Managing with Aloha Coaching

The Self-improvement Targets of Self-Leadership

We started the month of August with a posting called Alaka‘i, Chiefs and Indians. Tim Milburn, mentor extraordinaire for student leaders, (and for us post-college lifelong learners) thrilled me with this comment:

Rosa:

One of my favorite posts that you've ever written is the 12 RULES FOR SELF-LEADERSHIP. I keep it on my cell phone and pull it out to read on occasion. It is some timeless advice. I hope that you will include a link to that for your readers this month.

One of the FIRST things that I coach, teach, and mentor student leaders on is LEADING YOURSELF FIRST. This sets the tone for every other type of leadership that one is involved in. I look forward to your posts this month and join you in waving the banner for being the best leader of ME that I can be.

Mount Rushmore Monument by dean.franklin on Flickr.

Tim, your wish is my command!

It took me a bit of getting to (this is the final posting for August on the topic of self-leadership, see the others indexed here) because I wanted to reformat it a bit for you: I had three reasons.

1. To simply reprint a repeat of what you already have wouldn’t have been as much fun, don’t you think?
2. During August we have talked about the growing process of self-leadership, and I have saved the “Twelve Rules for Self-Leadership ~ Redux” for a reformulation within this vantage point of growth, and growing into the self-motivated leaders we can be with the Hawaiian value of Alaka‘i to guide us.
3. Third, and most important of all, I wanted to leave some open space. We can start with my twelve rules as kick-off type of suggestions, but I believe that a person’s growing process needs to be self-authored as well. We all know that when it comes right down to it, our motivation is an inside job, and we are more likely to commit to a plan (and to decisions) of our own design.

Therefore, this is what follows: I have brought back my Twelve Rules for Self-Leadership in a newly ordered line-up, one which corresponds to the short version definition we have been using for self-leadership in the Alaka‘i-valued way:

TO SELF-LEAD:
Think, learn, grow.
Arrive.
Articulate. Stand tall.

I have left the same numbers of the old list so you can refer to them if you like, but they serve no other purpose. The total in our self-leadership growth plan will be up to you; it may end up to be a list of 15, 18, 21 or something in between, for you need to decide what you will add:

~ What do you need to do to Think, learn, grow? into your strongest personal statement of self-leadership?

~ How do you want to Arrive and be recognized for consistently arriving that way?

~ What will it take for you to Articulate and Stand Tall consistently, and throughout your leadership life to come?

HOW-TO HINT: What are the values you want to work on?

Ready? We will be calling this The Your Self-improvement Targets of Self-Leadership.

The Self-Leadership of Alaka‘i: Your Connection to Worthwhile Work

Welcome to our Tuesday Coaching:
Our value of the month is Alaka‘i, the Hawaiian value of leadership, and the focus of our study is Self-Leadership.

• Day One Essay for August 2008: Alaka‘i, Chiefs and Indians

• Tuesday Essay #1 on Alaka‘i: Why Self-Leadership?

• Tuesday Essay #2 on Alaka‘i: Self-Leadership in 1 Sentence

• Today: The Self-Leadership of Alaka‘i and Your Connection to Worthwhile Work

From last Tuesday:

“Self-leadership is the growing process of arriving at your own choice, an arrival you will stand up for and articulate exceptionally well, feeling you are prepared to both defend it and inspire with it.”

TO SELF-LEAD:
Think, learn, grow.
Arrive.
Articulate. Stand tall.

What is this growing process of arriving at one’s own choice, and why is it so important to you?

It may be helpful to answer the second question first, for if it isn’t important to you, why bother? Let’s use something that is usually a staple on the manager’s To Do List to help examine the answer: HIRING.

How do you recruit, interview, and hire?

In my early days of being a manager, I would conduct hiring interviews as most rookies do. I’d look over their job application or resume as the candidate sat in front of me, and I’d ask whatever clarifying questions came to mind. It wasn’t until a considerable amount of trial and error, selecting three poor gut-choices for every shot-in-the-dark fortuitous one, that I realized something that would forever change my approach: The fine details of a person’s past experience was not as important to me as the likelihood of what they would DO with the benefit of having retained that experience going forward.

