STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVERené B. Azurin
What reforms?
Doubtless, it was not a coincidence that five Catholic bishops chose to publicly call for “radical reforms” on the day the alleged architect of the fertilizer funds anomaly, Jocelyn Bolante, was to arrive from the US after he had failed to obtain asylum there. The bishops’ call for “liberators” who would “reform the country” and rescue the Filipino people from the excessive corruption of the current government was intriguing because of what it implied. “The time to prepare a new government,” they declared, “is now.”
Responding to a question from reporters as to whether President Arroyo – who he said was corrupt – should be removed from office, Archishop Angel Lagdameo, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said, “The answer should come from the people who see what’s happening in our country.” Responding to questions as to who should be these “liberators”, Archbishop Oscar Cruz said (in a rather painful attempt at humor), “Walang ganyanan”, when the names of Vice President Noli de Castro, Senate President Manuel Villar, and House Speaker Prospero Nograles were mentioned. He then said, “OK yan”, when the names of Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Armed Forces Chief Alexander Yano were brought up.
The question must be asked, “What’s afoot?” Is the timing of the bishops’ call to coincide with former Agriculture Undersecretary Bolante’s arrival and his long awaited testimony on the alleged diversion of some P2.8 billion in Department of Agriculture funds (supposedly to bankroll Mrs. Arroyo’s 2004 election campaign) significant? Can the public expect subjects that were buried – this is not an allusion to Ms. Marlene Esperat, a former member of the Agriculture Department resident ombudsman’s office who had filed graft charges in late 2003 against Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap, Mr. Bolante, and others in connection with irregular fertilizer deals, and who was shot dead in her home in Sultan Kudarat in March 2005 – to now come to light?
Presumably, the independent action of the five bishops stem from their inability to get the rest of their colleagues in the CBCP to support what is essentially a demand for Mrs. Arroyo to step down from office. It will be recalled that the CBCP as a body has consistently refused to support public calls for Mrs. Arroyo’s resignation or lobby for her impeachment, arguing basically that it was not their province to meddle in political matters. Apparently, some bishops are not willing to see public corruption as a moral issue (which makes it their province), while others simply do not wish to bite the hand that feeds them hefty chunks of gambling money from casino operator Pagcor.
The question must also be asked, “What reforms do the bishops want and how will these be realized?” Clearly, the bishops want public corruption to be eradicated but rhetoric and good intentions are not enough to do this.
Purely coincidentally, on the day of the bishops’ press conference and Mr. Bolante’s subsequent arrival, I happened to be guest speaker at the monthly meeting of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) and part of my message to the distinguished members of that 47-year old institution revolved around the kind of reforms I thought we needed.
What I tried to emphasize was that we citizens needed to be aware that, even in a democracy with a constitution spelling out our fundamental rights, we do not, as individuals, have the weight nor the force to prevent government officials wielding the concerted power of the state from doing anything they are bent on doing. In theory, the extent of their power is specified by the role “the people” assign to government. In practice, that role is actually determined by the latitude the political class is given to arrogate powers unto themselves. Unfortunately, we the people – being a dispersed, diffuse mass – have no real ability to limit that latitude. It is therefore left to other organized institutions of society – such as civic groups, advocacy movements, religious institutions, academic institutions, professional associations, business groups, and the media – to try to place boundaries on the role of government and on the powers of government officials. Further, the structure of government as defined in a constitution must provide for dispersed power – I explained that this is why I had opposed the proposed shift to a parliamentary system – if citizens are to have effective means for controlling the abuses of those who wield government power.
Because it is not reasonable to expect that our public officials will always be moral or ethical, I said that their powers should be strictly limited, constantly monitored, and held always in check. Discretionary allocations in the national budget – like the huge presidential discretionary funds and legislative pork barrel – should be eliminated altogether. The decisions to award public projects should always be minutely scrutinized, publicly justified, and never cloaked in “executive privilege”. The discretion to regulate economic activities should always be seriously questioned and severely constrained. Finally, a system for ferreting out, censuring, and punishing erring public officials should be in place and operating effectively. This implies an equitable rule of law and a working justice system.
To the bishops, I would suggest that the reforms our society needs doesn’t have to be so “radical” and can really be quite simple. I would suggest that, for starters, they might want to place their collective weight behind two specific reform proposals: the removal of discretionary allocations in the national budget, and the introduction of legal mechanisms so that erring public officials (even at the highest levels of government) can be removed from office quickly and easily (even before their criminal and civil liabilities have been determined). I believe these reforms alone would go a very long way toward reducing corruption and improving the way our society is governed.
The historian Barbara Tuchman – in her 1984 book The March of Folly – says that three developments invariably signal the downfall of rulers: “obliviousness to the growing disaffection of constituents, primacy of self-aggrandizement , and illusion of invulnerable status.” In a book that chronicles misgovernment, Tuchman finds that rulers bring down ruin on themselves and their institutions when they turn deaf to discontent, become fixated on personal gain, and believe in their own permanence. I wonder whether the impetus for the bishops’ call “to prepare a new government” came from their “discernment” of these telltale signs.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
Mentoring: Do You Have What It Takes?
Mentoring: Do You Have What It Takes?
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
Mentoring has become a strategic learning activity, both for the mentor and the mentee. Do you have what it takes be a good mentor?
Guiding a baby in her first walk, or demonstrating to a child how to ride a bike, or telling a son or daughter the challenges of teenage crush are just a few of the everyday mentoring parents or older people do.
Although largely associated with academic teaching, mentoring is actually in all aspects of learning—having been recognized as a valuable factor in the way a person acquires knowledge and skills. In business, mentoring has become a strategic learning activity as it is proven to enhance individual as well as organizational competency.
