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| Photo credit: http://www.lasalle.org/en/who-are-we/st-john-baptist-de-la-salle/ |
St. John Baptist de La Salle was born in Reims, France on
April 30, 1651, with a silver spoon in his mouth. He had parents who
were influential and wealthy. He became a Canon of the Cathedral of Reims at the age of 16 and entered the seminary at 19.
When his parents died one year apart from each other, at 21, being
the eldest son, he became the head of the family and legal guardian of
his surviving siblings (i.e., four brothers and two sisters), was
ordained as a priest at 27 and finished his Doctorate in Theology two
years later.
RISK TAKER
St. Lasalle was a risk taker in spite of all these achievements at a young age, He left his ancestral home to move in a rented house
with the teachers (whom he will later call “ Brothers”), resigned
his post as Canon (after serving for 15 years, with a high
income) of the Cathedral of Reims, gave away the greater part of
his parents legacy and left a little just enough for him to
live on, this time joining his Brothers in absolute poverty and forming
the community now known as Brothers of the Christian Schools.
INNOVATOR
St. La Salle was an innovator because he founded
the first Catholic teaching institution with no priests at all
among its members. The Brothers were fully devoted only to
education and schools, with no sacramental functions.
Furthermore, when running their schools, St. La
Salle and his Brothers welcomed everyone who wanted to attend their
free school, be it poor or well-off students. This resulted to
infringement law suits and breach of generally accepted regulations filed by those business minded teachers on their school businesses.
Moreover, instead of using Latin as their medium of
instruction, St. La Salle started teaching his students in French. His students
were grouped according to their ability. He integrated religious teachings with
secular subjects. He conducted pioneering training programs for lay teachers.
He started Sunday Classes for young working male students. He opened
the first school in France for young delinquents. He wrote a lot of materials
for the use in school of his Brothers. He wrote a lot of the
Brother’s internal prayers
SERVANT LEADER
St. La Salle was a servant leader because he
wanted to serve first the poorest of the poor by uplifting their station in
life through the gift of free quality education because he knows that
education is the great equalizer of men.
As a servant leader during his younger years, St. La Salle
was a chaplain and a confessor to the Sisters of the Child
Jesus, which was then a new order whose primary function was the
education and care of young girls. His aspiration in life was to really
be of service to as many people as possible.
He was a servant leader because he puts the needs and well
-being of the poor people first which was shown when he gave away
his inheritance to the poor and just left a little for himself to live on, not
thinking of his own future.
St. La Salle manifested his being a servant leader, in the
movie that we have seen when he said: “Real wealth is better than you think and
feel, not being possessed by possessions. To give, to receive, to reason,
children know these. There is no class distinction among men. If I can open their
minds and let the sun into it, if enough of these can do this. If we can
open their minds to these lights, the world would become a brighter place,
closer to peace, closer to human fraternity.” His detachment to material things
was very evident in this statement and this only shows that all men for him are
equal.
MENTOR
Being a mentor was very evident with St. La
Salle when seeing that the teachers in Reims were poor uncultured men,
with no skills and not well schooled, he invited them to his home
initially for meals, but later on requested them to live with him in his
home so that he can personally train and equip them with teaching and
leadership skills.
St. La Salle was considered a mentor by his Brothers because
they value and respected his leadership of the Brothers of the Christian
Schools. During their first assembly, St. La Salle was elected as
Superior twice despite his wish for another Brother to be voted into
this office. Thus, he saw this as God’s will and so he accepted the
appointment. However, he requested the Brothers to put in writing that
“henceforth and for all time no priest or person in sacred orders is to be
accepted into our Society or elected as Superior, and that we shall never admit
as Superior anyone who has not associated himself with us by the same vow as we
have pronounced.” This only shows that St. La Salle was so well loved and
respected by his Brothers that they want him to be their Superior even
though he has signified his preference for another Brother to be elected.
St. La Salle wrote a lot of teaching materials for the Brothers
to be used in the conduct of their school teachings and for their
interior prayers.
LASALLIAN BUSINESS LEADER
As a La Sallian Business Leader, I
value and would like to emulate all the traits of St. Lasalle, i.e.,
a risk taker, innovator, servant-leader and mentor.
I usually take calculated risks especially if I know that it’s
worth taking and that the result in case it is successful will
redound to my benefit. Just like when my former boss (a Chinese Filipino
who’s also a La Sallian) invited me to join an international
maritime training center where he was serving as President at the
time of our meeting in August 2012. He offered me the position of Head of
Sales and Marketing Department and he also said that I will be under a
Norwegian Sales Director, who was a navy Captain.
In
short, I put on hold my dream of having a business and gambled on
joining this maritime training center first, as this was a new and
interesting industry (shipping and offshore oil and gas) for me to explore. In
short, on my 5th month
in the company, my Norwegian Sales Director has evaluated my performance and he
gave me a grade of EXCELLENT! Thus, I was so happy that I texted our President and he
congratulated me for a job well done.
I enjoy doing this job tremendously and all the everyday
challenges that I face. Thus, I didn’t notice that time flew so fast that
I will be celebrating my fifth year in the company this coming September 2017
and I’m excited to receive the company Loyalty Award with corresponding
cash gift that the management will give.
As an innovator in the work place, I find ways and means to
simplify our work processes so that we can all be efficient and effective
in the performance of our work and the achievement of our goals. I also encourage my staff to think out of the box and be creative in the way they do their work. However, we should continue to focus on the big picture, i.e. achieving our sales target as planned.
Being a servant leader in
the work place is not easy as you put the well-being of your company and staff above your personal interests.Sometimes you have to go beyond your official function and assist the staff with their personal concerns if they seek your help on this level. You become one family in the process of trying to achieve company goals. However, in spite of all of these hardships, I will still endeavor to become the best Lasallian Business Leader I can be!
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