Managing with Aloha Coaching

Not just ‘again.’ Ho‘omau better.

Aloha, thank you for your visit today! This is the last essay I will present in November for Ho‘omau, the Hawaiian value of persistence and perseverance. Here are quick links to what we have done so far:

1. Ho‘omau: Reveal the Good, and Make it Last
2. Understanding Kaona in our Ho‘omau Language of Intention
3. Decision-Making and Decision-Management seen through Ho‘omau

Today

There is one word that sometimes can be associated with persistence, a word that Ho‘omau is definitely NOT about. The word is stubborn.

Most will agree that good managers and leaders are not stubborn. Neither is Ho‘omau. On the contrary, great managers and leaders call upon the value of Ho‘omau to help them resist any tendency with immovable, inflexible or obstinate behaviors; Ho‘omau will keep them exploring and reaching higher.

Do you believe the possibility for better always exists?

Ho‘omau is anything but stubborn, for Ho‘omau extends beyond the dogged persistence of repetition to valuing the processes of continuous and incremental improvement.

The Hawaiian value of Ho‘omau is quite similar to the Japanese concept of Kaizen, where even something which seems to be working well will eventually be taken apart and examined anyway, within the assumption that every aspect of our life deserves to be constantly improved — and can be. The possibility for better always exists.

Kaizen is actually a way of life philosophy (which is simply saying it is a value lived thoroughly); it harnesses the universal value of persistence that we translate via Ho‘omau as “revealing the good, and causing it to last.”

The Kaizen devotee will passionately argue that Kaizen is highly preferable to BPR (business process reengineering) because it is less radical and drastic. The Kaizen philosophy is thought to be more people-oriented and easier to implement because it is already habitual, formed by the lifelong discipline is requires. Changes are smaller, incremental and happening non-stop in Kaizen, whereas BPR will usually recommend large-scale change that is purposely jarring to achieve shift.

Why is improvement so important to us?

Beyond the obvious contentment we enjoy when our work processes are glitch free and work goes smoothly, improvement makes us feel that we are moving and growing.

When things don’t improve we feel like we are standing still and getting nowhere, even when there isn’t a single problem to be found in the standing still. This ever-present searching for the next best thing is simply hard-wired into our humanness, and we thrive on it; we wouldn’t have it any other way.

That’s why routine, boredom, complacency and apathy are such cancers in the workplace; they are spirit killers which diminish our potential.

There is one kind of boss worse than the boss who might be excessively hard on you, and that’s the boss who ignores you, or ignores the worth of the work you do.

Thus I will always coach managers and leaders not to shy away from being the boss. Our problem is not that we have too much management, but that we don’t have enough of it.

Be the Boss, and have a Ho‘omau plan

“As a manager, Ho‘omau challenges you to have a carefully crafted plan that makes good business sense. You cannot have a strategy that will both motivate and support your staff without sound business objectives to ground you. Working hard is not good enough, you have to work smart. You need a great plan with evolving dynamics of its own, responsive to the ever-changing needs of your business. It’s part of your responsibility as a leader.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 61

Yes, strategic planning is about bringing profitability to the bottom line and getting ROI: Money is not evil; it is a means to an end and it finances the other components of your business model. However much as I advocate financial literacy, ROI alone is only part of the picture within a thriving workplace; we err when we only align strategic planning with our financial statements.

Happy human beings want to be challenged, they want to learn, they want to work within movements, and they want to grow. Valuing Ho‘omau without a plan of some kind is like saying “just try harder” without any reason why.

And oh my goodness, there are so many options to choose from!

Here is my suggestion with wrapping up our study of Ho‘omau this month:

Review the 4 building blocks within The Role of the Manager Reconstructed. When you review what we have learned about Ho‘omau this month, where can your Ho‘omau intentions best be applied?

MY MANA‘O (what I believe to be true) ~ ~ ~ 1. People: Managers concentrate on strengths and make weaknesses irrelevant. Discover what strengths each of the people you manage possess. Place people where they are called on to employ those strengths and capitalize on them. Give people authority to completely own their responsibilities. 2. Place: Managers create great workplaces where people thrive. Focus on creating an environment where rewarding work happens. Continually work to remove obstacles, barriers, and excuses. Be the steward of a healthy organizational culture. 3. Mission: Managers get the work to make perfect sense. Connect the work to be done with the meaning why. Plan to succeed with a viable business model, so people always see realistic possibility. Encourage people to work on the enterprise with you, not just within it. 4. Vision: Managers expect and promote the exceptional. Never settle for mediocrity; champion excellence so people rise to the occasion. Lead, mentor and coach. Harness energy and drive action. Do with, not for. Foster sequential and consequential learning so people continue to grow.

