by: Leader Belina S. Katigbak
August 17, 2015
'Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi" (As many as possible of the very best)[1]
I would like to begin my Final Integrative Paper (FIP) by professing that the Ignatian mission through AGSB MBA-Regis Leadership course is being fulfilled! For me, and I believe this is true with my 26 classmates at AGSB Clark, it has been a great journey of “doing, being, and becoming an authentic leader”. And with the kind indulgence of the Jesuits, it would be our honor to include 27 of us in the circle of “Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi".
In integrating all that I have learned, I will use the moral structure, which I personally believe is the essence of the leadership course. One’s response to leadership, I came to truly appreciate after having gone through this course is actually to attain the universal vision, which is “ETERNAL LIFE”. The entire book, Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney, everything that St. Ignatius wrote in the Spiritual Exercises, the whole lot that authentic leaders wrote, and all that Prof. Saguinsin taught is all about attainment of that common vision.
The Holy Bible prescribes the basis for moral life. When the rich young man asked Jesus, “Master, what must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus replied by stating the minimum measurement, which is the observance of God’s commandments. The rich young man felt good as he has always observed the commandments. And Jesus presented “magis” – to be more by telling the young man, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." But the young man went away sad. (Matthew 19:21)
Leadership course has taught me to aspire for “magis”, that I should not settle for the minimum requirements of leadership, rather, I should aspire for self-giving and in the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “Give, but give until it hurts”.[2] This “giving until it hurts” very well epitomizes what authentic leadership is all about, just like what Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas wrote about the many crucibles in leadership. Such “crucibles are intense, often traumatic – and always unplanned”. (Bennis, 2002)
This integrative paper aims to put together and synthesize what I have learned from this course. In the final analysis, the question is, how did this course transform me to a better leader and a better person? And another question might be how will this transformation continue and create a ripple effect toward attainment of man’s end goal of salvation?
I.THE BEGINNINGS
As soon as I enrolled in Leadership Effectiveness course and got a copy of the syllabus, the first thing that I did was to go through the syllabus from session 1 to 8. As always, I consciously keep in mind before I embark on something to find the depth of the water that I would tread, to identify what is expected of me as a learner (traveler), and what I need to do to make the most out of this learning opportunity (journey). I owe this disposition to the wisdom of inspirational writers. Stephen Covey, in his book Seven Basic Habits of Highly Effective People, stresses habit number two, which is “Begin with the End in Mind”. St. Paul emphasizes in Philippians 3:14, “My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me – life on high in Christ Jesus.” Indeed my eyes were fixed on the goal, which I articulated in the Learning Agreement that Prof. Saguinsin asked us to submit on Session 1.
I embarked on the journey – the call to be not just an effective leader, but an authentic leader. What would this journey entail? At once, I was mesmerized by what the Leadership course offers in eight sessions. I got so interested with the objectives of the course, which is, “to introduce students like me to a depth of thinking about individuals and collective patterns of leadership practices…guide us to reflectively process or understand leadership patterns and dynamics as applied in personal and professional life.”[3]
I find it both heartwarming and nostalgic to write an integrative paper about the things learned. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 7:45b) It is likewise challenging to try to contain in a short paper the vast array of knowledge gained in this course as there are experiences in the class and outside the class that words cannot capture precisely, and they remain in the heart. Doing an integrative paper would have been easier by doing “copy-paste” of concepts and principles well written by leadership gurus; but the harder part is how to “copy’ these models and “paste” or uphold them in my heart and put them into practice.
This remains to be seen - how well the course led me “to competently:1.Understand the key conceptual frameworks and definitions of leadership;2.Identify patterns of leadership behaviors that may impact on my effectiveness as leader;3.Reflectively process my experience as a leader and synthesize lessons within the perspective of leadership; and4.Draft a leadership development plan, including elements of my mission statement, as guide in my pursuit of leadership.”[4]
A well-designed syllabus, with the addition of some unorthodox methods facilitated by Lecturer, Prof. Jorge Saguinsin, along with other exposures, raised better leaders and persons like me from AGSB Clark Leadership Course. The sessions from July 3 to August 14, 2015 went beyond the borders of Clark classroom. It was a 24/7 learning experience, marked by the ingenuity of our professor to explore all possible means of mentoring. The wealth of resources (now numbering close to 300 posts) found in http://ateneoleadership.blogspot.com/2015 hosted by the lecturer himself, the posts of each classmate’s output as required by the course, the Heroic Leadership book by Chris Lowney (I have unique distinctive marks on almost every page of the book that enriched my knowledge), HBR’s “10 Must Read”, team building activity, classroom discussions, group meetings, sharing, Leadership “CD/USB” from classroom desktop, personal researches, comments and contributions in the blog, and my personal profound reflections that were articulated, written, and posted - all contributed to the great learning! If only I could write everything here…
LESSONS LEARNED IN EVERY SESSION
Assignments prior to every session served as good starters. In “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership”, George, Sims, et.al. emphasized “the journey to authentic leadership starts with understanding of one’s life story, which provides the context of experiences, through which one can find inspiration to make an impact in the world.” (George, 2007). It brought me to a better understanding of my personal responsibility for my own development as well. These authors cited that “when the 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.” (George, 2007)
Chris Lowney wrote “Leaders thrive by understanding who they are and what they value, by becoming aware of unhealthy blind spots or weakness that can derail them, and by cultivating the habit of continuous self-reflection and learning.” (Lowney, 2003) I learned from Lowney the Ignatian leaderhip model, with four pillars, namely: 1) Self-awareness, 2) Ingenuity, 3) Love, and 4) Heroism.
Reading through AGSB case on Hon. Rodolfo Espina journeyed me to my own. I found a parallelism in my life, and came to a happy resolve that even seemingly successful leaders have great weaknesses, too. But these weaknesses brought them to humility and goad them to greater achievements, thus bringing forth transformation.
Three days before the start of session 1, Prof. Saguinsin already challenged me to “devote time to self discovery and awareness before we devote time to inspiring and motivating others.” (Blogpost June 30, 2015) The post introduced me to Daniel Goleman’s EQ pedagogy, that is, “an authentic leader: 1) has passion for purpose, 2) practices values consistently, 3) leads with hearts and head, 4) self discipline to achieve results, and 5) has meaningful relationship.
Session 1 – July 3, 2015
When Prof. Jorge Saguinsin asked me on the onset of class discussion to share in class “My Journey toward being a Vice-President”, he did not only impress upon me the importance of my journey, but more importantly, he spurred me to look into my life story. I discovered at hindsight that my journey as a leader started in childhood. The first write up made me aware of who I am and what the foundations of who I am now are.
Our first session started with the famous “Pananagutan” hymn. As with the succeeding sessions, carefully selected leadership songs were reflected on. They set the mood of what the course was up to.
The first classroom encounter was a debate on theories about leaders, i.e., “Leaders are Born”, or “Leaders are Made”, or “Leaders are Transformed”. The debate elicited great ideas about the nature of leadership. At first I was convinced that Leaders are more “Made” than “Born”. I could not figure out a prominent leader figure from my ancestors. But later on in the topics that ensued, this paradigm would take a slight shift when I reflected on my Genogram. In the middle of the course, Prof. Saguinsin integrated these theories by way of presenting his “wheel of leadership”, which showed the authentic self at the core of leaders with a space for the development of an integrated leader. The image shows “Leaders are Born” (Genogram, Enneagram, Self-Awareness), “Leaders are Made (Education, Training, Experience), and “Leaders are Transformed” (Defining Moments, Situation, Crisis).
