Managing with Aloha

  • Home: Our Philosophy
  • About the Site
  • About the Book
  • A Manager’s Calling
  • The 19 Values of Aloha
  • 9 Key Concepts
  • New Here?
  • Hire Rosa at RosaSay.com
You are here: Home / Key 4. The Role of the Manager Reconstructed / Managing: Be a Big Fan of the Small Win

Managing: Be a Big Fan of the Small Win

June 26, 2012

Alaka‘i Managers — those who manage with ALOHA — are big fans of small wins.

Small wins represent the next-stepping which is incremental — we feel the win when we’ve made a small change, yet know it’s a significant step. As the adage says so well, good things have come in, or from, a small package.

That small change feels like winning to us, because it means we’ve set a certain path of accomplishment, and we aren’t going back now; we’ll keep going forward.

In a word, growth has happened.

That’s why the Alaka‘i Manager is such a big fan: A small win means that someone in their care has learned, gotten accomplished, and progressed — they’ve grown in their talent, strength, skills and knowledge. They’ve gotten better in a small way that is big to them: They’ve improved, and thus, they’ve become more competent and more self-assured about their own prowess.

When you are a great manager, your day-to-day focus is on fostering small wins. The joys you relish most are when they happen, and everyone in your workplace can celebrate them.

You have an eagle eye for where small wins might be germinating, and you fertilize those spots.

You are equally aware, and painfully so, of where small wins haven’t popped up for quite some time, and you go on the hunt for the root cause of any blockage so they can begin to bloom again, no matter the adversity.

In fostering small wins, the value which can help you the most is KULEANA: Take some time to review it, both here and in the pages of Managing with Aloha (KULEANA is the subject of Chapter 10.) Also recommended for your review: Next-stepping and other Verbs

On a person to person basis, start by getting crystal clear on what their responsibilities in your workplace entail, for responsibility tends to be a big word — it can use your help, help where you chunk it into the “good things in smaller packages.” Less is only more when clarity has led you to work with the right chunk in the first place.

Help people set goals which will give them those small wins which amount to acing their primary responsibilities first and foremost, for they get grounded in their true sense of belonging that way. Think in specifics, and in those bite-sized possibilities that can result in feeling a small win when they’re worked on purposely, and more effectively. As their manager and coach, see the next-stepping progression in your mind’s eye so you can guide them toward it.

Kuleana is one’s personal sense of responsibility. The person possessing Kuleana, believes in the strength of this value, and will be quick to say, “I accept my responsibilities, and I will be held accountable.” Kuleana speaks the workplace language of self-motivation, ownership, empowerment, and the personal transformation which can result. Effective delegation becomes about the sharing of Kuleana with others, recognizing where it rightfully belongs, or where it can facilitate hands on learning.

Kuleana can give us amazing clarity about what begins and ends with us as individuals. It will also give us a brutally honest clarity about our expectations of others: Are those expectations reasonable or not?

From Managing with Aloha (Chapter 10 preamble):

KULEANA

Kuleana is the value of responsibility. It drives self-motivation and self-reliance, for the desire to act comes from accepting our responsibility with deliberance and with diligence.
Responsibility seeks opportunity. Opportunity creates energy and excitement. Kuleana weaves empowerment and ownership into the opportunity that has been captured.
There is a transformation in Kuleana, one that comes from ho‘ohiki, keeping the promises you make to yourself.

· Key 4. The Role of the Manager Reconstructed, Key 7. Strengths Management

Comments

  1. Dean Boyer says

    June 27, 2012 at 5:31 am

    Rosa, this is wonderful counsel! Much too quickly we move on to the next thing without stopping to enjoy what has been done. I wish we could learn the joy of process living, not just product reflection. It’s an issue of enjoying the trip, not just the destination. Thanks for the reminder.

    • Rosa Say says

      June 27, 2012 at 8:59 am

      Dean, knowing you as I do, I’m sure that you are very, very good at this! Can you share a bit with us as to the specifics you will look for in someone on their way toward a small win?

