Being a foot soldier, there are many times we don't understand why the company does this and that, agains our beliefs, against our preference, things that do not make any sense to us. We do not really understand why we get only little adjustment this year, especially compared to last year, especially when we have showed better performance along this year.

As a leader, it is never easy to juggle between tidying up, pushing performance, inspiring the team members and coaching at the same time. Leaders, like any other human beings miss a little bit here and there. At the end of the day, you can't do it all, and you can't please everyone.

The gap in between is the thing that makes a difference. Either you address that gap, or you don't -take things for granted, which is certainly going to get worse.

The foot soldiers would not feel happy, they feel like they have been taken for granted, that they are under appreciated, and that the company does not care about that. What they have yet to understand is that the leader was trying to organize the system, take care some of the mess that happened before them, including the liabilities that were not settled previously. As a result, to cover up all the losses and liabilities, there were only few left to be disbursed across the organization, hence the small adjustment. It is beyond just appreciation.

How are you going to fill in that gap, then? Do you even want to address it?

If people have been wondering where I am today, I am having the moment of my life: trying to help companies address their communication issues rather than letting it unsettled. At the end of the day, people crave for direction and logical reasons behind everything. If we understand where the company is heading, where we are going as an organization, it shall help to align our goals towards that. Or even leave, if that's what's best.

I am chilling out, more than usual. But I do hope I still create the impact I dream to deliver. Fingers crossed.

Acupuncture Session, The Earth, Ourselves

Today marks the 9^th session of my acupuncture schedule. Just like any other relationship that gets deeper over time, our conversation evolves from talking about my health to the traffic to the economy, and today about the environment. We were talking about how damaged the earth has been, yet nothing concrete has taken place in a massive scale to act upon it.

The fact struck me. I was just involved in another conversation the previous day about how blessed our generations are with the advancement in technology that allows us to grab too many opportunities to figure out who we are and what we want to be, not to mention thet endless possibilities anywhere we go, or any path we take.  

The only focus of our conversation was just how one individual could benefit, creating impact to the surroundings, but to fulfill one’s purpose in life –not to give back.

There are too many times we think about ourselves. As a human being myself, I understand how we are raised around the idea of growing ourselves, being someone useful and successful. Not many people were raised with the value of giving back, or preserving the nature –for that matters.

I could go on with another discussion on how sucks our education and parenting system that we fail to teach our children with the most practical and useful skills that are relevant to what we need: decision making, stress-coping, career-building, even problem solving.

But the most important issue that I want to highlight here is that we simply haven’t realized the utmost critical problem as a human being, we still seek to please ourselves by “trying to find” the best opportunities that will most benefit us while the earth is suffering to its death. Yes, just like human being, the earth is dying, and it’s waiting for the time to extinct. Tick, tock.

What we have yet to realized is also the fact that what we do as an individual matter. In fact, our consumption pattern is one key ingredients to its extinction. Modernity has brought simplicity and practicality in every aspect of our lives, that the supermarket we go to, due to the increased demand, ask their suppliers to feed them with more and more supplies. So they invented stockbreeding: even wild animal like salmon is now being breed (gossip spread is that you can choose the color of your breed salmon). The quality of the food is compromised, but that’s they only way to meet the demand, even if it means to transport that from a faraway place that cost tons of carbon footprints.

We do not really grow our own vegetables anymore, although it equals to healthier lifestyle. We do not use environmentally friendly this and that (which is now plenty) because we are not used to. We still use plastic, even though it’s broadcasted to have polluted our air and water.

Something’s gotta change. And despite the news and research, there’s so little being done to address this, which is pitiful. And so my acupuncturist argued it’s because of the political interests of big companies that drive governments of the world to do this and that, and not to do this and that –because their interest is at stake.

My point is, let’s not rely on anybody. Just rely on ourselves. Start thinking from ourselves. Stop thinking about benefitting from others. Begin to benefit others.