New on Ho‘ohana Aloha: Daily Affirmations for Alaka‘i Managers

I have started a new series of daily affirmations on managing better, and I wanted to point them out to those of you who do not subscribe to my tumblr, Ho‘ohana Aloha, or presently follow Managing with Aloha’s LinkedIn Group.

Affirmations and Speaking with Aloha

To affirm something, is to articulate it clearly in your own mind, and then state it with confidence as your intention. We affirm our intentions with our actions.

The affirmations which result, get more and more effective in commanding your attention to them, when they are repeated with some regularity.

What I love about affirmations most, is the way they contribute to, and constantly will reinforce our values, and thus, our ethos of behavior: Ethos: Be true to your Values. Affirmations themselves, as practice, will directly reinforce the values of Ho‘ohana (our actions), ‘Ike loa (our learning), Ho‘ohanohano (our demeanor), and Mālama (what we are stewards of).

And let’s not forget Kākou (how we communicate): As an effective manager, you cannot “walk the talk” (a common expectation from your staff I’m sure you’ve heard before) until you talk that talk first. Make your talk the speech driven by good affirmations. Speak with Aloha.

To begin: Our Core 21 Beliefs

I have kicked off my new series using the Core 21 Beliefs of Managing with Aloha, and must again give credit to my Say Leadership Coaching team for the idea:

Woven into my chapters showcasing the 19 Values of Aloha, these are the twenty-one sentences or phrases within my book that I most wish my readers will take to heart. In doing so, I believe they can make management the noble profession it has the capacity to be.

This page has appeared online since MWA was first published in November of 2004, and it has pleased me immensely to hear that managers have adopted it as a one-a-day affirmation page they can return to in building their Managing with Aloha practice.
— About the Book: The Core 21 Beliefs of Managing with Aloha

After we have gone through the Core 21, the daily affirmations will continue with other MWA-isms in our “Language of We.” For instance, I am currently planning to newly affirm the Twelve Virtues of Aloha over Christmastide, the 12 Days of Christmas, which starts on Christmas Day.

About the Affirmations

These affirmations are already proving to be an outstanding exercise in curation for me as well. I am keeping the affirmation as short as possible, and each one has 3 parts to it:

1. The affirmation itself. With Core 21 it’s a quotation taken directly from my book.
2. Another few sentences I’ll add as postscript for better context, or for back history.
3. Learning links that will further clarify or expand on the affirmation.

Here is an example of the Core 21 affirmation I had published on November 8th:

“I now believe heart and soul that it is a calling to be a great manager … Sam did not know it at the time, but he gave me a new mission. I would define what it meant to be a great manager. Being one would be my new calling.”
– Our daily affirmation for managers: Core 21: About Managing with Aloha – The WHY of the MWA philosophy.

In the historical progression of Managing with Aloha evolving into the philosophy it is today, I made a distinction between managers, good managers, and great managers: It was a ladder of learning in that evolution that helped shape the MWA mission and vision. I knew the MWA calling had to be compelling, pulling managers into a bigger dream of who they could be, and how they could serve.

Complement this with: A Manager’s Calling, The 10 Beliefs of Great Managers. A relatively recent talk story about the concept of goodness is here: Hana ‘eleau: Working in the Dark.

That’s the whole thing. I’m keeping them as short and sweet as possible.

Repetition in learning is good, and consistency is the stuff of good habit-building, but memorization is NOT the goal: I truly don’t want Alaka‘i Managers to parrot me or my book. My hope is that these affirmations will be learning triggers for you, and that you can internalize their conviction. When time permits, go down your ‘Ike loa rabbit holes of discovery.

Linkage Info to Bookmark

We are now 7 affirmations into the series, with the 8th scheduled for Monday. Saturdays I feature some kind of MWA Archive Aloha on Ho‘ohana Aloha (this was this past Saturday), also in the interest of keeping up with good curating — every time I link back to something in our archives, I reread it myself to review it, and edit it if necessary, adding in new learning. Sundays are reserved for a Sunday Mālama feature, now some “finding” published by others.

Tumblr supports tags, and so you can catch up with the entire Core 21 series here if you like, but I would recommend you just jump in to the next one if you are interested in joining us. Start from wherever you are.

1. Here is the link to Ho‘ohana Aloha. This link will show you another sample: It was Friday’s affirmation. Take that red “RSS” link just above the search box if you want to subscribe. You will see that Tumblr is a discovery engine for me, illustrating my varied and eclectic interests, and often pulling photos shared on Instagram… click on the red “Archive” link if you wish to preview it before subscribing.
2. If you have a Tumblr too, just hit that “Follow” button on your dashboard: I will see it on my own activity log, and be able to check out your Tumblr as well!
3. If following all of Ho‘ohana Aloha is not your cup of tea (I will normally have 2-7 findings per day there), consider following our Managing with Aloha LinkedIn Group. I do just 2 updates there as rule: New articles here on this blog, and the daily affirmations.
4. You can also catch my tweets and hashtags on Twitter.

As with all I publish, feel free to write me if you have any comments or suggestions on our new affirmations. Comments are also enabled on the LinkedIn Group, and it would be fantastic to get more Alaka‘i Managers’ talk-stories there!

And by the way, positive affirmations are wonderful for curbing that self-talk which sneaks in as a Possibility Robber.