In management, mentoring is referred to as “a method of employee development where the mentor uses his skills and experience to impart knowledge and skills, guide, encourage, advise, and support another employee - the “mentee.” It aims to facilitate the mentee’s development and learning so that he or she can contribute more to the attainment of the company’s objectives.
What do you get from mentoring? As a mentor, one is given the opportunity to cultivate in his mentee responsibility, leadership, and interpersonal skills. A mentor does this by posing work challenges to the mentee and by providing constructive feedback.
A great number of mentors claim that by being a mentor, one earns the respect and recognition of peers. Mentoring enhances authority, thus firming up one’s position within the organizational structure. The mentor likewise is given the opportunity or the chance to learn from the mentee.
On the other hand, the mentee is given a role model and feedback board. The mentor can become a role model for the mentee whom he can emulate. The mentee gains a “confidante” for expressing new ideas or for airing frustrations. For the new employee who is fresh from the school, mentoring allows for a smoother entry into the workplace by neutralizing unrealistic expectations and naive perceptions of the corporate world. During changes and transitions, mentoring aids in making the mentee more comfortable and allows faster adjustments to changes in work and processes. A neophyte, under a mentor’s guidance, may be allowed to try varying and more sophisticated tasks. Studies have shown that employees who take up mentoring relationship move ahead faster than those without mentors. This generally results in mentees having greater career satisfaction than their peers who have no mentors.
Characteristics of a Good Mentor The concept of mentoring while having a universal or common objective of upgrading employee’s knowledge and skills is no longer limited to teaching the what, how, why, who and when. It now includes the re-orientation of both professional and personal values, influencing attitudes, and changing behaviors of the mentee. It is also about developing a mentor-mentee relationship based on personal interaction. In the process, the mentor similarly adjusts. Imparting hard skills is no longer the only aspect of mentoring, as it is now commonly accepted that human behavior is equally or if not more important for an organization to achieve competitiveness and excellence. In this light, the question is: can anybody become a mentor?
What Makes a Good Mentor? Not all successful managers make effective mentors. There are individuals who are more effective in developing others. Mentoring competency depends on one’s own professional stage of development and experience—and not all managers possess these. The qualifications can be lumped into five major aspects: 1) The desire and sincerity to help 2) The skills, knowledge and experience 3) The mentor’s availability and time 4) Mentor’s personal rapport and building relationships and confidence capabilities 5) Job security confidence
Desire and Sincerity to Help Desire and sincerity to help others are the basic personal values of a mentor that serve as foundations in any mentoring activity. These are the motivational forces that create enthusiasm and passion to impart skills and knowledge to another person. These are the “invisibles” that develop an honest mentor-mentee relationship.
Skills, Knowledge and Experience The quantity and quality of “contents” imparted to the mentee depend substantially on the mentor’s acquired skills, knowledge, and experience. These give the mentor the right, confidence, and authority to mentor. Possession of more superior skills, knowledge, and experience assures the mentee of the quality of mentoring services from the mentor. These reinforce mentor’s credibility.
Availability and Time The third essential qualification is for the mentor to make himself always available—to do mentoring sessions at the most mutually convenient time. The mentor must be able to systematically schedule his sessions with the mentee and that ample time should be allocated to achieve the best results. In planned or formal mentoring, time management is vitally essential. Interruptions must be anticipated and appropriately addressed in order to control the pace of the mentoring processes. Mentoring is not a one-day affair. It would take weeks, months, or even years. Thus, the mentor should be ready for longer engagements. No matter how skillful and knowledgeable the mentor is, or how intense is his desire to help, without time and availability, mentoring is expected to fail.
Building Confidence, Personal Rapport and Relationships An excellent mentor knows how to build personal rapport and trust with the mentee. It requires respect mutual, understanding each other’s strengths, weaknesses and limitations, personal idiosyncrasies as well as the mentee’s potentials. The mentor should be able to build upon the mentee’s capacities and weaknesses in the partnering relationship. This will encourage openness that is vital in the design and execution of the mentoring services. Openness provides a more accurate determination of mentoring needs and wants, feedback on periodic results of the mentoring, and ease of the delivery of the mentoring services. Job Security Confidence A mentor must be secured in his position. He must be confident in his or her career and should take pride in his or her mentee’s accomplishments. A mentor should be proud in developing the mentee’s strengths and competencies without being threatened, especially so when the mentee is a subordinate. A secure mentor should be appreciative of the mentee’s achievements and truthfully enjoy having played a part in the mentee’s professional growth.
Mentor-Mentee Relationship The mentor-mentee relationship can take any form that fits the individuals involved. The relationship however must be essentially grounded on two solid foundations— trust and confidence.
Ethics dictate that confidentiality should always be observed. The relationship must be based on trust and openness. Openness develops trust that eases the flow of communication, a basic requirement in the mentoring process.
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
Mentoring has become a strategic learning activity, both for the mentor and the mentee. Do you have what it takes be a good mentor?
Guiding a baby in her first walk, or demonstrating to a child how to ride a bike, or telling a son or daughter the challenges of teenage crush are just a few of the everyday mentoring parents or older people do.
Although largely associated with academic teaching, mentoring is actually in all aspects of learning—having been recognized as a valuable factor in the way a person acquires knowledge and skills. In business, mentoring has become a strategic learning activity as it is proven to enhance individual as well as organizational competency.
In management, mentoring is referred to as “a method of employee development where the mentor uses his skills and experience to impart knowledge and skills, guide, encourage, advise, and support another employee - the “mentee.” It aims to facilitate the mentee’s development and learning so that he or she can contribute more to the attainment of the company’s objectives.
What do you get from mentoring? As a mentor, one is given the opportunity to cultivate in his mentee responsibility, leadership, and interpersonal skills. A mentor does this by posing work challenges to the mentee and by providing constructive feedback.
