Regis Cebu Leadership || Leader Melissa Abarrientos || FIP

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Melissa B Abarrientos <meili1917@gmail.com>
Date: 18 January 2016 at 08:07
Subject: Fwd: Regis Cebu Leadership || Leader Melissa Abarrientos || FIP
To: gsreuyan@gmail.com

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Melissa B Abarrientos <meili1917@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Jan 17, 2016 at

​5​

:03 PM
Subject: Regis Cebu Leadership || Leader Melissa Abarrientos || FIP
To: profjorge.entrep.ateneoleader@blogger.com

Dear prof.

Pit Senyor! Sorry for the late submission of my FIP. 

Introduction:

Many of us can become a manager but not everyone can truly lead. Leadership is more than just managing people and inspiring people towards a common goal. Leadership requires authenticity of character and morale  that comes from within in order to lead them to reach a common goal towards a better society.

 Most of us have an unsatiable desire to attain a dream. It gives us self-fulfillment. There's always that feeling, that passion and that determination that drives us to our goals. For some it can be a selfish one and for some it can be a selfless one. As often said a leader is a leader if he has followers. But is that enough? I suppose not, A leader must have the the essential qualities to inspire other people to the same goal. Most famous leaders I have read and known share the qualities of unwavering confidence, charisma, flexibility, people skills, honesty, determination, knowledge and power. And wher do their power come from? Some through their position and title but the the authentic leader's power comes from within and this is the kind of leadership that we should aim for. It is the only kind of leadership that will last.

Where I Am Now?

I have learned from our debate and the article by George, Sims and et.al. that leaders are not necessarily born with any particular qualities to lead.  Rather, leaders internally frame their leadership qualities based on their life stories and learn from their experiences and their environment. They reflect, internalize and learn and grow as a leader. Anyone can become a leader and authentic leadership can be learned through a continued self-awareness and expoloration; and understanding and acceptance of oneself's strengths and weakness.

The activity Bad boss activity was an eye opener of the daily practices that had become normal in my perception as it is self – evident.  Corrupt practices had become necessary in business relationships. With the activity I came to realize that character, moral values are more important than selfish goals. In my thoughts I often criticize the politics in the country without even thinking that I too had participated in dirty politics to achieve some of my business goals. This certainly ails the world. And I came to realize that if I want change that change, change must first - start from me and within.  We need to look at and re-evaluate our values in making decisions if we want to have a better nation. 

In my movie Synopsis, I have also chosen the movie from Rurouni kenshin where the movie was all about not just leading organizational change but rather that was breaking and putting an end to the nation's corroupt and evil practices. Aside from learning the call to leadership stages, I further understood the effect and impact of values and morales of a leader  in building a great nation or leading an organization.

Reflection paper  1 made me look back my past experiences and understand further the current driving motivation of my actions and decisions. I realized that a significant even in my life changed me the person I was since I've gone through pain, despair and anger in my life. I went about with denial that I had always been okay and fine. I struggled for power and position drives my leadership style. I forgot that was something more than power and position. All the while, I have learned that I have the chance to re-build my character  and re-define my purpose wholistically  to drive change as a leader not only in the company I am managing but also to myself, my family, my friends, my studies and significant other.

I have realized that a real leader's power comes from within. By being fully aware of  one's self and purpose of existence, you a get a better vision on how to respond to challenges and problems and on how to align goals with the people you are managing.

Reflection paper 2 made me recall a lot about my college days on how fulfilling it was to serve the community and selflessness. It helped me understand what shaped me as a person I am now. From my family, my friends, my college experiences, the people around me before and the environment I am currently in now. Reflecting on the internal and external factors that influences my daily life posed a challenge for me to visualize on how am I going to align myself as a leader with my subordinates in order for us  to reach a common goal. I had to reflect further on how am I as a leader now and how am I going to influence change to them so that they can align themselves and be with me to achieve our goals.

The enneagram was an eye opener and my ticket to answer my issue on how I can lead my people to get in line with me. Understanding myself's character and style allowed me to bend a little.

My Enneagram result told me I was a Challenger that states:

"People of this personality type are essentially unwilling to be controlled, either by others or by their circumstances; they fully intend to be masters of their fate. Eights are strong willed, decisive, practical, tough minded and energetic. They also tend to be domineering; their unwillingness to be controlled by others frequently manifests in the need to control others instead."