What had they learned, and what would they now do with their most valuable lessons? What would they do for me, and for the job I offered them?

Within my interview process I had been filling in the blanks of a candidate’s past. What I eventually learned to do instead, was fill in the blanks of their most probable future, a future I would have a role in. [For more in that regard, read The Role of the Manager Reconstructed].

When the interview was over, there was really only one question I needed to have an answer for: If I hired this person, what was I getting myself into? Was this person ready for self-leadership in whatever circumstance the world would place them in, or would I as their manager be required to work with them in their self-leadership arrival process —and if so, to what degree?

What about self-management?

Self-management was part of the consideration too, but to me those are the basics that have to do with values lived (a.k.a. walking their talk) and predictable, reputable day-to-day behavior. Adults are able to communicate well, and they honor their word or make a new agreement. Adults are trustworthy, and take full accountability for their responsibilities. Adults have a good work ethic, and those “old-fashioned” basic work-world values like dependability, timeliness, and professionalism. Adults demonstrate decorum, handle their self-care and practice self-discipline, they seek to be productive and earn their keep.

Frankly, I came to expect all of those things as the ‘Givens for Adults,’ at least those who worked for me and the organizations I chose to be involved with. Remember this? It is the epigraph to Managing with Aloha and hard-wired into my belief system:

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), German writer, scientist and philosopher

Short term, people would demonstrate they were telling the truth about being a grown-up or not while within their probationary period. What I wanted to dig deeper for, were my long-term prospects, i.e. the self-leadership indicators of a person ready for decision-making (and decision-management) that was future directed; the really interesting (and fun) stuff of ideation and innovation. The stuff that adults continue to grow with, and thrive within.

Same ‘ol, same ‘ol repeated, even when pretty good and reliably effective, isn’t all that fun and exciting. It isn’t about thriving in a bold, exciting way. Do you want routine maintenance, or do you want firing on all cylinders propulsion?

Adults continue to grow when they are devoted to WORTHWHILE WORK

Please understand that I am in no way discounting the value of someone’s past experience. In fact, I think that considering it from the lens of self-leadership helps you sort it and elevate it to continued usefulness within this approach:

You can write down and document the experience, history, and lessons-learned you want to remember. Collectively, those things are called REFERENCE.

Worthwhile work is about present-day effort you devote to brand new ideas about creating a better future. In Managing with Aloha, it is what we call HO‘OHANA.

Worthwhile work is not about remembering; that is why people get annoyed with those who rest on their laurels, worship the status quo, and wax nostalgic about “the good old days.”

On the other hand, people get inspired and energized by those who seem to be idea machines: They are always “thinking of something” and offering brand new solutions to nagging old problems. They create compelling visions of a future that in some way (and in multiple ways both big and small) is far, far better than the present is. If there is anything everyone will agree about when describing a future they wish for, is that it is an improvement; it is BETTER.

People who give us BETTER are those we call leaders. They are leaders we will eagerly follow.

What do you think?

Have we answered the question of why the growing process of self-leadership may be important to you? If not, let’s talk about it this week.

I have focused on the role of the manager here, but it is good to understand it from the personal perspective: Why do you want to self-lead YOU? What is the personal connection you need to (and want to) reap from this? Is it about creating your own sources of self-generated energy? Is it about defining the criteria of those future ideas you want to have in creating your own BETTER?

Next Tuesday we’ll answer that second question we’ve been preparing for: What is this “growing process of arriving at one’s own choice” that I have defined as so critical to self-leadership? I have given you the short version...

TO SELF-LEAD:
Think, learn, grow.
Arrive.
Articulate. Stand tall.

...and we will flesh it out with more detail and concrete suggestions; we’ll call them The Self-improvement Targets of Self-Leadership.

Until then, let’s talk story; we Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.
Hoping to hear from you!

~Rosa

Self-Leadership in 1 Sentence

Aloha,

This post has been updated and moved to Talking Story:

Self-Leadership in One Sentence

See you there!

