In St. John Baptist De La Salle's life and vocation, he depicted 4 outstanding traits of being a risk taker, innovator, servant-leader and mentor. It was never easy for him and the brothers to pursue their goal of making education available to everyone; nonetheless, these traits helped them succeed.
I too would want to embark these 4 traits in my life. Not only that, but also integrate them with each other. I believe that in order to become a good mentor, one should become a servant-leader first. Also, in order to innovate, one should be a risk taker. These 4 work hand-in-hand and complement each other.
In our lives, our traits and values define who we are. It shows what we want in our lives and what gives meaning to our lives. It does change because we grow with it and learn from it. Our goals and priorities define our values. I recall when I was still young, I wanted to be free like my sisters and brothers who can go out at night and stay-up with their friends. (Note: This was when I was around 8-10 years old and my siblings were in their late teens and early twenties.) Then came my teenage years, I was more focused on excitement and have a fun and adventurous life, trying out different things. Then adolescence came; I remembered I was still focused on being adventurous with my life. Things slowed down a bit, I started to "think" about where my life was headed and what I really wanted to do. Although, I have no concrete answer yet, my values started to shift to having more wisdom and valuing true friendship. When I graduated and started looking for a job, I felt the need for equality, that fresh graduates should also be given the same opportunities compared to others. Although we lack the experience, we are vigorous, open and willing to learn. My first job was a call center agent. I felt the need for self-respect and social recognition. A lot of people would look down on call center agents but they do not realize how difficult and challenging the work was. It was very challenging with one's health and ego, I may say. During these times, I had very poor time management, that I overlooked the importance of health, family, friends and pleasure. I was too focused on having a decent sleep, which I never had in my 3 years in the call center industry. I resigned and shifted to the healthcare industry. My prioritized values also shifted to salvation, health, family security, comfortable life, pleasure, world of beauty and at peace, national security, a sense of accomplishment, mature love and inner harmony. Looking back at it, I am happy that I am developing and changing with my life. I never thought that my outlook differed then and now. With the exercises provided in class, this made me realize, that not knowingly, we change and we want to change for the better. We adapt to what's happening within us and around us to have better lives. As a mother, I want my daughter to have adapting traits and values not just concentrated on herself but the people around her. I want her to influence others to do well and achieve what's best for them. As we worked on the Rokeach Value Survey, the results with myself and with our group depict the Filipino traits that we have --- for God, family and countrymen. For me, these values are inter-related that gave me great difficulty on which one to prioritize.
I believe that family, teachers and friends mostly hone our traits and values. They are the ones we often interact with, they make us think, and they help us decide. They are a big factor that influence us as a person. And because of this, I firmly believe that we should surround ourselves with people who will bring out the best in us, serve as a good influence and are concern enough to correct us. Choosing between a transactional against a transformational leader, I aim to be a transformational leader with good and influencing values that help change others for the better. I hope to continuously improve on myself in the course of LBL and my MBA studies in DLSU. I believe that my experiences and learnings in taking-up this course will help me grow, mature and improve myself – how I look at things and how I value, understand, and accept what comes to me.
1 Comment
Portia Guzman
9/6/2015 03:53:53 am
Another great reflection on what you learn from your business class. As you mentioned, the brothers had to take on the roles of being a risk takers, innovators, servant leaders, and mentors in order to promote the availability of education. Their intentions for the common good demanded for them to perform beyond what they initially signed up for. To help out, it takes risks of exhausting their resources to those who might abuse kindness. Pure altruism is not always the best methodology especially when the brothers would need to "teach people in need how to fish and not just accept fish." They envisioned a day when those that were helped will one day be providing help to others. This is inclined with the concepts of "transactional" and "transformational" that you mentioned in your post. In business, I had always heard of the mantra that customer relations is always better than 1 or 2 sales transactions. Customer acquisition and retention are better goals than temporary profits. This is why customer churning is avoided in business. As for your choice of being more of a transformational leader, this goes a long way in terms of promoting confidence, faith and loyalty, the things that the Lasallian brothers value in front of God and His church.
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AuthorRLM, daughter, wife, mother, employee and student will blog about her reflections on her BUS560M Class. She hopes to continue this blog after taking-up the course. Enjoy reading! =) Archives
January 2016
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