A great number of mentors claim that by being a mentor, one earns the respect and recognition of peers. Mentoring enhances authority, thus firming up one’s position within the organizational structure. The mentor likewise is given the opportunity or the chance to learn from the mentee.
On the other hand, the mentee is given a role model and feedback board. The mentor can become a role model for the mentee whom he can emulate. The mentee gains a “confidante” for expressing new ideas or for airing frustrations. For the new employee who is fresh from the school, mentoring allows for a smoother entry into the workplace by neutralizing unrealistic expectations and naive perceptions of the corporate world. During changes and transitions, mentoring aids in making the mentee more comfortable and allows faster adjustments to changes in work and processes. A neophyte, under a mentor’s guidance, may be allowed to try varying and more sophisticated tasks. Studies have shown that employees who take up mentoring relationship move ahead faster than those without mentors. This generally results in mentees having greater career satisfaction than their peers who have no mentors.
Characteristics of a Good Mentor The concept of mentoring while having a universal or common objective of upgrading employee’s knowledge and skills is no longer limited to teaching the what, how, why, who and when. It now includes the re-orientation of both professional and personal values, influencing attitudes, and changing behaviors of the mentee. It is also about developing a mentor-mentee relationship based on personal interaction. In the process, the mentor similarly adjusts. Imparting hard skills is no longer the only aspect of mentoring, as it is now commonly accepted that human behavior is equally or if not more important for an organization to achieve competitiveness and excellence. In this light, the question is: can anybody become a mentor?
What Makes a Good Mentor? Not all successful managers make effective mentors. There are individuals who are more effective in developing others. Mentoring competency depends on one’s own professional stage of development and experience—and not all managers possess these. The qualifications can be lumped into five major aspects: 1) The desire and sincerity to help 2) The skills, knowledge and experience 3) The mentor’s availability and time 4) Mentor’s personal rapport and building relationships and confidence capabilities 5) Job security confidence
Desire and Sincerity to Help Desire and sincerity to help others are the basic personal values of a mentor that serve as foundations in any mentoring activity. These are the motivational forces that create enthusiasm and passion to impart skills and knowledge to another person. These are the “invisibles” that develop an honest mentor-mentee relationship.
Skills, Knowledge and Experience The quantity and quality of “contents” imparted to the mentee depend substantially on the mentor’s acquired skills, knowledge, and experience. These give the mentor the right, confidence, and authority to mentor. Possession of more superior skills, knowledge, and experience assures the mentee of the quality of mentoring services from the mentor. These reinforce mentor’s credibility.
Availability and Time The third essential qualification is for the mentor to make himself always available—to do mentoring sessions at the most mutually convenient time. The mentor must be able to systematically schedule his sessions with the mentee and that ample time should be allocated to achieve the best results. In planned or formal mentoring, time management is vitally essential. Interruptions must be anticipated and appropriately addressed in order to control the pace of the mentoring processes. Mentoring is not a one-day affair. It would take weeks, months, or even years. Thus, the mentor should be ready for longer engagements. No matter how skillful and knowledgeable the mentor is, or how intense is his desire to help, without time and availability, mentoring is expected to fail.
Building Confidence, Personal Rapport and Relationships An excellent mentor knows how to build personal rapport and trust with the mentee. It requires respect mutual, understanding each other’s strengths, weaknesses and limitations, personal idiosyncrasies as well as the mentee’s potentials. The mentor should be able to build upon the mentee’s capacities and weaknesses in the partnering relationship. This will encourage openness that is vital in the design and execution of the mentoring services. Openness provides a more accurate determination of mentoring needs and wants, feedback on periodic results of the mentoring, and ease of the delivery of the mentoring services. Job Security Confidence A mentor must be secured in his position. He must be confident in his or her career and should take pride in his or her mentee’s accomplishments. A mentor should be proud in developing the mentee’s strengths and competencies without being threatened, especially so when the mentee is a subordinate. A secure mentor should be appreciative of the mentee’s achievements and truthfully enjoy having played a part in the mentee’s professional growth.
Mentor-Mentee Relationship The mentor-mentee relationship can take any form that fits the individuals involved. The relationship however must be essentially grounded on two solid foundations— trust and confidence.
Ethics dictate that confidentiality should always be observed. The relationship must be based on trust and openness. Openness develops trust that eases the flow of communication, a basic requirement in the mentoring process.
5 Signs Your People Don’t Have Work-Life Balance
5 Signs Your People Don’t Have Work-Life Balance
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
When your employees’ lives are too tilted on work, theirs are not the only ones affected but yours, too. See the signs and take action.
A young lad once asked his father how much he was earning per hour. The father replied, “Sixty dollars, son. Why do you ask”? The son innocently said, “So, I will be saving 120 dollars.” The father then asked further, “What for?” and the son further replied, “So that I can pay you to spend time with me for two hours!” The father taken aback, embraced his son with eyes misty and an instant guilt in his heart. Similar stories have been told about the lack of quality time that parents spend with their children, or about marital relationships on the rocks.
Work has become exacting and has taken most of the time supposedly devoted to personal and social life. The reasons are varied, but the glaring ones are the increasing materialism in this day and age, and the pressures in the workplace in pursuit of increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.
People need to earn to pay for household bills, pay for home mortgage, spend for children’s college education or buy a new car. People need to work harder to get promoted, get higher salaries and get recognition. In the process, however, people have become too engrossed in their jobs that work-life balance has become a rarity. People, then, get a false sense of achievement. Fishing with your son, playing golf with your friends and attending religious service have become items in a wish list for many. Work has become the master of many lives, an all-consuming part of life.
