MIDDLE MANAGERS CLASS

FINAL EXAMINATION

Grade:

Instructions: Read the questions carefully and write legibly your answer on the space provided below. Your essay should be at most two pages in length for both questions.

1. How can you APPLY the principles, concepts & ideas you learned from the module on Transformational Leadership to your Re-Entry Plan (ReP) project? I realized that my ReP concept, thanks to the module, deserves a review. Because it attempts to address a complex issue but is conceived in the absence of important stakeholders, it gravely is prone to producing results that do not address the real concern of our supposed beneficiaries. The general idea from the module that multiple issues, like my ReP, should not be oversimplified inspires me to first reflect on who I am, what I have, must have, and must not have, so that I can relate better with the other stakeholders as we move on with my ReP following the model of multi-stakeholder engagement which the module generously offered. Following the model, it will also be important for me to solicit the perceptions of the other stakeholders (i.e. Cooperatives member and borrowers, extension workers, CDA representatives, community leaders, etc) on the issue (loan repayment delinquency) so that we can level off our starting point and expectations, and have unified direction in our reflection or systems thinking. Often, this is neglected as we workers tend to move swiftly to what is in the box as if social issues across communities could be similarly treated by a single centralized prescription. Here is where we also consider that cause-effect relationship of situations giving rise to the issue can actually be a loop and not simply a line as we often assumed. This, I believe, will lead us more effectively than usual to coming up with a shared vision (I hope to be able to, or ask someone to help, do right brain exercises for this), creative strategies and team learning. Having done this together, and with the presence of one for the ReP felt by the others, we can co-create a new scenario, a long aspired for reality which is improved loan repayment collection of our agrarian reform beneficiary cooperatives in Ifugao. There are tools from the module that would ensure success of the ReP, and these I will endeavor to apply. Active listening or silence will enhance systems thinking, and planning for and monitoring action. Appreciative inquiry will highlight the good practices in say, approaches to loan collection with delinquent borrowers and so on. Others that would find solutions above the plane where the issues were created will be explored. 2. How DIFFERENT will your PRACTICE of leadership be as a result of your learning & INSIGHTS from the module? From now on, leadership to me will be more reflective, more creative, more engaging, and more developing.
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With due respect to the hunches that really work in certain instances, there can be no substitute for reflection in others, as in who my teammates will be, especially their journey in life. Tell me about your childhood is such a meaningful line which I feel, given that I, as a child, was bullied and severely affected by my fathers political loss, and up to now I feel its impact coming back every now and then. Reflecting on what my teammates are would help in our interpersonal relationship as well as in task allocation and management, and assistance for development. Here is where silence is important as it withhold me from giving outright decisions or opinion about something that needs analysis. For instance, a bad impression of a teammate, a client, or an event may be wrong if we listened in the first place. I will be more creative. I realize that there can be more possibilities if I explore with what my team has, instead of wish to have the things that we dont. The right brain is waiting to be tapped for creative thoughts. I will include tapping the right brain and creating a balance between the two powerful hemispheres as among my goals for our team. Creativity will also call for free association and discussion, so I need to brace myself for weird ideas, as I encourage the same for my teammates in the spirit of creativity. This will also mean celebration for creative things done, to reinforce the action and hopefully develop it into a habit. I will be more engaging. Issues are not always simple to be acted upon by only one or a few ones. The engagement of others, within and outside my team, must be explored not only because network is important, but also because there are things within that only an outsider can objectively see. Not only alternatives can be enriched, but also ownership and therefore support base is broadened. That is enriching my social and political capital, which is good especially for development works. It will be more developing. If I co-sense, co-presence, and co-create with people new social realities, then I will have no business depriving them of things that help them develop. I will include in my leadership agenda ways of developing my teammates so that they can also have greater options for career and personal development. Appreciative inquiry will be highlighted to reinforce what is good as basis for developing what can be better. As a leader, I will not plan for this alone, much less carry out the plan by myself. I have to depart from the old thought that the leader is all and be all. Gone are those days of my childhood when only the adults had the privilege to speak and be listened to. It took me half my lifetime, if I were still live as long as I have, trying to move out of that cell. Leadership is sharing, and in that sharing, members grow and develop. I believe that leaders, on their last steps, would more likely want to see how many of the lowly people in their flock were they able to transform and propel into greater heights, than on the number of buildings and monuments that they constructed. Thanks to the module. I have reset my mind into becoming a leader that transform, not just build.
LAST NAME (only): AGENCY: DAR

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