Tuesday Essay #1 on Alaka‘i: Why Self-Leadership?

I am sorry, the article you are looking for has been retired.
It did a great job for me, and for others at one time, and now it has happily stepped aside.

It has been retired so that fresher writing can take its place with dazzling you, or collaborating with you, and sharing in that great feeling of being able to help someone.

I invite you to visit the new and better stuff on TalkingStory.org.

Talk to me in the comment boxes you find there, and meet others in the Ho‘ohana Community.
If you still long for your original search, I will be happy to help you.

Day One Essay for August 2008: Alaka‘i, Chiefs and Indians

Aloha,

This post has been updated and moved to Talking Story:

Alaka‘i Leadership, Chiefs and Indians

See you there!

Kuleana Responsibility is what you Accept more than what you are Given

When you define it as Kuleana, responsibility is what you accept more than what you are given. Read that again slowly, and sit with it for a moment.

It is a statement which implies, and rightly so, that responsibility is more about what you think it is, over and above what others might think.

Now, let's review this, listed at number 4 of my 21 Core Beliefs within Managing with Aloha:

It may often require a charismatic leader to create excitement, and lead the way with new and innovative thinking. However it will require a great manager of people to actually inspire employees to get the job done.

We just talked about the manager's responsibility for leadership in the last week, so how does this connect?

When you are a coach (and I believe that all managers are coaches; I am not referring to the coaching profession, though this certainly applies there too) you quickly learn to be more specific with the vocabulary you use. It doesn't necessarily have to be completely dictionary-accurate as much as commonly understood between the people using it, for language is a powerful trigger (and thus my site Talking Story is more narrowly focused on our language of intention and our conversations).

For instance, and to the subject at hand, one of my hot buttons is the way that the words management/leadership and manager/leader get interchanged so much. Then at other times I am grateful for the opportunity they give me to better explain myself and clean up my own language too! It's a continual effort for all of us, me included. Our old habits with choosing our words die hard, and it takes deliberate intention.

When I have the presence of mind to concentrate on thinking about my words before they spill from my mouth (no easy task!) I call everyone manager and try to stay away from the word leader, to convey this point - managers manage AND they lead. As we've spoken of here, managers manage with people more than process, and they lead by creating clarity.

Debbie Payne, coach and new friend over at David Zinger's Employee Engagement Network, expressed it this way within a conversation we had about the Role of the Manager Reconstructed:

Managers really need to understand that they manage budgets, manage projects, manage inventory. They need to lead people through other skills such as coaching, mentoring, teaching, listening. Leading and managing are different and yet intertwined. As we call people "managers" that is what they focus on. When we call the people at the top the "leaders" we somehow expect them to stop managing and start leading and it is impossible as both are valuable.
~ Debbie Payne, leadership development and organizational learning specialist, at The Role of the Manager Reconstructed

Debbie and I are actually in agreement. If I brought her sentiment in alignment with my language in the Role of the Manager Reconstructed here at MWAC, it would read this way:

Managers really need to understand that they may work with budgets, projects and inventory, however they lead people by making the importance of the work clear, and by using their skills with coaching, mentoring, teaching, listening [which is their true calling]. Leading and managing are different and yet intertwined. As we call people "managers" in our conventional organizational structures and culture however, they focus on the budgets, projects, and inventory etc. instead as that is the prevalent expectation. We further compound this reigning confusion when we call the people at the top the "leaders," and we somehow expect them to stop managing and start leading; that is impossible as both are valuable.

That quote atop this post within my 21 Core Beliefs of MWA can be found in context on pages 9 and 10 of my book under the subtitle of "Why focus on management?" and it deals with those "prevalent expectations" and assumptions that most managers find they are working within: The "leaders" are the men/women who out-rank them, and the "managers" are the ones in the trenches struggling to dot the i's and cross the t's and actually pull off getting the work of another leader's idea done. The way the system usually works, is that you get your turn at leading once you pay your dues with execution down the ranks first. ...Then, that other "leader" wonders why their direct reports feel they have been hung and left out to dry, while their boss moves on to other "leadership-type" things.