When healthy, this tendency is kept under check, but the tendency is always there, nevertheless, and can assume a central role in the Eight's interpersonal relationships.

Eights generally have powerful instincts and strong physical appetites which they indulge without feelings of shame or guilt. They want a lot out of life and feel fully prepared to go out and get it. They need to be financially independent and often have a hard time working for anyone. This sometimes necessitates that the Eight opt out of the system entirely, assuming something of an outlaw mentality. Most Eights however, find a way to be financially independent while making their peace with society, but they always retain an uneasy association with any hierarchical relationship that sees the Eight in any position other than the top position.

Eights have a hard time lowering their defenses in intimate relationships. Intimacy involves emotional vulnerability and such vulnerability is one of the Eight's deepest fears. Betrayal of any sort is absolutely intolerable and can provoke a powerful response on the part of the violated Eight. Intimate relationships are frequently the arena in which an Eight's control issues are most obviously played out and questions of trust assume a pivotal position. Eights often have a sentimental side that they don't even show to their intimates, such is their fear of vulnerability. But, while trust does not come easily to an Eight, when an Eight does take someone into the inner sanctum, they find a steadfast ally and stalwart friend. The Eight's powerful protective instincts are called into play when it comes to the defense of family and friends, and Eights are frequently generous to a fault in providing for those under their care.

Eights are prone to anger. When severely provoked, or when the personality is unbalanced, bouts of anger can turn into rages. Unhealthy Eights are frankly agressive and when pushed, can resort to violence. Such Eights enjoy intimidating others whom they see as "weak" and feel little compunction about walking over anyone who stands in their way. They can be crude, brutal and dangerous.

Self-denial will not help me get through with the challenge I am facing. It is quite evident from my day to day interaction that I am quite domineering and by personality it is true that I do not want to be controlled. I am strong willed and quite tough (otherwise I won't survive a job full of men bigger and physically stronger than me.)  I was the type of "I" person. So by learning from my enneagram on how I respond to challenges and situation, I learned that a team is better than one. I learned to use us and we. I learned how to become a team leader. This was how I have aligned my perpective and goal to my team. And this is how it will be. I have also encouraged them now to become a team after our team building which I copied from our leadership activity.

The Genogram Activity made me  reflect another part of me, somewhere in my subconscious. It allowed me to see the influence that underlies the passion that I havn't recognized until I was forced to write a speech about my passion; until I was forced to look inside me and what drives me and what values do I live with. I admit that for a long while I haven't reflected about myself until now despite writing my diary. And I just realized that my diary was merely a book of events without realization. The genogram activity was the key for me to realize that my family history actually had an influence in my life's choices. It even made me realize that the tragic history of my great grandfather was an underlying motivation on why I wanted to engage in business. The lax life of my lolo who was raised with a golden spoon and lola (father's side) i an observed experience why I shaped my life with a keen determination to work hard and not take life for granted. The genogram activity enlightened me with the positive and negative experiences of family's life history where I have admired and incorporated the positive qualities of my great grand parents and parents that influenced me what and why I wanted to become;  and the negative experiences and values that influences the values of what I do not like and what I do not want to happen.

I actually made 2 movie synopsis one was a movie synopsis from Mulan and the other from Rurouni kenshin, which I submitted because I was to overwhelmed and my guts preferred to pass that movie synopsis in hopes to advocate my desire for a better Philippines.

In my Call to leadership journey, speaking from the movie synopsis that I did not submit. I was more like Mulan. I bloomed late and I was my mother's shoulder in our family those times when our family confronted  a crises.  But what Imost learned from the call to leadership was that leadership is actually a never ending journey. Exmaining my life experiences, the events interplay and even over lapse. Idid not meet only one mentor in my life. There were others too and in the changing world there are actually times that I met strangers who have imparted great wisdoms about life on me and their wisdoms and words have remained in my head;  But a few significant mentors. And my best mentor was my mother. She might have not been at the moments when I was called to lead but definitely she have instilled in my system and in my being to answer any challenges and to take opportunities that I come across.

