Managing with Aloha Coaching

New MWAC White Paper: The Role of the Manager Reconstructed

Aloha dear readers,

Making this available only here and just for you to say mahalo!

thank you so much for reading...
thank you for talking story with me here via your comments...
and thank you for subscribing to Managing with Aloha Coaching!

A new white paper for The Role of the Manager Reconstructed, downloadable as a free PDF you can print and share.

I have just newly edited it from the article I had previously written here about the Role of the Manager, to attach it as an addendum in the classes I do locally on the Managing with Aloha curriculum. Thought you might like to use it as a reference too, or as a discussion starter for your own workplace reconstruction the Managing with Aloha way :)

“This is your mission, and should you choose to accept it...”

Managing with Aloha is not a Mission Impossible at all! Highly do-able!

All I need is you... all WE need is you. Here is our WE: What I have learned from the People we collectively call “our employees”

I hope you join the movement to Reconstruct the Role of the Manager with me, for we Ho‘ohana together!
—Rosa

The 1 List That Every Manager Must Work With

If I am hard pressed to recommend one and only one tool as THE most essential one in every manager’s tool kit, there is no question for me what it will be.

It is the very first tool I teach new supervisors (and any struggling manager) to use;
No matter the industry they are in.
No matter the country they are in.

Whether they are new to their positions or seasoned pros.
Whether they have just one employee or thousands.

Whenever it is calm, and they are caught up.
Whenever it is frenetic and crazy, and they can’t see that light at the end of the tunnel.

Pretty much no matter what the circumstances are.
And get this – even more than my beloved Daily 5 Minutes®.

The One Tool that every manager must work with, and work with daily, is this:
A simple list kept easily and best with pencil and an 8x10 sheet of paper folded into three columns.

This is not just any list, but a very special one.

It is the list that will endear every manager to every employee, every boss, every supplier or vendor partner, and every customer.

It is the list that can single-handedly reinvent a manager’s reputation, as it simultaneously functions as that manager’s best training and coaching architect.

At the top of this list is its name, and right beneath that, as the headings of its three columns, are all the instructions managers will need.

This magic manager’s list is called, THE FOLLOW-UP I NEED TO COMPLETE.

Those headings of its three columns are,

1. What I must Do to Honor my Word
2. Who I need to Follow-up with, and By When
3. Why it is so Important to Them, and thus, to Me.

When management is a calling (as it should only be) managers work more for other people than they do for themselves. The work they do for others IS the work they do for themselves, for when they elevate the human condition, improving it as it aches to be improved, they are most fulfilled in the work they are most needed for, discovering that being a manager can be the most satisfying and rewarding work that exists.

Ho‘ohanohano and the Law of Reciprocity

We just talked about Ho‘ohanohano and approachability, and Steve Sherlock cut to the chase for us in a comment he shared:

Approachability is important, almost more so than listening. If they won't come close enough to talk, we won't hear what they have to say.

I love how Steve wrote that we won't hear what they have to say, not that they won't hear what we have to say... so wise!

Well, approachability was indeed our warm up, and Steve intuitively nailed something instantly: Approachability just scratches the surface of what Ho‘ohanohano does for us.

Ultimately, the goal of creating a demeanor of distinction with Ho‘ohanohano is about becoming more attractive and magnetic, so people are drawn toward getting into a relationship of some kind with you, and will commit to keeping that relationship healthy and mutually rewarding.

They work with you because they want to, and not just because they have to; they sense your support and uplifting nature. They will actively seek you out because they enjoy the experience of being with you. They aren't sure exactly how you manage to do so for them, but they feel better about themselves when they are with you --- it's the respect and dignity creation of Ho‘ohanohano, and your deliberate focus on it so that respect and dignity are not just left to chance.

Ho‘ohanohano in your value system is vitally important if you have chosen the role of the manager, joining me on my reconstruction crusade, fully buying in to my assertion that the calling of great managers is about people-work and not process-work.

Ho‘ohanohano in your value system is vitally important individually, if your goal with learning Managing with Aloha is the self-improvement of self-management, and you have committed to living those Twelve Rules of Self-Management, personal value alignment, and developing your four-fold capacity (Palena ‘ole).

In both cases (and managers in the Managing with Aloha culture must do both) the goal is building better relationships: A great relationship is a solid foundation and it's a springboard to more possibility.

