“Three Levels of Heroism”

by Cenen Herrera
Writing from Martinez, San Francisco Bay Area

First Level of Heroism: Embracing the Winning Habits - I use Stephen Covey’s 8 winning habits as my baseline reference point to describe what I consider as the first level of heroism: (i) Be Proactive; (ii) Know the End before you begin any project; (iii) Know your Priorities; (iv) Learn to always adopt a Win-Win Solution; (v) Understand Others Before You Understand Yourself; (vi) Learn to Achieve Synergy; (vii) Continuously Sharpen Your Saw i.e., adopt a continuous learning mode, and (viii) Find your voice and allow others to find theirs. Izaak Walton indicated that God has two dwelling places: (i) in Heaven and (ii) in the Heart of a meek and thankful server. My advice to the young: Learn by heart the winning habits of Stephen Covey. After learning such habits, be meek and thankful.

Second Level of Heroism: Mastering the Championship Anchor – To become a Champion is to consistently win in the trials of life. One must not be overwhelmed by a big win or by the inevitability of an impeding check mate, i.e., a losing situation. Life is not a one-time event, but a series of challenges. The championship anchor begins with a passion to inspire your sweet spot (please see John C. Maxwell’s book titled “Talent is Never Enough”). It then identifies one’s development drivers, which are your strengths and your commitment to a positive direction that will ultimately become your benefit engine, i.e., source of livelihood. Competitive professional skills are then transformed into development objects. Such transformation becomes the ultimate leadership skill, i.e., converting one’s highly successful benefit engine into a philanthropic leadership anchor. Philanthropic activity, after all, is the Champion’s favorite past time.

Third Level of Heroism: Demonstrating a Constituency-Focused Heroism – Striking a balance among risky variables in one’s service function is the biggest challenge in the third level of heroism. This means engaging mostly in competency enhancing activities without measuring the intensity of one’s sacrifices. The third level of heroism goes beyond the metrics of performance and focuses on the construct “constituency development” (please see my vision/mission statement) as the seamless transformation from a chaotic interregnum (please see the book titled “Firms of Endearment: How World Class Companies Profit From Passion & Purpose by Rajendra S. Sisodia, David B. Wolfe & Jagdish N. Sheth”) to a paradigmatic governance structure. Demonstrating a constituency-focused heroism involves a firm commitment to providing professional care, ethical protection, and development opportunities for those who have less in life.

“Diversity Management: An Evolving Challenge for the Third Millennium”

by Cenen Herrera
Writing from Martinez, San Francisco Bay Area

Diversity Management (DM) is all about managing differences in culture, behavior, orientation and the related tensions that arise as a result of such gaps. DM has become an evolving challenge for organizations with a multi-cultural working environment. The new-age Governance Champion has constantly encountered this phenomenon in the corporate world as one of the most pressing challenges of this millennium.

Traditionally, organizations have designed their ideal controls to match the best practices of the industry. Best practice is a benchmark often used by business organizations in rating the effectiveness of their operating performance. But what is best practice? One working definition indicates that best practices are those that produce outstanding results, i.e., positive results that exceeded targets. Best practice today could be different tomorrow in view of technological advancements, refinements in doing things, innovations, or even simply a change in mindset or lifestyle. Thus, best practice could be viewed as an evolving paradigm.

The new-age Governance Champion role is to perform the appropriate oversight in the control environment. Embracing the best practice mode has become an overarching objective for most Governance Champions in order to achieve a triple A advantage: 1. Attitude – Acquiring the attitude appropriate for the business environment to achieve and exceed the desired results; 2. Aptitude – Maintaining a leadership aptitude that continuously aligns business activities with best practices; and 3. Arbitrage – seeking risk-less profit making activities through strategic decisions in an uneven market opportunities.

As a result of having a multi-cultural working environment, aligning one’s corporate habits to best practices has become extremely challenging in light of the diversity of views and practices within an organization. The reaction from the Governance Champion is to adopt an effective Diversity Management Program. Effective diversity management means that Top Management sets the tone to continuously learn how to transform the working habits of multi-cultural staff into a one-mindset corporate identity, while respecting individual differences.