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Getting Naked Vol. 1, No. 2 * 30 October 2008  By JCI Mem. EMI ROSE R. PARCON2009 President Sloth, pride and gluttony (I could gobble tons of desserts). These are my biggest sins. But the greatest of which is sloth. Honestly, I would rather starve, at times, rather than get out of bed, make myself a meal and eat. And I would rather let go and let somebody win a battle because, sometimes, I'm just to lazy to fight it out.
I admitted this to my fellow directors and officers last Saturday, during our Chapter Management seminar-workshop. It has been quite a revelation, one that perhaps could make one (or some) of them doubt my leadership and make them regret their decision to support me. But I made the admission with the belief that if I do so, they will also divulge their greatest weaknesses. By that, I would know how to tap them, when to tap them and what kind of support they would need. By that admission, they would also know how to manage me. Because contrary to what most people believe, leaders need to be managed by their followers too. It is how they would find a good working relationship with each other and how to minimize friction. I am just so blessed to be given a group of not only motivated, passionate, skilled and intelligent officers, they are a very open bunch too. They came forward with admissions of their own.  RA said that he is more of a planner than a doer and is glad to have a partner (significant other at that) who complements him. IR said that she is strict, unrelenting and stubborn and would expect people to justify well their proposals to her. (When she said that, an epiphany came to me, too, and made me decide on one of my leadership philosophies that I would carry for the year.) AP told us that he's quick to anger.
EA admitted that he is inconsiderate and gets easily distracted. IP warned us that she gets easily discouraged. MP shared that he could get impolite and too demanding. EC divulged that he's so sensitive, he could decide to get inactive easily. LD declared that she constantly needs affirmation.
I would admit, we were all naked that night (not in a way that you'd prefer to think, you naughty you). We were very much open not only with our strengths but with our weaknesses, as well. And it made us all the more closer (double na jud na ha. I purposely made this grammar error just to emphasize how closer we've become because of the exercise). We, now, know our best fit. We, now, know when to come and help a fellow officer since we know he or she would be having a difficult time with a particular area. And they, now, know, too, never to let me go near a bed if something still needs to be finished. Position of Weakness I remember ITF Mennen's1 teachings during the 9th JCI Academy last October 8, 2008, in Dipolog. He said that, in JCI, the best way to motivate and to get people to work is to negotiate in the position of weakness. And, now, I fully realize the value of what he said. A person would not help with a project and feel that he is needed when a leader puts up a front of strength and does not admit that he is inadequate in one area and would need help. We are, after all, not here in JCI to prove ourselves to other people. We are here to Be Better and "to contribute to the advancement of the global community ... towards the attainment of permanent and everlasting peace." We are not here to prove ourselves better than others. We are here to learn and to help. Sloth Redefined A visit last week to one of our project partners, OMF Literature2, also yielded a wonderful insight about my greatest sin. Lynnie Leal, a wonderful and enigmatic soul, the company's Marketing Manager, shared that sloth is not only about the lack of activity or the refusal to do things that need to be done due to laziness. It also is activity without purpose or regard for others. We could all be busy bees but still be sloths. If I ever decide not to work on something, I could, then, just say, "I find no purpose in it." And I would not feel guilty for saying no.
And also by that sharing, I realized, yes, sometimes, it is really the lack of meaning or the absence of a goal that demotivates people. How can you expect them to act when they have not found any reason to do so? As a leader, it is important to give the people you work with a vision to look up to and aim for, a mission to guide their actions, goals to work for and achieve and a prospect for victory to give them the energy.
And this is not to justify my laziness over the past years, but I also realized, that partly the reason that some activities did not appeal to me is because I did not see meaning in it. Would it not be human to be that way?
But because JCI gave me so much meaning for the past three years, I've slowly outgrown that sloth in me. Believe me, I'm really starting to. I can now drag myself out of bed after three hours of sleep and appear for a meeting or an activity even without a meal, just because it is a JCI activity. Hope you can find that meaning in your involvement with JCI, too. There is a lot of relevance to be discovered in this movement. Only if you decide to seek.
1 - JCI Sen. Mennen Aracid is the second JCI International Training Fellow from the Philippines. He won the Most Outstanding Senator award during the Temiong Awards Night on October 10, 2008, in Dipolog. 2 - OMF Literature, Inc., is a publishing company which also distributes inspirational books. It is one of our project partners for our project Read to Lead, which also won the Education for Peace award during the recent Temiong Awards Night.
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