After tracing my roots that have influenced me and checking out my environment, the internal and external factors that shaped me the way I am now and how I respond and react to situations that confronts me I made a list of myself's strengths and weakness in order to visualize where I am now.

As learned from the book of heroic leadership, a great leader must be able to incorporate to oneself the 4 pillars of  great leadership which are:  Self-awareness.  As Roy Disney quotes and emphasize its importance -  " It's not hard to make a decision once you know what your values are"  Ingenuity – to confidently innovate and adapt to the changing times; 3. Love – love is the only fuel that powers a motivation to last long. Put love and a positive attitude in engaging others and it will unlick their potential. 4. Heroism – the passion for excellence.

My Strengths and Weakness shall identify my opportunities as a person and in my organization and threats that will hinder my effective leadership and the cost of failure in leadership and management.

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESS
1.       Honesty 2.       Truthfulness 3.       Hard Working 4.       Dedicated 5.       Career Oriented 6.       Good Interpersonal relationship 7.       Kind 8.       Good Motivator 9.       Communication 10.   Confidence 11.   Commitment 12.   Positive Attitude 13.   Sales/marketing 14.   Creativity	1.       Inflexible 2.       Reactive 3.       Stubborness 4.       Delegation of task 5.       Tendency to be authoritative 6.       Too Focused on Work Quite few say but definitely have fatal impacts if not corrected.
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
1.       Increase in Sales and Network 2.       Personal Growth and organizational Growth with effective leadership 3.       Enhancement of Skills 4.       Align Personal Goals and organizational goal 5.       Learn More about one's self by learning from others.	6.       Poor self-awareness (failure to reflect) 7.       Failure to understand other people's skill 8.       Too Many Work loads 9.       Health Failure due to stress 10.   Left out in Market Competition 11.   Decrease in Sales 12.   Low Productivity at Work

This SWOT analysis should enable me to categorize and breakdown my performance and qualities as a leader and as a person into an array of list of which are my strengths and my area of excellence in order for me to make more of my weakness for immediate improvement to achieve my goals. My self-awareness will evaluate the effectiveness of my performance which is critical to my personal and professional success. In so doing, I now have an idea of the inter drivers of my success and failures.

Without Self-awareness and self-analysis it would be impossible for me to assess my abilities as a leader and how well do I set my goals. This Self-analysis should allow me to see myself clearly and accurately.

Where Am I Going? (My Simple Personal Strategic Plan)

                "All the strength and force of man comes from his faith in things unseen. He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions."~ James Freeman Clarke

Many of us do not know where we are heading. Many of us do not have a direction that we tend to ride in a ferris wheel going nowhere with ups and downs. We chase down the eluding success rather than living our life. We try to find meaning of our lives and significance. We struggle and some give up. It is important that we define our goals. Setting them is easy but how do we get there? Where is the starting point? Our life revolves around ourselves, our family, organization and community. So I'll start from there and what I want to achieve.

I have committed to live my life with a purpose behind all of my action to make it worth living. As I believe that Living my life without meaning purpose make me grow old and cynical.  My Simple personal Strategic plan should help me remember  to keep my hopes and dreams. The one that I have written below is not final as there are more things I would like to incorporate but due to time constraints I have entered the ones I would like to achieve within the  next succeeding months. From here, I am hoping to accomplish my natural mission with an authentic direction.

 

                                                                 

As I have learned along the way, I have to know my values to define my purpose with an emotionally charged mission to empower myself in my role and achieving my visions. 

"We catch on to the truth and technique of expectation in those rare moments when we are stirred by an awareness of a guidance seemingly higher and greater than our own, when, for a little while, we are taken over by a force and an intelligence above and beyond those commonly felt. Confident and free, filled with wonder and ready acceptance, we permit ourselves to be taken over by our unquestioning self." ~ Dr. Marcus Bach

