Reflection Paper 2 by Leader Oliver Pabillon

Reflection Paper 2 by Leader Oliver Pabillon

"Thou art the Potter, I am the clay." Jeremiah 18

I am not born in a family of great leaders (i.e. traditional leaders as do politicians, emperors, kings, war heroes, and business tycoons) but I am made to be one. As the saying goes…the warrior does not win inside the ring, he is only recognized there. All of us are warriors but not all make it to stand and fight inside the ring. All of us are leaders but not all become great, efficient and effective. I am being made as a leader through self-awareness, learning, observation and even through failures. As the clay to a potter, I am being molded by life's experiences – family, environment, school and work.

Family and environment

Life in the barrio (Bancal in the town of Guagua) where I grew up with was nothing extraordinary during my time. My grandparent's house was built along the river coastline just like the other fisher folk around the area. The Guagua River "Ilog Hua-hua/Wawa" meaning river mouth or "bukana" played an important role in the trade and transportation during the 18^th and 19^th century. The navigable river by which the town of Guagua was gifted, aside from the rich species of freshwater fish, allowed boats to transport commodities to and from other places, particularly in Manila where it connects through Manila Bay. People made a living out of the bounties of the river. Fishing was basically passed on from one generation to the next, including my father. My grandfather told me that during the decades of 1970s and 1980s when the resources from the river became scarce. Probably it was due to over fishing or due to industrial development of nearby towns including the booming industries in Manila. Because of this, some people migrated to nearby towns. Some resorted to farming, tailoring, woodcraft and construction. In 1991, the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, was a further challenge. The river dried up because of the lahar flow. Flooding plagues the town during the rainy seasons. Since then, economic activities of the people were hampered due to these uncertainties. But the ever resilient people of Guagua, under the leadership of Mayor Santiago, as one man, proved once again that they could not be trampled by whatever adversity they come across.

Although there were already a couple of schools offering education in town, the earlier family generation before me did not put much attention to it, maybe because they were just content with a simple life. Not my father. He supported the education of his siblings from being a fisherman to being a tailor to being a construction worker. As the eldest among them, he sacrificed his own opportunity to study and instead used his muscles to work and earned to support his siblings. As I have already shared on my Genogram, my father's sacrifices were not wasted. When we were on a tight situation, my uncles supported me. They did what my father did to them. The value of education began to be instilled after the drastic changes on the environment and the circumstances brought about by it. I did not realize this until my late high school years when we have come to a tight financial situation.

School

During early high school, I still consider myself innocent, just going with the flow. No plans yet what to take up in college or worse yet if there was even a plan to be in college. I was one year younger than my batch mates. I was admitted in grade 1 at the age of five when my classmates were either six or seven. I was nineteen when I graduated in college. There was one instance in grade three as I remember when my teacher asked what would I wish to become someday? I answered "I wanted to be the Mayor of this town". My teacher was wowed with my answer. I did not mean it as I do not even understand what a Mayor does. I just know he's the leader of the town. I did not excel in grade school. I was just an average student. No honors or even special mentions in high school.

As I have already shared on my defining moments, it dawned on me the responsibility of striving to finish my college and hopefully land on a decent job to take care of my sibling's schooling, during the time when we faced financial difficulties. That change and circumstance in my young life gave me the motivation to set as an example to my siblings and to my cousins as well. Finishing my education became my priority. Through hard work and support from relatives, I earned my diploma.

My leadership journey did not end with the diploma on hand. It was just the beginning. It was during the board exam era where I encountered a great teacher. If success stories are good, failure stories are even better. The failure of the board exam was my great teacher. That failure taught me to be clearer about my plans, objectives and vision. It taught me that one has to be prepared, always, in order to succeed. I realized that in order to lead others I have to learn to lead myself first. With this in mind and the transformation though self-awareness, I passed the very difficult CPA board exam. Now am I ready to be a leader? Yes, I am now prepared to take the continuous journey through leadership.

Work

The journey is tough enough. But I am tougher. Meeting the corporate world with a license to my name motivates me. It motivates me to learn more, to innovate, to compete and inspire people. I started small, accepting every challenge ahead. I enjoy it. I learn more by doing small assignments. Little by little, I am being given harder tasks. My competence was tested and I pursued more learning. In three years time I became a supervisor, leading four staff members. I was assigned to various clients with varied industries. I was exposed to different corporate cultures. That small leap on the ladder of leadership became my dynamic force in taking the lead of myself and eventually empowering others to do the same.

An unexpected leadership journey in Afghanistan

I've had many travels outside the country but it was my first time to leave the Philippines to work abroad in February of 2009. Due to economic pressures, I chose to leave my family in exchange for a better income abroad. Little did I knew that the journey I took did not only kept my bank account lining up with digits but also tested and develop my leadership position. I was hired as Finance Manager of a telephone company in Kabul. I saw how the young Afghans strive for learning and better lives after year of war and turmoil.  I took the opportunity to impart to my local staffs about the knowledge I have and empowered them to share the knowledge with the others. It was not an easy task considering their different culture and education orientation. Applying the small steps to learning gave them the confidence to accept each task I assign to them until after almost three years, my staff manage to do everything I taught them. Then it was time for me to leave them on their own. I believe I left a legacy of leadership with them through leading by example. I treasure the days I've had with my colleagues and friends in Kabul. I will never forget the people I met. It was indeed a very fruitful leadership experience.

Values as my strength

My mother reared us on how to become good, loving and God-fearing children. She taught us good manners and how to treat other people nicely. He always reminded us to be humble towards other people and be ready to lend a helping hand whenever the need arises. My mother is very hard working; through her character I was inspired to respect her and eventually respect other people as well. These values – honesty, humility, respect and determination drives my character as a leader achiever (Enneagram). A leader that gets things accomplished, a leader who makes change happen.

Embracing changes, accepting criticisms, learning from failures, dependable, being able to recover quickly from setbacks and to charge ahead to the next challenge, are the motivations that keep me going in taking small humble steps in achieving my goals.

The other side of humility – the turning of other cheek, is my weakness. There is humility that leads to strength, but sometimes my humility leads to weakness. The humility I am speaking of is my kindness. My soft-heartedness is sometimes being exploited. That's why when someone comes to me and would like to borrow money, I usually do not collect and just wait for them to pay me back.

Reflection

Enrolling in MBA is a small step in my leadership journey. I enjoy new learning shared by the community of leaders. I observe the strengths of my fellow leaders and somehow reflect those on myself. Halfway through the course have already been a fruitful reflection on self development. Each experience is a step towards improvement. I believe this course would help me focus towards achieving my objectives and conquering my fears and how my humbleness will lead me head on to that straight direction of call to leadership.

My journey through leadership is not about taking that one big leap, I am motivated by taking a lot of small steps along the way that add up to my achievements. I am always reminded from looking back at those small steps to take a look at myself first and start with myself before I pass judgment on others. The factors from my modest beginnings which I have enumerated in this essay molded me as a humble individual; a leader by example. I wanted change to happen, to empower people around me. The change must start with me, as the "Man in the mirror" suggest for change to happen it should start with me.

THE CALL TO LEADERSHIP

Ateneo-Regis MBA Program, Clark
Submitted to: Prof. Jorge Saguinsin

Submitted by: Oliver G. Pabillon  3