A 1 Business Leadership

Leadership subject at AGSB is an Ateneo advantage. It emphasizes leadership from within, authentic leadership. One of its pillars is love. This is odd in a cold steely corporate world. The others are heroism, ingenuity and self awareness. The goal of leadership is not only to develop oneself but to clone other leaders. Everybody has potential to be leader. What we do, even if we do not have followers influences/affects others. It is time to define Filipino leadership too

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Regis Cebu Leadership - Leader Maricel Ngo –Final Integrated Paper ( the final )

Please disregard prof the last two emails. I had problems po kasi in attaching my graphics. Please consider this as the final paper. I used my gmail account coz my yahoo account is having problems in graphics po. <every smart guy uses Gmail now>

I. Where I am now?

Defining Moment

The highlight of my defining moment paper and my self-discovery is tabulated below:

Defining Moment	What lessons I learned from these experiences
My Childhood Experience ( Feeling Dejected )	On every thorn, delightful wisdom grows. In every rill, a sweet instruction flow – Edward Young I have struggled seeking for an answer why my parents provided me only so little of the positive guidance I need as a child? In doing the genogram, they also were not blessed with a nurturing family. Indeed, from such experience, a delightful wisdom grows and that is to start it with my family( a loving family) so a feeling of dejection will stop in my generation.
Being the Head of the Family ( Feeling Fatigued)	The seat of knowledge is in the head, of wisdom, in the heart. William Hazlitt In my early years as a working professional, I believed that providing for the basic needs of my family is a noble act without realizing how I made them so dependent on me. There are other forms of help that is more enduring like making them realize the importance of self-worth.
My Marriage ( Feeling Hurt at first but feeling loved)	Things turn out best for people who make the best out of the way things turn out. John Wooden Acceptance and forgiveness are two virtues that help me go on with my life. I became a more engaged, more involved, more responsive and loving- wife and mother because of that painful experience.
My Profession ( Feeling Fulfilled)	Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life Confucius "….business practitioner seeking to become a professional and ethical business leader committed to nation-building". In everything I do, I always revisit this vision of ATENEO. As an educator, I should make a difference to positively impact the lives of our students. In business, I should be more mindful on how I can help the local economy and the community.
Being a mother ( feeling inspired )	People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Abraham Lincoln I have a vision for my children as I presented in my Call to Arms speech. I feel inspired to see how they will become someday with proper guidance and mindset.

Enneagram

Taking enneagram helped me validate behaviors that I normally exhibit. The characteristics of the personality type that best described me are affecting the way I respond to situations. Being more aware of my strengths and weaknesses based on my personality type will somehow improve the way I perform my responsibilities at home, in our business, in my profession and the various organizations that I lead. I should strive to capitalize on my strengths but must guard my weaknesses.

Results of my enneagram revealed a personality 8 type which is a "CHALLENGER"

A challenger ( personality 8) is described as:

1) Strong and assertive but sometimes can be ego-centric and domineering.

2) Self- mastering- they use their strength to improve others' lives, becoming heroic, magnanimous, and inspiring but confrontational, intimidating, loud and controlling.

My 2nd personality I am exhibiting is personality type 7 which is an "Enthusiast"

As enthusiast ( personality 7) is described as:

1) generous, energetic, lively and optimistic but they tend to be over- extended, scattered, and undisciplined.

My personal reflection on taking enneagram is "As we age, the result will vary. People that we welcome to our lives whom we consider our mentors and coaches somehow influence our views and behavior. Then we embrace it. Now, the people I am working with, the family culture of my in-laws change my views about life. If I were confined with the values and family culture I had during my childhood years, my personality results would be different. That is why leaders are born twice. Our experiences and the people we met will reveal to us our new sense of identity as leaders."