	My Goals	How Do I get There?	Commitment
Myself	Shed off a little weight. Take more personal time to prevent burn out. Read at least one good book in two weeks if one week is too short due to time. Learn new things.  Hurdle one fear at a time. Paint again Learn a new language Travel See at least one of the world's amazing Phenomen before the end of year. Try the new adventure in Alegria jumping on waterfalls until I reach the kaswasan falls.	Follow a healthy diet and take time to exercise.   Hang-out from time to time and take time to visit friends or drive while observing nature. Take out my paint materials and give time to hold the pencil or brush an hour before I sleep. Go out with my friends and join them in the Alegria adventure. Stop being a kill joy.	I have a month as my timeline to shed off my excess weight. Run in my treadmill the moment I wake up or else I have to donate One of piece of cherished clothing to my staff.
Family	Innovate ways to reach out and communicate and establish deeper connection with my daughter since we live apart; Innovate ways on how to be able to guide her as her mother despite our distance. Spend quality time with my parents and bond together . Spend time at home at least several times this year to spend time with my family. Specially on special occasions and occasions at school where my daughter really want me to attend	Constantly call my daughter every night and during daytime after her school, chat with her through FB in order to talk to her often and get to know her and her aspirations and what keeps her busy. Call her teachers and ask how she does in school and keep myself updated with her activities so I have something to talk to her about. Spy on her Web activity. J Travel with Pop this year on vacation and quality time since I rarely had time with him since childhood.	Plotted on daily schedule.  Already Booked our ticket. Plot my schedule this year and make sure I get home on special occasions. Book Ticket soon.
Work	Increase sales and set a minimum quota. Increase market engagement Set out the operations Scheduling and communicate on time the work load schedule. Re-organize the Admin structure and define each staffs Task, duties, responsibilities now that we have expanded. For our business expansion, establish a better system to organize staff and work loads. Operational activities may result in increased noise levels at surrounding environmental receivers so we should implement a plan to minimize the impact of noise associated with our operations. To reduce the volume of solid waste generated in the offices/workplaces;	Ensure all equipment is properly maintained.  And all machineries turned off when not in use. Vehicles will be kept properly serviced according to guidelines. Strict control over entry and exit to site. measurement documentation and inspection of incoming and outgoing production inputs and outputs defined standard operating procedures for the tire recycling/conversion processes and procedures; worker training in safe working methods and good hygiene practices; the use of personal protective equipment, as required, when working on-site; regular health checks for personnel; Emergency Response and Contingency Plans.	Strictly Implement Plans and New Policies. Share this plan with my boss so I get a memo if I failed to implement it. In our recycling plant, disposal of carbon black/ash has been constraint by the limited market of end-users and these are solid waste. So I commit to  make sure I find a long term resolution in the disposal of these carbon ash by utilizing its potential usage as Additive in Asphalt for road construction, Pigment and reinforcing material in tire, Additive in making hollow blocks
As Manager/ COO/COM	Empower my marketing and operations staffs to be more productive at work by leveling them up and setting goals for the team.  Make them more understand the importance of team work. Empower team from one company to another to practice decision making and less supervision since our business location expansion is about several kilometers apart.	Innovate marketing Plan and target customers; and set out the detailed marketing plan with definite timelines and analytics. Revise and be flexible with the market trend and be more customer focused. Conduct trainings for self development and team buildings. Conduct coaching of managers and supervisors to constantly align them with the company goals and responsibility.	Monthly meetings to keep track assess employee  performance and production output and a chance to re-evaluate our plans to make sure we achieve our goal.
Community	As an Industrial plant our production process is expected to be of signicant concern to the community, so we have to minimize and if not to eliminate the air emissions during production. Be it in our Rubber recycling Plant and Heavy Equipment and trucks rebuilding Center. Health issues , Food, Shelter, Education and Welfare of children in the surrounding communities From our recycling plant, I need to ensure the protection of public health and environment; and To utilize environmentally-sound methods that maximize the utilization of valuable resources and encourage resource conservation and recovery.	Visual Inspection of working areas and access tracks will be carried out daily. Visible observations of any pollutions and environmental concern should be monitored. Establish a health and Social Welfare Program  within the company and tapping LGU, DOH, DSWD and DECS for a joint project. Plant  trees in our establishment and landscaping to improve microclimatic, visual effects, filters/prevent pollutant flow to water ways.	Mitigation measures should be implemented 24 hours. Provide Assistance to the the local community or the barangay's Social development program. I will ensure that my projects requirement for skilled and unskilled construction workers will cause generation of local employment. The salaries and wages of these local hires could circulate in the area and contribute to the consumption of local goods and services. Ensure that health risks to workers and to the wider public from the operations of our new project facility be greatly reduced or even completely eliminated by good operational practices. Payment of taxes to increase local govt revenues

"You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need."~ Jerry Gillies

From this activity I am committing myself to live my life with passion and purpose with a clearly defined mission and tangible goals.

