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Jesus Ros Lapuz, Jr.

Leadership in Public Service


AM I A LEADER?
Whenever I am confronted with an opportunity to lead a group to
accomplish a specific task, I often see myself exercising a resonant
type of leadership. I tend to be more attuned to the feelings of the
members rather than only focusing on what needs to be done. In that
way, I am able to connect with the members on a deeper level and
show that I am sensitive enough to care about their personal problems
and empathize with them.
Sometime in 2012 before I enrolled to law school, my business
partner and I opened a restaurant just across Ateneo Loyola campus
where sandwiches and pasta were our staple offerings. We hired 3
employees of whom 2 were the assigned cooks and the other one is a
dishwasher. Our employees did not have prior experience at their
respective positions so we had to train them all from scratch. Training
them was one thing, but the hardest part was to make them buy into
the concept of our business and work beyond what is asked of them so
we can attract more customers. This was our first business venture so
it was an understatement to say that we had little to no clue what we
were doing. To make matters worse, my partner and I had conflicting
approaches in our leadership styles. Where I was more of a resonant
type leader, he was bordering into a dissonant type. I would constantly

strike a conversation with our employees and talk about matters


outside of the four walls of our restaurant in the hopes of connecting to
them more in a personal level. I have always believed that this
leadership approach would help boost the morale of the people to
create a productive working environment to and make them love their
work more. On the other hand, my business partner would only focus
on their performance and whether or not they were able to accomplish
what is being asked of them. He would not connect to them on a
personal level and would create a wall to maintain authority. In this
approach, he believed that the employees would fear him more and so
they would feel the pressure to perform better to avoid getting
reprimanded.

Certainly both approaches bore their respective

advantages and disadvantages.


Through my resonant leadership approach, I was able to gain the
employees trust and respect by being more sensitive to their needs as
a person. Whenever they would commit mistakes or fail to perform at
least in a satisfactory level, I would sit down and talk to them about
their personal problems that might have affected their performance
and try to correct them by giving them advice rather than punishing
them outright. I would also let them give suggestions and hear what
they have to say to improve the business. By connecting to them in a
more personal level, they tried to perform well on their tasks for the
fear of disappointing me not only as their boss but also as their friend.

They felt that I valued them more as human beings and not only as
paid individuals.
However, this is not to say that my leadership approach did not
bear any disadvantages. By forging friendship among my employees, I
saw my level of authority diminish. Although I can say that the respect
was still present, there were times wherein their jokes would come off
too far. The fear and intimidation were also unapparent so there was no
pressure to perform better. There were also times when I felt some of
their problems were already made up just to excuse themselves from
performing satisfactorily.
What I like the most about practicing leadership and being a
person of authority is that you get to lead a group of individuals with
unique personalities toward achieving a common goal in your own
terms. As a leader, there is nothing more satisfying than to see your
followers work on their differences and see them grow and improve
under your wing. However, when results are not delivered and issues
arise causing the team to fail to meet some objectives, the pressure
rests upon the leader to come up with solutions to remedy them and
alleviate its effects. It is also the leaders duty to set an example and
keep his cool to keep the morale of its members amidst difficult
situations.
I completely agree with Doons idea of leadership in the public
sector. I believe that leaders are necessary so that common people can

look up to someone for guidance and reason in times of distress.


Someone must take initiative in addressing the needs of the public and
come up with solutions by implementing policies and programs.
Through these leaders in the public sector, peoples concerns shall be
properly addressed and there will be a symbol of authority to which the
people can follow for a more organized system of cohabitation within
the society.

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