On giving behavioral feedback

How do you give behavioral feedback? For example you noticed that your direct report is noisy at work. How are you going to correct this errant behavior without offending the concerned direct report?  

When we give the behavioral feedback we have to focus on the offensive act and not the person who did the offensive act. But before doing that we have to find an appropriate place where we can civilly talk with the concerned direct report.  The appropriate place could be in your office or a place where there is privacy and solemnity.

Be calm, objective and civil when you talk about the errant behavior so that you avoid antagonizing the person. Some managers do this without considering calmness, objectivity and civility. Hence they lecture the guilty person as if the concerned individual is their slave. So what happens is the concerned will push back and defend herself. This can happen most especially if the direct report has a strong personality.   

After talking about the errant behavior allow the person to speak and voice her sentiment and as she speaks listen with your attention poured into her. Your expectation here is she would talk also with calmness, civility and objectivity. Why? For the simple reason that this is how you approached the concerned person. We have to remember that we get what we give: If we give respect we would also get respect and vice versa.

Close the one on one conversation on a positive note by telling the person that she has your back anytime. Ever ready to listen whenever she has issues about work or even issues about his/her family. -  Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Connection and consistency of positive actions are the secrets to effective leadership

How are you as a leader? An effective leader is someone who is able to connect his leadership with the people that he leads. But how can a leader connect with the people that he leads? Among many other things a leader connects to his people by creating actions that has impact to his subordinates and his leadership.

For example, a leader/manager who is newly assigned to his department noticed that his office is cluttered with unnecessary things. So the first thing that he did upon assumption of his position is to rid his office with the unnecessary things. Thus, he made his office clean and orderly.

By doing so he subtly connects his leadership to his subordinates. And the message that he connects or conveys is he wants a clean and orderly office. How can the leader/manager successfully connect his message? It’s through the consistency of his actions, in this case the cleaning of his office of unnecessary things should be consistent and not a one shot deal.    

A leader becomes a real leader when there is consistency in his positive actions. And the consistency of his positive actions enables him to connect with his subordinates. It creates a ripple effect that transcends the invisible and visible boundaries of his organization.

Many leaders fail to connect their leadership for the simple reason that there’s no consistency in their actions. They are only good leaders when there are cameras, smart phones and videos in-front of them. However, when there are no cameras, smart-phones and videos they backslide to their real selves which are leaders in name only.

If you occupy a leadership position right now and you are consistent with your positive actions. Even if there are no cameras, smart-phones and videos to document your leadership, you are already made as a leader. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

On convincing your subordinate to do volunteer work

Thomson is a supervisor who was being convinced by his manager to do a little volunteer work for their organization.  When he was asked if he could do volunteer work. Thomson, immediately  said: “What kind of volunteer work would it be?” The manager replied, “I learned that you previously worked as a university lecturer, would you be willing to volunteer your time to do short lectures on leadership?” And Thomson immediately said, yes why not!

Convincing your subordinates to do volunteer work is a hard job to do.  But it’s actually doable provided that you offer the volunteer work to someone who would find interest upon it. And one of the measures to use to achieve success in this endeavor is to find out the personal background of your prospect.

If you find something out of his work history that you could somehow link with the volunteer work. Offer him the volunteer work because there is a good chance that he may accept it.  This simply means that when you are prospecting for subordinates that can do volunteer work. Choose first those who can one way or another relate with the volunteer work.

In this dog eat dog world that we are in, subordinates who are willing to do volunteer work are hard to come by. However, if you would do some research about their personal backgrounds that you could somehow link with the volunteer work. 

You would easily find them willing and able to do the volunteer work. Why? Because they can relate with it and it would also enhance their standing in the organization. -  Marino J. Dasmarinas

Your most precious organizational resource is your Human Resource

Drake, a forty something entrepreneur was contemplating of growing his Information Technology business. The first idea that crossed his mind was to infuse financial capital into his business. So, he borrowed money from the bank nearby to expand his business.

He bought state of the art computers and gadgets that would make his company at par with his competitors. After a year, his business went bankrupt and some of the serviceable assets were taken over by the bank. Why did the business fail considering that information technology related business is one of most profitable business around?  The reason behind is drake neglected to nurture his human resource.

He heavily invested financial capital through acquisition of state of the art computers and gadgets. However, he completely forgot to invest heavily as well on the human capital side of his business which is the human resource.

Many forget that in spite of the modernity of time. Human resource is still the most precious organizational resource that any organization could have. What is the use of having state of the art equipments, attractive product and good location if your human capital is neglected? Sooner or later your business will fail if you forget to upgrade the well being of your human capital.

