“How can you have a charisma? Be more concerned about making others feel good about themselves than you are making them feel good about you.”
Dan Reiland
Vice President of Leadership Development, INJOY
“The Corps is deteriorating.” This is perhaps the most common comment you could hear from most alumni as they came back to PMA and observe the present cadets. This v
ery heartbreaking and humbling comment would then be followed by a litany of “during our times”. Perhaps the main culprit is culture of PMA of unbending and rigid system of seniority where senior cadets are always snappier than the juniors. This custom and practice transcends cadetship that is practiced in the AFP Officer Corps; in fact very few alumni, if there are any, are prudent enough to accept that their junior classes are snappier than them; or humbly accept that they have also a lot of very lax Mistahs (Classmates). This is what they termed as a twisted concept of seniority, where juniors will forever be juniors and will not have the chance of improving themselves better than their seniors. This lead to the conclusion that being snappy is relative to who is talking.
As role models and big brothers of the cadets, the alumni should initiate a paradigm shift of looking at the positive attributes of the present cadets rather than skinning them, looking for their offenses and amplifying their negative aspects. According to Jacques Wiesel, “A survey of one hundred self-made millionaires showed only one common denominator. These successful men and women could only see the good in people.” It is important to propel the cadets towards excellence by pushing their self esteem higher. They should think highly of themselves and believe that they can do and should do better.
Of course, everybody has a very high expectation from the cadets. As full government scholars, they are expected to excel in everything they do inside the academy. That is why mediocrity would be a sin that usually caught the scrutinizing eyes of the majority of alumni. On another thought, I believe that we must also understand the factors and environment affecting the cadets’ performance. Perhaps by honestly putting ourselves on their shoes; where the bulk of changes significantly modified their environment, would help a lot in understanding the Cadet Corps of today. There is no point of comparing them with our own classes because definitely there is no point of comparison since we all belong to different situations and no two (2) situations are exactly similar.
One thing is certain - PMA and the cadet Corps has to change; that is an unavoidable phenomenon and we should live with that. In its transformation, where the cadets found themselves in confusing crossroads of changes while being bombarded by the stressful effects of technology and some moral lapses of some PMA alumni, an irresponsible and degrading comment would certainly not help in any way. According to Benjamin Disraeli in John Maxwell’s book, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” With this, I enjoin all the alumni to help reveal the very rich and promising potentials of the cadets. A simple tap at the back or little encouraging words would do, so that in our own little ways we can contribute in their self esteem that will propel them to perform outstandingly, prompting all the alumni to unanimously agree that the Cadet Corps Is indeed improving.
Dan Reiland
Vice President of Leadership Development, INJOY
“The Corps is deteriorating.” This is perhaps the most common comment you could hear from most alumni as they came back to PMA and observe the present cadets. This v
ery heartbreaking and humbling comment would then be followed by a litany of “during our times”. Perhaps the main culprit is culture of PMA of unbending and rigid system of seniority where senior cadets are always snappier than the juniors. This custom and practice transcends cadetship that is practiced in the AFP Officer Corps; in fact very few alumni, if there are any, are prudent enough to accept that their junior classes are snappier than them; or humbly accept that they have also a lot of very lax Mistahs (Classmates). This is what they termed as a twisted concept of seniority, where juniors will forever be juniors and will not have the chance of improving themselves better than their seniors. This lead to the conclusion that being snappy is relative to who is talking.As role models and big brothers of the cadets, the alumni should initiate a paradigm shift of looking at the positive attributes of the present cadets rather than skinning them, looking for their offenses and amplifying their negative aspects. According to Jacques Wiesel, “A survey of one hundred self-made millionaires showed only one common denominator. These successful men and women could only see the good in people.” It is important to propel the cadets towards excellence by pushing their self esteem higher. They should think highly of themselves and believe that they can do and should do better.
Of course, everybody has a very high expectation from the cadets. As full government scholars, they are expected to excel in everything they do inside the academy. That is why mediocrity would be a sin that usually caught the scrutinizing eyes of the majority of alumni. On another thought, I believe that we must also understand the factors and environment affecting the cadets’ performance. Perhaps by honestly putting ourselves on their shoes; where the bulk of changes significantly modified their environment, would help a lot in understanding the Cadet Corps of today. There is no point of comparing them with our own classes because definitely there is no point of comparison since we all belong to different situations and no two (2) situations are exactly similar.
One thing is certain - PMA and the cadet Corps has to change; that is an unavoidable phenomenon and we should live with that. In its transformation, where the cadets found themselves in confusing crossroads of changes while being bombarded by the stressful effects of technology and some moral lapses of some PMA alumni, an irresponsible and degrading comment would certainly not help in any way. According to Benjamin Disraeli in John Maxwell’s book, 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader, “The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.” With this, I enjoin all the alumni to help reveal the very rich and promising potentials of the cadets. A simple tap at the back or little encouraging words would do, so that in our own little ways we can contribute in their self esteem that will propel them to perform outstandingly, prompting all the alumni to unanimously agree that the Cadet Corps Is indeed improving.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment