On being talkative in the workplace

Ferdie is a talkative department manager, he talks and shares with his subordinates anything that he wants to share. Even topics of no importance he shares. What he doesn’t know is his subordinates are not interested to hear about what he shares because it distracts their work focus.  

Many managers and even ordinary workers are talkative in the workplace. They share topics that are not anymore meant to be shared and topics of no importance. For example, family matters; should it be shared in the workplace environment? Of course not!

What is to be shared or talked about in the workplace are work related topics no more no less. This simply means that there should be less talk but more work in the workplace. Many of us are talkative in the workplace. For the simple reason that we want to impress our subordinates and colleagues about what we know but it ends with the talk. We don't actually do what we say we would do, we don't put action into our words; talk is cheap.

We also want to project power, knowledge and influence by being talkative. However, the more we talk the more we expose ourselves even our hidden ignorance and incompetence we expose by being talkative.

We have to remember that the less we talk the less we commit mistakes and the less we talk the more powerful, admirable and mysterious we appear.

Are you talkative in your workplace? – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Do you want to be admired and respected by your subordinates and colleagues?

Brent occupies a top-level executive position in a private organization, he badly wants to be admired and respected by his subordinates and colleagues. Therefore, he thought of earnings their respect by projecting himself as somebody who knows everything or anything under the sun. Thus, whenever there are meetings he sees to it that he is assertive and talkative.

However, he was already wondering why was it that after almost one year of projecting this kind of behavior. He was still not earning their respect and admiration? Why was it that Brent was still not earning their respect and admiration? The simple answer is Brent was doing it the wrong way.

Many leaders and managers are like Brent: They hunger for respect and admiration. Unfortunately, they don’t know how to properly do it, being assertive and projecting a self-image that you know it all is not the way. You are in fact depreciating your value as a leader/manager when you do it this way.    

So, what is the correct way of doing it? The correct way or the right way to earn the respect and admiration of your subordinates and colleagues is through your action. Let your action speak louder than your words and let your actions make the noise.

Noise that is not heard by your subordinates and colleagues’ ears but noise that is seen by their eyes. Always make your action/s speak for you not you speaking without action. In doing so you rightfully earn the respect and admiration of your subordinates and colleagues.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

How do you handle an effective but problematic employee?

Can there be a situation wherein an employee is effective yet problematic at the same time? Yes, there could be! For example, an employee who is intelligent, communicates well and does his assigned job competently. However, the problem is he comes to work late and it’s somewhat a force of habit for him already. Thus, it affects the timely completion of his assigned work.

How would you handle him to correct his behavioral problem? Should you immediately warn him about his tardiness and completely disregard his effectiveness at work? Or mention first his work effectiveness and after that bring out his frequent tardiness and offer help to correct it.

The best choice is the latter: Mention first his work effectiveness and then bring out his force of habit tardiness and how you can help him cure it. This you do in private: you and the concerned employee alone.

By mentioning first his effectiveness at work and then by offering him help to solve his problem of tardiness or any work-related problem for that matter. You are actually telling him that he is doing a good job, hence; you are actually motivating him. And you are deepening that motivation drive by offering him help solve his work-related problem, in this case his tardiness.

When you have a problematic employee don’t immediately single out the problem that bedevils him. Look first to his work performance because you might find out something that is encouraging or positive. After which you address the behavioral problem that disturbs him by offering him help on how to solve it. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

When a leader is a leader in name only

Bill is the Chief Executive Office of a multinational corporation as such he has enormous responsibilities on his shoulders. So, what he would often do to lighten his responsibilities is to delegate to his underlings many of his functions without him carefully assessing the function/s that he delegated. 

After a year of operation, the board of directors noted that the company was not financially healthy. There was low morale among the workers because they were not receiving their salaries on time and working conditions was very poor. Soon after, there was rebellion within his subordinates and they called for the CEO’s firing. To save the organization the CEO was immediately fired of the BOD. 

To get to the bottom of the CEO’s dismal performance the board of directors hired independent auditors to audit the performance of the CEO. They found out that the CEO was fond of delegating his functions without having a first-hand knowledge about the function to be delegated.

For example, in the marketing department he simply told his middle managers to market their products without providing them the needed leadership on how to undertake it. He did the same thing in the production department.

The CEO being the leader must always lead the way for his organization and the people working for it. What does lead the way means? It means that he should not just delegate with reckless abandon. When he delegates he must know the work and function to be delegated.

This doesn’t mean that he would micromanage his organization because this is counterproductive. What this means is he has a clear grasp of the delegated functions and every function under his organization for that matter.   

A leader becomes a true leader when he knows what he is doing and when he leads by example. Otherwise, he becomes a leader in name only, a leader which is incompetent, averse to responsibility and can easily be deposed by his subordinates. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

To apologize or not to apologize?

A story is told about Rudolf who is a manager in an Information Technology Co. Rudolf is a brash and arrogant manager/leader. He does not hesitate to admonish his subordinates whenever he wants to do so.

There was one office meeting wherein he arrogantly told his newly promoted supervisor: I am not recognizing your promotion because you did not pass through the proper selection process. But the newly promoted supervisor told him: I respectfully disagree with you sir for the reason that I went through the process and I also complied all the necessary requirements to enable my promotion.  Eventually, it was proven that the newly promoted supervisor had complied with everything that was required for him to be promoted.

Now, the question that needs to be answered is, should the manager apologize for mistake and arrogance? Many managers/leaders would not apologize because they may think that it could weaken their authority and position of leadership.  Instead, they would simply let that episode pass by and be forgotten.

However, is not to apologize right? Of course not! A good and ethical leader should apologize most especially mistakes brought about by arrogance and power tripping. This is for the reason that when a leader apologizes it enhance not only his position of leadership but also his reputation and credibility as a leader.

To apologize is never a show of weakness it’s actually a show of a leader’s humility, strength of character and wisdom. But, for a myopic leader/manager to apologize is never part of his/her vocabulary. Why? For the simple reason that he/she continuously allow his mind to be enveloped by arrogance. 

Therefore, a good leader/manager must throw away or discard any form of arrogance in his/her exercise of managerial and leadership function. He/she should instead let in humility for it will certainly enhance his/her reputation and value as a good, compassionate and effective leader. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Don’t surround yourself with yes-men and women

Polly is a newly promoted Chief Executive Officer being at the top of his organization he has every power that he could dream of. He therefore surrounded himself with people that earns his trust and confidence. The problem is, these people whom he surrounded himself with were all yes-men and women.

They would always feed him with positive information even if what is going on the ground was negative. For example, there was already rumblings amongst the rank and file because of the poor working condition that they had. Yet the people whom he surrounded himself with did nothing to tell him about this. When he asked them regarding this issue they simply told him that there’s nothing to worry for it’s not true.

A good manager/leader should not surround himself/herself with yes-men and women. The leader/manager must see to it that none of these characters are present in her/his inner circle. She/he should dare surround herself/himself with people who would tell her/him what is really going on the ground and not conceal or sugarcoat it.

A good and wisdom filled manager/leader should surround herself/himself with people who would dare push back and challenge his/her mindset whenever there is a need for it. Otherwise, if a manager/leader would only surround himself with yes-men and women it would certainly severely compromise her/his decision-making ability. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

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