Chapter 6 of the book of Chris Lowney presented "The Spiritual Exercises", a life long development tool. The book says "The exercises demand total intellectual, emotional, and spiritual engagement. Accordingly, they monopolize focus and energy for their thirty-day duration". While enneagram is one tool to know our personality, strengths, values and weaknesses, the spiritual exercise is considered indeed a more powerful tool. I can say it is more powerful as most Jesuits personify heroic leadership as what is written in the book. It an effective tool for self-awareness as evident in the growing number of Jesuits and the schools they are managing to realize the vision of Ignatius Loyola.

Genogram

At first, I had apprehension in doing genogram. Perhaps, it is the traumatic experiences during my childhood especially the encounters I had with my relatives ( father's side). It can also be the hardship of being poor. Before taking this subject, I have to admit that I feel that I am a victim but in the course of this "Leadership" class, I realized that my past leads me to where I am now, a better "ME".

I am fascinated with the result of the genogram. It made me realize so many things about myself, my family and my passion. Some of the realizations include:

1) I should live a healthy lifestyle

Being aware of the medical risk in the family, I should make a conscious effort in living a healthy lifestyle. According to Chris Lowney's book, the foundation to ingenuity is to make ourselves indifferent. Only by becoming indifferent – free of prejudices and attachments and therefore free to choose any course of action – do recruits become strategically flexible. In relation of this concept to genogram, becoming indifferent does not only improve relationships. It can also be a more noble or heroic act and that is helping save other people's live. In my case, I should create awareness among our families about this medical risk.

2) My motivation to finish a college degree is to give pride and honor to my family – mother side. I realize I can do more for my relatives, more than material things or financial help. Help them change their poor mindset of "we are born poor, we die poor" will benefit the next generation of Aquino clan.

3) The "entrepreneurial mind-set" is innate in the family of my father where most of my uncles/aunties were entrepreneur. My "lolo" passed it on to his children. Now, I myself run businesses, which I think, is also innate in me.

4) I want to bring back the old times where my relatives from my father side organized reunions/ family gatherings. As cousins, we were close before and now that we are a bit older, I want to lead all our family reunions to nurture our relationship.

My Life Story ( J. Campbell)

In doing the J. Campbell exercise, a lot of self-discovery happened. I realized that partly, I am "go-getter" person. I am determined to get what I want. My victory over MATH subject (during freshman years in college) made me believe that you can do anything as long as you put your heart on it. Indeed, everything happens for a reason. My experience as college instructor in Manila was a big factor why I got hired as school administrator of STI College Ormoc. It was not an easy road for me but in the end I survive with a lot of lessons learned as adaptive challenges were present in my leadership as school administrator.

As explained in the HBR – Work in Leadership, solutions to adaptive challenges reside to the collective intelligence of employees at all levels. In the education sector, our target market shifted program preference aside from the stiff competition. Getting the right people on board, empowering them, leveraging on their capabilities and wit and instilling in them sense of ownership are some of our solutions to these adaptive challenges.

Internal and External Factor that Shape me

To summarize my realizations in doing reflection paper 2,

1) As to the external factors that shaped me:

Family - it is said in the HBR – Authentic Leadership, motivation to become an authentic leader came from the difficult experiences in our lives. The feeling of being rejected by my family, the instability of my father's business cause by vices and poor financial management are reasons why I considered myself a victim before. They taught me to become a strong person. They are my motivation to make things right for my family.

Work – My boss and STI executives provided me insights on how great corporate culture is. I truly treasure this experience for I apply these learnings to my own businesses. My work provides me so much fulfillment seeing our graduates succeed in their chosen careers.

Husband and in-laws- My husband and in-laws taught the importance of SAVING and BUDGETING. Their influence shaped me to strive in providing a nurturing environment for my family.

SUPPORT Group- our Couples for Christ community has greatly influenced me to be leader with a heart and to strive to become a Christ-like leader.

2) Knowing my strengths and weaknesses leads me to deep understanding of myself. Assessing my strengths and weaknesses is essential in knowing the type of work environment that I can make the greatest contribution.