And that, my Ho‘ohana Community, will wrap up our value study for the month of November as far as my essay presentations go. However we have 5 full days before we say Aloha to the month, and the comments are open! Got some good words for me, and to share with each other?

We will Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.

~Rosa

Decision-Making and Decision-Management seen through Ho‘omau

One of the things we’ve said about Ho‘omau is this:

“People are more apt to invest in and be committed to their own decisions than they are to following the marching orders of a leader—even a leader they respect and trust to make decisions for them.” —from Managing with Aloha, page 58 (If you are just joining us, Ho‘omau is the Hawaiian value of persistence and perseverance, and you will find a more complete definition within my Day One Essay for November: Ho‘omau: Reveal the Good, and Make it Last.)

Today

I’d like to connect our decisions with the value of Ho‘omau. While you are engaged in the work you do, you are primarily in the process of one of two things. You are either

• Working to make a good decision (as opposed to an impulsive or auto-pilot one), or

• Working to execute a decision (and also managing its consequences).

If we view this through the value filter of Ho‘omau, we are pursuing best-possible continuity of our good constants. However we want growth too, and thus we must embrace change. If we ask ourselves, “which change is best?” I believe that considering Alaka‘i (the value of leadership) can be of great help.

~ MWAC Value of the Month Connections ~ Some extra credit for later, for any of you who studied Nānā i ke kumu with me last month: (By ‘later’ I mean with a second reading of this essay today with the ‘extra credit’ intention of connecting it to your Ho‘ohana newly drafted this past October… this is the sequential and consequential learning of MWAC.) Look at those two bullet points above, and see if you can align them with the Nānā i ke kumu work we did on these two bullets within How Nānā i ke kumu Helps You Embrace Change and Growth. “…look at “both source and capacity to learn” in another way, as constants (source) and as change (capacity to learn). At any given time, and with any given effort, we are working on one or the other: Either we are Working to maintain our healthy constants, or Working to effect a change we desire. Further, it is in effecting a desired change that we experience our most elevated experiences with learning.”

Think of Decision Making as a Leadership Function

We too often consider decision making to be a chore, and worse, we allow so many of our decisions to succumb to the chopping block of political correctness, where soon the inherent integrity of our decisions have been watered down into hardly more than safe mediocrity. Pure yuck!

Leadership is braver than that, and if decisions are to be worth much at all they must be brave too. In other words, you, the decision maker, must be more courageous.

I know what you’re thinking… “yeah Rosa, sure. More easily said than done.”

Not necessarily. Not when you bring in the heavy artillery we call leadership. You see, I believe that leadership is a service discipline, one which creates positive energy via well-articulated and future-directed ideas: Leaders are the champions of great ideas.

Now consider this: A great idea is the precursor to a great decision.

The great idea is the pioneer who breaks new ground; the great decision is the settler who says a blessing over the land and then begins to plan some seeds where the soil is most fertile.

Now think of decision management as a management function, where all the settlers are now in execution mode; they’re farming. They are working on the optimal way to put the decision into play, and pull it off, where “it” is the great idea turned into the great decision to farm in that new place to begin with.

I also like the farming analogy because it constantly reminds me that we reap what we sow.

Think of Decision-based Work as a Management Function

It’s that second bullet point we started with.

Great management is akin to missionary work. And mission-directed work counts on great leadership because leading is visionary work. Vision is simply the well-articulated great idea turned into a clear, compelling, cool and sexy, wildly exciting picture of our best possible future. Those seeds will turn into bountiful rows of corn, plumped juicy yellow by our hard work (or tomatoes!) and harvested in plenty to both sustain us easily, and invite our neighbors to feast with us so we can all share in the spirit of thanksgiving together.

Leadership tells us that happy ending to the story as the consequence of a great idea (i.e. the right idea, and the best idea) turned into the great decision to do the work it takes to get it done.

Now I’m not at all minimizing the work of decision-management, for there is likely a considerable amount of effort involved in that bullet point of “Working to execute a decision (and also managing its consequences).” However isn’t it better to start with a great idea versus a so-so one which will drain your energies? Pump those energies up to the momentum of exciting runaway instead! Isn’t it better to be the brave leader and work on your own idea of what good to make last in your life? Why work on the idea someone else created when you have a great one too? What was the title of my Day One Essay again? Oh yeah... Ho‘omau: Reveal the Good, and Make it Last.