Many are afraid to upgrade the wages/salaries of an organization’s human resource because it will certainly create additional cost for the organization. However, when you decide to pay your human resource higher than the prevailing wages. You’re creating a happy, contented and motivated human resource. You are offsetting the cost of labor turnover; you also create an engaged and mindful human resource.

There are also many more unquantifiable benefits that your human resource could bring into your organization when you begin to nurture them. And these many unquantifiable benefits are more than enough to cover the cost of increased wages and benefits.

Putting up a business or running a business is not only about earning huge profit. It’s also about taking care of the most important resource of your organization which is your human resource. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

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When there’s conflict in your organization

Erwin is a manager of a business processing company. One afternoon, a subordinate went to him to report about a shouting match amongst his subordinates. Erwin nonchalantly dismissed the report as irrelevant and not worth of his time. After a week, Erwin was a witness to a brutal fight involving the subordinates that had a previous shouting match. 

How should you react when there is a report of conflict in your organization? Should you simply dismiss it as a quarrel amongst children or you immediately act to resolve it? The wise course of action to do is to immediately resolve it. Because when you simply dismiss it, it will grow and have a natural life that could result to something tragic.

However, many of us perhaps put it aside or we outright dismiss it because we are too busy with work. But the crux of the matter is conflicts are disturbance of smooth organizational life. It creates dysfunction not only in the organization but also in the respective lives of those who are involved. So, when there’s a report of conflict don’t dilly dally immediately act to resolve it. For it will save you and the organization from unwanted trouble.

How are you going to resolve it? Don’t take sides, be objective and be impartial. Be as calm as possible and don’t overemphasize your authority. Let them speak and attentively listen to the parties involved and act more as a friend than a judge. Why? Because in doing so you’ll be able to gain their trust and confidence. Thus, you’ll be able to ferret out the truth immediately.

After hearing both sides, mediate and let those who are involved be reconciled. And after that give them time to speak if they want to speak then urged them to shake hands. Then  close the meeting with a prayer.

Whether we like it or not the ugly head of conflict will come out every now and then. Nonetheless, a good, calm and effective manager/leader can easily navigate the organization towards its immediate resolution. – Marino J. Dasmarinas   

How do you develop your influence as a leader?

A story is told about a Chief Operating Officer of a conglomerate of business who wanted to increase her influence as a leader. He tried to project a swashbuckling personality but it failed. He tried to project an image as Mr. Approachable  but it failed again because it was only for show and superficial.   

Do you want to develop and increase your influence as a leader? Of course, you do! Why? For the simple reason that leadership is influence no more no less. The more that you increase your influence as a leader the more that you become an effective leader. But how do you develop and increase your influence as a leader? 

There are three important foundations that you need to have:

Number one is Humility, humility is construed by many as weakness. However, humility is not weakness, in leadership humility is strength.  The humbler we are the more influential we become. Why is humility a driver of influence? Because it has been proven time and again that we love leaders who are humble. We gravitate towards them not away from them.  Humble leaders are always respected and revered by their followers. Think of someone who is arrogant and egotistical as opposed to someone who is humble. To whom would you want to be identified with? Whose command would you follow? Of course, you want to be identified with the humble one. And you would easily follow the command of the humble superior and not the egotistical one. 

Number two, leaders must always lead from the front. Who are these leaders? These are leaders who leads by example and who walk their talk. They lead the way, show the way    and light the way for their followers. This doesn’t mean that the leader is always in front giving orders. Because it defeats the purpose of leadership which is to empower and develop future leaders.  This means that the intellectual and ideological shadow of the leader is pervading in the entire department or organization that he/she leads.   The leader ensures that his followers know what they are doing even if he is not physically present in the organization.

Leaders who lead from the front are always influential and respected by their subordinates. Think here of a person who always see to it that the organization which he leads can effectively and efficiently function even if he is not physically present.  

Number three, a leader who wants to be influential must be knowledgeable. Knowledge is power and influence, this is something that we can all have. We can have this by reading, listening and studying. Nowadays, there is no excuse for a leader who wants to be influential not to be knowledgeable. Why? Because the internet is there to help him/her to gain knowledge. Unlike before when we solely depend on books for knowledge. Now we have the internet to help us gain knowledge, we can simply search on google. We search it and in a few seconds; it is there to feed our curious minds. Imagine, the influence that we can command from our subordinates. If we can teach them and if we can answer and articulate their questions.       

So there, the three (3) important foundations that you need to have in order to develop your leadership influence. Don’t only try it, use it and live it and see for yourself how influential you will become. – Marino J. Dasmarinas