FINAL INTEGRATIVE PAPER
By Leader Tristan Val Leonida
This Call of Leadership is more than just a call. It is a journey that I needed to take to be able to understand myself, my story, my passions and my advocacies. I must admit that a few days before the class started, I am a bit overconfident that I had a good hold on Servant Leadership to back me up but I was really caught by surprise. I have a lot to learn especially on the experience part. From the first day to the last, I keep on learning not just with the Lecturer but more so with my classmates.
According to Chris Lowney, the Jesuits has four pillars: Self Awareness, Ingenuity, Love and Heroism and all these are the secrets to the success of this 450 year-old institution; something that we, the new leaders of tomorrow must learn. I, for one, never really understood the connection of a religious order to leading but coming across these pillars made me believe that they are truly intertwined.
SESSION 1
The debate on the first session gave me the time to reflect on myself: am I born, made, or forced by situation to lead? Reading through the traditional theories of leadership, I can say that throughout history there has never been a perfect formula in making a great leader. To start a course with a debate is intimidating. As a newcomer, I have no idea how my classmates think. I don't know what to expect. I was lucky enough to be part of the "Leaders are Made Team" which is really a bit easier to defend but when I got the chance to speak up, I stuttered. You can't blame the nerves on the first day of school. Kidding aside, I have always been a firm believer that we cannot predict leadership and forecast them just like storms. We see people making it as an entitlement because of history and some even make leaders because of birthright. It may be due to their genetic structure, or their access to the proper education or by the challenge of their times. We can always challenge formula and keep evidences of these theories but a community with no identified leaders is non-existent because there will always be a method to create leaders and that method is of no defined process. Whatever that is, I am more aligned on the premise that I am a good combination of all three. The initial meeting with my classmates introduced to a whole new world of authentic leaders. I can't explain my pride and honor to be part of the class. To be able to peek inside the brains of presidents, CEOs, general managers, vice presidents, managers, doctors, and entrepreneurs is already a learning experience. Sometimes, our story is not enough to fill up our lives. There will be moments when we need to look into the journey of others for us to understand things and appreciate life on its best form. As we share our defining moments in leadership, I turned from being a mere classmate to an avid fan of their stories. I admire their awareness of themselves that they can pursue their passions without hesitations. I have met a few admirable leaders but never got a chance to know their stories as well as my classmates and thus, I can say that my learning really took off even on the first meeting. With a good start comes a flow of learning.
SESSION 2
Planning for a Crime was a good exercise for us to dig deeper within ourselves. To look beyond the shallow understanding that planning a crime is an easy job. It is also challenging us to go against our values (or true self). At the end of the series of meetings we had as groups, we were able to pull off a crime which also taught us that part of leadership is taking risks even if it will cost you your life. I can still recall a talk delivered by Atty. Lesley Cordero, she was then a Gokongwei Scholar in China. She narrated her experience as a developmental worker in a war-stricken country. Her passion to really helping that community led her to dangerous assignments but she never stopped. With that, she learned to stand on the ground and look for more death defying challenges. She then became an NYC Commissioner, MTRCB Commissioner, Asst. Secretary handling the Yolanda Rehabilitation and now as part of the UN Development Program Team. Sometimes, leadership is getting yourself dirty for the greater good. On a side note, I never got interested with the movie The Godfather but after learning the lessons behind it, I really took the time to watch it again and again - another unexpected learning from the class. Moving forward, the discussions regarding the different leaders of history and comparing their styles also made us validate that there is no perfect recipe for leadership and even these great leaders have their downfalls sometime in their lives. I really got something from the sharing of Gage about Hitler and Churchill since I was never fond of the lives of great parliamentarians or dictators. I am more concerned on the fallen monarchies of Europe. I still regret until this time that I never participated in the discussion about the British Monarchy, my favorite topic.
Week after week, a lot of new leadership journeys come pass by me and they are always the core of having that conviction to challenge the today and pave a new path for the future. A lesson best taught by the Hope for the Flowers story. There, we see a caterpillar who just got stuck with the status quo and aimed for just being a mere follower but later on realizes that there is a greater path that will give him the satisfaction and happiness he has always been searching for. We, as leaders, are sometimes afraid to take our journeys to the next level maybe because a lot of impediments clouded our lives – bad experiences, lack of knowledge or fear but if we just take a leap of faith, get to know ourselves, a bit of ingenuity and love of service, we can surely achieve greater results.