I believe that session 1 objectives were achieved. The reading references helped me “identify that character, competence, and purpose are the key elements in authentic leaders, and that these three, which are internal, are the source of a real leader’s power rather than power and position, which are both externally generated.”[5] I felt good with the respective authors’ paradigm of leadership. I did feel a sense of affirmation in measuring up to these elements as I see myself working on my character by making moral choices and being courageous enough to make the right decisions which entailed self sacrifice. I remember the critical decision of giving up my SMC career in 1998 in order to pursue a greater mission. And currently, I am working on the enrichment of my competence by taking MBA at AGSB. As my choices are fruits of my discernment, I am very much grounded on my purpose in life.
Session 1 challenged me to be a leader of change. In retrospection, I realized that my weakness of being too sensitive hampered my ability to lead change in some cases. Session 1 ushered me to a wealth of knowledge about skills needed to create change, which starts with self-awareness.
Supplementary reading materials articulated the best practices of “Good to Great Companies” by Jim Collins. Noteworthy is that Level 5 leaders that transform companies to become great are those with more EQ and adaptive roles rather than technical ones. Ronald Heifetz stressed the difference between technical and adaptive challenges. That adaptive leaders address challenges by providing direction and vision. (Heifetz) This made me aware of my role as vice-president for Finance. I am reflecting now on how I have been addressing the challenges in the University. For example, we are preparing for the roll out of Grade 11 next school year. We are challenged by the government’s move to upgrade salaries of public school teachers. The government is offering free education. We might lose talent. At the same time, our non-teaching manning complement might be too large for a dwindling enrolment. How can a private institution like UA compete? How can I, as the finance leader, address adaptive challenges? Some leadership ideas by John P. Kotter taught me to transcend the management work that I have been doing. It deepened my self-awareness in so far as how limited I was doing my leadership task. Kotter spotted the difference between the role of a manager and that of a leader in his article, “What Leaders Really Do?” He reinforced the following: a) “Leadership’s function is to produce change. Setting direction of that change, therefore, is essential work. There’s nothing mystical about this work, but it is more inductive than planning and budgeting (role of manager)”; b) “Managers look for the right fit between people and jobs while; leaders look for the right fit between people and the vision”, and c) “Management strives to make it easy for people to complete routine jobs day after day while leadership attempts to touch people at their deepest levels – by stirring in them a sense of belonging, idealism, and self-esteem”. (Kotter, 2014)
Session 2 – July 10, 2015
One of the assignments was to draw a lifeline. I found this very necessary in order to capture my defining moments, the subject of Reflection Paper No. 1. In my church work before at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Secretariat, with Msgr. Felicito C. Sison as my director, I usually engaged seminar participants in reflecting their individual timelines. I introduced a template with columns for “Date”, “Event”, “Significance”, “Feelings”, and “God’s Message” in these events. And so, to aid me in doing my reflection paper number 1, “Defining Moments”, I accomplished the usual template and reflected on significant events of my life. I have found depth of meaning of these defining moments, more so when I learned what defining moments really are. Prof. Saguinsin gave his own definition of defining moments as “a memorable, life changing decision, event, or action that alters the course of our life”. Dictionary.com describes them as events, actions, or decisions that result in a significant change. Through shared researches from my group mates and from classroom discussion, I learned that I can actually use my defining moments to discover my purpose in life, and that I can actually learn from these moments, whether they are joyful, painful, or trial-laden ones. Going through my most defining moments helped me understand the depth of my vocation as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, church worker, and Filipino citizen. Reflecting on my defining moments strengthened my faith and values, and inspired me to continue my mission in life in order that others may benefit from it. Thus, my defining moments will usher the beginnings of my personal leadership development process.
One of the scheduled activities which we didn’t have the liberty of time to have it shown in classroom, but nevertheless was provided to us for personal viewing was the film “The Last Journey of Ninoy”. I made sure that I watched it. This is my reflection: the important stages of Ninoy’s leadership development are actually highlighted at the most difficult stages of his life when he was stripped of his freedom, but paradoxically freed him from the bondage of ego and power. His heroism and self-sacrifice, and love for country ushered the beginnings of a free Filipino after the dictatorship regime.
Prof. Saguinsin posted several models of leadership through the blog, among which is “Hope for the Flowers”. It brought me down college memory lane when I first read the book. Back then, it was just a simple inspirational book for me. But now, it dawned on me that after all it is about leadership; and it teaches me that climbing on top should not be about “pushing and stepping” on others, rather, transformation is about shedding the “outer scales”. As an authentic leader, I will strive to consciously be a transformed “butterfly” that spreads beauty in the garden of life.
Another influential book posted by Prof. Saguinsin is “Self Mastery” which was authored by Eduardo Morato. I bought the said book which was autographed by Prof. Morato himself in one occasion when he was at the University of the Assumption (UA). Prof. Morato used to sit as a member of UA Board of Trustees. In this course, I came to a deeper realization of the importance of the concepts as applied to authentic leadership. (Morato, 2013)
Session 3 – July 17, 2015
Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” captivated my interest. I am not a movie goer, so at first I thought that I would find it difficult to find an appropriate movie to capture the 12 stages of the hero’s journey. (Vogler, unknown). But providentially, the activity gave me one of the most powerful ways of re-discovering my purpose in life. I unearthed one of those “thousand faces”. After all, even coming from “an ordinary world”, God picked me or called me to “an adventure”. Even with my “reluctance at first”, God gave me “mentors”, and then journeyed with me in every step of the way, giving me helpers when I met tests and trials “at the inmost cave”, and then He gave me “rewards”. God was with me “on the road back” fighting with me and for me. I experienced “Resurrection”, and thereafter He led me back to my world, “bringing the elixir”, now a transformed Belle. And the next cycle happened when I was called for a higher purpose. I appreciated my personal mono myth. It deepened my sense of mission, which stems from my personal history of faith, hope, and love. In fact, this became my framework in my audio visual presentation, which is part of the capstone of the leadership course.
I am indebted to http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test for providing free online Enneagram test. It expanded my horizon on self-awareness. The test result confirmed what I know about myself as a Type 1- Principled, Purposeful, Self-controlled, and Perfectionist, and Wing 2 or Generous, Demonstrative, People-pleasing, and Possessive.
Going ahead of our syllabus, we started working on our Genogram.
Session 4 – July 24, 2015 Genogram
I only realized that I, too, am a “Born Leader” when Prof. Saguinsin made an integration of our Genograms. I am happy to know that in my genes runs the simplicity of my ancestors. It was indeed a discovery when Prof. Saguinsin mentioned about the role of our ancestors. Such intensified my appreciation and conclusion that it was by their life example that my character took shape. Just like modeling clay introduced in nursery school years, the life examples of my ancestors and relatives served as vessels from which I drew values such as hard work, perseverance, and determination. I cannot rightfully claim that I am a self-made woman which my husband used to tell me as his great regard of me. Doing the genogram is a journey not only for me but for my sisters as well who re-introduced to me my ancestors from their own knowledge and perspective. My sisters and I know for a fact that our ancestors were very poor and were deprived of formal education. Re-living memories of their life brought us to a better understanding of who they are.
Reflection Paper No. 2 - What Shaped me Today; External (Family, Environment, Work) & Internal – Values, Strengths and Weaknesses Reflection paper number 2 was an excellent deepening self-awareness activity. The exercise traversed me to the interplay of the external and internal factors that shaped me today. I will bring to the fore some highlights of my reflection paper number 2.a)It is in the family that I first learned to be responsible and organized.