The Law of Reciprocity ensures that relationships are not just one way; they are mutually rewarding.

Ho‘ohanohano: No more jerks for managers

Aloha mai kākou ~ welcome to Managing with Aloha Coaching and the month of March, 2008.

Our value for the month is Ho‘ohanohano, presented in Chapter 13 of Managing with Aloha.

When I initially wrote Managing with Aloha, there was very little question for me about the order that the nineteen values within the book lined up in so they’d make the most sense to a reader as a whole philosophy. They had a chapter by chapter rhythm that was very fitting at the time in just about every way that I would think about them. (I explain the order in a section at the front of MWA called, How best to read this book —I will reprint it for you at the end of this essay.)

However I will often get a different order experience for MWA in the writing of our value of the month program here (and as I have done for several organizations for alignment with their specific value statements). As we studied Kuleana last month, the value that kept talking to me in the background of our discussions was Ho‘ohanohano, and soon there was no question for me that it would be the value we focused on during the month of March. In a way, we are continuing what we’ve begun to speak of in February, and this is the Kuleana connection:

Ho‘ohanohano teaches us to take responsibility for the inner spirit that drives us, creates us and moves us toward the actions we choose to take. When we accept this responsibility, incorporating it into our Kuleana, we begin to think of ourselves as just the stewards of something greater—we treat everyone with dignity and with respect as a way of appreciating our own dignity as human beings, and in a way, getting our own spirit to be better deserving.

Where the connection was strongest for me was in thinking about how this plays out in the role of the manager, and what greater possibilities exist than what many may be accustomed to, thus my title for this, my Day One Essay for March.

A manager’s “jerk” status may be earned at times, but often it is the unfortunate perception of the work that manager gets trapped in delivering —work quite different from what should be the role of that manager.

It doesn’t have to be that way, and Ho‘ohanohano can help.

Ho‘ohanohano Honor the dignity of others. Conduct yourself with distinction, and cultivate respectfulness. ~ Ho‘ohanohano. Honor the dignity of others. Help them find their own nobility. ~ Treat others well in honor of the health of their spirit. ~ Honor the intelligence of others—trust it is there, and they are learners. ~ Conduct yourself with distinction, by honoring your own dignity and self-respect. Act with integrity. ~ Cultivate an inclusive attitude, and seek to demonstrate your respect for others—always.

How can managers change a company's culture?

Aloha mai kākou,

I ended my last posting this way:

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.

The "prevailing organizational culture" is the hard part though, isn't it.

Mahalo to Linda and Andrew for their heartfelt voices here, for I realize many of you were probably nodding your heads too:

I totally agree with the statement you make about most managers having a hard time applying and using the "soft stuff" of leadership skills. ~ Linda

It sounds simple and the advice is spot-on; however in practice it is very hard to do! Especially in a large corporate office. ~ Andrew

We were talking about strengths management and the work of Marcus Buckingham there, and I wanted to highlight our conversation so we could take another look at this, in the MWAC archives: It was taken from a video program we listened into last summer where Marcus Buckingham gave his answer to the question in my title, responding;

“There are four key levers to pull if you want to effect change in a culture;”

1. You can change the expressed values of that culture — “the stuff that’s up on the walls.”

2. You can change the heroes of that culture

3. You can change what gets talked about in the informal communications network — “around the water cooler, in the lunchroom, in the car on the way home”

4. You can change the metrics “with how performance gets measured”

Revisit the posting here:
4 Things Managers Can Do to Bring Managing with Aloha to their Company Culture

I heartily agree with Buckingham: Individual managers CAN effect change when they are transparent about it with the teams they lead and enlist their entire team in their goal, illustrating how it can be a win-win agreement for everyone, and then mentoring and coaching people through whatever it takes.

Maybe not easy, but certainly a higher return than the other equally hard work you may be frustrated with.

The biggest mistake frustrated managers make is that they go it alone instead of rallying the troops: You can enlist the help of others, come to a mutually beneficial agreement with them, and not be a renegade. You can create a great Lōkahi team, as in these stories: Lōkahi Teams: When can a manager step away?

A quote which should be given to every team and manager in the world to adopt as their credo:

A small group of thoughtful people could change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~ Margaret Mead

In addition to these 4 levers that Buckingham suggests, take the time to think about it very individually, and through our present lens of Kuleana: What can you do as "just one manager" in a larger organization?