One of the things I am fascinated about is my growing network of partners/friends/groups which leads me to identifying my strengths that resulted to such accomplishment.

1) I am a people-person ( People skills ) – I love relating to people. As explained by John Maxwell, "People are the most precious of resources. Your success, fulfillment, and happiness depend on your ability to relate well to different kinds of people".

2) Passion for learning – In my quest to new learnings, I am always in the look-out for mentors, coaches and role model. They are so many of them in socio-civic organizations, graduate schools-classmates and professors, corporation and even business clients. I also read books on leadership and business. In my work, I always think on how every lesson I gain can be applied to my personal and professional life.

3) Communicator and critical thinker – because of these strengths, people value my inputs and insights that I can confidently communicate. Such insights ( result of number 2 ) are instrumental in the success of the organization's plans and programs.

4) Motherly touch – being affectionate. Showing tender and love to people earns their trust

I have to guard my weaknesses though. To name a few, a) Lack of focus – tendency to play the role of "jack of all trades" b) poor in execution c) hesitant to express my real feelings especially if it will hurt the other party. <Be duterte at times>

Where am I going?

Above is the visual representation of where I want to go. <good!!!>

1) "The essentials" represents the factors that can help me achieve my goal and that is to become a successful entrepreneur in Ormoc City.

a) PASSION- is the first and the most important factor to achieve my goals in life. In my reflection paper 3, I said that "It is my passion to help people improve their lives by using my skills and talents to benefit those around them. As a result, they will duplicate what I do and pass it on to others then there is a multiplier effect. It is like paying it forward. Then, the kindness and generosity I shared wholeheartedly will live long after me."

My passion is driven by my strength and motivation. One of my great realization in this subject is : I never thought that I have a greater purpose in life. All this time, I thought that working in a school to create positive impact to the students is what I ought to do in life until I retire. I never realized before that I could help more if I have more. Being an entrepreneur will still serve my passion. My ultimate motivation is my family. I have bigger dreams for my children and that is to become "movers and shakers" of the community. It requires resources to achieve such goals and the only way to prepare is to grow our business and to be physically present in guiding them for lifelong learning. As to my passion as academician, I can provide consultancy services to schools in our city especially now that our city is planning to put-up its own college to cater to the poor yet deserving students.

b) KNOWLEDGE- to realize my goals, I need to be equipped with both technical and soft skills. Professionalizing the business through systems and procedures is vital in its success. My 16-year experience in the corporate setting has prepared me to run our business more effectively.

c) NETWORK- the lifeblood of business is the supplier and customers while the most important resource of our business is our employees. Through my network, I can get easy access on manpower, supplier and even customers.

2) "The Goal" – to be a successful entrepreneur in our city. Presently, we have businesses already that need to be supervised well. Being immersed in running STI, I spent so little time helping my husband run our own businesses. It hit me so badly after I conducted an audit of our operation. The result of the audit shows that the losses our businesses incurred due to lack of management and leadership is thrice the salary I am receiving in my current job. What is more alarming is the exposure of my husband to serious illnesses as he finds it difficult to manage his growing business.

New trajectory on my plan sets in as what is shown in the visual above. Said trajectory is in consideration of the following:

1) It should be beneficial to my family as my priority (e.g. It can provide my family resources to reach our goals in life)

2) It should include my advocacy on education and rural development

3) It should result to helping the community and local economy

This answer leads to the result of my trajectory.

3) "The RESULT" –The trajectory I choose to follow answers the questions enumerated above:

1) Family

"The trajectory should be beneficial to my family as my priority"

Working with my husband as his partner can help improve the operation of our business. Our combined effort may help generate more revenue and manage our expenses well to make the business more profitable.

My husband as my partner, we complement with each other's strength and weaknesses.