Bill George, et.al, in Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, impressed significantly on me the following statements, “The values that form the basis for authentic leadership are derived from your beliefs and convictions, but you will not know what your true values are until they are tested under pressure. It is relatively easy to list your values and to live by them when things are going well. When your success, your career, or even your life hangs in the balance, you learn what is most important, what you are prepared to sacrifice, and what trade-offs you are willing to make. Leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading.” (George, 2007).
Toward the conclusion of my reflection paper, the question on how do these factors prepare me for future challenges allowed me to articulate this resolution, “At age 57, one of my greatest challenges is to empower my followers such that they will emerge as leaders, too. And when the time for me to go comes, I would have left only good examples worthy of emulation. Knowing that my vocation is to do something greater than myself, I brace for these challenges. My experiences and conversion have prepared me for these. Knowing and accepting my strengths and weaknesses as well those of my co-workers keep my feet on the ground. With my “witnessing” and loving attitude toward the people that God sent me to lead, we can make a difference in this world”.
Session 5 – July 31, 2015 (St. Ignatius Day)
One of the tools and resources for the objectives of session 5 is St. Ignatius of Loyola’s First Principle and Foundation. What a coincidence it is that session 5 fell on the feast day of founder St. Ignatius! Normally, it is a “no-class” day in all schools of Ateneo. But since we reserved this day for our team building activity, the school holiday did not prevent us from pursuing a great way to learn about authentic leadership. Furthermore, coming together on this day was both grace-filled and a cross-over from the ‘structured individual and group work’ to the unstructured collective work as one big team! Team Building activity, though not explicitly required in the course was initiated by Prof. Saguinsin in the belief that creating, nurturing, and empowering teams have a lot to do with authentic leadership. That is very true! I learned a lot from this activity. First, it developed my social skills, which is a necessary component of Emotional Intelligence as written by Daniel Goleman. I realized that I have yet to rise at a certain degree in this pattern of leadership behavior in order to be an effective leader. I found myself wanting on the 5th component of EQ. I need to work on my social skills. A few times in the past when I was hurt by personnel in the university, I shunned away. I came to a point when I deliberately did not join university functions because I was not ready to rub elbows with those who “maligned” me. But now that I know how social skills component is necessary in leadership, I cannot be as effective as I should if I continue to hide myself in the confines of the Finance office when things do not seem right in the campus. Volunteering to be a member of the Clash Masters facilitated my coming out of the cocoon of insecurities. Second, it gave me an opportunity to discover the individuality and giftedness of every one of my classmates. Third, it confirmed my understanding of how much and how more meaningful that individuals could accomplish when working altogether.
Session 6 – August 7, 2015
Writing my reflection number 3 for Session 6 was one of the most soul-wrenching and gratifying activities. It enlarged my optics about the role of passion in one’s response to the call of leadership. It reinforced my sense of mission. After writing my piece, I could almost assure that the learning objectives of the session, which I culled from the syllabus handbook, were achieved as follows:1. I understood that in order “to become an outstanding leader, I must have a clear and defined passion that animates all that I do”;2.I successfully “identified and had been living out my passion”;3.Having “tapped my passion, I was able to clarify, and re-articulate my personal mission”;4.In a broader perspective, I was led to a “greater understanding of how heroism arises from my ability to overcome challenges that test my resolve and lead me to a greater sense of mission”;5.My “heart’s desire, its deepest happiness” was confirmed; and6.I confirmed “elements of my personal mission”. [6]
Recollecting my reflection number 3 write up, I wish to give emphasis to some points:
I also learned about the passion of Jesuits in the likes of Goes, Ricci, and Clavius. Because they loved what they were doing, they were able to surmount hardships. They faced the challenges with fervor in their heart, with their eyes focused on the end goal, which is their mission. Whether they seemingly “failed” like Goes, or succeeded like Ricci and Clavius, it is love that matters.
As I reflect on the little and big things that I’ve enjoyed doing, I came to a happy conclusion that I have found my LOVE IN SERVICE. That is why, I have engaged in the different facets of service in the church by facilitating, writing, teaching, mentoring, and the likes. I realized that SERVING WITH LOVE HAVE TRANSFORMED MY LITTLE WORLD!
2. On the relation to what I already know
What I already know about passion was complemented by the reading and multi-media materials provided in the Leadership course. I have found the integration of all that I’ve done in my work, daily life, and life’s journey. With what I am passionate about, I am getting a bit closer to realizing what St. Irenaeus taught, that “the glory of God is man fully alive” (D'Ambrosio, unknown). For out of God’s great love for man, He fashioned him in His image and likeness. This is our dignity. For me, to be passionate over one’s purpose in life will make man fully alive. No amount of wealth, fame, and honor will ever fulfill man if these are not used for the glory of God. And this is to glorify God – to use all means to fulfill our purpose – to be passionate, and to be in love with everything that we do. Nothing is too difficult if done with passion. Even the failures and trials that I went through in life brought out the best in me because I found their meaning.
Session 7 – August 7-14, 2015
Prof. Saguinsin reinforced tools for a great leader. In Session 5, he presented Mind Mapping as a way to brainstorm and generate great ideas. Some days before Session 7, he already proposed other great tools necessary for leaders. These are Kepner-Tregoe, Kurt-Lewin’s Force-Field Analysis, Decision Tree, Pareto, Ishikawa Diagram, Critical Analysis Thinking are tools that would help leaders in making decisions. As for me, I have tried Kepner-Tregoe during an investigative audit that I handled in San Miguel Corporation. Force-Field Analysis and Ishikawa Diagram were commonly used when I facilitated quality circle meetings in my SMC work. On top of these tools, my favorite is always the “Discernment Rules of the Spiritual Exercises”. During Session 7, I am glad that Prof. Saguinsin gave me the floor to share something about the Spiritual Exercises. My learning about Spiritual Exercises was reinforced by Lowney, who describes this book as “A Lifelong Development Tool”. I want to quote Lowney for a particular statement that he made about the Exercises. He wrote, “Loyola’s commitment was to Christian service, and the Exercises’ thrust and subject matter are emphatically Christian. But they work as a leadership tool not because they are grounded in a religious world-view but because they build the personal resources required for a freely chose, powerful, and successful human commitments of all sorts.” (Lowney, 2003). The Spiritual Exercises’ Rules on Discernment was actually the heart and summit of my decision-making process sometime between 1995 and 1998 when I was discerning God’s will. St. Ignatius’s rule is premised on man’s capacity to use his rational powers. And so he guides the discerner with the use of critical thinking in weighing the pros and cons of each of the alternative courses of action, which are all good. And when a choice has been made, St. Ignatius tells us that the decision has to be brought to God for confirmation if such is His will. For a beginner it might be difficult to find God’s will. According to St. Ignatius and the late Fr. Thomas Green S.J., this is where intimacy with God and a co-discerner is important. Intimacy with God is attained by constant communication to God in prayer. A spiritual director is important during the discernment process. I am graced by God’s loving presence through my spiritual directors. My one-hour daily fixed prayer time during the time that I was discerning helped me establish a close relationship to God. The fruit of my discernment process was my optional retirement from San Miguel Corporation and eventually I started offering myself for full time volunteer service to the church.
Prof. Saguinsin challenged me to respond to the “call to leadership by identifying my sense of mission from challenges of today’s world”. My classmates and I were to address a “world’s hunger”. It was at this point that God confirmed my mission to address “moral and spiritual poverty” by my continued participation in the mission of evangelization. I have been heavily involved in church work. I have been sharing my time, talent, and treasures in order to uplift the spiritual well-being of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have served in various dimensions of the mission. I hope and pray that until the end of my life I shall be serving and pleasing God the most.
