Common when possible, different when necessary

#alignment #collaboration #Kids4Kids #k4k #riseagainsthunger

#ONETeam #SNAPS #SageandNotableAdvisesfromPatrickSalazar

I was tasked to fix the culture, governance and growth of an east location. The first thing we did as leaders on Day 1 was to lower our swords & shields and decided to lead as ONE leadership Team with positively stubborn collaboration and insatiable alignment. No matter what the situation is, we anchored on our organizational core values, we prioritized helping everyone before ourselves, we asked ALL Associates to share their insights and we made sure each and every feedback count, we delivered brilliantly on client and stakeholder commitments and we grew our headcount twice our size, and, we made sure to share all our programs and activities to the west location. We made all efforts to limit the difference between locations as we aspired for both locations to be successful as ONE Team.

After some trips around the sun, there was a restructuring done.

The new leader of the east expressed the east is totally different than the west. They can never be the same and we should stop aligning. He said the east has no culture and he changed everything that has been built.

I spoke to the leader of the west who said the west is far better than the east. He said let’s exclusively focus on the west, we should never wait for the east coz they are too slow. The west will lead and let the east be.

In my experience in both the automotive and BPM industries, every time there were siloed approaches… the result was failure, every time there was a ONE Team mindset… the result was success.

Know that you will always meet leaders who are territorial and have a win-lose approach. It’s not their fault that they have only been exposed to the short sighted glory of competition and they have never experienced the serene scalable success of coopetition in a global organization. Their journey may be short stints amongst multiple organizations or just exposed to one organization throughout.

No matter how influential these leaders are, you must stay constantly true to your leadership values, culture and brand. Continue to follow the model of common when possible, different when necessary.

*About the photo

Our 4 awesome kids started a Christmas gift giving activity last December 2010. They called it Kids 4 Kids (K4K). Through the years… the families of their friends and cousins joined us.

This photo was last December 2020 when social gatherings were restricted due to Covid-19 protocols. They partnered with Rise Against Hunger to conduct “meal packing” to be sent to the families affected by super typhoon Ulysses in Quezon Province. Each meal pack can feed up to 12 children or 6 adults.

They were able to assemble 21,600 meal packs.