• You can accept personal responsibility for defining your own role by merit of your own actions.
• You can make this clear for everyone who works for you by simply being upfront and honest about it, so that people are not left guessing what you might be up to.
• You can deliver results to prove your point, and thereby set up the team that you are directly responsible for to be the heroes of the culture Buckingham speaks of. People who value Kuleana by demonstrating it in their work are definitely hero and heroine material!

What else can you do without waiting for permission from anyone else?

What can the single, responsible, Great Manager do to effect cultural change?

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You may also want to visit this posting in the MWAC archives:
MWA3P: Part Three – How Organizational Culture Happens

...and this one at www.ManagingWithAloha.com:
Strengths Management Coaching with Marcus Buckingham (in a podcast with Lisa Haneberg). An excerpt:

We can’t expect managers to take on the full responsibility for employing people’s strengths and making them feel worthwhile and important at work; the bigger responsibility lies with each of us as individuals. Buckingham says it this way;

“Managers must be open, but it is your responsibility to give them the raw material they can work with.”

You are the raw material. See yourself as the expert and authority on YOU. Who knows your strengths better than you do? Be proud of them, own up to them, and articulate them. Why should managers have to guess what they are?

Photo found on Flickr: weekend inspiration by muha...

If you have arrived at MWAC for the first time, ALOHA and welcome!

This is what MWAC is About, and Kuleana is the value study of the month for February.

You are warmly invited and encouraged to subscribe and become part of our Ho‘ohana Community. Meet more of the gang here, and “tumble along” with us here: The MWA Ho‘ohana Community is our current Brex challenge.

Ho‘ohana with us!
~ Rosa Say
More about me here.

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.

The Role of the Manager in Managing with Aloha: The case for a better way to work.

Thank you for your visit.

This page has been updated, and moved to TalkingStory.org

NEW LINK: The Reconstructed, Rejuvenated, Newly Respected, and Never Underestimated Role of the Manager

Kuleana, the Value of Personal Responsibility

Aloha mai kākou ~ welcome to Managing with Aloha Coaching and the month of February.

You will find that our value of the month study is very much about my heart, my mission, and about the elemental basics and core principles of why the Managing with Aloha workplace philosophy exists. This month we study a value that is exceptionally strong for me personally, and stubbornly so; it takes over my entire life quite easily, suppressing all my other values if I allow it to.

My family and my employees have loved me for it. I can also drive them crazy with it. At day's end there are often entries in my Gratitude Journal, where I am immensely grateful that the love trumps so much!

This is not a value I am able to write about without it becoming very, very personal. Therefore, I am going to take advantage of that, and this is not a month where there will be a cautious editor's covering of diplomacy on the writing I spill out here. After all, is this not February, the red-hot month of love, including the self-love of your most passionate intentions? Let's seize the moment: If not today, then when?

Usually I nalu it, and go with the flow in the writing I do for this site, so I can be more responsive to the happenings of the day (you've been able to tell, I know). However not this time: I have pre-written more for the month to come than I ever have before, crafting the articles to come with the intention of my ho'ohana. Today is Day One of a value study that I have created in the deep hope that those with a calling for management make this value very, very personal for them too.

I pray my dear reader, that you are that person. We need you.

Our value for the month of February 2008, is presented in Chapter 10 of Managing with Aloha;
It is pronounced Coo.lay.ah.na, with a short emphasis on that third syllable.

Kuleana One’s personal sense of responsibility. I accept my responsibilities, and I will be held accountable. ~ Kuleana is the value of responsibility.  It drives self-motivation and self-reliance, for the desire to act comes from accepting our responsibility with deliberance and with diligence. ~ Responsibility seeks opportunity. Opportunity creates energy and excitement. ~ Kuleana weaves empowerment and ownership into the opportunity that has been captured. ~ There is a transformation in Kuleana, one that comes from ho‘ohiki, keeping the promises you make to yourself. When Kuleana is a strong personal value, it drives us. We take initiative and we motivate ourselves; others need not stoke a fire that already burns within us: We have ample fuel, and that fire burns red hot and steady.

To be a manager is to touch the lives of others in profound ways. As a manager, you must accept this responsibility. With care. With Aloha.
~ From my Core 21 Beliefs at www.ManagingWithAloha.com

Are you a manager? Are you meant to be one?