Showcasing my Personal Leadership is one of the most technologically challenging, and inspiring activities that I’ve ever had in my life. It tested my determination, perseverance, and ingenuity. Being resourceful, which is a trait of a genuine leader led me to pool talents at the beginning of the project. I had talented people from media whom I engaged in a “shooting and interview spree”, but only to find the end product of mediocre quality. I was not satisfied. And so I resorted to movie maker three days prior to the scheduled presentation. When I reviewed the moviemaker, I lost some parts. I tried to re-do, and with some failed attempts to make the best AVP, I finally resorted to a power-point presentation, rehearsed over and over again the timing of the slide transition, had my secretary find an appropriate background music, and presto, I made it. As if it was not enough, I made three posters which exhibited pictures of my mono myth, my vision-mission-values and passion, and about the whole of my life.
The showcase turned out to be a masterpiece. First, I used the monomyth framework. I identified with the twelve stages of the hero’s journey. Second, I used Lowney’s four pillars of leadership. In presenting the first pillar – “Self Awareness”, I showed my Enneagram results. For the second pillar – “Ingenuity”, I showed pictures about my involvement in the Social Action Center of Pampanga when the institution partnered with Caritas Espanol for resettlement project. For the third pillar – “Love”, I presented pictures of my self-giving in the service of the church, my passion of facilitating, mentoring, teaching, organizing, social involvement, and empowerment activities. Lastly for the fourth pillar – “Heroism”, I presented pictures of “magis”, which Lowney describes as the foundation of heroism. This part of my AVP is a reinforcement of “magis: the restless drive to look for something more in every opportunity and the confidence that one will find it. It’s not the job that’s heroic; it’s the attitude one brings to it.” (Lowney, Leadership the Jesuit Way, 2003).
My AVP showed my Vision, Mission, core values, and advocacy to address a world’s hunger, i.e., moral and spiritual poverty. Deborah Ancona, et.al. reminded me that “visioning and inventing are creative and action-oriented. They produce the focus and energy needed to make change happen”. (Ancona, 2007) Thus, I learned that if I want to make change happen I should focus on my vision and ingenuity.
Toward the end of my AVP, I highlighted my quest to become a Level 5 leader. Jim Collins reminded me that Level 5 leaders “manifest humility, routinely credit others, external factors, and good luck for companies’ success. But when results are poor, they blame themselves. They also act quietly, calmly, and determinedly – relying on inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to motivate”. (Collins, 2005) I concluded my AVP with a thanksgiving prayer to God, thanking Him for all those who were instrumental to my success, not attributing the accomplishments to my own efforts.
Since the time that I presented in class my AVP, it has become my driving force and inspiration. I play it over and over again. It has inspired too those who have seen it. I showed it to my husband, my officemates, and colleagues. More than a showcase, this AVP is a reminder of the love and goodness of the author of my life. With great gratitude to my Creator, I share the AVP for God’s greater glory (A.M.D.G.).
CONCLUSION:
In fulfillment of what our spiritual father St. Ignatius reminded us in the First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises, “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God, our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.” (Fr. Elder Mulan, 1914), I humbly present to God my plans which are only means to attain the end for which I was created. I offer to Him my little way of imitating His very own Servant Leadership model.
This Servant Leadership model integrates into a whole all the concepts and ideas I learned.
Without necessarily negating my earlier paradigm of learning, that is, to “Begin with the End in Mind”, this leadership course transcended me to a new paradigm on the deepening of my personal character. I enshrine in my soul Lowney’s description of the journey of Jesuit leaders Goes, Clavius, and Ricci, “The measure of their personal greatness is less what they found at journey’s end and more the depth of human character that carried them along the way: their imagination, will, perseverance, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to bear the risk of failure”. (Lowney, Redefining the success or failure of a leader, 2003). Thus, for me, this leadership course has succeeded in starting to deepen the depth of my human character and will carry me along my mission toward the attainment of my end goal, which is ETERNAL LIFE!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ancona, D. M. (2007). In Praise of the Incomplete Leader. Harvard Business Review , 113.
Bennis, W. G. (2002). Crucibles of Leadership. Harvard Business Review , 61.
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Fr. Elder Mulan, S. (1914). The Principle and Foundation. In S. Fr. Elder Mulan, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (p. 19). New York: P.J.Kennedy and Sons.
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Kotter, J. P. (2014). What Leaders Really Do. Harvard Business Review , 24.
Lowney, C. (2003). Leadership the Jesuit Way. In C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership (p. 209). Chicago: Loyola Press.
Lowney, C. (2003). Redefining the success or failure of a leader. In C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership (p. 72). Chicago, Illinois: Loyola Press.
Lowney, C. (2003). Self-awareness: "To order one's life". In C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership (p. 27). Chicago: Loa Pres
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/12991/as-many-as-possible-of-the-very-best
[2] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/353554-give-but-give-until-it-hurts
[3] Ateneo-Regis MBA Program, “Leadership Effectiveness”. March 2014 Syllabus, p.1.
[4] Ibid, p.1.
[5] Ibid, p. 7.
[6] Ibid, p. 20.
August 17, 2015
'Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi" (As many as possible of the very best)[1]
I would like to begin my Final Integrative Paper (FIP) by professing that the Ignatian mission through AGSB MBA-Regis Leadership course is being fulfilled! For me, and I believe this is true with my 26 classmates at AGSB Clark, it has been a great journey of “doing, being, and becoming an authentic leader”. And with the kind indulgence of the Jesuits, it would be our honor to include 27 of us in the circle of “Quamplurimi et quam aptisimi".
In integrating all that I have learned, I will use the moral structure, which I personally believe is the essence of the leadership course. One’s response to leadership, I came to truly appreciate after having gone through this course is actually to attain the universal vision, which is “ETERNAL LIFE”. The entire book, Heroic Leadership by Chris Lowney, everything that St. Ignatius wrote in the Spiritual Exercises, the whole lot that authentic leaders wrote, and all that Prof. Saguinsin taught is all about attainment of that common vision.
The Holy Bible prescribes the basis for moral life. When the rich young man asked Jesus, “Master, what must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus replied by stating the minimum measurement, which is the observance of God’s commandments. The rich young man felt good as he has always observed the commandments. And Jesus presented “magis” – to be more by telling the young man, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." But the young man went away sad. (Matthew 19:21)
Leadership course has taught me to aspire for “magis”, that I should not settle for the minimum requirements of leadership, rather, I should aspire for self-giving and in the words of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, “Give, but give until it hurts”.[2] This “giving until it hurts” very well epitomizes what authentic leadership is all about, just like what Warren G. Bennis and Robert J. Thomas wrote about the many crucibles in leadership. Such “crucibles are intense, often traumatic – and always unplanned”. (Bennis, 2002)
This integrative paper aims to put together and synthesize what I have learned from this course. In the final analysis, the question is, how did this course transform me to a better leader and a better person? And another question might be how will this transformation continue and create a ripple effect toward attainment of man’s end goal of salvation?
I.THE BEGINNINGS
As soon as I enrolled in Leadership Effectiveness course and got a copy of the syllabus, the first thing that I did was to go through the syllabus from session 1 to 8. As always, I consciously keep in mind before I embark on something to find the depth of the water that I would tread, to identify what is expected of me as a learner (traveler), and what I need to do to make the most out of this learning opportunity (journey). I owe this disposition to the wisdom of inspirational writers. Stephen Covey, in his book Seven Basic Habits of Highly Effective People, stresses habit number two, which is “Begin with the End in Mind”. St. Paul emphasizes in Philippians 3:14, “My entire attention is on the finish line as I run toward the prize to which God calls me – life on high in Christ Jesus.” Indeed my eyes were fixed on the goal, which I articulated in the Learning Agreement that Prof. Saguinsin asked us to submit on Session 1.
