Regis Cebu Leadership Final Integration Paper by Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bryan Evangelista <bryan.v.evang@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at 9:12 PM
Subject: Regis Cebu Leadership Final Integration Paper 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

Good evening Prof. Jorge, I'm worried that you have not been receiving my papers lately.  So for my final paper I am resending this to all your email addresses known to me.  hope you receive it in time po.

thank you sir.

Regis Cebu Leadership

Leader Bryan Peter V. Evangelista

Reflection Paper 3 – My Passion

As I prepare for this Final Integration Paper I was trying to look for a framework that encompasses the learnings I have acquired throughout this journey.  I would seem to be that the one thing that truly resonates in my mind is the Book on Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney. It will attempt to fit all my learnings from the HBR readings, to the reflections papers and other assignments that taught me more about leadership than all the corporate course I've taken through out my career based on the 4 Pillars of Leadership.

From the description of the book one is easily intrigued by the possibilities of learning "the best practices from a 450 year-old company that changed the world".  But if you really reflect on it, almost all of what we've done throughout our leadership course goes through a process of self – awareness.

SELF–AWARENESS: To order ones life.

"Leaders thrive by understanding who they are and what they value, by becoming aware of unhealthy blind spots or weaknesses that can derail them, and by cultivating the habit of continuous self-reflection and learning – Heroic Ledership, C.Lowney"

Gaining inspiration from my defining moment, the process allowed me to go through self-discovery that helped me realize why I am where I am today and what I need to become as progress not just in career but in life.

I've been in the Insurance Industry since 1996.  It is my first job right after graduating and getting my diploma from the university.  I still find it amusing how I ended up in this career; but that's for another not more than 2 pages and not less than 1000 words reflection paper. I started with a local insurance company and now I'm with a multinational insurance company.  I rose through the ranks starting as a marketing assistant, promoted to training executive, then on to my first management role as agency development officer to my current position as Sales Director for Visayas.  My defining moment was my transition from being a Manager to the current work-in-progress-so-called Leader. 

With all humility, I believe that I was competent Agency Development Manager (ADM).  This position spanned 5 years, starting with the junior role of Agency Development Officer to eventually my promotion as Agency Development Manager.  In this role, I worked closely with our Distribution channel commonly known as Agencies.  I loved this position as I did nothing but execute plans and strategic initiatives set forth by my Regional Manager.  Coming from a training background, I was technically skilled/competent. I was good in networking and this helped me tremendously in doing collaboration work with other departments.  I had the respect of my peers, colleagues and even our Agencies as I considered them all as partners in the business.  This was a high point in my career as I was respected, well liked, and people sought me for advice and consultation. In 2009, with a new Executive Team in place, we had an reorganization.  Departments were stream lined.  My boss, the Regional Manager for Visayas and Mindanao was eased out and with the reorganization, the Sales Director position was created and I was promoted to this position.  This is where my lessons on leadership began.  As  a Sales Director, I know had the responsibility set the direction of Visayas. I now realign the whole territory to the new direction the company is taking and this was not taken in stride by Agency.

This was my defining moment in my career as my management and technical skills did not prepare me for my leadership role, or so I thought. From being one of the most productive territories in the company, the Visayas became a group of bickering and complaining agents and managers. I struggled and I'm still struggling but through the years I've learned a lot of soft skills important in leadership and one of them was the value of influence. 

I am far from the ideal leader, I am a work in progress. Through self-awareness I've realized that I need to accept that my role has changed and so does my kind or type of leadership.  The closest I could say that inspires me to become that kind of leader that my organization needs can be found in the HBR Reading on Level 5 Leadership – The Triumph of Humility and Fierce Rosolve by Jim Collings.  As articulated in the reading "Level 5 leaders blend the paradoxical combination of deep personal humility with intense professional will."