From last week’s essay, you also know this:

To suppose that persistence and perseverance describes “trying harder” isn’t the Kaona, and hidden meaning of Ho‘omau. You now know it is being smarter and more deliberate: Throw those extra veggies into the cargo hold of our ship! Ho‘omau is fully anchor smart and compass point intentional.

You can manage, and you can lead. Yes, you.

So let’s go back to that quote for a moment:

“People are more apt to invest in and be committed to their own decisions than they are to following the marching orders of a leader —even a leader they respect and trust to make decisions for them.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 58

What that quote alludes to is this: In your everyday decisions about virtually everything, you can be both leader and manager, both decision-maker (the scout and pioneer) and decision-manager (the settler and farmer).

You start with the idea you have that you are most excited about, and you Ho‘omau; you persist and persevere, you push through any adversity (resisting things like political correctness and less-than-courageous mediocrity), and you make the change you have chosen come true for you.

When you get others on your team —say you get more land, decide to grow with a bigger farm, and need more help, you Ho‘omau more diligently as a farmer-manager: Managers are the champions of people who Ho‘ohana together.

You are growing more than just corn, and it all starts with brave decisions. Farms do not sustain us, grow us and give us feasts worthy of Thanksgiving celebrations when they settle for mediocrity.

Next Tuesday: Our Ho‘omau study continues with Not just ‘again.’ Ho‘omau better..

“As a manager, Ho‘omau challenges you to have a carefully crafted plan that makes good business sense. You cannot have a strategy that will both motivate and support your staff without sound business objectives to ground you. Working hard is not good enough, you have to work smart. You need a great plan with evolving dynamics of its own, responsive to the ever-changing needs of your business. It’s part of your responsibility as a leader.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 61

We will Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.

~Rosa

Understanding Kaona in our Ho‘omau Language of Intention

ALOHA ~ ~ ~ Have you newly arrived here at Managing with Aloha Coaching? Thank you for clicking in! Each month, we adopt a Hawaiian value to study together in a universal way, thus the tagline you see up top: Value Your Month, Value Your Life. I publish a new coaching essay here every Tuesday. They are essays, longer than most blog posts, and though you can read them through once in less than a Daily 5 Minutes, they are intended to give you a full week’s worth of Ho‘ohana-inspired self-coaching. This month we are learning about Ho‘omau: Reveal the Good, and Make it Last. Begin here: Day One Essay for a quick introduction. We’ll wait! Welcome! ~ Rosa Say

Our Value Study: Ho‘omau. Reveal the Good, and Make it Last.

In my Day One Essay, I asked you to think about the persistence and perseverance of Ho‘omau through two metaphors, anchors (which keep you steady or in safe harbor) and compass points (which give you direction).

You can think of the good in your life (and in your work) as the constancy you want keeping you anchored; you can “make it last” by choosing directional movement which fortifies and builds upon that good with connective opportunities, making it even stronger.

Let’s explore the metaphor a bit further today, by talking about one anchor and one compass point:

• The anchor: VALUES
• The compass point: LANGUAGE OF INTENTION

Third, I’d like to introduce a wonderful Hawaiian concept to you, called KAONA.

Values reveal the correct path to take.

Values teach us to seek goodness by their very nature, and the assumption we make when we use our values as an anchor, is that the best path will also be the right path, a good path.

Simply speaking the value of Ho‘omau can be a thought-provoking suggestion, one which causes us to self-coach, looking inward at our own choices with self-propelled action, instead of outward at variables that we tend to shift blame to, or justify circumstances with. When we say we want to persist, or persevere, it begs questions; Persist with what? Persevere with what? Why is it so important?

The result of answering these questions, is one of true ownership of the situation at hand (i.e. defining the what), where we begin to reach for our own values (i.e. defining the why), continuing to strive for what we believe in as “the right thing to do.” We then choose actions which are in alignment with our values with a greater sense of self-affirming confidence.

People are more apt to invest in and be committed to their own decisions than they are to following the marching orders of a leader—even a leader they respect and trust to make decisions for them. Their actions are much more immediate and definite. Their confident certainty creates a sense of urgency, because anything less will not do.

The reason is quite simple: If there is anything we trust in completely, it is trust in our own values, for in essence we trust in ourselves.

Choose your language; set your intention.

Language, vocabulary, and conversation combine as our primary tools in business communications. What we speak is fifty times more important than what we write; think about the tone, inflection and body language which accompanies our words and this is easy to understand.

The need for CLEAR, intentional, reliable and responsive communication is critical in thriving businesses. Drive communication of the right messages, and you drive momentum and worthwhile energies.