I embarked on the journey – the call to be not just an effective leader, but an authentic leader. What would this journey entail? At once, I was mesmerized by what the Leadership course offers in eight sessions. I got so interested with the objectives of the course, which is, “to introduce students like me to a depth of thinking about individuals and collective patterns of leadership practices…guide us to reflectively process or understand leadership patterns and dynamics as applied in personal and professional life.”[3]
I find it both heartwarming and nostalgic to write an integrative paper about the things learned. “Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” (Luke 7:45b) It is likewise challenging to try to contain in a short paper the vast array of knowledge gained in this course as there are experiences in the class and outside the class that words cannot capture precisely, and they remain in the heart. Doing an integrative paper would have been easier by doing “copy-paste” of concepts and principles well written by leadership gurus; but the harder part is how to “copy’ these models and “paste” or uphold them in my heart and put them into practice.
This remains to be seen - how well the course led me “to competently:1.Understand the key conceptual frameworks and definitions of leadership;2.Identify patterns of leadership behaviors that may impact on my effectiveness as leader;3.Reflectively process my experience as a leader and synthesize lessons within the perspective of leadership; and4.Draft a leadership development plan, including elements of my mission statement, as guide in my pursuit of leadership.”[4]
A well-designed syllabus, with the addition of some unorthodox methods facilitated by Lecturer, Prof. Jorge Saguinsin, along with other exposures, raised better leaders and persons like me from AGSB Clark Leadership Course. The sessions from July 3 to August 14, 2015 went beyond the borders of Clark classroom. It was a 24/7 learning experience, marked by the ingenuity of our professor to explore all possible means of mentoring. The wealth of resources (now numbering close to 300 posts) found in http://ateneoleadership.blogspot.com/2015 hosted by the lecturer himself, the posts of each classmate’s output as required by the course, the Heroic Leadership book by Chris Lowney (I have unique distinctive marks on almost every page of the book that enriched my knowledge), HBR’s “10 Must Read”, team building activity, classroom discussions, group meetings, sharing, Leadership “CD/USB” from classroom desktop, personal researches, comments and contributions in the blog, and my personal profound reflections that were articulated, written, and posted - all contributed to the great learning! If only I could write everything here…
LESSONS LEARNED IN EVERY SESSION
Assignments prior to every session served as good starters. In “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership”, George, Sims, et.al. emphasized “the journey to authentic leadership starts with understanding of one’s life story, which provides the context of experiences, through which one can find inspiration to make an impact in the world.” (George, 2007). It brought me to a better understanding of my personal responsibility for my own development as well. These authors cited that “when the 75 members of Stanford Graduate School of Business’s Advisory Council were asked to recommend the most important capability for leaders to develop, their answer was nearly unanimous: self-awareness.” (George, 2007)
Chris Lowney wrote “Leaders thrive by understanding who they are and what they value, by becoming aware of unhealthy blind spots or weakness that can derail them, and by cultivating the habit of continuous self-reflection and learning.” (Lowney, 2003) I learned from Lowney the Ignatian leaderhip model, with four pillars, namely: 1) Self-awareness, 2) Ingenuity, 3) Love, and 4) Heroism.
Reading through AGSB case on Hon. Rodolfo Espina journeyed me to my own. I found a parallelism in my life, and came to a happy resolve that even seemingly successful leaders have great weaknesses, too. But these weaknesses brought them to humility and goad them to greater achievements, thus bringing forth transformation.
Three days before the start of session 1, Prof. Saguinsin already challenged me to “devote time to self discovery and awareness before we devote time to inspiring and motivating others.” (Blogpost June 30, 2015) The post introduced me to Daniel Goleman’s EQ pedagogy, that is, “an authentic leader: 1) has passion for purpose, 2) practices values consistently, 3) leads with hearts and head, 4) self discipline to achieve results, and 5) has meaningful relationship.
Session 1 – July 3, 2015
When Prof. Jorge Saguinsin asked me on the onset of class discussion to share in class “My Journey toward being a Vice-President”, he did not only impress upon me the importance of my journey, but more importantly, he spurred me to look into my life story. I discovered at hindsight that my journey as a leader started in childhood. The first write up made me aware of who I am and what the foundations of who I am now are.
Our first session started with the famous “Pananagutan” hymn. As with the succeeding sessions, carefully selected leadership songs were reflected on. They set the mood of what the course was up to.
The first classroom encounter was a debate on theories about leaders, i.e., “Leaders are Born”, or “Leaders are Made”, or “Leaders are Transformed”. The debate elicited great ideas about the nature of leadership. At first I was convinced that Leaders are more “Made” than “Born”. I could not figure out a prominent leader figure from my ancestors. But later on in the topics that ensued, this paradigm would take a slight shift when I reflected on my Genogram. In the middle of the course, Prof. Saguinsin integrated these theories by way of presenting his “wheel of leadership”, which showed the authentic self at the core of leaders with a space for the development of an integrated leader. The image shows “Leaders are Born” (Genogram, Enneagram, Self-Awareness), “Leaders are Made (Education, Training, Experience), and “Leaders are Transformed” (Defining Moments, Situation, Crisis).
I believe that session 1 objectives were achieved. The reading references helped me “identify that character, competence, and purpose are the key elements in authentic leaders, and that these three, which are internal, are the source of a real leader’s power rather than power and position, which are both externally generated.”[5] I felt good with the respective authors’ paradigm of leadership. I did feel a sense of affirmation in measuring up to these elements as I see myself working on my character by making moral choices and being courageous enough to make the right decisions which entailed self sacrifice. I remember the critical decision of giving up my SMC career in 1998 in order to pursue a greater mission. And currently, I am working on the enrichment of my competence by taking MBA at AGSB. As my choices are fruits of my discernment, I am very much grounded on my purpose in life.
Session 1 challenged me to be a leader of change. In retrospection, I realized that my weakness of being too sensitive hampered my ability to lead change in some cases. Session 1 ushered me to a wealth of knowledge about skills needed to create change, which starts with self-awareness.