Quoting directly from the Harvard Business Review reading, the Leadership Hierarchy are as follows

LEVEL 1 Highly Capable Individual – makes productive contributions through talent, knowledge, skills, and good work habits

This is the main reason why I got promoted to management in the first place.  I have shown through my dedication at work, sacrifice in terms of time as well as my technical knowledge of my business that I was a major contribute to the success of my territory back then.  Back then the visayas area contributed as high as 35% of National Sales.  This is of course not just the product of one person, but a collaborative effort of stakeholders with me at the help, training and developing our agency and partnering with the leaders to come up with tactical strategies to position our company as a dominant player in the industry.

LEVEL 2 Contributing Team Member – Contributes to the achievement of group objectives, works effectively with others in a group setting.

Working well with others comes naturally to me.  Because of my humble beginnings I do not have a chip over my shoulder.  Because I am based in Cebu, I've learned to appreciate the help others as well as show my appreciation to make sure that this type of collaborative work continues.  In the same line of thought, though yes I know how to collaborate, I am weak on confrontation.  There has been times that I've back down from an argument that was going nowhere and for the sake of expediency, I would rather shut up and move on to the next issue.  This is definitely something I would need to work on as I continue my development as a leader.

LEVEL 3 Competent Manager – Organizes people and resources toward the effective and efficient pursuit of predetermined objectives.

I can confidently say that I am currently at Level 3.  One of the better feedbacks I've received from our executives is of my ability to organize with out the help of our Head Office.  I guess early in my assignment in Cebu I've learned to fend for myself.  I was transferred to Cebu in 1999 and immediately I felt how far I was from the support that could have easily been given had I been based in Manila.  However, through collaboration with the people I worked with in Cebu plus creativity and innovation I can still get the job done.  I can organize events with just 3 people where as in Manila they have whole departments helping out.  I can run trainings and meetings on my own compared to the Managers in Manila where they have a full complement of staff and secretary to help them out from the smallest thing like finding and preparing the venue, to running the program.  I am event organizer, floor manager, emcee, main speaker and closing remarks all in one. 

LEVEL 4 Effective Leader – Catalyzes commitment to and vigorous pursuit of a clear and compelling vision; stimulates the group to high performance standards.

And here lays the source of my current frustrations.  I have yet to transcend from Competent Manager to Effective Leader.  There was a time I was making headway in terms to being able to rally the team behind the company vision.  However, through the years, just when I thought I was getting better things turned for the worse.  Various issues and bickering within my organization has derailed all my efforts.  Level 5 leadership seems so far away from me when I have yet to fully master Level 4 leadership.  To this; however, I have found inspiration in my current studies here in AGBS Regis Cebu.  In order for me to move forward, I must take a step back and once again call on my values through the process of self-awareness as championed in the book of Heroic Leadership. Quoting the chapter on Self-Awareness from Chris Lowney:

"Though executives frequently rise through the ranks on the strength of their expertise, raw intelligence, and or sheer ambition, these traits alone rarely translate into successful long-term leadership performance.  As I have mentioned earlier, my technical expertise, knowledge and experience has got me this far but for me to transcend to the higher calling of leadership,  I must tap in to something more profound yet basic.

"Research increasingly suggests that IQ and technical skills are far less crucial to leadership success than is mature self-awareness….that the hard evidence points to the critical soft skills that are encompassed by knowing oneself." I have learned the hard way that people will not follow me because I am able to articulate with conviction the vision of the company; but, they will follow me if they share my vision as their leader.

Level 5 Executive – Builds enduring greatness through a paradoxical combination of personal humility plus professional will. This is of course my goal.  If I truly believe that I am passionate about my business, if I truly believe that I am competent and effective, If my value are truly deeply rooted in helping others, then for me to progress and become a Level 5 leader.  Organizations often end up putting the wrong people in the wrong position that produces catastrophic results.  You are put on a Level 5 position with out the Level 5 personality of humility and professional will.  I've always been a humble person but the same humility, to my mind contradicts that need have a strong professional will.  Although I understand why; but with my personality type seems to get in the way.

Getting inspiration from Enneagram, I understand who I am and thus I am in the best position to be able to make a change and improve who I am.

 It is my first time to take this test.  I was and a bit skeptical as I believed that I may be a combination of personality types.  True enough after taking the test, the scores indicated that I was 1 of 3 types.  This scares me a bit.  Does this mean I am bipolar?