Trackbacks

  1. Managing: Learn how to ask “Why?” says:
    June 28, 2012 at 11:43 am

    […] dug into a managing-as-verb suggestion last time (Be a Big Fan of the Small Win) and I’d like to offer you another suggestion as […]

  2. Find your Doubting Thomases says:
    August 24, 2012 at 7:37 am

    […] steps would often apply (next-stepping) as we sought KĀKOU and LŌKAHI, so we could secure small wins, and build the momentum we needed for the change completely […]

  3. Give Managers their Chance to Excel says:
    September 6, 2012 at 10:53 am

    […] expectation accomplished in a stellar way. They can handle more than that one thing, but you must give them a momentum-builder, especially if you want an innovator, and not a […]

  4. Beauty in the Work: “Things Occur to You.” says:
    September 12, 2012 at 10:05 am

    […] forward. But oh, those steps forward! Each one reveals more than the one before. The path widens, the light gets brighter, and you realize: Yes, I took those two, sometimes three steps backward, but this step forward is […]

  5. Getting the Old to Become New Again says:
    January 16, 2013 at 9:31 am

    […] Let them flow, and direct them well. Step in to help channel them productively so they can secure small but early wins — harness those energies, and put them to work where you can use them, and where the person […]

  6. Revisiting the Daily 5 Minutes: Lessons Learned says:
    January 20, 2013 at 10:54 am

    […] if they don’t prepare well for it first, and I don’t want that difficulty to discourage them. I want you to have early wins as you work, manage, and lead with Aloha, and I’ve come to better understand how those early wins […]

  7. You are Your Habits, so Make ‘em Good! says:
    May 15, 2013 at 12:21 pm

    […] Habit-building can be immensely enjoyable when done with a great work partner. Revel in the journey and don’t rush this; be present in your partnership and learn together. Celebrate your victories: Managing: Be a Big Fan of the Small Win. […]

  8. 1-Catch the Good, 2-Tell Them! says:
    January 14, 2014 at 10:22 am

    […] ‘face to face encounters with our customers’ are for: Go on the hunt for good and elevate it. Seize every single opportunity you have to catch the good your people, your peers, and all your partnerships do, and never, ever, EVER take […]

  9. Keeping it Real says:
    September 11, 2014 at 8:53 am

    […] Our people expect realistic balance from us, not head-in-the-clouds encouragements that are unreachable, and possibly unreasonable. Small, but consistent wins are the very best ones: Managing: Be a Big Fan of the Small Win. […]

Newly released! Managing with Aloha, Second Edition

MWA2-cover-front

Book Preview:

The Core 21 Beliefs of Managing with Aloha

Read the ChangeThis Manifesto: Managing with Aloha—Yes! You Can Too!

Buy on Amazon.com
Softcover— July 2016
ISBN 978-0-9760190-1-5
Read the Publisher’s Synopsis

Managing with Aloha, First Edition
remains available while supplies last
Hardcover— November 2004
ISBN 976-0-190-0-0

Talking Story with the Ho‘ohana Community

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter:

powered by TinyLetter

Preview past issues in the Letter Archive

Recent Articles

  • Do it—Experiment! December 18, 2020
  • Hō‘imi to Curate Your Life’s Experience September 24, 2020
  • Kaʻana i kāu aloha: Share your Aloha November 6, 2019
  • Managing Basics: The Good Receiver October 18, 2019
  • What do executives do, anyway? They do values. October 14, 2019

19 Values of Aloha: Index Pages

There are 19 Values of Aloha taught within the Managing with Aloha philosophy:

Ch.1 Aloha | Ch.2 Ho‘ohana | Ch.3 ‘Imi ola | Ch.4 Ho‘omau | Ch.5 Kūlia i ka nu‘u | Ch.6 Ho‘okipa | Ch.7 ‘Ohana | Ch.8 Lōkahi | Ch.9 Kākou | Ch.10 Kuleana | Ch.11 ‘Ike loa | Ch.12 Ha‘aha‘a | Ch.13 Ho‘ohanohano | Ch.14 Alaka‘i | Ch.15 Mālama | Ch.16 Mahalo | Ch.17 Nānā i ke kumu | Ch.18 Pono | Ch.19 Ka lā hiki ola | Full Listing

Resource Pages

New Here? Start with this introduction: Reading Pathways

Additional Resource Pages: 9 Key Concepts | 12 Aloha Virtues | A Manager’s Calling: 10 Beliefs | Conceptual Index (Lexicon Morphology) | Daily 5 Minutes | Hawaiian Glossary | Sunday Mālama | Archives

Article Categories

The 9 Key Concepts of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business Model

Key 1. The Aloha Spirit | Key 2. Worthwhile Work | Key 3. Value Alignment | Key 4. The Role of the Manager Reconstructed | Key 5. Language of Intention | Key 6. The ‘Ohana in Business Model | Key 7. Strengths Management | Key 8. Sense of Place | Key 9. Palena ‘ole

Copyright © 2021 · Simply Pro Theme by Bloom Blog Shop.