With this I am establishing my Commitment to Self-knowledge and Awareness and continued learning on how to become an effective leader. My first challenge to my commitment is to focus on my resolution skills and to continue checking on my Values, Vision and Role to become an effective leader.  

To Conclude my FIP:

Leaders and innovators possess mastery in their corresponding field and practice. Self-awareness of and strengths and weakness were their key to win their game. They see opportunities in difficulties and were adaptive in the changing times. Their purpose and vision were clear to them. Their awareness of their environment and enemy enable them to immediately maneuver a strategic plan.

Great leaders must also know his people and are also aware of their men's strengths and weakness of his subordinates. This enables him utilize their talents and skills accordingly and approach them appropriately.

A good leader is a good communicator with people skills.

A good leader has the ability to get in and out of the game. He just doesn't sit inside his office and give orders and demand results. Rather, he goes out the field and socializes with his people and genuinely asks them of any issues and challenges they confront. Then he helps them resolve the issue, challenge. He seeks out to know whether there are any grievances or conflict that hinders his people from achieving success and reaching their goals.  Although, going out with his people or subordinates doesn't mean that a good leader must be everyone's best friend. A good leader must also have an iron fist to instill discipline, follow rules and regulations and company policies to maintain peace and order. A good leader may take and listen suggestion to his subordinates but doesn't mean he will follow what everyone says. A good leader must have a good discretion to determine and weigh the pros and con of every decision he resolves.  A leader who is not confident in his decisions loses trust from his subordinates.  So,  good leader must stand confident to his decisions despite the adversity he faces. A good leader knows what he wants to achieve and has a vision on how to achieve it.

As a psychology graduate I have  that a person with a high emotional intelligence are more likely to succeed and my ne learning was that a leader with high EQ will also make a great leader. Skills can be learned but attitude and aptitude defines a person's endurance.

A person with a high emotional intelligence as per Daniel Goleman have the ability of:

1.       Self Awareness  - Knowing one's strengts, weaknesses, zdrives, values, and impact on others.
2.       Self regulation – Controlling or redirecting disruptive impulses and moods. T the ability to control oneself and emotions gives way to clear thinking and keep focus on objectives rather than being impulsive. I recalled in the movie godfather, Sonny who was the eldest son of Don Corleone was quite a reactive and impulsive person. He was a man of temper. His enemies used his weakness to beat him. His enemies plotted a story that will surely evoke his emotions and temper. So when he reacted and attacked them they shot him and killed him defenseless.  If he had a better control of his disruptive emotions and thought of clearly about the situation before reacting and attacking he could have saved himself from being killed. He was totally the opposite of Michael Corleone who remains silent and observant. He processes his thought first before he makes his actions. That's is self regulation.
3.       Motivation –relishing achievement for its own sake. It's motivation that drives one to his goals.
4.       Social Skill – Building rapport to others. A leader with great interpersonal skills get along with anyone or anybody effortlesslessly. Such skill is very important in influencing others to follow you and align them to your goals.

 In Peter Drucker's what makes a good leader,  Skills and Knowledge are important -but we all already know that these two are important not only to the leader but to the individual whose been assigned the specific task.  But what sets  an effective leader is actually the ability to make it into reality. Converting Knowledge into action. Taking responsibility for decisions; and communicating his action plans and decisions from top management to frontliners in a timely manner. An effective leader also focuses on opportunities and not problems. So they say, "It is the difficulties that give birth to miracles" ( I forgot who posed that quote) My favorite learning from Peter drucker, Is that an effective leader think and say " We and not "I" – the essence of Team leadership.

What I learned in What leaders Do? Can actually be summed up in a quote I ztook from my diary where there was no author indicated. " our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe and upon which we must vigorously act."

These are some of the strong leadership qualities and practices that I have so far learned in my Leadership journey.