On Leadership

A cool dude visited my blog yesterday and I got to view an interesting post in his site, http://hrmpedia.blogspot.com/, as well. It was about leadership.

Here is an excerpt from his writings:

Leadership is a process of getting things done through people. Leaders model the way.

Leadership: some key points about a leader . . .
An effective leader is a servant-leader (Greenleaf). Not only teaches others but also has a learner mentality.
Good leaders are good followers. (Kouzes and Posner).
Leaders do not accomplish anything by themselves; they work through a team of followers. (Dyadic research; team-building).

Time and Attendance

Got the opportunity to reconnect with my former boss, a general manager. He shared some interesting insights on "holding meetings". It is kinda unexpected to have heard this from him who is truly the hard-working type of a guy who does surprise visits in the factory on off-days, that is, week-ends and even holidays.

He said he does not require people to overstay at the office. What he requires more is being punctual, not reporting late at work. It is a bad habit and a bad example to one's subordinates.

When quit time comes, say 5 PM, he said, his people do not hide from him when they see him at the aisle when they are about to go home, for he does not take it against them when they quit on time. There used to be a period in our work life, as I recall, that we stayed late in the office because our superiors themselves were working late. The underlying rule was you should not go before the boss goes, for he might need something from you or the boss might use it against you when a task has been left undone.

But for this boss of mine, he added, that he does not schedule meetings after office hours, unless maybe it's an emergency. He believes that he should not take away the people's time with their family, especially dinner together at home.

My mouth was half-open at the idea. Really? Wow, that's great!