The highest score, so evidently, this is my dominant personality type was Type 5 or the Thinker, Observer. As described in the website of Eclecticenergies where I took the free Enneagram test,  Enneagram Type 5 – The Investigator are:

"Thinkers who tend to withdraw and observe.  People of this personality type essentially fear that they don't have enough inner strength to face life, so they tend to withdraw, to retreat into the safety and security of the mind where they can mentally prepare for their emergence into the world."

There is truth into this as I do have a propensity to do a lot of introspection.  I will be in deep thought rationalizing, looking for options and alternatives to issues or problems.  Weighing the advantages and disadvantages of a situation is as normal as breathing in and out.  This is one reason why I take too long to make decisions because I constantly look for too many variables to a problem thus the permutations in terms of solutions grow exponentially.  Since I have so many alternatives or options in mind, I usually end up more confused, even to the point of being indecisive.  In recent years, especially in my career, I call this Analysis Paralysis.  Too much thinking and for other people, they end up doing nothing.  In my case, this introspection delays my decision making.

"Thinkers are generally intelligent, well read and thoughtful and they frequently become experts in the areas that capture their interest"

Since I am a humble person by nature, I do not really consider myself intelligent; but definitely I am not dumb.  And again I do tend to focus and learn more about things that capture my fancy or interest.  One thing is for certain when it comes to Insurance I know my business.  One would think that I am good at what I do since I've been in the business since 1996 when I joined a local insurance company; up until today with a multi-national company where my current loyalties lay.  This industry is my first job right after college and I've been in this business ever since.  I do not just consider my tenure as my only reason for being an expert in this field.  I have read many books, articles, attended many trainings and seminars even reading the Insurance Code of the Philippines as I realized that I am fascinated and engaged in this business.

"Fives are usually somewhat restrained when it comes to emotional expression, but they often have stronger feelings than they let on.  Few people know what is going on beneath the surface, as Fives have an often exaggerated need for privacy and a deep seated fear of intrusion'"

Consistent throughout my career, I've had a somewhat aloof personality.  I am friendly; however in a manner of speaking, at the same time reserved.  I don't let everything out.  I am difficult to amuse, please, or smile.  Yes, my mythological smile is something that you will only see if taking a group picture.  If there's one emotion that may easily slip every so often would be disappointment. I usually give this impression that I am difficult to please and let me tell you right now, yes I am difficult to please.  I am not shallow and not easily bemused with what are trivial things to me. I am indeed a Type 5.  I am comfortable in my thoughts, nonintrusive, independent, at times indifferent with a hint of intellectual arrogance, generally restrained in my emotions and very private. As the old adage goes, "Silent waters run deep".

INGENUITY: The whole world will become our house.

"Leaders make themselves and others comfortable in a changing world.  They eagerly explore new ideas, approaches, and cultures rather than shrink defensively from what lurks around life's next corner.  Anchored by nonnegotiable principles and values, they cultivate the indifference that allows them to adapt confidently. –Heroic Leadership, C.Lowney"

This talks about the ability but more importantly the willingness to adapt.  Instead of hiding behind set beliefs and norms, what can or cannot be done, heroic leadership has taught us that the leader embraces the difference and learns to adapt.  A lot of leadership theories have taught has that but what makes the ingenuity pillar of the Jesuits lessons is the ability to remain steadfast and still be anchored on ones principles and values.  Many leaders end up lost and eventually fails in their endeavors. For one the lack of ability to adapt; but even for those who were able to adapt, ends up compromising their principles and values in the end. 

I recall one of our early activities in the classroom, the activity on Planning and Executing a Crime.  I remember that our group, composed of leader Ivy, Juvs and Leonard leveraged on my experience in our industry and decided to use the financial crime of Money Laundering as our criminal enterprise.  You have to admit, though it is a crime, the whole process of money laundering, the act of converting dirty or illegally obtained money into legitimate or mainstream source of money is indeed a stroke of Genius, albeit the creativity was channeled the wrong way.  It takes advantages of loopholes in our laws and the financial system to hide their criminal activities.  As wrong as it may seem, as I said early, thought channeled the wrong way, Money Laudering activities still adheres to certain principles taught by the Jesuits on Ingenuity.  The Jesuits taught to rid of the "we've always done it this way" mentality and true enough Money Laundering has become an innovative way of getting away with, literally murder.  Instead of challenging the Lutherans head on, the Jesuits decided to use education as their key priority.  Same with Money Laundering, by studying the loopholes in the legal and financial system, they were able to anticipate issues or scenarios that would have exposed their crimincal enterprise.

