Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching

What the heck do you mean by ‘Achievable?’

We have all heard the conventional wisdom attached to smart goal-setting: Although they should stretch you, make your goals realistic, and make them achievable. I included an expanded checklist in my book, Managing with Aloha:

“…you cannot choose a goal on the merit of the goal alone; it must be judged in the context of the employee who sets the goal and the mission that drove it. The relationship you initiated with Ho‘ohana is already paying you dividends here. The more you have learned about the employee you coach, the better you’ll be equipped to help him or her set goals that are:

• Realistic for them, and realistic within their job environment
• Achievable, while challenging them to stretch
• Meaningful, leading them toward worthwhile work
• Exciting and fun, keeping them enthusiastic while they work on them
• Satisfying and rewarding for them, and conducive to your business success.”

Yep, I used the word too. Achievable.

Though it was never intended to have one, conventional wisdom has had a major loophole: “Achievable” is usually up for too much misinterpretation.

Enter the Alaka‘i manager, and just in time. If you’ve been following along in recent weeks, this will not surprise you…

The new Achievable has got to be About Change

If I were to rewrite that section of Managing with Aloha today, and publish one of those “newly revised” editions, I’d definitely spice it up.

It’s an okay checklist, and there isn’t anything about it which is wrong; good Alaka‘i managers will coach Ho‘ohana and ‘Imi ola this way (If you have Managing with Aloha, it came from page 46 and the chapter on ‘Imi ola in regard to mission statements).

In my coaching today, achievable gets defined this way:

• Make it hard (we defined ‘hard’ this past Tuesday)
• Make it cool and sexy ( because energy doesn’t come from boring goals)
• Get a double whammy

The “double whammy” is Goal + Shift: Achieve the goal, and achieve a shift into a re-energized day-to-day beyond everyone else’s ‘normal.’ The goal you choose should be a goal which gets YOU to change versus getting everything/anything else to change (or anyone else to change —that’s a no go in which you set yourself up for failure.)

A quote attributed to organizational change pioneer Richard Beckhard is insightfully accurate:

“People do not resist change; people resist being changed.”

No one can coerce or convince you to accept significant and lasting change: That’s something you have to do for yourself. You’ve got to submit. Submit yourself to an effort that will be hard for you.

Now this is tough, and Alaka‘i managers know this, so they make sure you don’t have to achieve your double whammy goal feeling you’re all alone and without a shoulder to lean on.

Enter the Alaka‘i manager, and just in time

There is one thing about that section I’d written in Managing with Aloha which would not get edited even today —especially today. It is written about the way managers work with their people. Alaka‘i managers set their own double whammy goals in self-management first, and then they coach others with doing the same thing for themselves too.

People who achieve great goals (as opposed to boring, mediocre ones) are not normal in our society today, and they like it that way.

Thus the first truly achievable goal I recommend you reach for, and stretch yourself to achieving, is getting to be okay with the you who is no longer normal.

So here’s the big money question: Do you have a relationship with your manager where you can go beyond normal? Are you going to be okay with them being hard on you?

The ‘just in time’ for today, is that the manager you partner up with could be the one to save you from mediocrity.

So another big money question: Are you willing to be the manager who does that for someone else?

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• Make it Easy, Make it Hard
• Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate
• 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces
• How do you use your manager?
• The Biggest Sin in Business Today

---

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
July 2009 ~
What the heck do you mean by ‘Achievable?’

---

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

Do you Teach?

So many of us do. School was just the beginning.

We teach at home, we teach at work, we even teach at play.

We discover that often, the best way to learn is to teach what we’ve learned to someone else.

Yes, teaching is a skill the successful will master.

Teaching is a skill those who serve will master.

Imagine learning to teach within the framework of the values of Aloha.

I am so very pleased to offer you that opportunity today!

Click on this beautiful badge
designed for our Ho‘ohana Community by Jesse Petersen,

and take a look...

Great Mantra: Make it Easy, Make it Hard

Quick review:
We’ve been talking about banishing mediocrity (because it is THE biggest sin committed in business) and about creating energy instead (because energy generates to Ho‘ohana power). Energy is the greatest resource managers (who both manage AND lead) have at their disposal.

No energy, no action. No action, no business life to speak of.

And in my view, business, whether the business of work, or the business sensibility of life, is a great playground to Ho‘ohana within.

Let’s dig into this a bit more. I’ll share one of my favorite mantras with you from an Alaka‘i leadership perspective today: Make it easy, and make it hard.

Make it easy for your Customers

Here’s a quote for the day:

“I’m so tired of watching us lose our customers. Just because we work for the government doesn’t mean we shouldn’t run the operation like a business.” --- Joan Capinia

You’ll never guess where Joan works. Reinvention can happen where you least expect it. Came from this older article about the US Postal Service, but it’s still relevant today (and hope the mindset stuck with the USPS).

The reputation that government and much of the public sector is saddled with has to with something that is an even bigger sin than mediocrity, for it equates to chronic mediocrity which is now regulated and institutionalized: It’s Bureaucracy.

Rules. Antiquated, or just plain stupid rules.

Red tape. Loop holes. Both are negatives: Loop holes are normally thought of as idiotic, as cheating, or as the tacit approval of stupid rules. Both red tape and loop holes have to do with jumping through hoops versus acting like a dignified professional (or an honored customer.)

