Genogram of Leader Jose Manuel Pontillas

Genogram of Leader Jose Manuel Pontillas

Father Side

ł Jose (grandfather) – I don't have an account of my grandfather since he died already by the time I was born.  My grandfather worked as an auditor at the Commission on Audit. He is described as generous, accommodating and gets along well with the people in their community.  Our ancestral house is frequented by people coming from the province and my grandfather welcome them with open arms.

ł Avelina (grandmother) – My grandmother died during World War II.  I had no recollection of her. My father was 2 years old when she died that's why she grew up with his stepmother.

ł  Manuel  (Father) – Born on  November 11, 1940  – My father is an only child.  He grew up with his cousins.  He studied at the University of the East. My father acquired the traits of being generous and hospitable like my grandfather.  He grew up in Pasay and was known in their community as tough yet friendly.

Grand Parents (Mother side)

ł Pedro – Born on October 19, 1913.   I had a chance to live with my grandfather when we were in the province.  He is a farmer and lives a simple life.  He is a loving father and remarries when my grandmother died.  When we were still in the province he jokingly obliged us to give him "tax" whenever we visit our province as sign of gratitude, which we wholeheartedly complied.  He died at the age of 94.

ł Lucila – No recollection, died while my mother was in elementary. 

Pilar (my mother) born on October 30, 1948 – She is now a retired agriculturist.  She grew up in the province under the care of her grandparents.  Since her family is involved in rice farming, she pursued and finished BS in Agriculture in college.   She worked at the Bureau of Plant and Industry for more than 30 years.  She is very family oriented and would do everything for her family.  She is very assertive and resourceful.  She is now admired in our province for she managed to send all her children to college and became professionals in spite of all the family crises she went through.  Now she is enjoying her retirement in the province with her friends and does ballroom dancing as her hobby.  She visits all her children on a regular basis.

Uncle & Aunts

Judith – She is rice farmer. Sells and produce copra.  Still lives in the province with her family

ł Francia – Rice farmer

Elisa – She is also a rice farmer. Managed to send her children to college and became professionals.

Luz –  Also a rice farmer and sell poultry products.  Still lives in the province.

Celeste – Finished Education course but married an extremely jealous man that is why she was not able to practice her career.  Also live in Bicol at present.

Patricio – My mother sent him to school in college.  He works as a government employee in the province of Bicol.

Siblings

Maria Cecilia –  Born on April 29, 1974.  She is the eldest and finished financial management at St. Scholastica's College.  Currently works as AVP at PSBANK.  She is also assertive and very wise when it comes to money matters.  Probably due to the fact that we experienced prolonged financial problems.  She is my financial adviser.  She is ambitious as far as her career is concerned because according to her, she doesn't want her children to experience the problems we encountered before. 

Maria Avelina – Born February 26, 1978.  She finished Business Management at Centro Escolar University and currently works in Qatar with her husband.  Belen, as we call her, is free spirited and our "clown" in the family.  As a child, she already possess knack for business.  She is very good at it but the problem with her is she's careless in her spending.   I still remember that during our school days, she had lowest grades among us.  But she's very confident that she will also be successful because of her abilities.

Manuel Aurelio – Born November 24, 1983.  The youngest in the family.  He finished Computer Science at AMA Computer College and currently works at Deutsche Bank.  I supported his education because my father died already when he was 11 years old.  I acted as his father since then. 

Conclusion:

            While doing this Genogram, the more I understand that everything that had happened to us, most especially the crises we encountered, all served as pivotal point leading to where I am today.  God prepared my path for leadership.  Analyzing at my Genogram, most of my lineage lives in the province and have simple lives.  The turning point in our lives was when my father got sick and his right foot was amputated that prompted the whole family to move in Manila which made him unable to work.  Should this have not happened, probably we are still in the province right now because my mother preferred to live there as she doesn't want to live in Pasay because she is not used to urban living.  Because of our situation and the series of tragedy that happened to us (please refer to my defining moments), finishing our education has been our symbol of hope.  Our parents conditioned us that our lives will be better if we finished our college education.  The crises we encountered helped to bring out the leader in me, at least to myself and my family.  At an early age, in its very real sense, I learned the value of work, industry and money.  That is why I conditioned myself that I will seize every opportunity that comes my way because I don't want my future family to have the same fate my own family experienced.  My experiences in life provided me the tools and internal motivation to dream big.

 Assessing my Genogram again, I was not born with family of leaders.  My ancestors live simply and were satisfied with their life in the province.  But I acquired in them important leadership qualities that I considered my strengths as far my personality is concerned.  I inherited on my mother side the attitude of being assertive.  Assertive in a sense that, I knew the importance of being honest about your feelings with others even to the point of risking your relationship with that person.  Being direct is one important aspect in any relationship.  That is why as a manager, I can assertively give feedback to my staff about their weaknesses at work without letting them feeling offended.  During meetings, I always speak what's on my mind without being conscious on the opinion of others.  I am not so self conscious because I am very comfortable for what I am. Because of this, people tend to see and appreciate my genuineness. This is another quality which I believe the management had seen in me that allowed me to stood with the rest of the management trainees.    As with my father's side, I inherited the quality of being hospitable, generous and friendly.  I would like to believe that it is in this area where I deserve an A plus.  And this quality helps me a lot in my career. As I progress on my position, I rub elbows with different people in the organization and consultants from abroad.  And I find it easy to get along with all the people from the low ranks up to the high ranks.  I have high regard especially with people on the lower ranks.  I make them feel important because I believe every human being deserves to be respected and valued.  And I can also feel the respect that they give me, not because of I am their manager, but because it's a reciprocal relationship…Respect begets respect.  The company I worked with is able to save consultancy fees because I have established good relationships with our foreign consultants who are more than willing to give their free service because of me.  Another important quality which I have developed eventually because of the crises we experienced is being analytical and results oriented.  I carefully study all the aspects of my decisions and I want get things done.  That is why my staff  called me "sir kulit" because I always follow up on their task until it gets done.  Our situation then allowed me to develop these important habits of a leader.  Because we have no choice but to work and survive. I became an emergent leader because of my experiences early in life not knowing that I am being prepared on my path to Leadership.

<Great reflection.   Deepening of self awareness and our leadership)