When we reflect in the trials and tribulations that a leader goes through, one cannot help but use the Momomyth Template developed by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. The Cambell's template and the Jesuits 2^nd Pilar of Leadership runs parallel in the sense that there is a shared insight on the need to change but at the same time holding on to ones principles and values.  With liberty taken from the online reference site Wikipedia, the following are the different stages of a hero's journey according to JCampbell.

The first part is Departure and it includes the following steps.

The Call to Adventure, where the hero, will in the case for purposes of my Final Integration Paper, the Leader begins in a situation of normality from which some information is received that acts as a call to head off into the unknown

Refusal of the Call, where the leader first refuses to heed the call. This may be from a sense of duty or obligation, fear, insecurity, a sense of inadequacy, or any of a range of reasons that work to hold the person in his or her current circumstances. Often times a leader would be overwhelmed with the task at hand.  Often time he would question is capabilities and capacity to win or to accomplish the task at hand.

Supernatural Aid, where the leader has committed to the role, position or responsibility, consciously or unconsciously, and is guide and magical helper appears or becomes known. More often than not, this supernatural mentor will present the hero with one or more talismans or artifacts that will aid him later in his quest.  True mentors in the real world are not ghosts like Obi Wan Kenobi.  However, mentors do come in many forms.  In my experience mentors have nothing to do with rank or accomplishment, even the simplest of people through their life experiences have wisdom to share.

Crossing the Threshold, at this point where the leader takes his first steps into adventure, leaving the known limits of what his familiar and moving into an unfamiliar and sometimes dangerous realm where the rules and limits are yet to be learned.

Belly of the Whale. Figuratively speaking, the leader makes the final separation from his known world and self. In this stage, the leader has willingness to change.

The 2^nd Part is the Initiation

The Road of Trials, "this is a series of tests that the person must undergo to begin the transformation. Often the person fails one or more of these tests, which often occur in threes".  Exactly the same path most leader take when they come from a role such as management.  I can easily relate to this step of the Hero's Journey as I can recall many incidents in my career that caused me to change not just work ethic but my attitude and character as well. Sometimes the change can be traumatizing in a manner of speaking.

The Meeting with the Goddess, here the leader "experiences a love that has the power and significance of the all-powerful, all encompassing, unconditional love that a fortunate infant may experience with his or her mother. This is a very important step in the process and is often represented by the person finding the other person that he or she loves most completely."  Of course, this is in a figurative sense.  In the real corporate world, this would mean, the why we do what we do.  This would mean different from one person to another but one undeniable truth is that it is in the WHY we do things, we find the reason to excel.

Woman as Temptress, "In this step, the hero faces those temptations, often of a physical or pleasurable nature, that may lead him or her to abandon or stray from his or her quest, which does not necessarily have to be represented by a woman." I often say to the people I work with especially in situations where giving us is easier than marching on, "there are so many reasons to quit and these reasons usually will make our life easier but we become less accomplished."  The path to greatness is beset with so many temptations for us to stop and fail when in fact to achieve greatness all we

Atonement with the Father, "in this step the person must confront and be initiated by whatever holds the ultimate power in his or her life. In many myths and stories this is the father, or a father figure who has life and death power."  In the corporate world, the father is of course represented by the Chief Executive or President.  For some it is the immediate superior who's opinion matters the most. We do what we can to please him or her.

