Employee Empowerment

 

Employee empowerment is getting employees to do what needs to be done rather than just waiting and doing what they are told.  Empowerment is an act of building, developing and increasing other people's power through cooperation, sharing and working together to develop their COMPETENCY (knowledge, skills and attitudes).

It takes a level 5 leader to authentically empower their team to surpass you to reach their full potential.  It takes self-awareness, self-effacing and humility to genuinely empower one's employees.

Zig Ziglar Theory identified a list of seven steps associated with goal setting, identification, benefits, obstacles, skills, people, plan and timelines.

A stretch assignment is a project or task that challenges an employee to go beyond their current skills set and experience fostering growth and development by pushing them outside their comfort zone.

Situational Leadership

Situational Leadership is an approach where the leader matches and adapts behavior with the needs, commitment, capability and maturity level of his individual employee or team.

Leadership POWER

I was tasked to attend the Civil Service Commission Supervisory Development Course Track 2 and I share the nuggets of wisdom and learnings.

POWER is the prime mover of people and events, the ability to make things happen the way you want to.  The essence of power is influence over the behavior of others.

POWER is the ability to lead and inspire based on TRUST, respect and wholehearted commitment freely given and earned.

Impending Sense of Gloom

 

"There are days when your life clouds over and the world gets so dark, that all at once you can't tell night from day..."  this song from Miss Saigon seems to echo in my ears.

There are days when I do feel thankful for waking up to another day filled with hope and renewed opportunities but somehow I have difficulty finding the motivation to get up and do anything.  What's the use of giving it your best if tomorrow you will probably die anyway?

This is the problem with transitions - some transitions may be painful, because change is not easy.  Whether it's the transition from a child to an adolescent, from an adolescent to adulthood, from singlehood to married life, from nulligravid to primipara, from menstruating to menopause.  All through the life cycle there are changes which are affected by biological, emotional, psychological, social and mental factors.

I've been struggling with the effects of menopause like insomnia, musculoskeletal pains, vasomotor symptoms like hot flushes, headaches and even depression.   I am not one to take medications, as much as I can avoid it... So I take things one day at a time, accepting these transitional changes as part of life. 

While others talk about quiet quitting and giving only the minimum compliance to keep from getting fired, I have always used work as a clutch.  Work has become a coping mechanism for me to keep me pre-occupied and distracted from the silence that somehow has become so frightening that I am at risk of being enveloped in the darkness and swallowed whole by an overwhelming sense of gloom.  Are these thoughts suicidal ideations?  I cannot be sure.  I keep thinking and praying for death... "for in that sleep of death what dreams may come, when we have shuffled off this mortal coil, must give us pause..."

In that terrible silence, I hear the small voice that whispers to Lola Sising that I just want to be a good girl.... but all the wounds and scars from battles both mental, psychological and social, add to that overwhelming oppression of need and longing and rejection. 

Quiet Quitting in Healthcare

Minimum compliance is not enough when you aim to provide quality healthcare because health is wealth and lives of patients are at stake.  So what happens when the healthcare professionals and managers face the phenomenon of "quiet quitting"?

Pyramid of Quiet Quitting

When an employee suddenly leaves our work chat groups for no reason, I asked if she was ok and she simply said "I'm ok, but there are just too many chat groups." then she laid low on work activities, not exerting much effort or engaging co-workers in improving the system.  

When I searched Google Generative AI about this, I discovered a new term called quiet quitting.

QUIET QUITTING refers to employees disengaging from their work by doing the bare minimum to maintain their jobs, without explicitly resigning, and often as a sign of dissatisfaction or burnout.  This can lead to decreased productivity, reduced innovation, and a decline in employee morale.  Signs of quiet quitting include not volunteering for extra projects or leadership roles, limited participation in meetings or team discussions, refusing to take on tasks outside of the job description, arriving late or leaving early, focusing on the minimum required to keep the job.  Quiet quitting can be addressed by improving employee engagement and morale, providing opportunities for growth and development, encouraging open communication and feedback, addressing burnout and stress.