According to statistical studies, working hours vary from country to country. In Japan for example, people work for about 35 hours a week; in UK, 37 hours; and, 47 hours in the United States. The pressures of business competition are taking their toll on employees. Studies on effects of longer working hours have revealed that they are counter productive. Thus, the challenge of work-life balance has been growing in the awareness and consciousness of both the employers and employees . In societies characterized by conflicting responsibilities and commitments, the balancing of work and personal life has also become a significant issue in the workplace. HR professionals now are seeking alternatives to achieve positive results on company bottom lines. They have realized that work-life balance in their employees is a vital determinant to the companies’ long-term viability and success. What is life-work balance? The definition of work-life balance has varying characteristics. To the employer, it could merely mean short working hours. To the employee, it could mean more time for recreation and company sports activities. To others, it could mean more company-sponsored family affairs. It has different meanings to different groups, and the meaning often depends on the context of a viewpoint.
While there are a number of definitions of work-life balance, they are one in essence. It is all about devoting time and effort to achieve harmony, enjoyment and peace with self, family, relatives and friends on one end, and fulfillment of work challenges and responsibilities on the other. It does not mean committing equal amount of time for the four quadrants of work, self, family and friends, as it would be unrealistic to do so. It does not mean a fixed set of activities, as they vary from time to time, stage by stage. The right balance for today may be different by tomorrow; when one is single and then marries; when one will have children or have a new job. Work-life balance continually changes as demands of work, family, and friends change. However, the work-life balance essentially revolves around the concepts of achievement and enjoyment in life.
Here are five signs you or your employees are losing the balance Although it seems easy on the surface, identifying signs of work-life imbalance in employees is not as simple as it looks. Each person is unique in his set of values and attitudes, goals and priorities. His or her ability to cope with the pressures of social and work environment is another vital factor. People have different levels of satisfaction and enjoyment.
There have been many studies on work-life balance in such deep detail that the concept is now commonly known. The compendium of studies is unified in pointing out the alarming signs of work-life imbalance. This could be a starting point in going into a more detailed identification of work-life imbalance by companies and their executives.
1) When employees are burnt out When one sees employees as having chronic fatigue (exhaustion, tiredness and a sense of being physically run down), they could be having a burnout. As Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary puts it, burnout is “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.” Irritability and explosive anger at the slightest mistake are some of the more overt emotional expressions while cynicism, negativity, paranoia and self-pity are the internally repressed emotions and attitudes pervading in the person’s mind. Employees who are burnt out usually isolate themselves from work teams, become anti-social within the workplace, and show non-cooperation. Their initiatives and creativity likewise deteriorate. When one sees these symptomatic abnormalities, there is a 99% probability that employees do not have a work-life balance.
2) When employees health suffer Another common sign of work-life imbalance is when employees often get sick--from the minor headaches, weight disorders, ulcers, hypertensions to heart attacks. While these are medical conditions that can develop in anybody regardless of their work-life balance, it is common to attribute work-life imbalance as a contributing cause. Unreasonable work deadlines, voluminous work, demand for quality work output and long working hours oftentimes create pressure that stresses employees.
Thus, in order to beat deadlines and workloads, meals are often skipped, sleep is cut short, worrying occupies the mind and the body is exhausted. When these happen, the employees health is put at risk. It will not be uncommon for the employees to be absent, tardy and sleepy. Similarly, the office clinic doctor would be busy taking blood pressures, prescribing medicines and administering medical procedures. As a consequence, company medical expenses increase.
3) When employees have family relations problems This is a common occurrence for employees whose lives are too tilted on work. It happens when work begins to take over and eat up of most of his time. One wakes up when the children have gone to school and arrives when the children have gone to bed. No time is left for having breakfast together, nor exchanges of pleasantries during dinner. More so, in attending memorable school events. They even forget birthdays and sometimes their own wedding anniversaries. Likewise, vacations are often postponed. The parents and the children have become strangers to one another. They begin to lose emotional attachments to each other. The children no longer feel the care, the attention and the love they need. They are left alone to their peers and the parent-children generation gap widens . Employees begin to evade family topics in the workplace because they no longer know their family that well.
4) When company productivity deteriorates As a result of burnt out and health problems in employees, not to mention the family issues, the company’s productivity is bound to deteriorate. Employees become less motivated, distracted and less enthusiastic in their work. Teamwork is reduced and employees become less cooperative Then the company sees tardiness and absenteeism reducing output and bad health affecting the physical capability of the employees to deliver quantity and quality of work.
5) When employees lose friends Losing friends is another sign of work-life imbalance. When one stops going out with co-workers or friends for a round of golf or tennis, engaging in chats over bottles of beer or coffee, or joining company-initiated activities, he may be losing his work-life balance. Friends compose the peer group that provides reassurances, advice and confidence to a person in whatever emotional state one is in. Taking away this opportunity for casual exchanges and emotional ventilations could contain worry and stress in the person. Employees, or everyone in the workplace for that matter, need to maintain a work-life balance. If these signs appear in any one of your work groups, take action.
Do you think someone on his death bed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time in the office?”
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
When your employees’ lives are too tilted on work, theirs are not the only ones affected but yours, too. See the signs and take action.
A young lad once asked his father how much he was earning per hour. The father replied, “Sixty dollars, son. Why do you ask”? The son innocently said, “So, I will be saving 120 dollars.” The father then asked further, “What for?” and the son further replied, “So that I can pay you to spend time with me for two hours!” The father taken aback, embraced his son with eyes misty and an instant guilt in his heart. Similar stories have been told about the lack of quality time that parents spend with their children, or about marital relationships on the rocks.
Work has become exacting and has taken most of the time supposedly devoted to personal and social life. The reasons are varied, but the glaring ones are the increasing materialism in this day and age, and the pressures in the workplace in pursuit of increased productivity, efficiency and competitiveness.
