Regis Cebu Leadership Reflection Paper 3 My Passion by Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bryan Evangelista <bryan.v.evang@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 9:15 PM
Subject: Fwd: Regis Cebu Leadership Reflection Paper 3 My Passion by Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista
To: "profjorge.entrep.ateneoleader" <profjorge.entrep.ateneoleader@blogger.com>, Jorge Saguinsin <profjorge.entrep@gmail.com>, profjorge.entrep.jermits@blogger.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bryan Evangelista <bryan.v.evang@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 5:06 PM
Subject: Regis Cebu Leadership Reflection Paper 3 My Passion by Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista
To: "profjorge.entrep.ateneoleader" <profjorge.entrep.ateneoleader@blogger.com>

Good afternoon Prof Jorge.  Resending as I do not see my report published in the blogspot.

Regis Cebu Leadership

Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista

Reflection Paper 3 – My Passion

What is your passion (What is it that you love doing)?

Just a few days ago this December, I was called to Manila to do participate in our "Pre Planning Workshop".  Basically to do some brainstorming on what we can do in terms of tactics for 2016.  One of my executives called me out and asked, "Bryan, do you still have passion for your work?"  To this I replied, "Sir Passion or Pasyon?"

Truth be told my work is getting harder and harder.  Targets are getting higher and higher and to my utter disbelief our competition is actually getting smarter.  I've always thought that we had the upper hand in terms strategies, tactics especially on innovation. My work environment has become toxic.  I am at the brink.  I have lost sight of  my personal and career 3 year plan, never mind my 5 year plan.  I live on a month to month basis.  No vision, No passion.

To my pleasant surprise it took a call to arms speech in front of people I hardly know to at least bring that small spark of passion back once again.  Lt. Commander Andre said it best, "we were forced to get to know one other".  Be that as it may, get to know each other we did.

Anyone who really knows me should know that I detest complements, I do not respond positively to complements. I take complements with a grain of salt.  I would often say to people who complement me, "what do you want or what do you need or what is it this time?"  To people who do not know me, they would take offense to this; but, to people who do know me, they know it's just me being me.

The pudding is in the eating as the old adage say, and If others say I am good at what I do, it's only because I am passionate about my industry.

I truly believe that my industry makes a difference.  Yes, there will always be scalawags who give the financial services industry, more specifically, the life insurance industry a bad name.  It is no different from any other industry.  If we have our bad apples, so do the others. The banking industry is one of the more respected and appreciated professions in business. Do recall that they almost brought the whole financial world to it's knees back in 2008 with the greedy "subprime mortgage" products; to me what they did was practically the same as the pyramiding scams that up until today people fall for.  We do not lend, we provide. For every disappointed client there are a thousand more who are more than happy and satisfied with the services we offer. 

Life Insurance on the surface is just a contract with a promise to pay.  If a client dies, policy pays Php1M.  If a client is diagnosed with a critical illness, policy pays Php1M.  If the client becomes totally and permanently disabled, we can advance half of the Php1M payable upon death.  If the client needs money while they are still alive, they can make a partial or full withdrawal from the savings of their policies.  Insurance is more than Pesos and Centavos.  The true value of Life Insurance transcends mere measure of how much millions does a family get.

My passion for my business is the knowledge that I can do more for our clients than anyone else, even their own family members and don't even get me started on the government.  My passion for my business is the knowledge that we have a calling, we have a mission.  Because of the products and services we offer, a family has a chance.  It is not about death, if it were so then we should rename the industry Death or Dying Insurance Industry.  We call it the Life Insurance Industry for a reason and that is to be the beacon of hope for those you leave behind.  Life must go on, it's about the loved one you will leave behind.  We will take care of them for you through the products and services we offer. With your hands, you work and toil today provides for them because you love them. When you are gone, your work and toil will carry on;  through our products and services your hands will carry on.

Through the years my conviction that ours is one of the most noble of all professions only becomes vindicated with every check our company writes.  When I talk to new recruits or agents, I am frank with them.  I know they joined the business because of the possibility of lucrative income and the chance to travel the world for free in the form of our incentives.  I always tell them that they are on the right path as everyone starts the business because of the commission.  If you drop the first three letters of commission, what is left?  I tell them that more than financial reward is the mission of our business.  Yes Life Insurance is just a contract that pays a check. Once again, pesos and centavos.  But the true value of what we do happens when you deliver that check to a grieving family.  And then it gets baptized by the tears of a widow, and it would be only then that you will understand the mission of our business, it is only then that you understand what Life Insurance is all about.

What is the new learning?

Again, I can't help but gravitate towards Self Awareness at this topic hits a strong note with me.  I have been in management for over a decade and have attended many management, leadership, coaching and mentoring workshops both internal and external.  I have attended the Four Disciplines of Execution and recently underwent the 7 Habits workshop of Stephen Covery.  But of all the learnings I've had it is Self-awareness that hits a core with in me.

I have started to lose passion for my work due to the pressures that come with my position.  But if I stay true to my values, if I know why I do what I do, the passion just follows and this is where I appreciate the lessons I've learned from Chris Lowney's book on Heroic Leadership.

I've said it over and over again in my other works, "To order one's Life".  This transcends techniques.  "To know the why of living, you can endure any how – Les Brown".  Les Brown is a motivational speaker video I used to show when I was still a trainor.  We stopped using his video because it was not up to date, it was done in the late 80's or early 90's.  Since it was old and not up todate, we stopped using it.  Like I said many times, it took this course to remind me of the basic things.  If a 100 year old company can still teach us a thing or two about leadership, why not a motivational video taken more than 20 years ago.

What is the relation to what I already know?

As I've said earlier, may people would come up to me and complement me that I do well in my work and my reply would usually be, "the pudding is in the eating".  Another way of saying this would be let the results be the final judge.  I often jokingly say to other if they refer to me as their mentor, "you can only call me your mentor if your life aspirations have come true, if not I am not part of your failure".  Again, my mentality of just looking at the results if finally taking its toll.  Because I have not been delivering the results expected of me, the pressure is mounting.  I am my worst critic.  I am practically throwing the book, leaning of every knowledge and experience I have in management and leadership to turn things around. At least I haven't thrown in the towel, not yet.

"To Order Ones Life", four very simple words that is so powerful to me.  Maybe I do not need yet to fix the others, maybe I need to fix myself first.  Once again, I am reflecting on my values and principles and again trying to recover my passion for my business and maybe then can I help others rekindle their own passion as well.  <to order ones File too>

What have I done, am doing, will be doing for this topic?

One thing is for sure, of all the reading we've had, even the readings from that most honorable institution we call Harvard University, all those theories and techniques are well and good.  However, I am at a point in my career where new theories and techniques are the solution to every business problems.  I would rather get inspiration from "the best practices from a 450 year old company that changed the world – Chris Lowney".  As of this writing I have not finished the book but I will.  I believe in this book so much  that I will base my leadership training and programs on the principles we've learned from Heroic Leadership.  I will be focusing on the 4 Pillars and apply it to our team.  I will partner with our training department to come up with workshops that highlight the 4 Pillars as I firmly believe that we do not lack talent in our company; but rather, we lack true leaders. Including yours truly.

-