Supplementary reading materials articulated the best practices of “Good to Great Companies” by Jim Collins. Noteworthy is that Level 5 leaders that transform companies to become great are those with more EQ and adaptive roles rather than technical ones. Ronald Heifetz stressed the difference between technical and adaptive challenges. That adaptive leaders address challenges by providing direction and vision. (Heifetz) This made me aware of my role as vice-president for Finance. I am reflecting now on how I have been addressing the challenges in the University. For example, we are preparing for the roll out of Grade 11 next school year. We are challenged by the government’s move to upgrade salaries of public school teachers. The government is offering free education. We might lose talent. At the same time, our non-teaching manning complement might be too large for a dwindling enrolment. How can a private institution like UA compete? How can I, as the finance leader, address adaptive challenges? Some leadership ideas by John P. Kotter taught me to transcend the management work that I have been doing. It deepened my self-awareness in so far as how limited I was doing my leadership task. Kotter spotted the difference between the role of a manager and that of a leader in his article, “What Leaders Really Do?” He reinforced the following: a) “Leadership’s function is to produce change. Setting direction of that change, therefore, is essential work. There’s nothing mystical about this work, but it is more inductive than planning and budgeting (role of manager)”; b) “Managers look for the right fit between people and jobs while; leaders look for the right fit between people and the vision”, and c) “Management strives to make it easy for people to complete routine jobs day after day while leadership attempts to touch people at their deepest levels – by stirring in them a sense of belonging, idealism, and self-esteem”. (Kotter, 2014)
Session 2 – July 10, 2015
One of the assignments was to draw a lifeline. I found this very necessary in order to capture my defining moments, the subject of Reflection Paper No. 1. In my church work before at the Archdiocesan Pastoral Secretariat, with Msgr. Felicito C. Sison as my director, I usually engaged seminar participants in reflecting their individual timelines. I introduced a template with columns for “Date”, “Event”, “Significance”, “Feelings”, and “God’s Message” in these events. And so, to aid me in doing my reflection paper number 1, “Defining Moments”, I accomplished the usual template and reflected on significant events of my life. I have found depth of meaning of these defining moments, more so when I learned what defining moments really are. Prof. Saguinsin gave his own definition of defining moments as “a memorable, life changing decision, event, or action that alters the course of our life”. Dictionary.com describes them as events, actions, or decisions that result in a significant change. Through shared researches from my group mates and from classroom discussion, I learned that I can actually use my defining moments to discover my purpose in life, and that I can actually learn from these moments, whether they are joyful, painful, or trial-laden ones. Going through my most defining moments helped me understand the depth of my vocation as a wife, mother, daughter, sister, church worker, and Filipino citizen. Reflecting on my defining moments strengthened my faith and values, and inspired me to continue my mission in life in order that others may benefit from it. Thus, my defining moments will usher the beginnings of my personal leadership development process.
One of the scheduled activities which we didn’t have the liberty of time to have it shown in classroom, but nevertheless was provided to us for personal viewing was the film “The Last Journey of Ninoy”. I made sure that I watched it. This is my reflection: the important stages of Ninoy’s leadership development are actually highlighted at the most difficult stages of his life when he was stripped of his freedom, but paradoxically freed him from the bondage of ego and power. His heroism and self-sacrifice, and love for country ushered the beginnings of a free Filipino after the dictatorship regime.
Prof. Saguinsin posted several models of leadership through the blog, among which is “Hope for the Flowers”. It brought me down college memory lane when I first read the book. Back then, it was just a simple inspirational book for me. But now, it dawned on me that after all it is about leadership; and it teaches me that climbing on top should not be about “pushing and stepping” on others, rather, transformation is about shedding the “outer scales”. As an authentic leader, I will strive to consciously be a transformed “butterfly” that spreads beauty in the garden of life.
Another influential book posted by Prof. Saguinsin is “Self Mastery” which was authored by Eduardo Morato. I bought the said book which was autographed by Prof. Morato himself in one occasion when he was at the University of the Assumption (UA). Prof. Morato used to sit as a member of UA Board of Trustees. In this course, I came to a deeper realization of the importance of the concepts as applied to authentic leadership. (Morato, 2013)
- Learning to Think – Prof. Saguinsin reiterated many times the need to develop critical thinking, which is an endless questioning. The assignments that he required brought me to a good use of my reasoning powers, systemic, integrative, and associative thinking. The monomyth assignment is a good example of deepening my associative thinking.
- Learning to Intuit – the reflection papers heightened my ability to intuit, “to see within, and develop the sixth sense”.
- Learning to Feel – the project on “What Ails the World” and “Call to Arms” speech brought me to compassion that is “to suffer with our people and grow in grace through sympathy and empathy”. Thus the emotion brought me to formulate my CTA speech. Steve Job’s passion speech during the Stanford University commencement exercises heightened my feelings about “loving what I do and doing the things I love”.
- Learning to Do – I became more conscious of what a leader does, namely, a)Learn before doing (Business Planning, Strategic Planning), b) Learn while doing (Problem Solving Process, PERT-CPM, Gantt Chart, Pareto Principle, Decision Tree), and c) Learn after doing (Audit, Performance Evaluation, Post Mortem Review and Standard Setting – PMRSS).
- Learn to Communicate – Prof. Saguinsin taught me how to become a better speaker. The course exposed me to great communicators, the great leaders in the likes of President Lincoln, President JFK, President Obama, and many more. I listened to their speeches and was challenged not only to do a CTA speech but to deliver it in class as well.
- Learn to Lead – I have learned more to take personal “responsibility of self and others, be an inspirational and a transformative leader”. I have started examining my style of leadership, and asked myself if I am leading my people the right way. The eight simple rules for leaders by Peter Drucker are helpful. These are: 1) asks what needs to be done, 2) asks what’s right for the enterprise, 3) develop action plans, 4) take responsibility for decisions, 5) take responsibility for communicating, 6) focus on opportunities, not problems, 7) run productive meetings, and 8) think and say “we” not “I”. (Drucker, 2004)
- Learn to Be – The leadership course gave me an opportunity to revisit my vision and mission in life, and allowed me to make a revision in order to adapt to the needs of the present time.
Session 3 – July 17, 2015
Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” captivated my interest. I am not a movie goer, so at first I thought that I would find it difficult to find an appropriate movie to capture the 12 stages of the hero’s journey. (Vogler, unknown). But providentially, the activity gave me one of the most powerful ways of re-discovering my purpose in life. I unearthed one of those “thousand faces”. After all, even coming from “an ordinary world”, God picked me or called me to “an adventure”. Even with my “reluctance at first”, God gave me “mentors”, and then journeyed with me in every step of the way, giving me helpers when I met tests and trials “at the inmost cave”, and then He gave me “rewards”. God was with me “on the road back” fighting with me and for me. I experienced “Resurrection”, and thereafter He led me back to my world, “bringing the elixir”, now a transformed Belle. And the next cycle happened when I was called for a higher purpose. I appreciated my personal mono myth. It deepened my sense of mission, which stems from my personal history of faith, hope, and love. In fact, this became my framework in my audio visual presentation, which is part of the capstone of the leadership course.
I am indebted to http://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test for providing free online Enneagram test. It expanded my horizon on self-awareness. The test result confirmed what I know about myself as a Type 1- Principled, Purposeful, Self-controlled, and Perfectionist, and Wing 2 or Generous, Demonstrative, People-pleasing, and Possessive.
Going ahead of our syllabus, we started working on our Genogram.
Session 4 – July 24, 2015 Genogram
I only realized that I, too, am a “Born Leader” when Prof. Saguinsin made an integration of our Genograms. I am happy to know that in my genes runs the simplicity of my ancestors. It was indeed a discovery when Prof. Saguinsin mentioned about the role of our ancestors. Such intensified my appreciation and conclusion that it was by their life example that my character took shape. Just like modeling clay introduced in nursery school years, the life examples of my ancestors and relatives served as vessels from which I drew values such as hard work, perseverance, and determination. I cannot rightfully claim that I am a self-made woman which my husband used to tell me as his great regard of me. Doing the genogram is a journey not only for me but for my sisters as well who re-introduced to me my ancestors from their own knowledge and perspective. My sisters and I know for a fact that our ancestors were very poor and were deprived of formal education. Re-living memories of their life brought us to a better understanding of who they are.
Reflection Paper No. 2 - What Shaped me Today; External (Family, Environment, Work) & Internal – Values, Strengths and Weaknesses Reflection paper number 2 was an excellent deepening self-awareness activity. The exercise traversed me to the interplay of the external and internal factors that shaped me today. I will bring to the fore some highlights of my reflection paper number 2.a)It is in the family that I first learned to be responsible and organized.