Apotheosis, "When someone dies a physical death, or dies to the self to live in spirit, he or she moves beyond the pairs of opposites to a state of divine knowledge, love, compassion and bliss".  This of course is not physical death in our environment as a leader.  To my mind, this minds death of your old self, the self that holds you back in becoming a leader.  Through the death of your old self, you can now change or transcend to the leader you need to be.  In my experience I wouldn't call or death, but rather getting out of ones shell.  I know that a lot of people up until now will confront my statement that I am an introvert.  The mere fact that they cannot see that now, only validates what this stage of the Hero's Journey is trying to say, death of the oldself inorder for you to become the self you need to be.

The Ultimate Boon, this is when the hero is able to accomplish his goal. It what you as a leader set forth to accomplish.  Everything that has happened so far prepared you for this final step. In JCampbells The Hero has a Thousand Face, this boon comes in the form of the elixir of life itself, or a plant that supplies immortality, or the holy grail. In our language, in my mind, applying what we have learned so far about leadership, the Boon is the ability to have your team aligned themselves towards the same direction as your company whether it be in the form of change, accomplishing a target, etc.

The last stage is the Return

Refusal of the Return, "Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man". Of all the stages, this one is one that I am unsure of.  How to relate this to corporate life.  The closest I could think of may be the leader, upon accomplishing his goal, being asked to do another task.  Taking him away from the department he created.  I remember one story of an executive who was seconded to our Malaysian counterpart to head the merger between our sister company and a big local bank. Once he accomplished he task, he found it difficult to go back to the Philippines as he considered the successful project, his baby so to speak.  In the end he had no choice but to come back. Leveraging on his new found experiences in the merger, he was then given another task in the Philippines.

The Magic Flight, "Sometimes the hero must escape with the boon, if it is something that the gods have been jealously guarding". Often times a leader finds himself lost, once he has accomplished what needs to be done. The proverbial question, "what now?" comes to mind.  Aside from this, once the goal has been accomplished, the leader would either receive sincere congratulations of those who admire him or the criticism from those who do resent him.

Rescue from Without. Again, using the example earlier, somebody in the organization may need to step in and protect the leader from those who criticize him and his accomplishments.  I've seen this many times, most from people who are just jealous of someone else accomplishments.  Remember that the crab mentality is strong in our culture.

The Crossing of the Return Threshold, to my mind, crossing the threshold would mean when the leader is no longer needed such as retirement. After coming from a corporate world where he is needed and appreciated, the transition to regular citizen maybe difficult.  I see this in our former president.  The first president of our company has many things to be proud of.  He started the company from nothing and throughout his 10 year stint at the helm, he brought our company to the top 3 in the industry in those same number of years.  Now that he has retired, he still tries to make a presence in our company which is to me is both admirable and sad.  Admirable in the sense that he still wants to belong in the organization that he build and who's opinion still mattered to some; however, at the same time it seems to me that he couldn't move on.

Master of Two Worlds. "The person has become comfortable and competent in both the inner and outer worlds." Using our former president's situation, I believe here lays his conflict, still wanting to be part of our corporate world and not accepting his new role as a citizen.  To my mind, he can be a master of both worlds. By becoming a spokes person, the ambassador of our company allows him to enjoy his new life as retiree and yet at the same time fulfill his need to still be part of the organization.

Freedom to Live, "this is sometimes referred to as living in the moment, neither anticipating the future nor regretting the past".  At this point of our Leaders Journey he has nothing more to prove and simply enjoys the rest of life and watch as his legacy surpasses his life time.

The parallel I see between what can be learned from the Jesuit Pilar of Ingenuity and that of the Monomyth of JCampbell is the glaring need for the hero or leader to adapt or change.  Many stories in both the Heroic Leadership and A Hero has a Thousand Faces talks about the hero's or the leader's ability to adapt or change to his environment in order to accomplish his task. To my mind both also talks about the need to be grounded on Values.  In Heroic Leadership, it is their anchor, in the book A Thousand Faces, I believe that this would be the "Father" or the Supernatural Aid, two characters with one role and that is to guide our hero.