SESSION 3
After learning each other's leadership journeys, we reflected again and see that there is a common plotline. It confirms that all of us, our stories, are part of an elaborate cinematic universe. With Campbell's Theory on 'The Hero has a Thousand Faces', he aligned all of our stories to the Hero getting into an adventure and succeeding the hurdles that he faces along the way. He also introduced us that despite us being the heroes of our own stories, there will be other characters that may help or deceive us while we journey to our end goals. True enough, we were able to identify with his theory which led us to connect a typical movie to our own stories following Campbell's theory. Reading through the assignments made by some of my classmates, it is unbelievable that it coincides to the stories they have compared with. It confirms the theory of Campbell's. We can easily say that we can star in our own movies and sell. For me, I easily related my life with the story of Les Miserables, the tragic story of Jean Valjean. My life is in no way tragic as his but I see myself as somebody who has always been living under close watch (which is good) and finding that freedom I have always wanted. Being able to see myself inside a film is part of accepting yourself which plays a very important role in Servant Leadership which falls under the pillar of Self Awareness. I just didn't identify myself through the movie. Another activity we took ahead of time also helped me to be self-aware. The exercise of taking the Enneagram is helped me understand myself better. I enjoy taking these types of examination because I really welcome knowing myself more. These may not be 100% accurate but any step towards self-awareness should always be welcomed. It will help us function efficiently and develop other skills to compensate what these tests say we are not. Based on the test, I am a Type 3 which is The Achiever. I cannot agree more. Though I never identify myself as perfectionist or competitive but my entire system just take over when there are competitions or challenges that I get hyped up and really do my best. Looking back to my younger years, I enjoy joining competitions, not for the winning but for the networking. Good thing is, I sometimes win. Another test revealed me as Type 7 who is The Enthusiast. It is again aligned with my inner description of myself. I always see the good in everything. I take on every adventure head on as long as it does not play with my fears, I can go with it. In general, this session really focused on making us accept ourselves as who we are, our stories and our personalities.
SESSION 5
The Clash of Leaders really is the most fun part in the entire course. As one of the Clashmasters, I have seen firsthand the leadership qualities of my classmates. Some already emerged as natural leaders, who by their mere presence lead the group. There are also others who keep quiet at first but take over when their expertise will be their group's saving grace. All these they may not have observed during the course of the event but situations and the environment bring the best and the worst in all of us which the teambuilding successfully revealed. As Training and Development Officer, it is expected of me to make these events purposeful and will translate to performance improvement as soon as they get back to work. Contrary to some people's belief that the games are meant for fun, teambuildings are designed to give the participants the 'feel' and the experience they need to better understand the dynamics of their teams and their organization as a whole. The Clash of Leaders taught us that we have different responsibilities as part of a team and functions as important as the others. Here, we learned how to interact with others, not just their teammates but with their competitors and us, the Clashmasters as well. I have also seen how other team members step up and take responsibilities if they know they can be of help to their teams but of course, there will still be some members who just goes with the flow. All these dynamics are reflected in our respective organizations. On a balcony view, we can say that the teamleaders are more focused on winning each game – strategizing to defeat their rivals which are true in some organizations wherein leaders compete to get the rewards. On a treetop view, we, the Clashmasters, do not care more on the strategies of each team but rather we look into the overall conduct of the games. We make sure that at the end of each activity; the teams will get a meaningful learning and do not see the rattling within our own circles. On a helicopter view, our lecturer sees how this one session interacts with the other sessions that will make our leadership journey come full circle. The Chaos activity in the end is a good close to a competitive environment we have setup in the beginning. It is a quick reminder that sometimes we need to think not only to win but to win better. There will come a time when we need to put down our pride aside as leaders, talk and work together for the betterment of the society we are part of. In summary, our teambuilding session became the simulation of our different organizations. It may appear as just a day off from a long week but we still took the time to learn and understand leadership.
