Why is there a need for leaders to learn more?

The story is told about a young man that got promoted to a leadership position in the land development company which he works for. The Chief Executive Officer of the company saw a promising future for the man. She therefore told the young man: “Keep on learning: Learn from your mistakes, learn from your interactions with the people in this organization and learn by taking a post graduate course for it would help you ascend the organizational hierarchy.”

Why is there a need for leaders to learn? Because leaders who learn and who use their learning are effective leaders, why? For the simple reason that they don’t stagnate, they make their minds work and it strengthens mental activity which reinforces their leadership skills.

If exercise is for the strengthening and development of the body, learning is for the strengthening and development of the mind. If a person is not anymore willing to learn it certainly would hasten his/her advance to the geriatric ward of life.  Henry Ford the founder of the Ford Motors Company once said: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.”   

We increase our value as a leader when we have an appetite for learning. Because it open us new avenues for promotion and other opportunities in the workplace. And it makes us desirable for piracy by other organization that would offer higher compensation.

But many are not inclined with learning anymore for the simple reason that it would entail burning the midnight oil/candle. It entails sacrifice, effort and time however everything that is invested into learning is worth it. Perhaps not immediately but it surely will come in handy in the future when there’s an opportunity for promotion.

So, keep on learning: Read books, read articles and commentaries that relates to your field of interest. Use google to the hilt to learn more.   For learning is the elixir of the mind. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

An effective leader is not afraid to show his/her emotions

Are you sometimes afraid to show your emotions? For example, your direct reports failed to achieve their target accomplishments and you were naturally disappointed. As much as you want to express your disappointment you held back because you did not want to antagonize them. So, you simply reminded them about your failed expectation and that’s it.

Managers and leaders should not be afraid to manifest their emotion when there is a need for it. Even if it will antagonize those who would receive the emotional outburst, why? Because it’s when we manifest our emotions that we become more effective managers and leaders. A good and effective leader/manager does not paint brush, sugar coat and hide his true emotion in the exercise of his managerial/leadership function.   

When a manager/leader is afraid to manifest his emotions he becomes hostage of his direct reports. He becomes an inutile leader subject to the whims and caprices of those under his supervision and care.  Emotions are what make a leader/manager effective. It galvanizes those under his care and supervision and it makes the leader/manager authentic to his direct reports.

What would happen if we are not afraid to show our emotions? We inspire our people to move towards the achievement of the goals of the organization. We create a magical but invisible motivational instrument that would push them to move forward and be positive no matter the odds in front of them. – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

On handling a needy employee

How do you handle a needy employee? A needy employee is someone who often seeks your attention. Among many other reasons, he does this because he lacks confidence in doing his job. Where does his lack of confidence emanates? There are many behavioral reasons to this lack of confidence. If it emanates from his lack of knowledge on how to properly do his job. The solution available is to educate again the person on how to do his job properly.

After reeducating the person again the expectation of the manager is the neediness behavior would be cured or eliminated. But more often than not an employee’s neediness doesn’t only emanate from the lack of proper knowledge about the job. Sometimes it’s much deeper than what we think it is. And when this is so, the manager should sit-down and have a heart-to-heart talk with the needy employee to properly address the symptom of his neediness.   

One of the results of the heart-to-heart talk could be lack of freedom on the job. For the simple reason that the manager is micro-managing his direct report. The solution here is to loosen the grip and give the direct report freedom in doing his job. This freedom that is given is of course not absolute it should still be within the ambit of the rules and regulation of the organization. Lack of self-confidence of the direct report can be solved also by telling the employee that you would always be there to help if needed.

Needy employees exist. And an effective and good manager can easily address this human behavior issue by having a heart-to-heart talk with the concerned employee.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas

Do you want to enhance your leadership?

The story is told about a homeowners organization that was looking for a leader. During Election Day many names were nominated to vie for the presidency of the homeowners organization.

Prominent among those names were Nap and Pablo. Nap was a loudmouth and a voracious talker. On the other hand Pablo was the reserved type he seldom talks but when he talks he commands attention. After the votes were counted Pablo was declared the winner by a mile. 

How can you enhance your leadership? Many have this false notion that leadership is enhanced by being a loudmouth, blabbermouth and opinionated. None of these are actually true, leadership is not in anyway enhanced by these ego driven characteristics. On the contrary leadership is thrown into oblivion by a person that seeks attention. As the saying goes, “An empty can is noisy” so is a person who pretends to have leadership qualities.

Thus, how do you enhance your leadership? Be reserved, listen more; don’t seek attention and talk only when it’s necessary for you to talk. Silent water runs deep, right? The same is true with a person who has unfathomable leadership qualities.