It makes perfect sense that a directional compass point must be clear too, doesn’t it. It would be unacceptable for a navigator to tell his Captain, “I think the compass is pointing in that direction as north most of the time.”

Momentum and energy is about movement forward, and it becomes directional (like a compass point) when it is clear and intentional; you have a destination in mind, a place (either physical or figuratively speaking) you want to arrive at having completed a successful journey.

So think about your language, vocabulary and conversation in this way: When you have a place in mind you would love to arrive at, as the culmination of your persistence and perseverance through all adversity;

• What is the forward momentum and energy you want created?
• Where do you want any and all movement to take you?
• When does language make a destination clearer, and thus more compelling, and when does language make it too complicated and fuzzy?
• What vocabulary excites? What vocabulary distracts?
• What conversation is necessary to keep all players in sync, and when does conversation do little more than interrupt momentum which is trying to achieve runaway without your intrusion slowing it down?

Now stop for a moment, and think about what we have done in our “language of Ho‘omau-intention” with our metaphors of anchors and compass points. We’ve created a kind of story, where it is easy to imagine adversity as a stormy sea; it is easy to imagine a laser sharp sail through the opportunity of a beautiful day with good conditions. It is easy to put story-descriptive words to what a happy ending would look like, sound like, feel like.

The story of the successful voyage has become the kaona, or storied meaning within the intentional work done by the ship’s crew; by your crew.

Kaona: Fewer words, more meaning.

As a manager, I found that the beauty of speaking the Hawaiian values was their promise of more meaning with far less words. Values are textured with hidden meanings for different people, yet these varied and unique interpretations will always circle back to the good intent at the very heart of the value in mind. When you incorporate the language of values into your own management culture, the unspoken message you give your peers and employees is that you have the faith and belief they will come up with the interpretation meaning the most to them. You imply the confidence you have that they will then choose the best path to take moving forward. In doing so, you’ve taken another step forward yourself toward building trust between you.

Ho‘omau is perhaps the best example of this, for in saying Ho‘omau you encourage others to continue, to persevere, often without even mentioning what it may be you want them to do. You say, simply and cleanly, “Ho‘omau.” What they hear, in a single word of encouragement, is “You know what to do” and “You are doing well so far—continue.” The implication is that you trust them with figuring out the what and the how, and you have faith that their decisions will be sound ones. You are encouraging them to simply continue on course, —on their charted course, and to never give up. For that person to feel that you have confidence, trust and faith in them is powerful stuff.

When we started the month, did you imagine that Ho‘omau would prove to be a good teacher with creating so much? To suppose that persistence and perseverance describes “trying harder” isn’t the Kaona, and hidden meaning of Ho‘omau. You now know it is being smarter and more deliberate; Ho‘omau is fully anchor smart and compass point intentional.

Next Time: Tuesday, November 18 — Decision-Making and Decision-Management

More about this:

“People are more apt to invest in and be committed to their own decisions than they are to following the marching orders of a leader—even a leader they respect and trust to make decisions for them.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 58

We will Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.

~Rosa

Ho‘omau: Reveal the Good, and Make it Last

IF you are a MWAC “regular,” our value for the month of November should prove to be a good complement to the past month’s study of Nānā i ke kumu. In short, we will move from “Source and Truth” to “best continuity.”

IF you are new to MWAC, you will find that this value is immediately applicable for you given the current state of affairs in the world. It is a value I think of as a kind of “anchor in the storm.”

I am looking forward to the month to come for both reasons. Ho‘omau is the value of persistence and perseverance. The objective of this value is getting all which is good in our lives to be more pervasive and long lasting. Doesn’t that sound great?

Our value for the month of November 2008, is presented in Chapter 4 of Managing with Aloha;

Ho‘omau Perseverance and Persistence. To continue, to perpetuate.  Never give up. ~ Ho‘omau. Anything worth having is worth working for. Persistence is often the defining quality between those who fail and those who succeed. ~ There is never much satisfaction in giving up, and Ho‘omau is the value that will cause you to continue, to persevere in your efforts, and to perpetuate those that have worked well. ~ Celebrate your strengths in the face of all adversity. The obstacles that test you can actually make you stronger. ~ Ho‘omau. Persevere. Never give up. Cause the good in your life to last.

I had written this within my Managing with Aloha manuscript back in 2003, and as I sit here today, the words again apply, feeling almost too real for comfort:

“In my own personal striving within the business environment the last few years, Ho‘omau would be the single word that caused me to focus on what was most important and move forward with resolution, determination and confidence, for Ho‘omau encompasses all of these qualities. Ho‘omau will always be the value reminding me I can be bigger than my perceived adversity, for anything worth having is worth working for.”

