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 2. Worthwhile Work / “I’m a manager.”

“I’m a manager.”

August 9, 2012

Here’s a goal I’m hoping you’ll consider grabbing as your own:

When you meet someone for the first time, and they ask, “What is it that you do?” answer them with, “I’m a manager.”

I’ll be deliriously happy, if you go beyond those 3 simple words, and say, “I’m a manager, and I’m learning to be an Alaka‘i Manager by working within my values.”

Most of us don’t answer in the first way, much less the second. To say “I’m a manager.” doesn’t seem to be enough, and we add to it, or bypass it totally, by telling the person we’ve met about our company or our industry, feeling we have to be a manager within something else if we’re to fully answer their question.

So we respond by talking about our work as the work connected to another entity or brand, when we should kūpono — stand up for the work we do as individuals of integrity, who feel that managing is in itself admirable and contribution-worthy.

Because it is. Big time.

Managing matters. However, you have to believe that for yourself before anyone else will.

I started by saying “Here’s a goal” because I understand that you may need to work your way toward feeling that pleasure of managing you’ve fallen in love with. And that’s okay, we all go on that journey of gaining our self-confidence in standout work.

And there is definitely pleasure to be had on the journey. Come to think of it, the second answer, “I’m a manager, and I’m learning to be an Alaka‘i Manager by working within my values.” may be the better one — the more immediate one, because if you’re reading these words, it’s absolutely, positively true!

When it comes to that first meeting with someone, it will be a lively conversation starter, I assure you, for they will probably say something like, “An Alaka‘i Manager? Tell me more about that, would you?”

And you can!

There are managers, and then there are great managers.

The great ones, are those we call Alaka‘i Managers in Managing with Aloha: They manage because they have a calling to do so, and that calling is to elevate the human condition, particularly in that sphere of influence we call the workplace. That is where they choose to lead as well, Leading with Aloha.

It is extremely exciting to see those lights of recognition and renewal go on in managers’ eyes when they realize that the hard work of management can evolve into the gift of a calling in their lives…

…Read more, at A Manager’s Calling

You may also want to review People Who Do Good Work

· Key 2. Worthwhile Work, Key 4. The Role of the Manager Reconstructed, Key 5. Language of Intention

Trackbacks

  1. Life’s 3 Stops in Motivation: Happiness, Meaning, Service says:
    January 24, 2013 at 4:14 pm

    […] I honestly don’t know that I’d understand people in pursuit of service at all if not for seeing them through my learning about the value of hospitality: It has been my handle on the empathy required by my viewpoint. I’ve come to see hospitality as a higher calling rooted in Lokomaika‘i — that value which is ‘generosity of good heart.’ Yes, I’m stuck on seeing goodness, and I’m very, very glad I am. […]

  2. Management Style by Habit says:
    May 23, 2013 at 12:59 pm

    […] and hence, your reputation of effectiveness in working with others. Step up to your calling as a manager of Aloha. BE the person your peers, team, and other partners crave working with, because in the process, you […]

  3. Steve Q. Jacob says:
    July 8, 2014 at 2:52 am

    Steve Q. Jacob

    “I’m a manager.”

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.