February Jumpstart: Ho‘ohana and your Strategic Planning

How ‘bout we take stock of where we should be first. I hope you realize just how much you have accomplished!

This was the MWAJ plan:

In 2006, our monthly ho‘ohana focus will return to the values of Managing with Aloha — think of it as a Value of the Month program where the book is the primer, and we continue our study, but study also translates into next action steps you take in real time within the work you do. It is time to execute.

—On January 9th we started the year on Talking Story with a Ho‘ohana on Ho‘omau. This value of persistence and perseverance also teaches us tenacity; to cause the good in our lives to continue and to last. Before we moved into our strategic planning for 2006, we took inventory of the great things from 2005 we wanted to be our keepers so we could perpetuate their value to us. [Link.]

—On January 11th we collected our tools, and started to define what our calendar routines should be, so that our practices of self-development could create good, momentum-building habits for us. For instance, we scheduled a time for a weekly review as a strategy to create what we called “Managing with Aloha mindset markers.” You designed the times best for you in your present working and living situation, and you committed to honoring them. [Link.]

—On January 16th we started the MWA Jumpstart Program with Aloha, the value of unconditional love and acceptance. Aloha was a magnificent place to start, for Aloha serves as the fertile ground in which all our other efforts will take root and grow. Aloha also coaches us to start with our own intentions, and to accept the challenges of being a “Great Manager” because of the core beliefs which define us when we have this calling. In MWAJ for January we had a 5-step plan to start with. [Link.]

—To support you, the Ho‘ohana coaching on Talking Story all through the month of February was on Aloha —and still is. [Link.] We beefed it up with a couple of articles here on www.ManagingWithAloha.com too:

We spent some time writing good affirmations for ourselves. [Link.]

We added Aloha to our “Language of Intention” and learned to articulate it in a way that is personal for us, a way we can be comfortable with, and make our own. [Link.] We got some great help from the Ho‘ohana Community on Talking Story with this too. [Link.]

In Looking for the good in people, we talked about having a Relationship Report Card, and I suggested two tools for you to use to improve your own report card’s ratings. [Link.]

Aloha serves the good in you too; it can bring you to a balanced contentment. This became clearer when we spoke of mana‘o pono on Talking Story. Pretty exciting how the MWA movement discussion emerged here within our community! [Link.]

As Great Managers we must be fully aware of the world around us, and we must make our work “count for real” not just a classroom-learning exercise. We received the perfect opportunity to test our responsiveness, when we momentarily shifted our MWAJ attentions to a 7-part reflection on the current demands of Leadership. [Link.]

Valentines Day would quickly bring us back to Aloha with an acronym for the day which is about having an Aloha Attitude; Authenticity, Love, Optimism, Humility, and Acceptance. [Link.]

For most of the Ho‘ohana Community, there are nine more days to go with the lessons of Aloha, for we have nine more days in the month of February.

However you are special! You’ve chosen to learn to be a Great Manager. Good is not good enough for you. You’ve taken a jump ahead of the pack, and while you also are looking forward to the 2nd Annual Love Affair with Books I’ve promised for this week on Talking Story, you’re ready to make the game more interesting, play offense, and call the plays for March.

You’re ready because today is February 20th, time for the next MWA Jumpstart on the value for March. You knew it was coming, and you’re ready.

Our Ho‘ohana value for March on Talking Story will be Kūlia i ka nu‘u, the Hawaiian name for the universal value of achievement and excellence. Kūlia i ka nu‘u should sound familiar to you. Remember the post called live, work, manage, lead?

When we pursue Kūlia i ka nu‘u as our personal value, we set our sights on the extraordinary, and we commit to banishing mediocrity. We declare war on complacency, apathy, auto-pilot, and everything boring. Instead, we choose to be innovative, take risks, be on the cutting edge, and never settle for anything less than dynamic, energizing and exciting.

I hope that sounds as good to you as it does to me!

There are only 2 steps for you in this February Jumpstart for March. However both are very important in setting the stage for the work we’ll do managing with Aloha in March with Kūlia i ka nu‘u. In conventional thinking, one of them would be considered “personal” and another “professional.” As you know, I blend these two areas of conventional thinking in MWA with my statement that “work is personal.” In these next nine days:

1. Kūlia i ka nu‘u is about personal and professional achievement. For this to be meaningful for you, you must be able to think of your Ho‘ohana in terms of a professional mission statement which falls in alignment with your personal values and goals.

With your January Jumpstart I asked you to review 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. I had you write it as an affirmation, and post it where you’d read it often. I asked you to turn your Ho‘ohana into a personal mantra.

Next, I want you to write it as your own Individual Mission Statement. Before February is over, I will share a form with you that makes pretty short and easy work of it. However before then, in preparation for that exercise over the coming weekend, re-read and review Chapter 3 in MWA on ‘Imi ola.

2. Kūlia i ka nu‘u is about personal and professional excellence. For this to be meaningful for you at work, we will connect it to your organization by means of something we must all do in thriving businesses: Strategic Planning.

We said that in MWAJ we would bring as much of our real-time month into value alignment as possible. To manage effectively, managers must have a plan, and it must be proactive: you’ve got to work in advance of what you present for the rest of your staff. In an organization, the summary of initiatives or major objectives you are planning to execute for the coming year is the Strategic Plan. It is usually driven by (or inspired by) your financial objectives for the year.

Your company may call it their Business Plan or another name, however I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. For your Step 2 in this Jumpstart, I just need you to collect it, read it over and get to a good level of understanding of it. Get the clarity you may need with it from your leaders in your organization. Keep it readily accessible, for with Kūlia i ka nu‘u we are going to work on making it come to life for you in an impactful way.

Let’s manage, work, and live with aloha,
Rosa

Postscript: Here for the first time? It’s not too late to start!
MWAJ is designed to be a complimentary online coaching program, free here, but most effective for the cost of the book— MWA is used as your workbook for Jumpstart. It’s self-paced, so you can start at any time, and you’ll see tracking similar to that below to take you from post-to-post in the program: I’ve left the original dates in the post so you can track your own progress by weeks.
So get your own copy of Managing with Aloha, and jump in! You start here.
Ho‘ohana with us, and Manage with Aloha— Rosa

--------------------Tracking MWA Jumpstart:

NEXT JUMP: Your Personal and Professional Mission Statement.

BACK TO THE LAST JUMP: Panic at Inappropriate Times.

Comments

[Steve Sherlock]

Thanks for the posting/reminder, Rosa. This is good stuff. I am having fun being a part of this.

[Rosa Say]

I am thrilled to hear that Steve, for fun is an important part it!
Ho'ohana!
Rosa