Heather Whitney  writes in her blog Quiet Quitting: Meaning, Signs, and How to Prevent it that in a survey they conducted, the majority of quiet quitters said their manager affects their work ethic (57%), as does their mental health (55%) and compensation (51%). 

Gray Towers says that quiet quitting offers both opportunities and threats for talent acquisition teams.  "their loss is our gain" if quiet quitters are enticed to apply in your company.  However, if the reasons for quiet quitting still pervades in the work place, these quiet quitters can be the reason to need recruiting in the first place.  Bottom line is that employers should have a good employee engagement program.

T1.  How do you understand the concept of "quiet quitting" in healthcare workforce?

T2.  How do you think the concept of quiet quitting affects work-life balance and healthcare service delivery?

T3.  What factors do you think impact work ethics of healthcare professionals?

Transitions

I was searching Google about "transition clinics" considering that we have an adolescent health clinic that helps patients transition to the adult clinics...

Patients attending antenatal clinics are preparing for the transition from being single and available to experiencing motherhood.

I wish there were perimenopausal clinics as well to prepare women to transition to menopause, because now I am experiencing a lot of symptoms like aches and pains and difficulty sleeping.

According to Google AI, transition clinics provide specialized care and support to patients as they move from one stage of treatment of care to another such as from pediatric to adult care or from hospital to home, focusing on medical, practical and emotional needs.

T1.  What transitions in health have you experienced, and how has it affected your life so far?

T2. Do you think these health transitions are severe enough to warrant transition clinics?  Why or why not?

T3.  What practical health tips can you offer for patients undergoing health transitions?

 

Journaling

I started my "Dear Diary" habits way back in grade school when I did not have the courage to verbally express my feelings then.  I needed an outlet to vent out my thoughts, feelings and emotions without affecting anyone else.  The problem was that when my mother read my diary, she found out all my secrets and I had felt betrayed.

So now I would like to think that I've grown smarter, with the sage advice of Yoda "guard your thoughts lest they become words.  Guard your words lest they become action.

"Fear is the path to the dark side.  Fear leads to anger; anger leads to hate; hate leads to suffering.  I sense much fear in you."

Take Care of Your Heart

How can we make our heart see God and neighbor more clearly?

Healthcare Conversations with Lola

 

In Filipino, Lola means grandmother.

I was remembering how my lola Sising and my lola Flora were both working girls helping to make both ends meet to provide for their families.  Although they were not medical doctors or homebodies, they knew how to take care of their children when they get sick.

Tonight let us remember the things we learned from our grandmothers and their approach to healthcare, tonight at 9PM MLA time on #HealthXPH.  See you on Bluesky!

T1.  What alternative medical treatments did your lola expose you to when you were growing up?

T2.  What have you learned from your exposure to your lola's approach to health and wellness?

T3.  What health advice did you receive from your lola that you could also pass on to future generations?

LET THEM Theory

The LET THEM THEORY helps you save energy and get more work done.

Four big ways that you've turned other people into a problem:

1.  You let people stress you out.

2.  You consider what other people think about you.

3.  You allow emotional immaturity in other people and in yourself to dominate your actions and how you move through your day.

4.  You constantly compare yourself with others and this makes you feel that life is unfair, and that other people are against you or competing with you.

All four of these obstacles are simply not true, so let them!

When you no longer allow people to stress you out, you have more energy.

When you allow other people to have negative thoughts about you because whatever negative they think about you is beyond your control anyway, let them.  Focus instead on the things that are within your control.

When you operate in a way that makes you proud of who you are, you authentically don't care about other people's negative opinions.

Be better than you were yesterday, no matter what others are achieving you are competing only with yourself.

We meet ourselves

I realize that no matter my approach to people, no matter if I put on a brave or friendly face, if peope don't like you they will snub you and overlook you or completely ignore you.  It doesn't matter how much effort you put into meeting them halfway.  If they are not willing, then it simply is not worth it.

On the other hand, there will be people who watch out for you and care enough to correct your mistakes and teach you how to move forward.  These are the people who matter.  Be motivated to work and improve yourself so that you can be like them.  

 

Survive

 

Learn something new everyday!

I decided to try learning how to use the Canva app on my phone.  I heard that students nowadays hardly use Powerpoint anymore because Canva is allegedly easier to use with lots of templates and designs... so i decided to try it out.  

After all, the best characteristic for learning is the willingness to try something new.

It started out with me making inspirational posters for my brother as part of my gentle reminders for him to take his maintenance meds... one poster per day from pictures grabbed from facebook and sayings/messages from my newsfeed.  Better you know it, I had created 10 designs!  I've started to get used to Canva.

As they say, practice makes perfect.  If you want to learn a new skill, you if you just want to maximize the use of an expensive cellphone so that you don't regret your purchase...

T1.  What new skill did you learn recently?

I remember when I was 17 years old, I was soooo excited to get my learner's driving permit so that I could learn to drive my car... I think my father almost had a heart attack when I was starting to speed up and didn't break abruptly when he said to stop.  He then delegated the rest of my driving lessons to my uncle Tony.  Today I enjoy driving because of the freedom it affords me.

T2.  Is this new skill a milestone?  How does this new skill impact your life?  Why?

The first time is always memorable.  

I remember singing the psalms in church the first time.  I was given a tape to listen to then the next day I sang in church.  No biggie.  I kept singing the psalms on Sundays until I had to leave for college.  This taught me how to be confident in my God-given talents.

I remember the first time I rode on a bus by myself to UP Los Banos and to rent a room and live away from home.  This was a new phase in my life when I had to learn how to budget and how to motivate myself to wake up on my own in the mornings, how to fend for myself and decide whether to walk or to ride the jeep... This was a lesson on independence and self-reliance.

I remember the first time I performed cesarean section as the primary surgeon during residency training.  My eyes were as sharp as an eagle's.  My hand was as steady as a sewer.  My heart was as brave as a lion's.  I had to keep in mind that surgical mistakes can spell the difference between life and death.  This taught me humility in service, accountability and stewardship.

T3.  What skill do you hope to learn someday?

My mother is a great homemaker.  She goes to market and makes sure she gets her money's worth.  She cooks and bakes.  She sews me dresses and bed covers and curtains and blankets.  She gardens.  She cleans the house.  She even does her own carpentry and paint jobs.

If I can only learn one of these homemaking skills, I would be more like my mother.

BRANDING

 

Last January 13, 2025 I was officially relieved of being the division chief of the Professional Allied Health Services (Health Information Management and Medical Social Services).  I gave my endorsements and I left all the group chats.  So now I can focus on leading the VSMMC Research Institute - to genuinely provide an enabling environment for research, as well as the KAAMBAG Clinic HIV/AIDS Core Team - to target enhanced awareness and control of HIV/AIDS in Cebu.

THIS WILL BE OUR BRANDING:  the way we make others feel will be our trademark.

Our strategy is to find ways to streamline our process flows so that nobody is indispensable.  All the staff are empowered to take on office functions in the absence of the other co-workers.

We spend hours on meetings, discussing our strategies and identifying our priorities to avoid getting overwhelmed.  After all, the journey of a thousand miles begin with a single step.  Ever forward we go, not allowing our fears to paralyze us, trying to do things differently each time until we find the best solution.

Go ahead and write.

I read Ronnie Baticulon's post and was genuinely happy for him.  His first book is still selling well in physical bookstores.  To all medical students out there, I highly recommend you get your copy of this memoir of a neurosurgeon, and the very real challenges of being a doctor in the Philippines.

Even our staff Alden Arsenal was bold enough to self-publish his book "Walay Bayot sa Langit" in Bisaya.  This gives me courage to pursue a collaborative effort to come up with the KAAMBAG Coffee Table book and start producing booklets in installments as both a way to raise funds for our programs and to reduce stigma and discrimination against PLHIVs because they are humans too, who need love, care and respect.