People need to earn to pay for household bills, pay for home mortgage, spend for children’s college education or buy a new car. People need to work harder to get promoted, get higher salaries and get recognition. In the process, however, people have become too engrossed in their jobs that work-life balance has become a rarity. People, then, get a false sense of achievement. Fishing with your son, playing golf with your friends and attending religious service have become items in a wish list for many. Work has become the master of many lives, an all-consuming part of life.
According to statistical studies, working hours vary from country to country. In Japan for example, people work for about 35 hours a week; in UK, 37 hours; and, 47 hours in the United States. The pressures of business competition are taking their toll on employees. Studies on effects of longer working hours have revealed that they are counter productive. Thus, the challenge of work-life balance has been growing in the awareness and consciousness of both the employers and employees . In societies characterized by conflicting responsibilities and commitments, the balancing of work and personal life has also become a significant issue in the workplace. HR professionals now are seeking alternatives to achieve positive results on company bottom lines. They have realized that work-life balance in their employees is a vital determinant to the companies’ long-term viability and success. What is life-work balance? The definition of work-life balance has varying characteristics. To the employer, it could merely mean short working hours. To the employee, it could mean more time for recreation and company sports activities. To others, it could mean more company-sponsored family affairs. It has different meanings to different groups, and the meaning often depends on the context of a viewpoint.
While there are a number of definitions of work-life balance, they are one in essence. It is all about devoting time and effort to achieve harmony, enjoyment and peace with self, family, relatives and friends on one end, and fulfillment of work challenges and responsibilities on the other. It does not mean committing equal amount of time for the four quadrants of work, self, family and friends, as it would be unrealistic to do so. It does not mean a fixed set of activities, as they vary from time to time, stage by stage. The right balance for today may be different by tomorrow; when one is single and then marries; when one will have children or have a new job. Work-life balance continually changes as demands of work, family, and friends change. However, the work-life balance essentially revolves around the concepts of achievement and enjoyment in life.
Here are five signs you or your employees are losing the balance Although it seems easy on the surface, identifying signs of work-life imbalance in employees is not as simple as it looks. Each person is unique in his set of values and attitudes, goals and priorities. His or her ability to cope with the pressures of social and work environment is another vital factor. People have different levels of satisfaction and enjoyment.
There have been many studies on work-life balance in such deep detail that the concept is now commonly known. The compendium of studies is unified in pointing out the alarming signs of work-life imbalance. This could be a starting point in going into a more detailed identification of work-life imbalance by companies and their executives.
1) When employees are burnt out When one sees employees as having chronic fatigue (exhaustion, tiredness and a sense of being physically run down), they could be having a burnout. As Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary puts it, burnout is “exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration.” Irritability and explosive anger at the slightest mistake are some of the more overt emotional expressions while cynicism, negativity, paranoia and self-pity are the internally repressed emotions and attitudes pervading in the person’s mind. Employees who are burnt out usually isolate themselves from work teams, become anti-social within the workplace, and show non-cooperation. Their initiatives and creativity likewise deteriorate. When one sees these symptomatic abnormalities, there is a 99% probability that employees do not have a work-life balance.
2) When employees health suffer Another common sign of work-life imbalance is when employees often get sick--from the minor headaches, weight disorders, ulcers, hypertensions to heart attacks. While these are medical conditions that can develop in anybody regardless of their work-life balance, it is common to attribute work-life imbalance as a contributing cause. Unreasonable work deadlines, voluminous work, demand for quality work output and long working hours oftentimes create pressure that stresses employees.
Thus, in order to beat deadlines and workloads, meals are often skipped, sleep is cut short, worrying occupies the mind and the body is exhausted. When these happen, the employees health is put at risk. It will not be uncommon for the employees to be absent, tardy and sleepy. Similarly, the office clinic doctor would be busy taking blood pressures, prescribing medicines and administering medical procedures. As a consequence, company medical expenses increase.
3) When employees have family relations problems This is a common occurrence for employees whose lives are too tilted on work. It happens when work begins to take over and eat up of most of his time. One wakes up when the children have gone to school and arrives when the children have gone to bed. No time is left for having breakfast together, nor exchanges of pleasantries during dinner. More so, in attending memorable school events. They even forget birthdays and sometimes their own wedding anniversaries. Likewise, vacations are often postponed. The parents and the children have become strangers to one another. They begin to lose emotional attachments to each other. The children no longer feel the care, the attention and the love they need. They are left alone to their peers and the parent-children generation gap widens . Employees begin to evade family topics in the workplace because they no longer know their family that well.
4) When company productivity deteriorates As a result of burnt out and health problems in employees, not to mention the family issues, the company’s productivity is bound to deteriorate. Employees become less motivated, distracted and less enthusiastic in their work. Teamwork is reduced and employees become less cooperative Then the company sees tardiness and absenteeism reducing output and bad health affecting the physical capability of the employees to deliver quantity and quality of work.
5) When employees lose friends Losing friends is another sign of work-life imbalance. When one stops going out with co-workers or friends for a round of golf or tennis, engaging in chats over bottles of beer or coffee, or joining company-initiated activities, he may be losing his work-life balance. Friends compose the peer group that provides reassurances, advice and confidence to a person in whatever emotional state one is in. Taking away this opportunity for casual exchanges and emotional ventilations could contain worry and stress in the person. Employees, or everyone in the workplace for that matter, need to maintain a work-life balance. If these signs appear in any one of your work groups, take action.
Do you think someone on his death bed ever said, ‘I wish I had spent more time in the office?”