SESSION 6
The Call to Arms Speech is an activity that I can consider as one of the highlights of my journey in this course. Not only because I was adjudged as the Best Speaker but because it really gave me the chance to look into my core. It gave me the opportunity to relearn my passion and reignite my desire to do the good. In a life of a leader, there will always come a time that you think you are not good enough and that what you have done changed nothing and that all your efforts are useless. This activity helped me check back again and made me see that I am in this class because of my advocacies and passions. I moved to HR because I can affect more lives and create optimistic young Filipinos as they embark in their careers in TI. I handle a few of organizational trainings that influence managers, directors and engineers to conduct effective communications that can stop brilliant professionals leave the country. The speech led me back to my advocacy to push forward the belief of the youth on themselves. This speech is a self-talk. This is for me and not just for my audience that is why I get affected with what I have delivered. This is also returned my love of writing. For the longest time, I have struggled doing another speech, or any written prose. Being exposed in a manufacturing and highly technical environment, I began to lose my magic with words and stories. I learned to talk straight, no more blah blahs or colors, just numbers. It might be good in a way but as leaders, we have to learn to create a colorful environment for ourselves and the people we serve. I believe we are responsible for the weather in our own respective organizations and whatever color we paint it, it will reflect in each of the things we do. My time spent in speech writing has been a journey. Mind you, I wrote the speech in the office while I help operators complete their training requirements. These are high school graduates, college undergraduates and college graduates who see no future of work in the country but have been given a chance. I got inspired by the mere fact that this factory, TI, gave them the opportunity to work in the Philippines, be with their families and grow as individuals. I realized that my job is not only to make them learn the processes but also to inspire them and make them believe that working in the Philippines, in a factory like TI, is a step in achieving their dreams. It is a step in fulfilling the promise that the Filipino Youth is really the strength of our country.
SESSION 7
On the last session, it was filled of mixed emotions. Happy because I have finally completed my first subject under the Ateneo-Regis MBA Program and sad because I will no longer be with some of my new found friends. The AVPs are the highlight of the session which focused on our advocacies and passions. It is an eye-opener for me to see these stories behind each and everyone's pictures that defined the leader in them. I have seen how passionate they are in their chosen advocacies. The ones that had struck me are those that of Dr. Suzette's and Dr. Charm's. I can feel the heart in the activities they participated in and still continue to break boundaries. As leaders, we often look for our heart's greatest desires because we know that wherever it is that is where God is. It is the easiest and most convenient way to be Magis, to be more and to be great since we know that with love, everything is a walk in the park. I also shared in this session the lessons I learned in an internal training in the company because I believed that I should share what I know that can help my fellow leaders. During the discussion of making decisions, I shared the concept of delegation. That delegation is not giving the task immediately but also includes the delegation of idea generation only, delegation of the task itself and delegation of the decision-making part - that as leaders, we can delegate some of our non-critical tasks to people and focus on more valuable tasks. We also looked back to the happy moments in the course. Taken as lightly as possible, this activity for me brings back the learning in front of us. This is the moment wherein we, as leaders, should keep in mind: the Nae nae dance is a symbol of uncertainty. We should be able to accept the fact that no matter how defined the definitions are, how streamlined the processes and clear-cut strategies are, we can still face surprises, unannounced problems and challenges. As Prof said, in a battle, strategies burn sometimes and we must always be ready to still face it head on. The U-U Bebe symbolizes creativity and ingenuity. We are able to create something and made a mark that may last. Because of that U-U Bebe, leaders spoke the same language. Everybody recalls the same exact moment that mattered during the teambuilding session. As for the cheering of the blue team, we are also reminded that teamwork is important. It is the best representation that together we can achieve more. We can be more of ourselves with others.
IN CONCLUSION
This journey we took is not the end but a beginning. We have learned more about ourselves which is the one of the pillars of the Jesuit Leadership. With self-awareness come the other pillars because we can give our whole and not just parts of it. We know we can ingenious in the areas we specialize. We can love more because we pursue our passions and advocacies, and of course, we can be heroes when we continue to inspire others and create a positive change in our respective communities. This class taught me to open my mind and heart to learnings not from books but from life as it unfolds in front of me. I have embraced the realities of life from the stories of the Jesuits to the lives of my classmates. I appreciated the bombard of reading materials and assignments because it brought me to a disturbed mode. It is a quality of a true servant leader - always disturbed of the status quo and is always doing something to make it better. I also appreciate my supermen/women classmates for making me believe that I can do it and pushing me to do my best in everything. I admire them for their drive, courage to take on the challenges and succeed. I love hearing their stories, struggles and victories. Lastly, I would like to give my greatest thank you to Professor Saguinsin for bringing everything essential to all of us. You are a great coach for successfully leading us to authentic selves. Every session is a reflection we needed – away from the hustle and bustle of our respective cubicles. To my classmates, keep the fire burning and continue to be the light of the world.
"Servant leaders are widely awake and reasonably disturbed."
-Robert Greenleaf
Regards,
Engr. Tristan Val L. Leonida
HR | Organization and Talent Development
TI (Philippines), Inc.
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