“I’m a manager.”

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