Breakthrough with Boris Joaquin

Former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno urged Filipinos to speak their minds and push back against what they think is not right so that servant leaders, and not the self-serving ones, would be elected this coming May. During an interview over “Breakthrough with Boris Joaquin,” livestreamed on the Facebook pages of The Philippine STAR and Career Guide last May 9, Sereno said Filipinos should elect a “servant leader, nothing less” in the upcoming May elections, and that the public should fight against fake news and being stereotyped for preferring a particular candidate.

Listen and learn from the former top magistrate about how the Bible and the Philippine constitution define servant leadership and mandate us to choose only servant leaders. This part one of the whole episode.

The national elections are just around the corner. Proclamation rallies and sorties are happening left and right with the candidates’ political maneuvers. Looking at where our country has been requires us to be discerning.

One of the most influential leadership experts of our time is Ken Blanchard. He co-founded a movement called Lead Like Jesus, where I serve as regional representative for Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. When we first ran Lead Like Jesus in the Philippines, I honestly thought it would not work because of its spiritual underpinnings. But more and more companies are coming to realize that the nature and quality of one’s leadership is not just a matter of experience, education or people skills, but is essentially character-based, founded on such values as stewardship, responsibility, and accountability. It has almost been two decades, and we’re still running the program in the corporate world.

All those years of teaching servant leadership have challenged my standards as I think about my own personal leadership, about how to develop other organizational leaders, and about my own choices for our next set of national leaders.

In electing the next leaders of our nation, it is crucial to ask, “Are you choosing servant leaders or self-serving leaders?” In this episode, let me share with you some pointers on what a servant leader is like.

Is it possible for the hybrid work arrangement to become a standard practice even after the COVID-19 pandemic?

For Investors in People in the Philippines chairperson Janet Webster, it does, saying that many companies that were reluctant to implement it at first are now open to continuing it. This is part 1 of the interview with Janet Webster during the pilot episode of “Breakthrough With Boris Joaquin” on Wednesday, Feb. 9, livestreamed on the Facebook pages of The Philippine STAR and Career Guide.

Based on a study conducted by Investors in People in the Philippines, 91.7 percent of people surveyed believe hybrid working will benefit their respective organizations in the long term, while 8.2 percent said otherwise. Meanwhile, 37.5 percent of respondents said their productivity improved during the hybrid setup during the pandemic, and 50 percent answered that their productivity remained the same as pre-pandemic levels. The remaining 12.5 percent stated that their productivity in the hybrid work setup slowed down.

Janet said, “I think we’re on the brink of hybrid working now…So I think we’ve got an opportunity. People can see a hundred percent in the office [set-up] work, a hundred percent work-from-home work, why can’t we merge the two and make something even better?” 

This is a special episode. And normally special episodes interrupt the sequence of our planned episode to discuss a current or political event. In light of recent events, particularly the latest Pulse Asia survey for presidential race that shows vice president Leni Robredo at far second. We invited again AR Angcos, we had him during the discussion on PNoy's Legacy and VP Leni's Fight Chance, to share his analysis on VP Leni's winning chance. 

VP Leni's numbers were worst in 2016 and yet she won. Let's see history repeat itself. I like how Solita Monsod said in it her opinion column last year as she predicted that VP Leni will win, "I see hundreds of thousands of volunteers either just waiting to be asked or doing things on their own, contributing of their time, talents, and treasure to see the candidate of their choice win, at the ground level. They are going head to head against the moneyed political dynastic class and the big business that supports them (for a quid pro quo)… I see that this is happening, with great spontaneity, only in Leni’s case. And that is why she will win. The other candidates, with their questionable values and financing, don’t stand a chance against her."

We launched our podcast, Breakthrough with Boris Joaquin in 2020 in our commitment to continuously provide content, to help our clients and subscribers break through in life and work during the most disruptive times.

Today, after having hundreds of listeners in 35 countries, we are delighted to announce that Breakthrough with Boris Joaquin will now also be an online show through our partnership with the PhilStar Media Group.

Getting COVID and being isolated for 15 days taught me the valuable lesson of community. People responded to my family's needs like we're next door neighbors in a small village. Especially during disruptive times, it's very important to appreciate your community, whether its the church, your workplace or circle of friends and learn how to navigate through change with them. In this podcast episode aside from giving you an update where we are, let me share 4 points in staying connected in the midst of change.

First of all, let me express my sincerest gratitude to all my online friends and subscribers who reached out and even helped out. Thank you very much. We appreciate your help and concern. But most especially we appreciate your prayers. This is a short episode because I want to give you another update within the week, so episode 9 will be released earlier than the usual weekly Tuesdays. So until then...