How do you spend your money?

During the Christmas season, we usually receive our bonus and Philhealth share, SRA, PEI and CNA (and all other abbreviations of benefits they can think of...).  It is also a great opportunity for income generation with all the parties and gift-giving and shopping.

December is a season of spending money.  Aside from the mandatory gifts, how did you spend your money?

T1.  Share with us what you consider your largest purchase for this year. 

January is the start of the year with the New Year resolutions and we start the cycle of saving all over again.  Some tips on managing your money include (1) creating a budget, (2) saving for emergencies, (3) investing for the future, and (4) reducing your debt.  

I've personally observed that the older generation is more thrifty than my generation and label me as "galit sa pera" but when we discuss about spending with my younger colleagues, they think I have a lot of money that I could have spent for travel and vacations.  

Different people have different priorities when it comes to saving and spending.  Some save up for emergencies or contingencies.  Others invest in further formal education.  Large purchases become forced savings when purchasing a new house or a new car or top of the line gadgets.  Others put away funds for retirement, while others save for travel to allow them to experience new cultures, explore the world and create lasting memories. 

T2.  What are you saving up for?  Is this a need or a want?

I asked Gemini about key investment options and the shortlist I received include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds, real estate and commodities.  At my age, I am still paying for my condo unit and a farm that I purchased in 2018.  Filling up my SALN reminds me that I have liabilities that can be considered investments.

3.  How do you save or invest your money?

Join us tonight on #HealthXPH at 9PM MLA time for a healthy discussion on money.

Shallow water makes much noise

When people feel insecure, it is natural to say things or do things that put other people down.  One of the things that I learned the hard way is to accept myself, and accept that I am different.  It's a nice feeling to belong, to blend in with the crowd.  However, if peer pressure keeps you from being true to yourself, then it is ok to be different.  It is alright to stand out.

The CHILD JESUS

Luis Antonio G. Cardinal Tagle shares in his youtube program THE WORD EXPOSED that the CHRIST CHILD Brings Hope.

Reflections on the Santo Nino:

1. How can the CHILD JESUS purify us of false images of happiness?
2. How can the CHILD JESUS lead us to authentic security in life?

 

Don't take the BAIT!

BAITING

When toxic people say negative and hurtful things, they are baiting you to get a reaction from you.  Don't take the bait!  Don't dignify negative comments with a response.

The best way to piss off a narcissist: Stop reacting!

Thankful Heart!

We do not realize the blessings that we have unless we see how others are coping with less.

 

Chill

Sometimes I can feel highly stressed about deadlines piling up, but I verbally and literally remind myself that "done is better than perfect!"

 

When you have a bad day...

There are days that anything you say will be misinterpreted and met with negative comments.   

There are days when anything you do will be considered a threat.  Then again, you have the choice to succumb to the negativity or to consider it as a learning opportunity.

A friend gave me solid advice:  

Don't take it personally. It's human nature. People generally don't want to be told what they should or shouldn't do. The recipient might have interpreted your suggestion as you thinking that they haven't thought of that, or they are not doing their jobs right. This quality is more the rule than the exception though.

Nevertheless, there are proper ways to communicate.  We need to promote non-violent communication, because we do 't really know what the other person is going through.

Atty Augusto W. Go and the University of Cebu

This is the first time I met with Atty Augusto W. Go, the patriarch of the University of Cebu (UC).  During the time that Lola Sising set up The Share A Child Movement, he was one of the benefactors, allowing poor but deserving children to complete their education.  Many of our current scholars are also scholars of UC.

Following the heels of Lola Sising's birth anniversary last January 9, 2025.  She would have been 107 years old... I took a selfie with Atty AWG telling him proudly that I am the granddaughter of Atty Esperanza Valenzona and I took over The Share A Child Movement, Inc until it closed down in 2022.  He still knows Atty Valenzona.  He still remembers the Share A Child Movement!