12 Competencies: Which Ones Should Your People Have?
12 Competencies: Which Ones Should Your People Have?
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
Employees who have the right attitude that translates to the best behavior are said to be the more competent. Find out why.
The concept of competency as a factor in recruitment, selection, hiring and employee performance evaluation has become very popular not only among HR practitioners but to the management eschelons as well. Yet, in the more than three decades since it became a buzzword, still many are really unfamiliar with the details of the concept. More so with its appropriate application and utility.
Competency is still equated or defined as skills, ability to perform, capacity, and knowledge. As such, the term has been used loosely. While it does not really matter much when used casually to mean physical and mental abilities, it does matter when used in job analysis to describe job requirements and performance standards. Competency takes more than skills and knowledge. It requires the right and appropriate attitude that eventually translates to behavior.
Competency is the sum total of skills, knowledge and attitudes, manifested in the employee’s behavior. It is the “means” to achieve the “ends.” A golfer for example, may have the skills to drive 300 yards, the knowledge why the golf ball fades or draws, yet he is not competent if he does not practice or if he gets easily affected by his opponent’s better shots. A computer service customer representative may be very skillful and knowledgeable in repairing computers, but if he does not arrive on an appointed time to the client, is similarly incompetent.
For managers, competencies are vital if they want better performance in their employees. Whether during recruitment and selection phases or while already on board, competencies should be identified and studied. It should always be borne in mind that the competencies required of each job position differ from one another. In the job analysis and writing of job descriptions, quick guides can make the task easier.The following factors should be considered in determining the appropriate competencies:
1) Level of Decision-Making, Responsibilities and Authorities 2) Level of Internal Personnel Inter-Action 3) Level of Customer Contact and Inter-Action 4) Level of Physical and Aptitudinal Skills and Knowledge
Many studies have been undertaken on the subject of job competency for managerial and supervisory positions, and they are one in categorizing and lumping them into: 1) Administrative Competencies 2) Communication Competencies 3) Supervisory Competencies, and 4) Cognitive Competencies. These competencies were found to be the most important or vital for managerial and supervisory effectiveness.
For the rank and file employees, the level of physical and aptitudinal competencies form the larger part in consideration. This is due to the lack or absence of decision making tasks that involve significant physical and manpower resources of the company. In many cases, their jobs entail routines--clerical and manual. Common to all jobs in the rank and file category are competencies that enhance inter-personal relationship, physical skills, and job knowledge.
As one goes up the higher ladders of organizational positions, responsibilities widen in scope, authorities increase, and people management becomes more exacting. As a consequence, competencies will have to change or the mix of it will have to be altered in order to adjust to the requirements of the job. If an accounting clerk or a bookkeeper for example, is promoted to the position of an accounting supervisor, his competencies will have to be enhanced. Aside from maintaining his technical skill in computing and bookkeeping, he would need to be skillful in coaching, mentoring, scheduling of work, monitoring, appraising staff, and team building. The same goes true for a Finance Manager who is promoted as General Manager, where the competencies would require more of weighing risks and making decisions, setting goals and standards, plotting directions, leading the organization and inspiring the employees to excellence, rather than competencies in supervision, resource management and solving specific problems.
In detail, these competencies would be the following: Administrative Competencies which involves “management of the job” and this includes more specifically: a) Management of Time and Priority Setting b) Goals and Standards Setting c) Work Planning and Scheduling
Communication Competencies that comprise of: a) Listening and Organizing b) Clarity of Communication c) Getting Objective Information
Supervisory or Building Teams Competencies that encompasses: a) Training, Mentoring and Delegating b) Evaluating Employees and Performance c) Advising and Disciplining
And, Cognitive Competencies which involve: a) Problem Identification and Solution b) Assessing Risks and Decision-Making c) Thinking Clearly and Analytically
1. Management of Time and Priority Setting Cutting across all position levels, time management is considered to be a required competency that must be possessed by everybody. It is the ability to manage both one’s time as well as others’. It includes self-discipline, controlling interruptions by molding the behavior of others who have varying priorities, and being time-effective and time-efficient.
2. Goals and Standards Setting Setting goals and standards are usually competencies that are required of managerial and supervisory positions. It is about the ability to determine activities and projects toward measurable goals and standards--setting these in collaboration with others so as to arrive at a clear understanding and elicit commitment.
3. Work Planning and Scheduling Like time management, this competency must be possessed by managerial and supervisory employees and to those that are engaged in production. It is about controlling manpower assignments and processes by using the major tools and techniques of management. This includes the following skills: analyzing complex tasks and breaking them into manageable units, selecting and managing resources appropriate to the tasks, using systems and techniques to plan and schedule the work, and setting checkpoints and controls for monitoring progress.
4. Listening and Organizing Listening and Organizing are communication competencies that deal with relating to people in the organization. It is about the ability to understand, organize, and analyze what one is hearing in order to decide what to think and do in response to a message. These competencies are appropriate for employees who deal with customers and those who work as a team, either as a leader or a member. Specifically, they include skills like identifying and testing inferences and assumptions, overcoming barriers to effective listening, summarizing and reorganizing a message for recall, and withholding judgment that can bias responses to a message.
5. Clarity of Communication Giving clear information is a competency that should be required of managerial and supervisory employees. Whether verbally or in written forms, the messages conveyed to audiences (whether internal staff or customers) should be clear and concise and should attain the objectives. The skills would consist of a) overcoming physical, psychological, and semantic barriers in interactions with others; b) keeping on target and avoiding digressions; c) using persuasion effectively; and d) maintaining a climate of mutual benefit and trust.