And in this conventional, and still largely prevalent context, (back to my quote...) it will require a great manager of people to actually inspire employees to get [that] job done. The charismatic leader requirement then gets tricky for that manager-turned-leader too: When you are no longer directly "in charge" of them, it can take a lot for you to get the attention of employees back so you can inspire them --- they are heads down, working in the trenches with those hung-out-to-dry managers of theirs).

What a broken system. Wouldn't it be so much easier if one person did both things?

That one person is the great manager who both manages and leads in this reconstruction, and who accepts their responsibility for both management and leadership in the work they do every single day championing the Ho‘ohana of their people.

So this brings us to the good news:

While I accept that the prevailing organizational culture may be going against you many times, great managers are more than capable of leading (and creating clarity with) a better way individually.

They do this by clearly understanding for themselves first and foremost that when you define it as Kuleana, responsibility is what you accept more than what you are given. Again, it is a statement which implies, and rightly so, that responsibility is more about what you think it is, over and above what others might think.

 

At Say Leadership Coaching:

• Management versus Leadership
• 12 Rules for Self-Management and 12 Rules for Self-Leadership

At Talking Story:

• Being a “Leader” is what managers do too
• “I am a leader.”

Photos found on Flickr: hands by batega, and Pipe Cleaner Muscle Man by Bob.Fornal

The Manager’s Responsibility for Leadership

Is to create clarity where it may not yet exist.

“There's something unique and different that makes a leader, and it's not about creativity or courage or integrity. As important as they are, you can have those attributes and still fail to be a great leader. A leader's job is to rally people toward a better future. Leaders can't help but change the present, because the present isn't good enough. They succeed only when they find a way to make people excited by and confident in what comes next… The need for a talent for optimism is almost self-evident. As a leader, you must believe, deeply, instinctively, that things can get better.”
—Marcus Buckingham

Marcus Buckingham has written quite a bit about both management and leadership, and I’ve read most of it, for I’ve been a fan of his for quite a while now. I recommend his books to people often, and I think his current title (Go Put Your Strengths To Work) truly helps people apply strengths management theory with its aha! moment to connect your strengths to specifically defined activities. For most managers, the “soft stuff” of management is actually the hardest stuff they have to learn to apply and use.

In contrast, I felt the book Buckingham called The One Thing You Need to Know fell short in making the impact it quite possibly could have. I’m not sure that even his most devoted fans when thinking back on it, could tell you what that one thing about “great managing, great leading, and sustained individual success” were (there were actually three things, one for each). I have to look them up again every so often too. I also suspect that Buckingham may have changed his mind about his one thing on leadership, and published the book prematurely (just a thought).

However The One Thing You Need to Know did make a lasting impression on me; I’m just not sure it was the one he intended to make. This is the one thing I latched onto as what I would remember about the manager’s responsibility for leadership; the single word of ‘clarity.’

“Clarity is the antidote to anxiety, and therefore clarity is the preoccupation of the effective leader. If you do nothing else as a leader, be clear. Leaders can be wrong. They can't be confusing.”
—Marcus Buckingham

As I consider it through my lens of Kuleana (which you now know as the Hawaiian value of responsibility), I believe that the manager’s responsibility for leadership within his or her circle of influence, is indeed to constantly make everything clear.

When you are the manager;
You don’t have to know it all.
You don’t have to own it all.
You certainly don’t have to do it all.
However if it is necessary, you are responsible for making it clear,
whatever “it” happens to be.

In the Role of the Manager Reconstructed I stated it this way:

Managers get the work to make perfect sense.

Connect the work to be done with the meaning why.

The manager’s responsibility for leadership is the responsibility for providing clarity.

When people are wondering about work, the manager is there to help them find the answers they seek, and often, that answer is to be found within that picture of “a better future” Buckingham talks about, whether that future is tomorrow, in ten years, or just about an hour from now.

The manager doesn’t have all the answers, but the the manager’s kuleana (responsibility) is to be the person who takes ownership of getting the answers found — and frankly, not playing it safe and wimping out about it when those answers are not always pretty. Coaching comes in when the manager has an answer, or has discovered it, but may choose not give it to another person outright, choosing to coach them through the thinking process and toward making their own discovery.

