Claims to leadership

FRI, NOVEMBER 3, 2017 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Döring

I am 64 now. I traveled all around the world. I met innumerable leaders in different companies and institutions. I experienced “good” and “bad” leaders.  My “good” leaders, just a handful – maybe, became my mentors. Each one in his or her own very special way. The others I sorted out. Forgot them….

Quitters never win and winners never quit! Basta! My first leader’s motif –  a publishing house director, whom I met during my college time. This saying has been imprinted in my mind and heart till today. As a result, when I started teaching German language in the Institute of Languages and Creative Arts at University of Southeastern Philippines in Davao City almost ten years ago, I used this and other sayings helping my students to remember these key points.

As I said before: just only a handful awesome leaders crossed my path. In Germany, in the U.S. and lately also here in the Philippines. I learnt a lot from them and their behavior. I also learnt from negative leaders, those, catching people doing things wrong. Why don’t leaders spend at least an hour a week wandering around their operation catching people doing things right AND wrong?

My first boss in Germany really did it this way. One could talk to him.

Many leaders wait to praise their people until they do things exactly right. Problem: mostly, one waits forever.

Up to now, I see a lot of unmotivated people at work or students at school, but I have never seen them after work or school! When office is done and school is over, people race to do such things that provide them with positive feedback on results.

My students in USEP are getting tired many times. I try to tell them, that learning is more important today than ever before. In the past, if a person was loyal and worked hard,his or her job was secure. Also during my time in the 1960s and 1970s or even early 1980s. Today, the skills you bring to the party constitute the only available form of job security. When you stop learning, you stop growing. Albert Einstein, once said: Never stop learning and ask questions. A perfect leader should be included. It really depends on how you talk to the people!

In one of my previous write-ups, I mentioned: Dream hard but work harder. I have to rethink this. How about this: Don’t work hard – work smarter. This saying is common sense but not common practice as America’s best-selling business author Ken Blanchard voiced it out. If you don’t take time out to think, strategize and prioritize, you’ll work a whole lot harder, without enjoying the benefits of a job smartly done. As an ordinary worker or as the Big Boss.

Leadership and communication are two areas in  which we can continue to develop virtually forever.

The foremost horse in a team

TUE, JULY 12, 2016 BY THE MINDANAO DAILY MIRROR LEAVE A COMMENT

IN MY OPINIONKlaus Doring

Are you a guide, a commander or a conductor? Are you a leader, who knows how to play the first card in the team? Do you know how to direct, to persuade or to precede?

Yes,  change is really coming in the Philippines. Our new leaders seem to be on the right way.

I found a very nice quotation shared by Dr. John C. Maxwell, the leading authority on leadership, who says, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way!” “Nearly all men can withstand adversity. If you truly want to test a man’s character, give him power”, stressed already Abraham Lincoln. Character is what you are doing in the dark. By the way, nowadays, I wouldn’t only mention “men”  alone when it comes to leader-ship. There are innumerable women holding their own.

Remember and look around: in the past and at present one can observe someone at any corner offering us to lead our way. Politicians compete for our vote of confidence. Athletes and entertainers show us their pictures of success. A lot of different religious leaders pledge, promise and bind in flock gathering.

Well, what are some of the traits that a great leader must have or develop character? Is character really enough? How about integrity? Are you, my dear reader, a leader? Is what you are saying AND  DOING, the same? Are your followers wholeheartedly convinced of your integrity?

Albert Einstein, one of my favorite idols had said, “Whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted with the important matters!”

Leaders in politics, leaders in clergy, leaders in business – many have been lacking this specific trait in the past, because, after all, what they said is not what they did.  A leader is some-one with character, integrity, discipline, and the ability to influence others in a positive way.  A leader must be able to motivate his or her people around, rather than manipulate them or run away in times of difficult decisions…!

Albert Einstein claimed that he had no special abilities, only persistence. But that was enough to develop the General Relativity Theory. I learned from my Philippine mentor and book author (German-Philippine Relations), the late Monsignor Professor Dr. Hermogenes E. Bacareza already during the 1980's: “It’s important to become your own best friend. Be your own coach. Take to your inner self  as if  you were talking to another person you care deeply.  And, pray!”

+++

Comments, sugges-tions, questions? Email me: doringklaus@gmail.com or follow me in Facebook or Twitter or visit one of websites  www.germanexpatinthe philippines.blogspot.com or www.klausdoringsclassicalmusic.blogspot.com.