I am going to focus on You: the Manager We Need this month.  My postings for MWAC (this site) will not be as life-in-general as Pono was in January.

I am taking my own coaching in this from a German writer, scientist and philosopher who walked our earth 176 years before we did: His name was Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and I quote him in the very front of my book to set the tone for the reader, with my single intention in writing it:  My Managing with Aloha epigraph reads:

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them to become what they are capable of being.”

I have very strong feelings about the Role of the Manager if our workplaces are ever to improve, and we will talk about them this month as Kuleana, your responsibility as both a manager and a leader. Starting with this posting, I have created Role of the Manager as one of the categories of the site, for it is one of the key concepts of the MWA workplace philosophy, if not THE key philosophy: In my thinking, the values of Aloha (unconditional love) and Ho'ohana (worthwhile work) and the Role of the Manager form a triangle of optimism each manager works with constantly.

For now, imagine that triangle forming the logs of the fire described in the definition of Kuleana above.

Your MWAC Engagement: Comments versus Email

Managing with Aloha Coaching is a complimentary site: It's completely free, because I want you to read it. Simply said, I want more Aloha in the world because Aloha is pure good. Subscription is recommended for your convenience, and because I write a type of continuous conversation with you each month, but it is not required.

I write for MWAC because I am hoping to help those who have read my book, who feel they can start to systematically bring Aloha to their work culture largely on their own. For whatever reason — cost, distance, lack of knowledge with virtual tools, reticence — they doubt they will ever hire me as their coach.

Since making the transition to this site from www.managingwithaloha.com (now used primarily as a portal for my book sales) comments shared publicly have gone down, and my email has increased quite a bit. I understand that, fully realizing I am largely broadcasting here, writing for managers who by nature are keeping their results to themselves, results pretty specific to their own workplace. My stats also show me that several of you now pull the MWAC feed into your own intranets and private wikis, and you discuss them there within your own teams, and not here on the site itself.

Both of those things are fantastic: I love your emails, and I love knowing that my articles are getting talked about! However I have to say, I would love to figure out how I can pry you out of hiding so that everyone else will benefit from it as well.

An Experiment: One of those pilots I love to test!

Thinking about this, I'm going to conduct a pilot for MWAC in February: A pilot is an idea you temporarily test, then make a decision about later when time serves up some data for you.

My pilot does connect back to Kuleana. I know that responsibility is a more private thing, and that managers may take a chance here, commenting on the responsibility they will (or will not) accept when there is a good chance their employees, peers, or boss can read the site too.

Therefore, you will see that I have removed the Recent Comments listing this month, for with Kuleana I encourage you to write to me privately as you have questions. I will respond to you privately, and I will not expose what you share with me in future postings here unless I ask you first, and we agree in how I will present it to both fully respect your privacy and be of help and usefulness to the other readers here in our Ho'ohana Community. You will still be able to comment on all my postings this month should you wish to (and I hope you will share what you are comfortable with!) it is just the comment index which previously appeared beneath the "Recent Postings" has been taken away so your name is not so publicly listed.

In case you missed it last month, here is an example of how I did use an email conversation in January, with the writer's permission: Is Pono where integrity goes?

Our February Agenda for Sunday Mālama

This month will be one I present a mini-study every Sunday, similar to that I had done back in October, which was devoted to a 4-Article Series on MWA3P: an overview of the Productivity Coaching we do at Say Leadership Coaching. [Scroll down for the links on my article index page if you missed it.]

Be sure you check back for the first article two days for now: Our February Sunday Mālama will kick off our Braver Experiments [with] Digital Learning initiative for 2008. This IS connected to Kuleana and The Role of the Manager: To handle both, you have to "get with the program."

I hope I have been able to get you as excited about the month to come as I am!

Tomorrow I will help you get started with your 5-Beat Rhythm [Click here for the template].

This February, Value your Month, and Value your Life, right here with us on Managing with Aloha Coaching. If you are a manager, this is the month to explore what a "calling for management" really, truly means to you. If it IS your calling, I promise you this: Kuleana is a value you will LOVE.
Let’s Ho‘ohana,
~ Rosa Say

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First time here? Welcome! I hope you like what you have read so far, and will be joining us!

You may want to read this article too: The How-To Read and Use Managing with Aloha Coaching

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Photo Credits: "Ignition" and "Light it up" by young_einstein