- Prayer was very much a part of our daily routine. Our economic condition brought us always on our knees. Faith is the core of our family’s belief system. We believed in Divine Providence. My kind of upbringing molded me to be a person of character, virtuous, prayerful, disciplined and stern.
- My work experiences brought me to an integral development of my professional life. I had the opportunity to balance the four disciplines with my involvement in church service. Only because of God’s enlightenment and guidance had this become possible!
- I came to a deeper understanding of personhood – that what matters most is not my sense of “doing” but my sense of “being”; that the externals are only peripherals and are “consumable or exhaustible”. On the other hand, my true personhood lies at the core of my being – that is being a child of God, the dignity that makes me co-equal with my fellowmen. I then made a paradigm shift. This affected my way of deciding and acting. It means that I need to appreciate the core of a person that I must lead, and understand his/her external and internal factors in order to lead effectively.
- A significant turning point in my family happened in 2009 when my husband suffered life-threatening multiple strokes. This stressor affirmed the goodness of family members who supported us all the way.
Bill George, et.al, in Discovering Your Authentic Leadership, impressed significantly on me the following statements, “The values that form the basis for authentic leadership are derived from your beliefs and convictions, but you will not know what your true values are until they are tested under pressure. It is relatively easy to list your values and to live by them when things are going well. When your success, your career, or even your life hangs in the balance, you learn what is most important, what you are prepared to sacrifice, and what trade-offs you are willing to make. Leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading.” (George, 2007).
Toward the conclusion of my reflection paper, the question on how do these factors prepare me for future challenges allowed me to articulate this resolution, “At age 57, one of my greatest challenges is to empower my followers such that they will emerge as leaders, too. And when the time for me to go comes, I would have left only good examples worthy of emulation. Knowing that my vocation is to do something greater than myself, I brace for these challenges. My experiences and conversion have prepared me for these. Knowing and accepting my strengths and weaknesses as well those of my co-workers keep my feet on the ground. With my “witnessing” and loving attitude toward the people that God sent me to lead, we can make a difference in this world”.
Session 5 – July 31, 2015 (St. Ignatius Day)
One of the tools and resources for the objectives of session 5 is St. Ignatius of Loyola’s First Principle and Foundation. What a coincidence it is that session 5 fell on the feast day of founder St. Ignatius! Normally, it is a “no-class” day in all schools of Ateneo. But since we reserved this day for our team building activity, the school holiday did not prevent us from pursuing a great way to learn about authentic leadership. Furthermore, coming together on this day was both grace-filled and a cross-over from the ‘structured individual and group work’ to the unstructured collective work as one big team! Team Building activity, though not explicitly required in the course was initiated by Prof. Saguinsin in the belief that creating, nurturing, and empowering teams have a lot to do with authentic leadership. That is very true! I learned a lot from this activity. First, it developed my social skills, which is a necessary component of Emotional Intelligence as written by Daniel Goleman. I realized that I have yet to rise at a certain degree in this pattern of leadership behavior in order to be an effective leader. I found myself wanting on the 5th component of EQ. I need to work on my social skills. A few times in the past when I was hurt by personnel in the university, I shunned away. I came to a point when I deliberately did not join university functions because I was not ready to rub elbows with those who “maligned” me. But now that I know how social skills component is necessary in leadership, I cannot be as effective as I should if I continue to hide myself in the confines of the Finance office when things do not seem right in the campus. Volunteering to be a member of the Clash Masters facilitated my coming out of the cocoon of insecurities. Second, it gave me an opportunity to discover the individuality and giftedness of every one of my classmates. Third, it confirmed my understanding of how much and how more meaningful that individuals could accomplish when working altogether.
Session 6 – August 7, 2015
Writing my reflection number 3 for Session 6 was one of the most soul-wrenching and gratifying activities. It enlarged my optics about the role of passion in one’s response to the call of leadership. It reinforced my sense of mission. After writing my piece, I could almost assure that the learning objectives of the session, which I culled from the syllabus handbook, were achieved as follows:1. I understood that in order “to become an outstanding leader, I must have a clear and defined passion that animates all that I do”;2.I successfully “identified and had been living out my passion”;3.Having “tapped my passion, I was able to clarify, and re-articulate my personal mission”;4.In a broader perspective, I was led to a “greater understanding of how heroism arises from my ability to overcome challenges that test my resolve and lead me to a greater sense of mission”;5.My “heart’s desire, its deepest happiness” was confirmed; and6.I confirmed “elements of my personal mission”. [6]
Recollecting my reflection number 3 write up, I wish to give emphasis to some points:
- On my new learning
I also learned about the passion of Jesuits in the likes of Goes, Ricci, and Clavius. Because they loved what they were doing, they were able to surmount hardships. They faced the challenges with fervor in their heart, with their eyes focused on the end goal, which is their mission. Whether they seemingly “failed” like Goes, or succeeded like Ricci and Clavius, it is love that matters.
As I reflect on the little and big things that I’ve enjoyed doing, I came to a happy conclusion that I have found my LOVE IN SERVICE. That is why, I have engaged in the different facets of service in the church by facilitating, writing, teaching, mentoring, and the likes. I realized that SERVING WITH LOVE HAVE TRANSFORMED MY LITTLE WORLD!
2. On the relation to what I already know
What I already know about passion was complemented by the reading and multi-media materials provided in the Leadership course. I have found the integration of all that I’ve done in my work, daily life, and life’s journey. With what I am passionate about, I am getting a bit closer to realizing what St. Irenaeus taught, that “the glory of God is man fully alive” (D'Ambrosio, unknown). For out of God’s great love for man, He fashioned him in His image and likeness. This is our dignity. For me, to be passionate over one’s purpose in life will make man fully alive. No amount of wealth, fame, and honor will ever fulfill man if these are not used for the glory of God. And this is to glorify God – to use all means to fulfill our purpose – to be passionate, and to be in love with everything that we do. Nothing is too difficult if done with passion. Even the failures and trials that I went through in life brought out the best in me because I found their meaning.
Session 7 – August 7-14, 2015
Prof. Saguinsin reinforced tools for a great leader. In Session 5, he presented Mind Mapping as a way to brainstorm and generate great ideas. Some days before Session 7, he already proposed other great tools necessary for leaders. These are Kepner-Tregoe, Kurt-Lewin’s Force-Field Analysis, Decision Tree, Pareto, Ishikawa Diagram, Critical Analysis Thinking are tools that would help leaders in making decisions. As for me, I have tried Kepner-Tregoe during an investigative audit that I handled in San Miguel Corporation. Force-Field Analysis and Ishikawa Diagram were commonly used when I facilitated quality circle meetings in my SMC work. On top of these tools, my favorite is always the “Discernment Rules of the Spiritual Exercises”. During Session 7, I am glad that Prof. Saguinsin gave me the floor to share something about the Spiritual Exercises. My learning about Spiritual Exercises was reinforced by Lowney, who describes this book as “A Lifelong Development Tool”. I want to quote Lowney for a particular statement that he made about the Exercises. He wrote, “Loyola’s commitment was to Christian service, and the Exercises’ thrust and subject matter are emphatically Christian. But they work as a leadership tool not because they are grounded in a religious world-view but because they build the personal resources required for a freely chose, powerful, and successful human commitments of all sorts.” (Lowney, 2003). The Spiritual Exercises’ Rules on Discernment was actually the heart and summit of my decision-making process sometime between 1995 and 1998 when I was discerning God’s will. St. Ignatius’s rule is premised on man’s capacity to use his rational powers. And so he guides the discerner with the use of critical thinking in weighing the pros and cons of each of the alternative courses of action, which are all good. And when a choice has been made, St. Ignatius tells us that the decision has to be brought to God for confirmation if such is His will. For a beginner it might be difficult to find God’s will. According to St. Ignatius and the late Fr. Thomas Green S.J., this is where intimacy with God and a co-discerner is important. Intimacy with God is attained by constant communication to God in prayer. A spiritual director is important during the discernment process. I am graced by God’s loving presence through my spiritual directors. My one-hour daily fixed prayer time during the time that I was discerning helped me establish a close relationship to God. The fruit of my discernment process was my optional retirement from San Miguel Corporation and eventually I started offering myself for full time volunteer service to the church.
