The noisy and the loud

Today we see so many lawyers arguing with each other as they tackle high profile cases. Watch them in action when they are interviewed in talk shows or news programs. Mere mortals like me find it difficult to discern who is telling the truth and who is not. You hear a lot of voices and you hear a lot of noises and it’s difficult for untrained people like me to differentiate between the two.

Carl Sandburg offer this advice to law students: “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell” Maybe noise and volume of voice can hide the deficiencies and get the job done. But then again isn’t this happening in many workplaces as well?

When I started my corporate career I was observant. The “superstars” in the office got all the attention. These were the extroverts. These were the “loud” people. The jokers, the funny ones, they made you laugh, and they sure were effective in getting and catching your attention. They come into the room and proclaim, “Hey, I got the sale.” A lot of high-fives go around and the “superstar” begins telling the tale of how he conquered the odds and got the “sucker” to sign on the dotted line. These are also the same people who would enter the room and shout, “I almost got the contract but some nincompoop beat me to it.” Either way, whether they got the job done or not they are loud and noisy. They cannot help but get your attention.

And then there were the quiet ones. You do not notice them a lot because they are quiet. It seems to me that they exert extra effort in being quiet. They do not want the attention. But they get the job done. If they don’t you do not hear them complain because they seem to bear the pain in silence. And when they do they are just… you know… quiet.

And so, thinking of my work experiences in the past I posted this thought in my digital space: “There are those that are loud and the noisy in the workplace. They get all the attention and that’s ok as long as they perform and respect others. There are the quiet ones. You don’t get a lot of drama from them but they’re stable, steady, reliable and they deliver. We need to appreciate and respect them too. Remove the drama, the noise and the hype. At the end of the day, performance matters and each one should be evaluated by it and through it.”

And it got about 9,000 “likes” and almost something like 2,800 plus “shares.” Most comments are positive and they expressed agreement and approval. But there are some comments that do not agree. Here are some of them:

“Performance doesn’t matter sir if you belong to a weak management...”

“Sana nga lang mag base sa PERFORMANCE. Ramdam at kitang kita ang mga pasarap sa tabi tabi.”

While their observations may be true, this got me thinking and so I placed another post: “There are strong and inspiring leaders and there are weak and poor managers. I have worked for them and I have worked with them. Guess what? I have learned from all of them. I have been inspired by the good ones and I have challenged myself with the not-so-good ones too. And so this is my conclusion: Just because I am employed I should never deceive myself into thinking that I am working for somebody else. What we become, learn, do and develop is what we get out of our work. And good or bad management… well, they are just part of the equation and the day I stopped blaming them was the day I start growing up.”

I had very good comments out of this. As of this writing perhaps it has reached 8,000 plus “likes.” And then one very honest comment came this way: “I want to share this... very timely… I just can’t... we are in the “blame the management phase...”

So figure it out. How do you deal with people like these? Herd mentality? Mob mentality? None-thinking individuals? Low EQ employees? They are all over the place are they not?

Perhaps this is why the demands for me to provide leadership and values-based training continue to increase year after year and there is no visible sign of slowing down.

Soft skills training are important. Behavioral, values, attitude, work excellence, teamwork and collaboration… if these are not taught then where would our people get their ideas? Social media? Gossips and ideas from the amateurs?

We need to train them with the realization that who they are and what they become is more important than what they earn and what they have done. Train our people to discern the voice from the noise and to think critically for their own sake.

(Francis Kong with his highly acclaimed Level Up Leadership learning event will be back with its next run on June 5-6. Early registrations and reservations can be made by contacting April at +63928-559-1798 or register online at www.levelupleadership.ph)