When you Impose discipline impose it with civility and respect

How do you impose discipline in your organization? 

Some if not many of us impose discipline the old fashion way. This means that we punish the transgressor right in front of the crowd to shame the person. But when we do this we only plant the seeds of anger and resentment on the person being disciplined. He/she may not immediately vent out the anger and resentment for the shame that he/she had been subjected. But sooner or later he/she would vent out the anger and resentment. 

There are leaders/managers who are heavy-handed when they impose discipline because they think that it is the appropriate way. But heavy-handedness in imposing discipline is counterproductive because it results to the development of deep-seated feeling of resentment. 

So, what should a leader/manager do when he/she impose discipline? The leader/manager should immediately call for a private meeting with the subject transgressor/s so that appropriate punishment could be imposed in private. By doing this the leader/manager avoids the unnecessary and arrogant projection of his/her power and authority. 

What is the importance of having a private meeting with someone who breached the discipline of the organization or someone who is at fault? You signify your sincerity to correct the person who is at fault. And you send a message that you want to immediately contain and solve the problem without grandstanding, ego-tripping and without insulting anyone. 

By doing so, you create a sincere message that you want to heal the wayward behavior without shaming the concerned person in front of the crowd. If you do this you will even get the respect of the person whom you are disciplining.

Many of us commit the mistake of correcting a person in front of a crowd but this will not help heal a wayward behavior. This would only create a deeper emotional resentment to the person who is at fault. Hence, instead of bringing him/her closer to correction, healing and reconciliation we instead are creating an emotional bubble within the person being disciplined which could explode anytime.

 Let us not let ourselves be eaten by our power and authority when we impose discipline or when we exercise our leadership because this will not do us any good. When we unnecessarily and arrogantly discharge our power and authority we are only exposing how flawed and limited our leadership skills are. Let us instead hold on to civility, respect and reason because this is the only way to correct and completely heal a wayward behavior.

What is the use of showcasing our power and authority in public if it would only create deeper emotional injury? What is the use of correcting a person in full view of the crowd if it would only create a monster called hatred and resentment? – Marino J. Dasmarinas 

Should you always reward an exemplary performance with money?

Do you always need to recognize an exemplary performance from your subordinates? Yes!  It’s always a must that you recognize every exemplary performance from your subordinates. Why? For the simple reason that recognition or reward is an integral part of motivation. 

But there is this misconception that when we say recognize it means money or something that is material. Not true!  We can actually give rewards even without a price tag attached to it. 

For example, just calling up the attention of an effective employee during meetings is more than enough recognition. A tap on the shoulder coupled with a short pep talk is another priceless form of reward or motivation. 

We should not always look at money as our vehicle for reward because it's temporary and impersonal.  Besides it does not convey a lasting impression in the heart of the recipient. For a change why not try something that is not visible or not measured by money yet will be forever felt by the heart? 

What are these? Verbal recognition during meetings, banners that conveys positive message and so forth. Motivation’s true purpose is best served when you reward your subordinates with things that are not quantified by money. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

Secure leaders vis-à-vis insecure leaders

In a faraway kingdom lived an insecure leader who was about to end his term. So, he said to his underlings: “I want you to highlight all the accomplishments that I did during my term.” His minions were in a quandary on how they would undertake his order because he had nothing to show but his incompetence, arrogance, autocracy and laziness.  

Effective, secure and humble leaders would never be concerned if their accomplishments during their term of office would be noticed or not. Why? Because they are secure with what they have accomplished. They know in their hearts that during their incumbency they had laser like focus on their Mission and Vision for their organization. And they saw to it that they were surrounded with the best intellectual minds that would help them achieve their Mission and Vision. 

On the other hand, insecure leaders will always crave for attention. They would normally do this by using bombastic words or words that would picture them as having a strong character and personality. Insecure leaders are not consultative they would decide based on their whims and caprices without regard for the greater good. What is important for them is they are able to bulldoze their own personal agendas.     

But a leader who is secure in his leadership will not be afraid to make decisions that are unpopular. Because he knows that his unpopular decision will be for the long term welfare of the people under his organization. 

At the end of the day, leaders are not judged by their present actions and accomplishments. They are judged by history and the legacies that they have built and left behind. For example, how they’ve improve the well being of their people, how they were able to enhance the financial wealth of their organization/country. How they’ve fought for the welfare of their people and organization against a bully organization/country and so forth. – Marino J. Dasmarinas

How do you assign work/task to your Work From Home (WFH) employees?

Because of the Covid-19 pandemic work from home arrangement is one of the ways being used by organizations today to continue its operation. But how are you going to assign task to your work from home employees when they are working in the comforts of their homes? When you cannot directly supervise them?  

The best course of action to take here is to remain with the status quo. Your WFH employees will have the same workload as they used to have when they were not yet under the WFH set up. Would this still be achievable? Yes of course! Considering that there’s no more travel time, less preparation to report to the office in the morning and the same applies in the afternoon when going home.   

WFH is the future of work set up and there is no turning back. Whether we like it or not we have to adapt to this new work environment which is very much favorable to the employees and to the organization also.  

The covid-19 pandemic and the availability of hi-tech modes of communications such as the internet has forced all organizations to take a closer look at this WFH set up. But WFH is not new this set up has been going on for quite some time already for some organizations. However this pandemic has forced all organization to harness the usability of WFH arraignments.  

Which they now find very useful, cost effective and practical. To address the many work challenges being presented at the door of all organizations. Primarily influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the availability of hi-tech modes of communications. – Marino J. Dasmarinas     

Profit Sharing/stock ownership as method of Motivation

 

Do you want to strengthen the motivation of your employees?  

There are big corporations that offer creative financial schemes for their employees to further motivate them. One of this method is called profit sharing; this is basically the allocation of a certain percentage of the organization’s earning to its employees. Another method is stocks ownership, here employees own shares of stocks in the company where they are working for.  

This is a very viable means for motivation for the reason that workers are entitled to this attractive financial scheme. Who will not work hard if employees are given financial rewards from the net profit of the organization?  Who will not work hard if employees are offered shares of stocks by the company that they are working for? Stocks ownership is actually being undertaken by big corporations worldwide. But on the other hand the globalized economy makes stock ownership quite risky. 

For example, if an economic power such as the United States, China, Japan and other economically powerful nations have a problem with their economy. There is always that risk that your own local stock market would also be affected. And it might result to the devaluation of the value of your local stocks. Nevertheless this is still a good scheme to impress upon the minds of employees that they are valued by their organization.   

How about for small scale businesses can they also offer profit sharing to their workers? Of course they can! This can be done by forging an agreement with employees that they shall be entitled to a certain percentage of an organization’s yearly net profit.  

Profit sharing and stocks ownership are very effective motivational tool that is seldom used by organization. Why? For the simple reason that there are greedy organizations/business owners. They only want for themselves the fruits of their organization; they don’t want to share it with their workforce who plays a big part in the realization of the organizational goals.  

Why not try sharing a percentage of your profit with your employees and why not offer them stocks ownership option? And see how they will plough back this goodwill in terms of their motivation and concern for the well being of the organization.  - Marino J. Dasmarinas

How do you strengthen the commitment of your lazy subordinates?

 

Do you want to strengthen the commitment of your lazy subordinates?

There are managers who complain that they don’t have a committed workforce. This is actually a very valid observation there are really workers who exert half-hearted effort towards their work. 

What is the cause of this? Is this an attitude problem? Is this attributable to the inherent laziness of certain worker? This can be both an attitude problem and inherent laziness of some employees. However, when employees accept an employment offer.

It simply means that they commit themselves to follow the discipline and culture of the organization that they would be working for. If they agree to work for an organization why are they still lazy and why are they still less committed?  

We can somehow trace this indifferent attitude to their managers. A manager who is lazy and lacking in commitment would breed the same kind of subordinates. Therefore the key in changing the attitude of these workers lies in the hands of the manager himself. If he wants his subordinates to change then he must first change and lead the way.  

From being lazy and half-hearted the manager would now become very hard-working and committed. If we apply the principle of leadership by example it is expected that the subordinates will now become very hard working and committed also.  

Managers sometimes look very far for the solution to their subordinates behavioral problems especially laziness and lack of commitment. Not knowing that they are actually part of the problem and certainly would also become part of the solution provided they change their negative attitudes/behaviors. - Marino J. Dasmarinas

On promotion

 Are you expecting to be promoted? 

Every employee has this inner desire within themselves to be promoted and be ahead from their contemporaries in their organization. However not everyone who desires to be promoted wants to work hard for that coveted promotion they simply take it easy. Then when they are not chosen they sulk and blame anyone but themselves.  

Employees who want to be promoted must work for it; the best starting point is to work hard in their present job assignment. You work hard not because you’re expecting to be promoted you work hard because that is the right action to do. 

Every worker must work hard so that they could give equitable value to the salary that they receive from their organization. Promotion is simply a reward for a person who works hard. But there are also times that no matter how you work hard you are not chosen to be promoted. So what would you do? Will you sulk and be indifferent to your organization?  

The proper attitude to have is to continue on working with zeal even if you are not chosen for promoting. You will always have a good karma once you choose to continue on working with passion no matter what the outcome of your desire to be promoted. For example, the good karma would come in the guise of an unexpected promotion or a job offer from another company.  

Let us say that you continue to work with enthusiasm even if you were not promoted. Then it happened that there again was a window for promotion. So you aspired again and by this time you’re expecting that you will now bag the coveted promotion. However to your great dismay you were not chosen again even if you were the most qualified.  

So what would you do now?  

If you believe in yourself and you firmly believe in your competence, it’s high time for you to walk away from your present employment. Look for an organization that would value your hard work and competence! - Marino J. Dasmarinas