6. Getting Objective Information For positions involving substantial people management, getting objective information is a critical competency requirement in order to ensure fairness. This competency is about the ability to use questions, probes, and interviewing techniques to obtain unbiased information and to interpret it appropriately. It considers such skills as: using directive, non-directive, projective and reflecting questions effectively, employing the funnel technique of probing, using probing methods to elicit additional information, recognizing latent and underlying meanings, confirming understanding and attaining agreement.
7. Training, Mentoring and Delegating These competencies should be required of supervisors and managers as well. They involve the ability to develop people under them to attain higher levels of excellence. The skills could consist of coaching, advising, transferring of knowledge and skills, and teaching and pinpointing employees where tasks can be transferred with trust and confidence.
8. Evaluating Employees and Performance The ability to undertake a constructive performance evaluation involving joint assessment of past performance, agreement on future expectations are managerial and supervisory competencies. The skills would consist of ability to develop parameters of evaluation, benchmarking and face to face confrontation with the employees being evaluated without any bias and hesitation.
9. Advising and Disciplining The ability to advise and counsel as well impose discipline in a positive manner are competencies required of managerial and supervisory positions that handle large number of employees. This is to restore, within the acceptable range of standards, the employees’ performance while maintaining respect and trust. It also involves the ability to impose penalties and sanctions with firmness and resolve in appropriate cases.
10. Problem Identification and Solution Problem identification and arriving at solutions cut across organizational functions and job positions. It is about the ability to identify barriers that prevent achieving goals and standards. It also involves the application of systematic sets of procedures to eliminate and reduce the problem origins and causes. It requires skills like distinguishing between problems, symptoms and indicators, inputs and outcomes, gathering and assessing evidence relating to causes, and plotting a decision matrix and eventually choosing and recommending the best options. This competency should be required to positions that engage in evaluation, whether in managerial, supervisory, or technical job levels.
11. Assessing Risks and Decision-Making Assessing risks and decision-making are competencies required of higher managerial positions where decision-making can involve commitment of company resources and processes that could have company-wide implications. Like problem identification and solution competencies, assessing risks and decision-making involve the ability to construct a decision matrix that aids to identify and evaluate alternatives and options, identify limits, desirables, and risks to be considered, assign weights to each option and choose the best option to achieve the desired goals and standards.
12. Thinking Clearly and Analytically The ability to apply clear and logical thinking is a competency required for both supervisory and managerial positions. The competencies include skills as determining valid premises arriving at logical conclusions from them, separating fact from hearsays, unwarranted assumption and false inferences, applying inductive and deductive logic appropriately, culling of logical fallacies, invalid premises and conclusions based on insufficient information.
As a basic process in determining competencies during job analysis, writing of job specifications and developing performance assessment instruments, one can easily be guided by plotting jobs against the 12 major competencies previously mentioned. Choosing which competencies and the mix should follow, with the most important competency taking precedence over the others. The degree and level of competencies that will be required will vary according to scope of responsibilities, authorities, people involvement, and decision-making powers. Putting them in a matrix could provide a visual guide that would make the tasks easier and convenient.
By ExecutiveBrief Staff
Employees who have the right attitude that translates to the best behavior are said to be the more competent. Find out why.
The concept of competency as a factor in recruitment, selection, hiring and employee performance evaluation has become very popular not only among HR practitioners but to the management eschelons as well. Yet, in the more than three decades since it became a buzzword, still many are really unfamiliar with the details of the concept. More so with its appropriate application and utility.
Competency is still equated or defined as skills, ability to perform, capacity, and knowledge. As such, the term has been used loosely. While it does not really matter much when used casually to mean physical and mental abilities, it does matter when used in job analysis to describe job requirements and performance standards. Competency takes more than skills and knowledge. It requires the right and appropriate attitude that eventually translates to behavior.
Competency is the sum total of skills, knowledge and attitudes, manifested in the employee’s behavior. It is the “means” to achieve the “ends.” A golfer for example, may have the skills to drive 300 yards, the knowledge why the golf ball fades or draws, yet he is not competent if he does not practice or if he gets easily affected by his opponent’s better shots. A computer service customer representative may be very skillful and knowledgeable in repairing computers, but if he does not arrive on an appointed time to the client, is similarly incompetent.
For managers, competencies are vital if they want better performance in their employees. Whether during recruitment and selection phases or while already on board, competencies should be identified and studied. It should always be borne in mind that the competencies required of each job position differ from one another. In the job analysis and writing of job descriptions, quick guides can make the task easier.The following factors should be considered in determining the appropriate competencies:
1) Level of Decision-Making, Responsibilities and Authorities 2) Level of Internal Personnel Inter-Action 3) Level of Customer Contact and Inter-Action 4) Level of Physical and Aptitudinal Skills and Knowledge
Many studies have been undertaken on the subject of job competency for managerial and supervisory positions, and they are one in categorizing and lumping them into: 1) Administrative Competencies 2) Communication Competencies 3) Supervisory Competencies, and 4) Cognitive Competencies. These competencies were found to be the most important or vital for managerial and supervisory effectiveness.
For the rank and file employees, the level of physical and aptitudinal competencies form the larger part in consideration. This is due to the lack or absence of decision making tasks that involve significant physical and manpower resources of the company. In many cases, their jobs entail routines--clerical and manual. Common to all jobs in the rank and file category are competencies that enhance inter-personal relationship, physical skills, and job knowledge.
As one goes up the higher ladders of organizational positions, responsibilities widen in scope, authorities increase, and people management becomes more exacting. As a consequence, competencies will have to change or the mix of it will have to be altered in order to adjust to the requirements of the job. If an accounting clerk or a bookkeeper for example, is promoted to the position of an accounting supervisor, his competencies will have to be enhanced. Aside from maintaining his technical skill in computing and bookkeeping, he would need to be skillful in coaching, mentoring, scheduling of work, monitoring, appraising staff, and team building. The same goes true for a Finance Manager who is promoted as General Manager, where the competencies would require more of weighing risks and making decisions, setting goals and standards, plotting directions, leading the organization and inspiring the employees to excellence, rather than competencies in supervision, resource management and solving specific problems.
