Leading people in strictness and gentleness

Leading and managing people can be a difficult task for any aspiring leader. It doesn’t only involve techniques or systems, but importantly include a strict yet gentle human touch towards other people. It is also somehow intriguing to reckon the fact that most of the important and useful ingredients of effectively leading people are not learned in the post-graduate schools or in the seemingly thick management and leadership textbooks. They are even not often learned from listening to the so-called leadership gurus and management experts. Amazingly, they are learned from within our selves’ realization towards our personal (not Read more

Benefits of short breaks during working hours

As you go on to chase a deadline, you’ve already forgotten your meals and ignored to take some short breaks. A heroic act is what lingers in your mind. Besides, this is what your boss wants. Because your boss is a workaholic, he wants to see you also in his shadow. The lack of strategic planning and quality control has caused all of these cramming office scenarios. But there is no turning back and you need to accomplish your challenging job. When you look at your face in the mirror, you’ve noticed two big, dark and puffy bags under your eyes. Then you have called your fairy god mother and wish to get rid of them. But there is no fairy tale on this. What you need is a break. – a series of short breaks for relaxation and rejuvenation. Read more

Employee recognition in an organization

When we hear of employee recognition, we think of merit, acknowledgment, gratitude, appreciation, and some thanks for the job well-done by an employee. Employee recognition may be in the forms of awards, employee merits, promotions and monetary incentives. However, a simple saying of thanks and round of applause can also become a good form of recognition that may boost the morale of a certain worker. The importance of recognizing your personnel is as important as making them productive and achieving organizational goals. That’s why, a failure to properly recognize your best assets (human resources), may result to a total organizational disaster. Read more

The essence of a meeting in an organization

Meeting is an essential activity that must be regularly conducted in an organization. Whatever and whoever are involved – business owners, employees or customer… meetings should be done effectively. But how can we do that? By assembling people together and telling them what to do? And then by making these people follow our desires and commands, we can already consider that we had an effective meeting? No, we cannot absolutely consider that as a successful meeting. Rather, we may call that an effective announcement or an accomplished instruction. Managers and leaders are the ones who control meetings in an organization. For this reason, they should realize one important thing – the essence of a meeting. Read more

Labor unions and strikes: Employers’ nightmare?

Striking workers with raised placards, shouting for increased wages and benefits – this could be the worst scenario that a business owner or employer would not want to see.  These images cause many employers to be afraid.  To them, this could mean lawsuits, suspension of business operations, loss of profits, or even closure of business.  This could be their biggest nightmare.

Why do most employers shy away from the idea of unions, strikes, collective bargaining and related concepts?  It is because they have a mistaken notion about these topics.  They think of a union as troublesome, a nuisance which will only lead to the failure of their businesses.  They also often associate a strike with violence as if it were some sort of a mutiny or an armed attack.  What employers fail to see is that forming unions and participating in strikes are only some ways by which employees exercise their legal right to express their sentiments about their working conditions.  If only employers would listen well, they could constructively see it as a form of an evaluation on how they are running their businesses.  If people are given their correct wages, as well as fair and reasonable working conditions, they will not go on strike.  And there would not be a need to form unions, which are precisely meant for negotiating or bargaining for terms and conditions of work.  Simply put, if they are satisfied and happy, they will not complain. Read more

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