This kind of person carefully studies and reflects on his leadership character. He/she thinks ahead regarding the outcome and the ramification of the words that he/she might say.  – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

When there’s resistance to change

The story is told about an organization that was planning to institute change in its working hours. From the usual 8:00 am-5:00 pm it would be changed to 6:00 am-3:00 pm. For the past thirty years it had always been 8:00-5:00 and the employees were used to that already. So the employees union resisted and told the management that they would not agree.

What are you going to do when there’s resistance to change?   The first action to do when there’s resistance to change is to call for a meeting among the parties involved. In this case the employees union and the management. In that meeting the fuzzy issues should be threshed out. Employees resist change because they have no clear understanding yet why is there a need for that change.   

Therefore the component of listening and flexibility are very important here. Management and the employees union should listen to each other’s viewpoints and be flexible if need be. There would naturally be initial disagreement about the change that is to be put in place. But there are also some valid points that both parties could agree.

For this reason, focus first on the points of agreements after that focus now on the issues of disagreement. Why is this so? Because when both parties focus first on the issues that they could agree it immediately creates an environment of calm. Which is very conducive as a starting point to begin threshing out the issues of disagreement.

The thorny part when an organization wants to implement change are the issues of disagreement. Therefore, management must not push its weight around it should extend its patience to the limit. This means that meetings and dialogues about the change that is to be implemented should continue until the nitty-gritty details of that change are ironed out.  

It’s not easy to implement organizational change however change is needed for an organization to evolve, upgrade and grow. Therefore change must be implemented for nothing is permanent in this world except change. – Marino J. Dasmarinas  

Competent and Effective managers/leaders delegate comprehensively

Do you delegate comprehensively? Delegation is one of the important functions of management. And many leaders and managers utilize delegation to achieve more than what are expected of them.  How are they able to achieve more than what are expected of them? They use the management function of delegation comprehensively.

To be an effective delegator of work we have to communicate the delegated work comprehensively. This means that all the details and all our expectations of the delegated work are communicated clearly. For example, the deadline, the quality of the output that we want, our expectations, just to name a few.

Many managers/leaders fail in the aspect of delegation because they don’t delegate comprehensively. They simply delegate and then they expect their direct report or subordinate to know everything of the delegated work. Or they just wait for their direct report or subordinate to ask them about the details of the delegated work.

Competent and effective managers/leaders don’t wait to be asked about the details of the delegated work. They see to it that all of the details of the delegated work are clearly communicated and already comprehensively attached to it. They think proactively thus they already anticipate the question/s that their direct report or subordinate might ask them.

The function of delegation is a handy and effective management and organizational tool available for all managers and leaders. So that they can multiply their accomplishment, influence and utilization.  They can easily unsheathe it whenever they want provided they delegate comprehensively.    

What does the word comprehensive mean? It means thorough. Therefore, this imply  thorough understanding of the delegated work which the manager/leader can actually do. But because of lack of time and for the reason that he/she wants to multiply his/her accomplishment, influence and utilization he/she is forced to delegate it.

Effective managers and leaders always delegate comprehensively they don’t delegate haphazardly. Why? Because this is what are leadership and management are all about. It’s about comprehensively understanding our leadership and managerial functions, duties and responsibilities which include comprehensive delegation. – Marino J. Dasmarinas    

Compassion in your organization

Alex is a manager of a home care facility. Every morning it had become his ritual to have scheduled visits to their patients. He talks to them and ask them about how they are feeling. This home care facility is always 100% full and the reason behind is the compassionate care that is administered by the manager and his staff.

To be compassionate is perhaps alien to many business organizations. Because as we all know the bottom-line of business organization is to earn profit. And maybe compassion towards its employees is the least of its priorities.    

What does it mean to have compassion with your employees or to be compassionate with your employees? To be compassionate is to do acts of kindness, caring and be concerned with the well-being of your employees.

To be compassionate is not only to understand your employees’ present emotional state. You also have that strong desire to help them soothe it with the end in mind of helping them cure that present emotional state. For example, if you notice that an employee is forlorn and has a sudden distant behavior. You can say to that employee that you are ready to listen and help in whatever way you can.

When we are compassionate toward our employees we establish connection with them which in turn will motivate them to work hard. Why? Because we cared when they were in that emotional state. We therefore have to establish a compassionate and caring organization not an organization whose only bottom-line is to earn profit.

Our employees are humans with feelings they are not machines they are very sensitive to acts of compassion, kindness and caring. Thus, the more compassionate we are the more that we reinforce their loyalty to our organization. – Marino J. Dasmarinas