In detail, these competencies would be the following: Administrative Competencies which involves “management of the job” and this includes more specifically: a) Management of Time and Priority Setting b) Goals and Standards Setting c) Work Planning and Scheduling
Communication Competencies that comprise of: a) Listening and Organizing b) Clarity of Communication c) Getting Objective Information
Supervisory or Building Teams Competencies that encompasses: a) Training, Mentoring and Delegating b) Evaluating Employees and Performance c) Advising and Disciplining
And, Cognitive Competencies which involve: a) Problem Identification and Solution b) Assessing Risks and Decision-Making c) Thinking Clearly and Analytically
1. Management of Time and Priority Setting Cutting across all position levels, time management is considered to be a required competency that must be possessed by everybody. It is the ability to manage both one’s time as well as others’. It includes self-discipline, controlling interruptions by molding the behavior of others who have varying priorities, and being time-effective and time-efficient.
2. Goals and Standards Setting Setting goals and standards are usually competencies that are required of managerial and supervisory positions. It is about the ability to determine activities and projects toward measurable goals and standards--setting these in collaboration with others so as to arrive at a clear understanding and elicit commitment.
3. Work Planning and Scheduling Like time management, this competency must be possessed by managerial and supervisory employees and to those that are engaged in production. It is about controlling manpower assignments and processes by using the major tools and techniques of management. This includes the following skills: analyzing complex tasks and breaking them into manageable units, selecting and managing resources appropriate to the tasks, using systems and techniques to plan and schedule the work, and setting checkpoints and controls for monitoring progress.
4. Listening and Organizing Listening and Organizing are communication competencies that deal with relating to people in the organization. It is about the ability to understand, organize, and analyze what one is hearing in order to decide what to think and do in response to a message. These competencies are appropriate for employees who deal with customers and those who work as a team, either as a leader or a member. Specifically, they include skills like identifying and testing inferences and assumptions, overcoming barriers to effective listening, summarizing and reorganizing a message for recall, and withholding judgment that can bias responses to a message.
5. Clarity of Communication Giving clear information is a competency that should be required of managerial and supervisory employees. Whether verbally or in written forms, the messages conveyed to audiences (whether internal staff or customers) should be clear and concise and should attain the objectives. The skills would consist of a) overcoming physical, psychological, and semantic barriers in interactions with others; b) keeping on target and avoiding digressions; c) using persuasion effectively; and d) maintaining a climate of mutual benefit and trust.
6. Getting Objective Information For positions involving substantial people management, getting objective information is a critical competency requirement in order to ensure fairness. This competency is about the ability to use questions, probes, and interviewing techniques to obtain unbiased information and to interpret it appropriately. It considers such skills as: using directive, non-directive, projective and reflecting questions effectively, employing the funnel technique of probing, using probing methods to elicit additional information, recognizing latent and underlying meanings, confirming understanding and attaining agreement.
7. Training, Mentoring and Delegating These competencies should be required of supervisors and managers as well. They involve the ability to develop people under them to attain higher levels of excellence. The skills could consist of coaching, advising, transferring of knowledge and skills, and teaching and pinpointing employees where tasks can be transferred with trust and confidence.
8. Evaluating Employees and Performance The ability to undertake a constructive performance evaluation involving joint assessment of past performance, agreement on future expectations are managerial and supervisory competencies. The skills would consist of ability to develop parameters of evaluation, benchmarking and face to face confrontation with the employees being evaluated without any bias and hesitation.
9. Advising and Disciplining The ability to advise and counsel as well impose discipline in a positive manner are competencies required of managerial and supervisory positions that handle large number of employees. This is to restore, within the acceptable range of standards, the employees’ performance while maintaining respect and trust. It also involves the ability to impose penalties and sanctions with firmness and resolve in appropriate cases.
10. Problem Identification and Solution Problem identification and arriving at solutions cut across organizational functions and job positions. It is about the ability to identify barriers that prevent achieving goals and standards. It also involves the application of systematic sets of procedures to eliminate and reduce the problem origins and causes. It requires skills like distinguishing between problems, symptoms and indicators, inputs and outcomes, gathering and assessing evidence relating to causes, and plotting a decision matrix and eventually choosing and recommending the best options. This competency should be required to positions that engage in evaluation, whether in managerial, supervisory, or technical job levels.
11. Assessing Risks and Decision-Making Assessing risks and decision-making are competencies required of higher managerial positions where decision-making can involve commitment of company resources and processes that could have company-wide implications. Like problem identification and solution competencies, assessing risks and decision-making involve the ability to construct a decision matrix that aids to identify and evaluate alternatives and options, identify limits, desirables, and risks to be considered, assign weights to each option and choose the best option to achieve the desired goals and standards.
12. Thinking Clearly and Analytically The ability to apply clear and logical thinking is a competency required for both supervisory and managerial positions. The competencies include skills as determining valid premises arriving at logical conclusions from them, separating fact from hearsays, unwarranted assumption and false inferences, applying inductive and deductive logic appropriately, culling of logical fallacies, invalid premises and conclusions based on insufficient information.
As a basic process in determining competencies during job analysis, writing of job specifications and developing performance assessment instruments, one can easily be guided by plotting jobs against the 12 major competencies previously mentioned. Choosing which competencies and the mix should follow, with the most important competency taking precedence over the others. The degree and level of competencies that will be required will vary according to scope of responsibilities, authorities, people involvement, and decision-making powers. Putting them in a matrix could provide a visual guide that would make the tasks easier and convenient.
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