Those words feel starkly real again given our economic struggles universally, however because Ho‘omau is a personal value for me, there is only enough discomfort to be useful discontent — to push me toward positive actions which corral my energies wisely and keep me optimistic.

That is my goal in the writing I will present to you here this month: I want to share that feeling of optimism I have — yes! Even right now in this global recession we find ourselves in. I feel there are silver linings in these storm clouds, and we need to feel their comforting assurance. Ho‘omau will help us do so.

Also from that 2003 manuscript, and also true today:

“I wanted to get the job done; I did not want an excuse not to.”

From Values and Strengths to Anchors and Compass Points

A note about our continuity:

I have also chosen Ho‘omau for November because it connects so very well to Ho‘ohana (September) and Nānā i ke kumu (October). If you are a manager using our MWAC self-coaching in your workplace, you will find it easy to repeat and reinforce what you’ve brought to your team over the past few weeks.
[Find a refresher on spaced repetition here: Managers: Are You Teaching? Know Can Do!]

We have a value of the month program here to model the “MWA way” for you:

I strongly encourage you to have your own campaigns of monthly intention in your life design (‘Imi ola) and within your work (your Ho‘ohana), whether you choose the same values or similar ones of your own (Choose your values). The habit-forming nature of doing so creates a beating of positive rhythm for your spirit in much the same way your heartbeat does so for your body’s best health. This is the vibrant rhythm of the lifelong learner (‘Ike loa) who is building their growth capacity (Palena ‘ole) by constantly weaving their values (Value-alignment) and their strengths (Strengths-management) into their intentional daily work (Ho‘ohana). A value of the month program is an easy-to-adopt pattern of self-leadership (Alaka‘i).

Over the past two months we have talked quite a bit about your values and your strengths in the context of the values of Ho‘ohana (intentional work) and Nānā i ke kumu (source and truth). Values teach us to seek goodness by their very nature, and the assumption we make is that the best path will also be the right path, a good path.

During November, I want you to think about the ideas, concepts and goals you have that you think about as your anchors or your compass points along that path:

Anchors:
An anchor keeps a ship in place when its crew is not intentionally steering it (such as when they are at rest or play in a safe harbor), or when there needs to be added resistance in stormy seas.

It is a great metaphor for our work as well. We have certain things which anchor us when we need them to: An example is diversification as the ‘business anchor’ of multiple revenue streams, one everyone is finding they should have in today’s economy. Our study of Ho‘omau will help you identify your anchors, and remind you to maintain them.

Compass Points:
Compass points are directional. No ship remains in safe harbor very long. Once a crew is refreshed they become restless, anxious to use their innately held talents (Strengths-management) on the next voyage. They head out to sea, however always with some direction in mind, and an unwavering commitment to the compass point they have chosen.

This, November 2008, is a time where you have a choice between waiting it out (whether in safe harbor or raging sea) or following a compass point to your future, now and on your own terms instead of simply waiting for everyone else. Ho‘omau will encourage you to choose your direction and set sail.

Seafaring voyagers will also set sail when conditions are less than balmy. They are not foolish and they know when it is best to wait out a truly raging storm, but ocean swells are natural occurrences; high seas might represent adversity, but they are not obstacles. Seafarers with a passion for their Ho‘ohana know that “anything worth having is worth working for.”

They choose to set sail.

Our November Tuesdays

These are the topics I plan to write on within our every-Tuesday publishing schedule here on Managing with Aloha Coaching:

Tuesday, November 11 — Understanding the Kaona in your Language of Intention

“As a manager, I found that the beauty of speaking the Hawaiian values was their promise of more meaning with far less words. Values are textured with hidden meanings for different people, yet these varied and unique interpretations will always circle back to the good intent at the very heart of the value in mind.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 59

Tuesday, November 18 — Decision-Making and Decision-Management

“People are more apt to invest in and be committed to their own decisions than they are to following the marching orders of a leader—even a leader they respect and trust to make decisions for them.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 58

Tuesday, November 25 — Not just ‘again.’ Ho‘omau better.

“As a manager, Ho‘omau challenges you to have a carefully crafted plan that makes good business sense. You cannot have a strategy that will both motivate and support your staff without sound business objectives to ground you. Working hard is not good enough, you have to work smart. You need a great plan with evolving dynamics of its own, responsive to the ever-changing needs of your business. It’s part of your responsibility as a leader.”
—from Managing with Aloha, page 61

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We will Ho‘ohana together, Kākou.

~Rosa

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