What do you think? Am I making this sound too simple?

Photo on Flickr: Its Future is in our Hands - Live Earth by aussiegall.

Say No to Resolutions: Choose your Values instead.

In my January newsletter, I talked about Ho'ohana as one way "you can stop with unrealistic New Years Resolutions forever. That's right, forever." On Talking Story yesterday, I shared  another great strategy that Harry is using: Tell me your One & Only: 1 Request = 9 Benefits. Like Ho'ohana, this is another way, directly tied in to the value alignment strategy of Managing with Aloha:

Say no to those automatic-pilot January resolutions you've gotten trapped in before, and choose your 2008 values instead.

We all have values, a whole bunch of them. However the whole list of our individually-held values is not always in play.

• You choose your passion-critical ones individually with Ho'ohana.
• In the workplace, great managers help their teams choose their mission-critical values within strategic planning.

In my coaching, I have a list of 42 different values I use to narrow down a person's hot buttons (their passion-criticals), and to begin our conversations about how different ones will come into play for them in different situations. The January tradition we coach with is a tweak on that exercise. We narrow those same 42 down to four and only four values that will be our focus for the year to come. In practical, operational terms, they are quarter-intense (2nd Qtr, 3rd Qtr, 4th Qtr, hit the ground running with next year's 1st Qtr), but all four values are kept front and center to our attentions the entire year through. As the year proceeds, they help focus us on the essentials of our strategic initiatives (whether for the company's mission or for our training programs), and they flavor the intensity of our behavior in a very intentional way.

That is the core belief of Managing with Aloha: Values drive behavior. So get the behaviors you want by keeping the values you revere front and center at all times.

7. You will best get things done through others by incorporating the values you share with them, values that embrace collaboration, and values that also are fundamental good practices … and Aloha is the most universally held value of them all.

~ from The Core 21 Beliefs of Managing with Aloha

I'll give you an example using my own company, Say Leadership Coaching and Ho'ohana Publishing. These are the four values we have chosen for 2008, with a little explanation for each. I'll start with a 5th which is my carry-over from 2007 to help you see how it has already affected what gets written here! (and the one we've chosen for our first quarter will not be a surprise to you):

1. October - December 2007:
   Ho'omau (persistence and perseverance), specifically with our Ma'alahi (less is more) intentions. Continue with the right things: Those that are conducive to our 'Imi ola, (best possible life) and to the essentials and creativity we want to nurture [defining essentials and creativity drivers was our 2007 focus at SLC/HP].
2. January - March 2008:
   Pono, for a newly designed Rightness and Balance as a solo entrepreneur. My we's will steadily become I's. As I had shared with my SLC newsletter subscribers this past summer, I am transitioning our 'Ohana in Business where every single person becomes a solo entrepreneur, and April 1 is the transition date where everyone is officially on their own. Pono will continue to be my year-long self-reckoning, where I can continually ask myself, "Is this action Pono for me, and is my new business model Pono for my customers and all other stakeholders?"
3. April - June 2008:
   Kākou naturally flows from this, for there ARE other stakeholders to every business, even a so-called "solo" one. I know I will need to work on all my communications (in person, by voice, digital, web presence etc.) in doing my transitions to outsourcing and partnerships which I may not presently have. (Joanna, these are the partnerships I was referring to.) Take note that I have already switched to those I's here, however we did come up with these together, so we can keep our paths aligned, being there for each other as we all go through the same thing, just with a different relationship.
4. July - September 2008:
   Alaka'i, will maintain my focus on leadership. This is something I know I need to do for the continued health and vitality of the Managing with Aloha movement, for our Ho'ohana Community (you are important to me!) and so I can hopefully complete my second book by year-end (The realist in me knows the book will still be my big stretch!)
5. October - December 2008:
   Nānā i ke kumu is authenticity and truth, and by this time I know I will have to look to my source in reflecting back on how I'm doing before I look forward to 2009.

