January Jumpstart: Aloha and a Manager’s Intent

Welcome to MWA Jumpstart!

Managing with Aloha has become a movement of exciting progress in professional growth and community fellowship, for we manage, lead, and live with aloha together. No one need do this alone. Mahalo nui, thank you so much for the choices you are making to be part of it: I applaud your decision to honor both your own aloha spirit and personal values.

Each year, resplendent in amore and Valentine greetings, February arrives as the perfect month for us to revisit Aloha, the value of unconditional love and acceptance of both self and others. 16 days from now we will do just that on Talking Story, with a brand new coaching essay on Aloha to introduce our February Ho‘ohana. We’ll go back to the basics of what it means to manage with aloha once you harness the intention of aloha as your personal value.

Therefore, in our January Jumpstart preparing for February, we’re going to spend some time getting to the heart of why we are managers in the first place.

What is your intention? Did you choose to be a manager, or did you just find your way to being one? Whatever the history of your journey, do you love being a manager? If not, why do you persist in being one?

Sidebar: You will find the MWA Jumpstart will often address managers, however I fully realize that not everyone reading is in management. We welcome your involvement and I urge you: Do continue to participate in the program, for there are so many applications to our living with aloha — that comes first! Read my specific coaching for managers for clues on how you can reinvent your relationship with the managers you work for or interact with: challenge them to join our managing with aloha movement and grow with us.

You can’t be a great manager if you do not intentionally choose to be one, and then make a passionate commitment to management consciously and with full intention. To “get started” with Managing with Aloha, you must be able to honestly say being a manager is your deliberate choice, and that your passion lies in the joys which come from being a great manager: “Good” is not good enough, for as a manager you directly affect the quality of people’s lives. That is not a responsibility to be taken lightly.

In your first MWA Jumpstart this month you must take stock of where your own convictions are when it comes to certain beliefs:

What do the truly great managers of our world believe in?

• Managers must believe that people are innately good. Without this core belief and faith in people, great management is not possible.
• Managers believe they do not work on their people, they work with them; they enable and empower them.
• Managers believe that “empowerment” comes from within, and has more to do with self-motivation and innate talent than with the acceptance of authority. They get their cues from the person, not from the task or process.
• Managers believe that all people have strengths which can be made stronger, and that their weaknesses can be compensated for to become unimportant.
• When it comes to training, the great managers do not believe they train people, they believe they train skills and offer additional knowledge.
• Managers believe they coach and mentor people, and they love doing so — not “like,” love.
• Managers believe that the people they manage are more than capable of creating a better future. They hold great faith and trust in the four-fold human capacities of physical ability, intellect, emotion, and spirit.
• Managers believe in the power of positive, affirmative thinking, and they have a low tolerance for negativity. They are confident and eternal optimists.
• Managers believe it is their job to remove barriers and obstacles so people can attain the level of greatness they are destined for. They believe that “can’t” is a temporary state of affairs, and that everything is only impossible until the first person does it.
• Managers believe that their legacy will be in the other people they have helped to achieve worthwhile and meaningful goals. They believe that success is measured in people who thrive and prosper.

These are the reasons why managers matter, and why management is vitally important. These are the challenges you must be eager to tackle. Let-me-at-‘em, I’m-perfect-for-this-job eager.

This is your January Jumpstart:

There are 5 Steps. In your Jumpstart to Aloha these next 16 days, take an honest assessment of your intentions and your focus, doing so systematically in this order:

1. Do you share these beliefs of great managers? Is this what your own work looks, sounds, and feels like? Are these the joys you strive to gain in your learning? If not, you must work on the obstacles that stand in the way. Understand they are obstacles in your own thinking, and not imposed by others.

2. Read Chapter 2 of MWA on Ho‘ohana one more time, and write a short paragraph which explains your own passion for worthwhile, on-purpose work as a manager with belief in your people. Write it as an affirmation, and post it where you’ll read it often. Turn your Ho‘ohana into a personal mantra.

Next, if your focus is weighted more on task than on your people you must redirect it. Working to improve the systems and processes of task-handling is fine, but if you want to be a truly great manager who manages with aloha, your own task work should be a temporary, short-term deal so you can devote your energies to working with your people. Therefore,

3. Construct a new habit for yourself in your Weekly Review of measuring the Task/People percentage of your work on a week-to-week basis. We all deal with a variety of tasks and always will, however managing people must always trump dealing with tasks — trust me, there’s a win/win here! Strive to attain a 70% people / 30% tasks ratio, and devise your strategies on how you will maintain it.

4. In MWA, review the last paragraph on page 23 to this phrase on page 24: “… when you do hire, select employees you believe in and are willing to create a relationship with.”  Then, take stock of the relationships you have with those you manage: List their names, and rate your connection with them on a scale of 1-5, 1 being poor, 3 being just average, and 5 being terrific. This will be your starting point: in our February Ho‘ohana we’ll work on steadily improving your ratings.