Prof. Saguinsin challenged me to respond to the “call to leadership by identifying my sense of mission from challenges of today’s world”. My classmates and I were to address a “world’s hunger”. It was at this point that God confirmed my mission to address “moral and spiritual poverty” by my continued participation in the mission of evangelization. I have been heavily involved in church work. I have been sharing my time, talent, and treasures in order to uplift the spiritual well-being of my brothers and sisters in Christ. I have served in various dimensions of the mission. I hope and pray that until the end of my life I shall be serving and pleasing God the most.
Showcasing my Personal Leadership is one of the most technologically challenging, and inspiring activities that I’ve ever had in my life. It tested my determination, perseverance, and ingenuity. Being resourceful, which is a trait of a genuine leader led me to pool talents at the beginning of the project. I had talented people from media whom I engaged in a “shooting and interview spree”, but only to find the end product of mediocre quality. I was not satisfied. And so I resorted to movie maker three days prior to the scheduled presentation. When I reviewed the moviemaker, I lost some parts. I tried to re-do, and with some failed attempts to make the best AVP, I finally resorted to a power-point presentation, rehearsed over and over again the timing of the slide transition, had my secretary find an appropriate background music, and presto, I made it. As if it was not enough, I made three posters which exhibited pictures of my mono myth, my vision-mission-values and passion, and about the whole of my life.
The showcase turned out to be a masterpiece. First, I used the monomyth framework. I identified with the twelve stages of the hero’s journey. Second, I used Lowney’s four pillars of leadership. In presenting the first pillar – “Self Awareness”, I showed my Enneagram results. For the second pillar – “Ingenuity”, I showed pictures about my involvement in the Social Action Center of Pampanga when the institution partnered with Caritas Espanol for resettlement project. For the third pillar – “Love”, I presented pictures of my self-giving in the service of the church, my passion of facilitating, mentoring, teaching, organizing, social involvement, and empowerment activities. Lastly for the fourth pillar – “Heroism”, I presented pictures of “magis”, which Lowney describes as the foundation of heroism. This part of my AVP is a reinforcement of “magis: the restless drive to look for something more in every opportunity and the confidence that one will find it. It’s not the job that’s heroic; it’s the attitude one brings to it.” (Lowney, Leadership the Jesuit Way, 2003).
My AVP showed my Vision, Mission, core values, and advocacy to address a world’s hunger, i.e., moral and spiritual poverty. Deborah Ancona, et.al. reminded me that “visioning and inventing are creative and action-oriented. They produce the focus and energy needed to make change happen”. (Ancona, 2007) Thus, I learned that if I want to make change happen I should focus on my vision and ingenuity.
Toward the end of my AVP, I highlighted my quest to become a Level 5 leader. Jim Collins reminded me that Level 5 leaders “manifest humility, routinely credit others, external factors, and good luck for companies’ success. But when results are poor, they blame themselves. They also act quietly, calmly, and determinedly – relying on inspired standards, not inspiring charisma, to motivate”. (Collins, 2005) I concluded my AVP with a thanksgiving prayer to God, thanking Him for all those who were instrumental to my success, not attributing the accomplishments to my own efforts.
Since the time that I presented in class my AVP, it has become my driving force and inspiration. I play it over and over again. It has inspired too those who have seen it. I showed it to my husband, my officemates, and colleagues. More than a showcase, this AVP is a reminder of the love and goodness of the author of my life. With great gratitude to my Creator, I share the AVP for God’s greater glory (A.M.D.G.).
CONCLUSION:
In fulfillment of what our spiritual father St. Ignatius reminded us in the First Principle and Foundation of the Spiritual Exercises, “Man is created to praise, reverence, and serve God, our Lord, and by this means to save his soul. And the other things on the face of the earth are created for man and that they may help him in prosecuting the end for which he is created.” (Fr. Elder Mulan, 1914), I humbly present to God my plans which are only means to attain the end for which I was created. I offer to Him my little way of imitating His very own Servant Leadership model.
This Servant Leadership model integrates into a whole all the concepts and ideas I learned.
- My personal leadership development plan outlines my vision as ”An Empowered and Empowering Life of Service for the greater glory, honor, and praise of God”.
- My mission statement goes, “I am committed to develop and empower people toward sustainable holistic living for the service of family, profession, community, country, and our God”.
- My core values are faith in God, love, self-giving, and humility.
- My short term objectives and extending beyond near future are found in my reflection paper number 3, which enumerates what I will be doing to address a world’s need in the light of moral and spiritual poverty, to wit:
- Our world needs love, LOVE in its truest sense. In participating in the mission of evangelization in the church, I will strive to be a true witness to the Gospel values so that I can affect others with love, and in the end influence them to serve their fellowmen, too.
- As a wife, I will continue my faithful loving service to my husband, a stroke survivor. As a mother, I will continue loving my children no matter what. I will be a role-model to my daughter-in-law. As a daughter to my parents who are nearing their centenary birthdays, I will continue serving them with love.
- As Vice-President for Finance I will continue doing what I have started and empower my people by sending them to trainings as well.
- I will continue doing financial studies for making Catholic education accessible by the poor. This way, I can contribute to making relevant the vision of the University of the Assumption to be the leading formator of globally competent, morally upright, and socially responsible Catholic leaders.
Without necessarily negating my earlier paradigm of learning, that is, to “Begin with the End in Mind”, this leadership course transcended me to a new paradigm on the deepening of my personal character. I enshrine in my soul Lowney’s description of the journey of Jesuit leaders Goes, Clavius, and Ricci, “The measure of their personal greatness is less what they found at journey’s end and more the depth of human character that carried them along the way: their imagination, will, perseverance, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to bear the risk of failure”. (Lowney, Redefining the success or failure of a leader, 2003). Thus, for me, this leadership course has succeeded in starting to deepen the depth of my human character and will carry me along my mission toward the attainment of my end goal, which is ETERNAL LIFE!
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Ancona, D. M. (2007). In Praise of the Incomplete Leader. Harvard Business Review , 113.
Bennis, W. G. (2002). Crucibles of Leadership. Harvard Business Review , 61.
Collins, J. (2005). Level 5 Leadership. Harvard Business Review , 71.
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Fr. Elder Mulan, S. (1914). The Principle and Foundation. In S. Fr. Elder Mulan, The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (p. 19). New York: P.J.Kennedy and Sons.
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Lowney, C. (2003). Leadership the Jesuit Way. In C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership (p. 209). Chicago: Loyola Press.
Lowney, C. (2003). Redefining the success or failure of a leader. In C. Lowney, Heroic Leadership (p. 72). Chicago, Illinois: Loyola Press.
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FOOTNOTES:
[1] http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/12991/as-many-as-possible-of-the-very-best
[2] http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/353554-give-but-give-until-it-hurts
[3] Ateneo-Regis MBA Program, “Leadership Effectiveness”. March 2014 Syllabus, p.1.
[4] Ibid, p.1.
[5] Ibid, p. 7.
[6] Ibid, p. 20.