At this point, other Hawaiian words you may recognize as MWA values get woven into my statements because they've been carried over as our language of intention (like 'Imi ola did). I will continue to have 12 values for MWAC - one for each month, but you can expect they will align in some way so I keep my focus squarely leveled on my ho'ohana intentions. For SLC/HP and my personal ho'ohana (I don't separate them), those are the 2008 mission-critical 4 for me: Pono, Kākou, Alaka'i and Nānā i ke kumu.

This is where values simply blow the lid off the boxy emptiness of New Years Resolutions: When you tap into your personal, innately held values, you can trust in them, therefore trusting in yourself and your unbelievable capacity. Your values reveal the all of you, and the all of your aloha spirit.

What will be your values in focus for 2008?

Be brave! Share just one or all four here with us, whether in Hawaiian, English, or another language - our values are universal. You might find that you entice me to write about your value in the coming months, or you might find a partner here in our Ho'ohana Community to buddy-up with in some collaborative peer to peer coaching. After all, that is aloha.
~ Rosa

The Environment and Managing with Aloha

Leo Babauta wrote, “When I sat down to write my Blog Action Day post, I tried to figure out what the “environment” has to do with some of the main themes of Zen Habits: simplicity, frugality, health and fitness, happiness. In what way are these ideas related to the environment?”

I thought this was a great idea. What say we try to figure out what the environment has to do with our main themes of aloha, values, work, business, management, and leadership?

Aloha: Aloha means we look for the beauty in people, seeking to connect with their inner spirit, getting it to come out and play with us, to be with us. How does this help the environment? In so many ways! It keeps us with people, learning to engage with each other with a greater fascination, instead of the more materialistic pursuits which add more clutter and waste, filling our landfills with the temporary diversions we soon tire of. Aloha on the other hand, is timeless and endlessly intriguing.

Aloha keeps giving and giving back: You could say that Aloha is the star recycler.

Values: In Managing with Aloha I offer you nineteen to start with, however you can look to your own heart, mind and soul to come up with the list toppers which create your true convictions (your mana‘o). We have a little of each value which appeals to us, and the entire list would be quite lengthy (there are 42 listed on a worksheet I use in my class exercises).

Similar to Aloha, I would bet that those convictions which ring true to you reveal beauty all around you, for you ‘see’ them with eyes of respect and appreciation. I would also bet that they somehow relate to your sense of place, and your Mālama ‘āina, care for the land. Take gratitude (Mahalo) as but one example, “living in thankfulness for all the elements that make our lives so precious.” What are those environmental elements for you?

Work: There are a myriad of ways that our work leaves a lasting footprint on the environment, sometimes good, sometimes not so good. Is this something we are mindful of? Take this day to make your own assessment.

My work mantra is Ho‘ohana, to work with purpose and intention, and thus it has much to do with connecting intention to just about everything; no 9 to 5 attitude, and no sleep-walking through the work day, going through the motions with busy-work versus on-purpose work. On-purpose work leaves a much better ‘footprint on the environment’ for it is the work we choose to do for the good it brings to our lives.

See Celebrate your Work and some old fashioned Values.

Business: We who have chosen the world of business have so many advantages which enable us to be activators who make things happen. Compare the quick decisiveness of free enterprise to the bureaucratic snail’s pace belabored through in government and the public educational process.

And I include non-profits: Ho‘ohana Community member James Koshiba, is co-founder of Kanu Hawai‘i, a nonprofit organization that works to create a more sustainable Hawai‘i, and he speaks of our “island intelligence” being a heightened awareness and understanding that resources are not boundless, that ecosystems are fragile, and that cultural diversity is to be valued and respected. Kanu Hawai‘i exists to be the ambassador of this message, however it is one that can be repeated and internalized in every business.

“If every person in the world lived as Americans do, consuming as Americans do, it would take more than six-and-a-half earths to sustain the human race.” —James Koshiba

Management: How does this internalization of ‘green responsibility’ and care for the environment happen? Through the creation of a work culture which embraces the message and seeks ways to walk the talk, by connecting sustainability initiatives to company values and strategic objectives. This is what great management does: Create corporate cultures which matter, and which feel Pono, good and right to all who work within it.