5. Be ready when February 1st arrives: Complete your reading of Chapter 1 of MWA on Aloha. Through-out the Jumpstart program you’ll find that I encourage you to read ahead, so that in the Ho‘ohana month itself we can devote our efforts to the practices of working and living.

Related Reading: Better Believe it, Managers Matter.

Postscript: If you are anxiously waiting for your copy of MWA to arrive (…you did order it, right? See Collect your Tools in this post) ... you can read the story of my own management journey in this book excerpt: Prologue and Introduction: The introduction covers the role of the manager, and why I focus on management and on values.

-------------------- Update:

NEXT JUMP: More on Jan. Jumpstart Number 1.

BACK TO THE LAST JUMP:  Introducing the MWA Jumpstart.

Comments

[James Shewmaker]

This article has been "seeded" to the integrity.newsvine.com page and added to the reading assignment feed for cohesiveintegrity.com

[Rosa Say]

Mahalo nui James! You are a very valued member of our Ho‘ohana Community, and I appreciate your support. We wholeheartedly welcome all in your own community of readers and learners to pick up a paddle and jump in our canoe.
Huki! (let's start paddling :-)
Rosa

[Steve Sherlock]

Rosa, thanks for the jump start! I am airborne now ...

[Rosa Say]

That is spectacular Steve! With the fire that normally propels you anyway, I knew you would be with just a bit more keawe wood to burn...
Ho‘ohana - work it!
Rosa

[Yvonne DiVita]

Rosa, as I gear up for a busy 2006, your coaching is going to be a critical factor in my success. How do I know this? I know it because your words inspire me - and help create the focus I need to move forward as both as a manager and as a woman. #4 of today's post is especially important to me. Can I do it...we'll see!

[Felix Gerena]

I´m going to follow all your steps Rosa. I find it a very rewarding experience.

[Rosa Say]

Of course you can do it Yvonne! #4 is something we all need to do on a regular basis, giving ourselves a Relationship Report Card on those key relationships that are so critical to us, for it is too easily natural a tendency for us to take the people we are closest to for granted. We make the mistake of thinking, "oh, she knows me, and she'll understand" when just the opposite, those are the realtionships we need to be the most careful with at times.

Felix, I am so cheered by your spoken commitment here! Your participation is guaranteed to bring us even more synergy of thought and energy! Welcome aboard the canoe.

Plenty of seats left everyone... pick up a paddle...

[Dean Boyer]

Dear Rosa,

Thank you so much for this companion to your book. I have invited my administrative team to join me in the journey. We hope to meet monthly to create ways to practically implement the principles.

Dean Boyer

[Nick Roy]

Oh boy I miss Hawaii. Since moving to Florida I have dealt with one rude person after another. The Aloha spirit is alive and well in the Aloha state, in that business people know how to help each other out. I try instilling that same aloha spirit here, and people will say get lost.

To find any sought of unconditional love, I have to go to a place called, Crystal Vision Gift Shop (http://www.crystalvisionltc.com), for some metaphysical relaxation.

Other than that it is sad over here. Business people here in Florida don't deserve any aloha. I can't wait to myself back to Hawaii.

[Rosa Say]

Everyone deserves aloha Nick, and everyone has it. However it is true that people everywhere need to see it in action much more often so that they realize how much they want it to stay at the surface of their everyday lives versus getting buried under complacency, mediocrity, and outright rudeness.

That's why great management matters so much, and why I ask everyone to join our MWA movement. Together we can create great workplaces everywhere, and from those work places of greatness, the spirit of aloha will burn brightly.

Just like Dean is doing in Washington State with his staff and faculty! Mahalo for adding your voice here Dean. It makes my heart sing to know how you are championing aloha and great management in your field of education.

Nick, we have some excited Ho'ohana Community members in Florida - have you met Dave and Rosemary yet?
http://wizaard.typepad.com/rothacker_reviews/ Dave writes about the "most excellent businesses and folks" in Florida often!

[Dee Coyle]

Aloha Rosa:
I've been cruising MWA Jumpstart January and February and by doing the exercises for this month, I have recaptured the essence of my purpose at my job. The simple deed of writing my passions as affirmations made a 180 turnaround on my attitude at work. The power of the word is amazing. Mahalo for simplifying what sometimes seems impossible.

Aloha from Maui, Dee Coyle

[Rosa Say]

Aloha e Dee, how wonderful to hear this! Mahalo nui loa for sharing your personal experience with MWAJ so far. You have given us an extraordinary gift today in doing so, for Kakou- we are stronger and better taking this journey together.

Ho'omau Dee, for in the exceptionally special time I was able to share with you personally this past January on Maui, I know of the richness you share with others in your ho'ohana. Your aloha spirit has incredible light.
Mahalo nui, aloha e,
Rosa