My Strength	Impact to our business
1) People – person	My husband is a shy person. He would rather stay in front of his computer than talk to people. I can handle HR department to empower our people. I can also be his marketing support, establishing good relationship with our existing and future customers.
2) Passion for learning	With my professional experience in a corporate world, I can implement systems and procedures to manage our business well. I can improve our operation by applying the business concepts/ theories / best practices that I learn.
My husband's strength	Impact to our business
1) He is good in opportunity seeking	I can be influenced by his passion in venturing to business. Spending time with him, I can somehow learn how he perceive the market. My presence is source of his inspiration as what he always tells me.
2) Hard-working	I admire my husband's passion in business as he wakes up early to start his day. Being a hardworking businessman, I can act as his "stop" button if spends too much time in business neglecting other important of his life like his family and health.

2) Advocacy on education and rural development

Gaining relevant experience in management and entrepreneurship and preparing myself to be a living proof how entrepreneurship can help improve the quality of one's life, will make me a more effective teacher sharing real experiences to my students.

My teaching principle before(example: IT education):

My teaching principle before contradicts my advocacy on rural development and inclusive growth. STI produces graduates to benefit other regions. The only benefit that Ormoc gets is improvement on curriculum as graduates are sources of information on current trends. The cycle repeats but has little impact on inclusive growth

My revised teaching principle:

Thus, with my new trajectory as shown above, I will teach students subjects that supports the city's directives on inclusive growth such as entrepreneurship and or any subject or program track that are needed in the industry of the locality.

3) Helping the community and local economy

With my new trajectory, I can be more active in serving the community because of my flexible time through my active involvement in socio-organizations and LGU projects.

Expanding and growing our business will help improve the local economy.

As to my passion as academician, I can provide consultancy services to schools in our city especially now that our city is planning to put-up its own college to cater to the poor yet deserving students.

How do I get there?

As a starting point of being a fulltime businesswoman, whatever I have become now, I owe it to my 16 years experience in STI. Thus, as a gesture of gratitude, I commit to do the following :

1) To recommend the most qualified replacement

2) To provide a comprehensive and smooth turn-over

3) To offer a helping hand whenever STI needs my assistance

Personal

It is arranged according to importance:

Area	Action Plan
Spiritual	I claim to make God as the CEO of my life. To provide me the courage in pursue my goals in life, I need spiritual nourishment. - I will regularly attend mass with my family - I will pray the rosary with my family - I will be a responsible leader of our Couples for Christ community - Once a week, I will do personal reflection through meditation and time with God.
Physical	Being fit and healthy will make me a more productive person. My motivation is to witness my grandchildren's wedding. - I will eat healthy food and make time for daily exercise ( it has to be with my husband for I want us to grow old together) - I will undergo annual physical/ executive check up - I will choose my battle and avoid stress if possible - I will do meditation at least 15 minutes a day.
Family	Creating good memories with my children and providing nurturing environment to my family is the first step in achieving a well-balanced life. - I ` our conversation more engaging and enriching. - I will do simple things that can make them happy - I will attend all their school events in school

My goal: To become a successful entrepreneur in Ormoc City

Whatever business we have and we will have, part of our mission must provide value to all stakeholders- customers, employees,partners and our community.

Area	Action Plan
Business Culture	- To come up with strategic direction, vision and adopts set of values in the company. - It has to start from crafting VMO and communicate the vision to the employees and all shareholders.
Clientele and Network	- Maintain the good relationship with the existing clients and continue to do network to attract more clients for the business. - Add premium to the services being offered and come up with a competitive advantage
Technical Aspect	- Improve systems and procedures. - Apply corporate experience to professionalize the business
Team Dynamics	- Empower the employees - Invest on training and development - Collaborate with my business partner ( my husband ) for continuous improvement of the business
Professional Growth	- Finish my MBA and take advantage of the learning by applying them to my businesses - Attend relevant conventions/seminars / exhibits - Read a lot of books in management and business - Be active in professional organizations
Targets	- Set targets on revenue - Prepare expense budget - Review accomplishment of targets and monitor expenses ( as the management book says " You can't manage what you don't measure")
Community	- Be involved in the community through livelihood programs or capacity building