02-27-2013: Humility

James 4:9-10

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE)

⁹ Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into dejection. ¹⁰ Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

We cannot win every time. Only very few can say they are undefeated. The month was tough work-wise and I admit that i am truly humbled with the experience.  It is painful but it is reminder that there is a big chance of redemption. I cannot afford to have a joyful disposition.  I submit to the Lord.  

Today, I realize that indeed there is a time to mourn and weep.  We cannot just laugh and be positive about everything.  The worst times are the best times to reflect and make changes.  It is usually the time that people are most creative, prayerful, and change-oriented.  By reaching the bottom, you can either quit or propel yourself back up. It is a critical time. A serious time.

It is time for me to rise from the ashes and start redeeming myself.  I want my team to also learn from the experience and truly become better than ever.  It is time to be serious and I will reserve all my joy and laughter when I reach the goals that I have set upon myself. 

I turn to God that He may bless me with all the wisdom, knowledge, skills, breaks, and opportunities to attain my goals. I recommit myself to my goals and I will do whatever it takes to achieve. I resolve that I will not celebrate the small victories or be happy be small gains as I will focus my eye on the prize and do this quest as my offering to God. May he be with us! Amen.

02-26-2013 Entry: Change is looming

I am writing again and I even have my own fitness journal in my other blog: http://fitbysummer.blogspot.com/. This journal will be different this will focus more on what is going in my life in general and what goes through my mind. Well today, it was all about work.  

I set up a meeting with my broker Florezil Agujetas II and we were brainstorming on how to improve the performance of our sales group. After a somewhat stellar January, the agents are crahing back to earth and it seems that our sales agents are ultra-underperforming. I was wondering we spoiled them or something. One thing is for sure is that change has to come. We cannot succeed if we stagnate and just do the same things all over again. I felt that the agents were over reliant on queueing and they are not maximizing our exhibits.  Flo and I realized that it was time to crack whip and handle the agents differently. It is a tough pill to swallow but it is necessary.  I am going to admit that my management style has flaws and I have to adopt some changes to lead a consistent and high performing team.  Things must be run differently from now on.  Here are some of the proposed changes that Flo and I thought:

1. Change in exhibit manning procedures - I have told Analane Yap that I am letting go off our Robinsons Cybergate manning. It seems to me that the Rainmakers do not perform well when they get stuck with too many exhibit manning schedules. I need the agents to explore other sales channels.  I am also reducing the number of agents that are going to be present in each exhibit.  Having too many agents at one time is very inefficient as there are only few mall clients every day. 
2. Reporting - Every agent is required to report all sales activities and results.  We will closely monitor all prospects and check if agents need to be assisted or pushed.  The time of just giving them total freedom with their clients is suspended and as much possible the managers will get involved in the transactions. I think we somehow overestimated their abilities and it is just proper that we make adjustments to improve their performance.
3. Tripping - We will now join agents in their trippings in March to see if we can still fine tune their presentation and closing styles. We have to improve their closing rate. 
4. Change in attitude and habits - We noticed that some agents are developing bad habits and we will make steps correct it. We want to run our operations differently and we would like to kill some of the bad practices of our agents. We will now control how they will act and look during work.  We even what to somehow control how they think.
5. Focus on bottom lines - In the end, it is all about sales. A dismal month should be taken lightly by the leaders and the members. We have to send a clear message that the February performance is unacceptable. We need to show them our disappointment and we even need to scold them. We won't fire them but we want them fired up. We have to make them fear and hate being zero.  It is all about accountability.  We have to turn things around and finish the quarter with a flurry. 

I will be meeting the team on Thursday evening and we will set "fire to the rain". The tone of the meeting will start with disappointment then anger then self-evaluation then proposing changes then laying of ground rules that is acceptable to all then hope and motivation. "We will keep on fighting till the end cause we are the champions, we are the champions ...." ;)

First Post

What will this blog be all about? Well, I am Carlo Andrew Olano and I am starting this blog to serve as my online journal and as a venue to express my views in life and with the events that could affect my life. This blog could contain entries about work, philosophy, travel, reviews, sports, and politics.  It is practically based on personal opinion and how I see things.

My views could be different from some of you and I am willing to read and respond to comments made on an entry in this blog. I am using this blog to reflect on life and also gain some kind of perspective on where my life would be going.  By starting this journal, I could practically look back in the future and see how I lived my life and be mesmerized how my ideas, beliefs, and looks evolved.  I am looking forward to even showing this to my future children or grandchildren.  I am practically starting my autobiography today with this blog.