LOVE: With greater love than fear

"Leaders face the world with a confident, healthy sense of themselves as endowed with talent, dignity, and the potential to lead. They find exactly these same attributes in others and passionately commit to honoring and unlocking the potential they find in themselves and in others – Heroic Leadership, C.Lowney"

As we have learned in our reading in the aforementioned book, the Jesuits look upon others with greater love meaning they look upon others based on their strengths rather than their weaknesses or fears.  That they only see the best of humanity. Compared to other Leadership theories that capitalizes on the ignorance, greed or the immoral nature of men such as one will see from the Machiavellians whose beliefs revolve around the play of power, The Jesuit leadership style sees goodness in men and that everyone has the potential to become a leader.

On this line of thinking I recall my paper on my Genogram where I shared to story of one of my Uncles on my Father's side of the family. I can easily associate this to the experience of my Tito Junior.  As the so called "black sheep of the family", one would think that the other brothers would look down on him.  On to contrary they even gave him the responsibility of overseeing their fledgling car repair business so many years ago.  But the story doesn't end there.  What amazes me is that even when Tito Junior messes up the business forcing the brothers to close the repair shop, the brothers did not harbor and ill will towards their youngest sibling.  Of course they were disappointed and mad at what happened, but you would have thought that Tito Junior would have been unwelcomed in family gatherings.  In one family gathering Tito Junior apologized to his brothers and the others simply said no to think of it anymore.  Up until this day, my father defends his brother against his critics as my father believes that good can still come out from him.  This transcends family.  If you look at a person, even a colleague, with the same "love" you see your family, good can still come out of them.

We also tried to incorporate this in our Team Building exercise.  Often time we forget that others have done for us just because of a small sometimes frivolous altercation; or worse, we've never found the time to show our appreciation of others.  In what of our team building exercises that I and Leader Jen Ramos included in our activities is the exercise on appreciation where we asked the class to role-play how they would show their appreciation to at least 5 people in their lives. Why did we do this? To put in practical and immediately applicable terms as well as to put some sense of urgency in the need for us to start learning to show our appreciation of others.  Many times in our fast paced lifestyle, we fail to appreciate the small things but sad to say even the things that really matter.  Love of spouse and children, cooperation of our staff, etc and hopefully through this exercise we were able to remind our fellow the leaders the importance of "With Greater Love than Fear".

HEROISM: Eliciting Great Desires.

"Leaders imagine an inspiring future and strive to shape it rather than passively watching the future happen around them.  Heroes extract gold from the opportunities at hand rather than waiting for golden opportunities to be hand to them."

There is no switch to turn off leadership and there is also no switch to turn off inspiration our motivation.  The scenarios would change, the environments would change but regardless of the scenario or environment or situation a leader will always be a leader as taught by the Jesuits.  In the same manner, the motivation is our passion and the passion never changes.  I recall my recent writing on my personal passion and yes my passion elicits great desires within me.  In fact truth be told, my passion reignited great desires within me.

In the Harvard Buisiness Review reading on What Makes a Good Leader by Daniel Goleman, he enumerates 5 skills of Emotional Intelligence as follows, and once again, the similarities between his ideas and that of the Jesuits are glaring.  Starting with.

1.   Self-awareness, knowing ones strengths, weaknesses, drives, values etc.
2.   Self-regulation, controlling ones impulses.
3.   Motivation, the achievement is it's own reward
4.   Empathy, understanding others
5.   Social Skill, rapport building for better influence.

Of all the Emotional Skills, the relevant skills associated with Heroism is Motivation.  Quoting from the reading; Motivation is "a passion for the work itself and for new challenges".  Exactly the same principles that the Jesuits shared more than 450 years ago when they started their "company".

As a leader, it is not enough for us to just deliver results.  It is the chance to change lives, to make our work matter and to leave a legacy that will outlast our own existence.

This is not my best work but it is honest work.  I've said it many times and I would like to end my work on Final Integration Paper on this note, the need for self-awareness on my part is a revelation that comes in a most opportune time.  I am in a time where I feel lost with no direction in sight.  I may not have the solutions to all my problems right now but by anchoring on my core values, on my passion for my work, I now believe that I am better equipped to make those first small steps into the challenges of leadership that are facing me right now.  And will all honesty and humility, I have this course and you Professor Jorge to thank for this.

May our paths cross again our dear mentor.

-