This is the Role of the Manager as seen through the MWA curriculum:

MY MANA‘O (what I believe to be true) ~ ~ ~ If I were to reduce it to its essence, I would boil management down to four things. 1. People: Managers concentrate on strengths and make weaknesses irrelevant. 2. Place: Managers create great workplaces where people thrive. 3. Mission: Managers get the work to make perfect sense. 4. Vision: Managers expect and promote the exceptional. 2008 Update: I expand on this here ~ The Role of the Manager in Managing with Aloha: The case for a better way to work.

Leadership: Leaders think bigger. Leaders inspire. Leaders help us see future visions with more clarity, describing it in a compelling way, and tooting their message until we feel we can see it, hear it, and feel it too. Leaders know that just about everything can be done, and it’s just a matter of who will take action to make it happen first. Leaders don’t wait for probability, they charge ahead when they get their earliest glimmers of possibility. And when it comes to our precious environment we no longer can afford to wait.

Again, think deeply about the values of your company and how they are expressed. Think deeply about Kuleana, and your responsibility for Leadership, and ask yourself what you can do, and do best.

See Branding fame, the ability to provoke, and degrees of follow-up: As asked there, What are the values of your company, and what ability do they give you to provoke masterful follow-up?

Read Leo’s posting at Zen Habits for 5 Ways [to] Save the World, While Getting Fitter, Saving Money, Simplifying, and Becoming Happier.

In reading through some other Blog Action Day postings yesterday, I found these to also be good examples of how our very creative writers within the Ho‘ohana Community connected respect for the environment to their Ho‘ohana (the work they do): So clever!

• Tony Clark: 5 Reasons Why Home-Based Entrepreneurship is the Ultimate Eco-Friendly Gig
• Joanna Young: 20 ways to cut your words and help to save the planet and How to recycle your words.
• In addition to her own Ho‘ohana connection of Brain-Based Business, Robyn McMaster also illustrates how leadership matters: Ram Shrivastava, CEO, Walks the Talk of Sustainability!

Here is the Blog Action Day Wrap Up. Truly an illustration of how powerful a single idea can be.

For an ‘Ohana in Business, work on Role, Behavior, and Consequence

When we speak of being an ‘Ohana in Business, one of the things that is critically important for a company’s visionary clarity and the execution predicating success, is answering this question:

In an ‘Ohana in Business, how does a manager

“conduct oneself with distinction” (Ho‘ohanohano) with both

the personal intimacy and unconditional acceptance of family values (‘Ohana),

AND the professionalism and growth potential of Alaka‘i (great management and leadership)?

In short, by working on these Constant Goals of Behavioral Consistency:

a) ROLE: Everyone’s role (role, not only “job” to be done) must be clear, and accountability in those roles must be clear.

b) BEHAVIOR: There must be exceptional modeling of “living and working with aloha” by top level managers before there can be any “managing and leading with aloha” at all.

c) CONSEQUENCE: There must be consequences for poor, mediocre, and status quo performance and desirable rewards for great performance. In other words, good enough CANNOT BE good enough!

These are constant goals. I am certain I can find work to be done on these three goals in every single company on the planet, even in those that are exceptionally successful, for change will happen for them too.

What these three things have in common is clarity in expectations. In the work I do as a workplace aloha coach, something becomes more and more apparent to me every day: Great leaders must be obsessed with making all expectations clear, with roles, jobs, decisions, communications, measurement, results, time – with virtually everything you can think of.

Be a broken record of the right messages. Err on the side of repeating yourself. Ask questions that help you figure out if there is clear understanding, and make it safe for people to give all answers – the good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Don’t spoon-feed; challenge thinking and then verify that you have arrived at the same best answer. When there is any communication breakdown, be adamant in following up to discover the root cause so it doesn’t happen again. Never blame; coach for “the next time” and expect improvement.

Pursue clarity relentlessly in roles, behavioral expectations, and performance consequences, and you will leapfrog significantly no matter what the rest of your strategic goals might be.