Paddling Through: A Pathway Towards Resiliency

by Lakambini Brito, Rosario Carino, Jocelyn Chua, James Lester Edrozo, Glenda Fugaban, and Ringer Manalang

The pandemic has tested us all and made us deal with different stressors. During this crisis, our emotions take a more powerful role which at times, is hard to ignore. The loss of real life interactions is obviously one of the most challenging factors in leading teams remotely. This blog will present some work-related problems we are currently facing and the kind of mindset that we will need to adapt to these changes. We will also discuss which characteristics of a leader will most likely be beneficial to our team, as well as techniques that will help motivate our direct reportees of different personalities. Paddling through these challenges, we as leaders should welcome changes as change is synonymous with development.

Forecasting the Weather

The pandemic forces every worker to learn how to work remotely. Because of this sudden change, several work-related problems also emerged. In the past seminars that we have attended, one way or another, we have heard the question - What are the biggest challenges of working from home? The most common answer to that question is the limited access to the internet and trouble communicating online. This is also one of the common problems we are currently facing as a group. Other problems such as, the need to rearrange workstations and how our homes become an extension of our workspace and employees attitude towards work during the pandemic were also discussed during our group meeting.

Weather forecasting helps us prepare and prevent any loss that a storm may bring. The above-mentioned problems represent the storm we are currently facing now. As leaders, how do we adapt to these situations? How do we overcome this storm? The succeeding part will provide insights on how we can overcome these challenges.

Building the Balangay

Just like a sturdy Balangay, we as leaders must also be sturdy or resilient and emotionally intelligent in facing current work-related challenges. We should possess a positive character that would enable us to think critically and rationally to set good examples for our staff. An important key in achieving this is by developing your emotional awareness and self-regulation. Emotional awareness/Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, use and modulate our own emotions. Self-regulation on the other hand is the ability to manage our behavior and how we will react to what we feel. The following are some ways on how to develop these important abilities:

• Being Resilient: This strategy will help you to move forward during these trying times. For example, Glenda, one of our team members, uses this unique strategy to have a positive attitude towards work.

• Being Empathetic: This strategy will help leaders to show his/her co-workers that s/he cares for them and that they belong in the team. It will also increase productivity since you are able to put yourself in others’ shoes.

• Taking critique well: This strategy will help leaders/supervisors to have a new perspective on the things that we usually do not notice.

• Being open to ideas or acknowledging opinions of others: This will encourage staff to be more participative and committed in their work.

While building our balangay, the “katig” as the foundation, should be built to last and adapt to unpredictable conditions. Leaders should be able to adjust and be flexible most of the time. They should also be able to gauge the current of the water the balangay is threading/paddling through so that the staff members will know how and what to anticipate to enable them to adapt to the current situation. Hereunder are kinds of mindset and efforts that will help you effectively adapt to changes:

• Learn to accept changes rather than resisting it: Nothing good will come out if we continue resisting these unforeseen changes. We must learn to accept these changes and turn them into incredible things.

• Stay positive, be optimistic: Change can sometimes be stressful. Having a positive attitude helps us cope with stress. It can also have a positive impact on our overall well-being.

• Remain to be patient, maintain your composure: Change management takes patience. This kind of mindset gives us time to process these changes.

We learned that being an adaptable leader will help you push through any sudden changes. But is it enough to paddle through the storm? Being a captain of the ship entails other imperative skills. Same with being a leader, it also requires characteristics to help them sail through challenges or a crisis situation. Below are some traits that a leader should possess during a crisis and possible drawbacks of having these traits:

• Calm: Being a calm leader can inspire other employees to perform better. Your co-workers will see you as a reliable person even in a stressful environment. However, some co-workers may perceive you as being unenthusiastic.

• Knowledgeable: Knowledge is a prized resource in an organization. Being knowledgeable makes you even more reliable and dependable. However, because of too much information/knowledge, it may affect our decision making skills.

• Leader with high emotional intelligence: Having a high emotional intelligence can help leaders connect with others easily. They are able to empathize with others and understand their emotions as well. Even so, there is a possibility that they have difficulties receiving and giving feedback.

• Flexible: Being flexible can help leaders to adjust and modify their leadership style in response to unforeseen changes. The only disadvantage of being flexible is that others may see you as a “know it all” type of person and some leaders may develop “over confidence”.

• Game-Changer: As a game-changer, we can further improve our existing processes.

The pandemic has left many employees as well as leaders feeling anxious, insecure, and ­therefore more resistant to change. Yet big changes are in progress. For change to stick, we need to connect with our co-employees and spend time with them to help them understand the need for change, the impact of change, and to help them adapt. The Katig makes the Balangay sturdy. The above mentioned strategies may help leaders to be sturdy or resilient as well.

Steering the Balangay

We have strengthened our foundation in the previous section, it is now time to steer our Balangay. To keep the workforce productive with high performance, it is important to keep our employees energized and motivated. As discussed in our previous lessons, there are four different personality types (Analytical, Driver, Amiable and Expressive). Each personality type will need a certain approach. We had come up with the different techniques that will cater to these personality types:

• A motivation technique which gives a pat-on-the-back to tell them that they have done well

• A consultative decision-making to encourage staff to participate

• A scheduled team building activities to develop camaraderie

• Empowering staff to handle/manage challenging projects by giving autonomy to decide

• Create a comfortable and inspiring workspace

Now that we have identified our motivation techniques, it is also important to develop effective strategies as a tool for better communication within the organization.

• Identify communication problem

• Respect the point of view of others

• Give clear and concise instructions and use proper medium

• Know how to listen and understand carefully

• Use affirming responses

• Focus on the issue not on the person

• Empathize rather than be detached

• Value yourself and own experiences

• Give and receive feedbacks

• Choose your words carefully

• Respond appropriately

As we move forward, it is imperative that we collectively set a common purpose for the benefit of everybody. In the long run, our goal is to be recognized as one of the Outstanding Offices of UP Diliman in pursuit of the mission of the University with regards to honor and excellence. To achieve this goal, we identified the following objectives and strategies:

Objectives

• To be recognized as one of the Outstanding Offices of UP Diliman;

• To achieve an Outstanding rating in the performance of Teaching and Non-teaching personnel;

• To achieve excellence in customer service, and;

• To have effective and efficient office operations.

Strategies

• Be innovative in office processes;

• Encourage personal development (thru team building activities and support them to attend training/conferences, pursue graduate studies/advance courses);

• Enhance work condition with the new technologies, and;

• Grant incentives, awards or recognition/appreciation.

A great team must share a vision. As leaders, it is our responsibility to impart this to our team members to inspire them to bring this vision into fruition regardless of the challenges ahead. No great success happens without rising to overcome challenges.

Steering a boat is simple, but it’s not always easy. Unexpected winds can come up, rocks and rapids clog our path and sometimes we get tired. At times, whether leading or rowing, we will even need to favor one paddle over the other, so we can navigate an obstacle, respond to the unexpected, or change direction. Here, our emotional intelligence will be tested on how strong it is and we will be triumphant.

We will sail, the sky is dark as night, the journey is not as bright, but we will build and steer our Balangay with all our might! - Group 7