance of technology. What will happen to our organization if our R & D are poor or nonexistent? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Who is the loser if there’s triumph of favoritism in an organization?

Favoritism is the display of partiality toward certain individual or group of individuals. Unfortunately some managers succumb to this behavioral trap. They favor individuals or group of individuals in their organization without regard to the negative effect that it will create to their organization.  

For example during job promotion; there are many instances most especially in government   that an employee is not promoted based on his/her competence. He is promoted because he has connections or he is a favorite of some powerful people in the organization. This person is promoted not based on what he knows about the job, his promotion is anchored on his connections.

Who is the loser if there’s a triumph of favoritism in an organization? The first loser here is the person who exercised favoritism and the second is organization itself.  Consider here the damage that is done to his reputation and the dysfunction that it creates to the organization. This is one of the many negative effects when someone pushes his weight around just to get what he wants.

The second loser is the person who was promoted based on his powerful connections. There would be negative remarks about himself and questions also about his competence would arise. The third loser is the human resource manager. What if the competent person who was not promoted would question the decision of the human resource manager? What if there would be a groundswell of support coming from the employees union for this deserving person who was not promoted?   

Favoritism in organization is immoral because it will sooner or later destroy the organization. Just imagine an organization being run by undeserving employees and visualize the havoc that it will create in the organization. - Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Does Humility matter in Leadership?

Does humility matter in leadership? Yes it matters very much in fact without humility there would be no real success in leadership.

Take for example the many authoritarian leaders who were eventually overthrown by their people. These leaders showed authoritarian or iron fisted kind of leadership and they earned success initially. Their people followed what they want but after a number of years comes  resistance and soon this resistance will snowball. Eventually this would result to the arrogant leader being overthrown by his people.

This is for the reason that people normally don’t want arrogant and overbearing leaders. People may tolerate these kind of leaders for a while but eventually limits of patience woulc be reached and this arrogant leader would soon be overthrown or deposed.   

The same is true in an organization setup no matter what kind or how small the organization. Subordinates will always align themselves with a humble leader and their motivation would always be high if they are being lead by a humble leader.

Why is this so? Because this is natural human behavior, who would want to be lead by an arrogant and overbearing leader? Nobody! We always want a leader who has humility even if the leader is strict for as long as he/she has humility this leader will be respected and accepted by his/her subordinates.

Therefore, humility is one of the most important ingredients of a successful organizational leader.   Just look at Pope Francis, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Jesus, to name a few.

Do you use humility in your exercise of leadership? - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Everything starts with planning

An effective organization is not created overnight, it is a product of pouring-in of hours of planning.

 For example, a manager who wants an effective human resource that could help him achieve his dreams for his department would spend hours of planning on how he would go ahead with his plan so that it could become a reality. Once he completes his conceived plan in his mind he then makes it a reality with all the resources and power available at his disposal.

He will now lay the groundwork for the actual realization of his plan. Of course the manager must be the lead person in the execution of his plan. For example if the problem of his human resource is lack of initiative and motivation he should therefore lead by example by showing his subordinates that he himself has the initiative, drive and motivation for work.

If this is not enough, he may conduct talks and seminars to equip his subordinates the tools so that they would know how to be driven and motivated. After these have been done it’s now time to monitor the results through their work behavior and work output. If the manager is not satisfied with the outcome he must think once again on how he could best address the issues inside his organization.

An effective manager must always have an active mind. This simply means that he never stops thinking of ways and means on how to improve and maximize not only the abilities of his human resource but their well being as well. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Does it pay to be a proactive leader?

What does it mean to be a proactive leader? Does this mean that the leader will just have a wait and see attitude and wait for things to unravel before him and then react when its late aready? Of course not!  If a leader or manager is like this he is not anymore a proactive leader but a reactive leader which is actually very disastrous for an organization.

A Proactive leader/manager should have an effective self-awareness about his environment. In other words he must always be five (5) steps ahead of his subordinates , he must be like a radar or a sonar that detects objects before it gets near.

For example, an effective leader will be able to detect in advance if his subordinates are dissatisfied with his leadership or managerial skills. And the moment he detects it in advance he must competently adjust his leadership and managerial style to address the dissatisfaction.     

But how would he know in advance if there’s dissatisfaction in his organization? He should always be in-touch with his subordinates, he should mingle and talk with them for this is one of the efficient methods on how to have effective awareness in an organization.

It pays to become a proactive leader because you are able to detect and prevent problem/s before it occurs. You are able to think and create ways on how to address the problem in advance before it becomes a full-blown problem for your organization.

Are you a proactive leader? - Marino J. Dasmarinas