Inconvenience no one seems to care about, saying/thinking “Just put up and shut up and deal with it; that’s the way it is.” can be a sneaky part of bureaucracy too.

Perception, reality and your reputation

Yeah, I’m starting to squirm uncomfortably and get irritated thinking about this too. Every business needs to figure out how to make it easier for their customers, and how to make processes streamlined and just plain common sense (and in business it’s all a buying process when you think about it).

Though the private sector can be just as bad, the public sector is a very easy target with this; think about the last time you might have visited a City & County office of any kind on any island. Personally we all feel for those affected by the current furlough discussions; we empathize with them as human beings in similar tough spots. However we all have heard (or said) the whispers between friends along the theme of “Could be a real good thing… maybe now they’ll be forced to improve and strip away all the red tape. I’ve never been happy paying taxes to support such thick-as-thieves bureaucracy.”

Perception is reality, and reputation is about that combination of what your customer experiences, and what they think they experience, especially if they feel they have been greatly inconvenienced, taken for granted, or abused or wronged in some way.

Great Alaka‘i leadership creates visionary pictures of how the future will be easier for the customer, an easy which delivers great experiences (and for both internal and external customers.)

Make it hard for your Business Partners

By ‘business partners’ I mean your employees, staff, co-working peers and your vendor partners; anyone and everyone who is responsible for delighting the customers who create cash flow. Hard ups the game, and fires up the energy.

Hopefully there isn’t anything which is unreasonably hard for anyone, but if push comes to shove, the hard stuff should get taken care of by those associated with the business, not the customer.

Remember this? Fulfill the biggest need:

There are two things business owners are focused on right now, and they go together:
a) Boosting cash flow quickly
b) Making customers deliriously happy

Said another way, cash is King and a paying customer’s loyalty is Queen.

We talked about it before in terms of creating job worth (Job-hunting? Don’t apply and fill, create and pitch) as the advice given to job-seekers: Position yourself to fulfill the biggest need of the employer.

Same goes for this discussion: Those associated with the workings of a business – any business, no exceptions —must position themselves to fulfill the biggest need of the customer.

And customers want you to dazzle them, and exceed their expectations. Today, they expect you to Lead the Slow Charge, and they are happier when they do not have to share your limited attentions with other customers!

What that means, is that of course it will always be harder for you! Hard is a good thing in this context, for it is not normal —and we had said that excellence is not normal. (Review the section called “2. Avoid the Middle and Work on the Edges” within our last talk story here: 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces).

Bring ‘hard’ into your Language of Intention

What Alaka‘i leaders will do, is reinvent the internal vocabulary of what ‘hard’ for your business partners means. In this mantra, “Make it easy, make it hard,” hard is pure excellence.

However we use the word ‘hard’ instead of excellent because we want that association with energetic effort too: Hard means with vigor, with strength, and with force to be reckoned with. Hard resists cracking under pressure because it is sure, it is intently confident. It is virtually flawless and exceptional.

In work cultures managed and led with Aloha by Alaka‘i managers, hard is about constantly learning to improve so everyone can live better, work better, be better. Hard has good kaona: Small word, big meaning.

Get hard to be about an exciting challenge, one which requires —what? That’s right: Increased energies. Mediocrity-banishing energies.

Get hard to mean rock-solid goodness —no stupid rules, no red tape, no loop holes, no basic standards, just extraordinary ones (we talked about that last time too; it was the 3rd way that managers create energetic workplaces.)

On Thursday we’ll get into the management side of the “Make it easy, make it hard” leadership initiative. Hope to see you back for, What the heck do you mean by ‘Achievable?’

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

Photo credit: Bonzai Wannabe by Rosa Say.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• The Biggest Sin in Business Today
• 3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces
• What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?
• hope the mindset stuck
• If you want to know, ask!
• Can you define your Leadership Greatness?
• Job-hunting? Don’t apply and fill, create and pitch
• Lead the Slow Charge
• When is ‘Good’ good enough?

---

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
Make it Easy, Make it Hard

---

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

Competing Strengths in The Battle of the Learner and Over-Achiever

I have posted over at JJL today with an early wrap-up of the month of June.

You will recall our learning theme there has been connected to the mid-year goal check that many of us will do when July arrives:

Has our mid-year check given you more butterflies?

Has it given you more stress, or anxiety about your goals?

Or has it helped to know that you aren’t alone, and the best laid plans do go awry… we can simply make a new agreement with ourselves and move on, move better.

Or maybe you’ve been one who has read different conversations here, and thought to yourself, “This is so cool, I think I’ve gotten a lot more done than I first thought!” (And by the way, if you haven’t tried it yet, that is precisely the magic of Rapid Fire Learning.)

If any of this sounds familiar, you’re probably up in arms, deep in the throes of the Battle of the Learner and Over-Achiever. At ease! (Please?) Pull up a chair, and let’s take a break.

The "chair" we pull up has to do with a sandbox...

From Joyful Jubilant Learning:
The Battle of the Learner and Over-Achiever

Oh come on, it’s Sunday. You can play too. Click on over.

Even if you aren’t reading this until Monday, or Tuesday, July isn’t until Wednesday, so get a jump on it! Two tips there to help you win your own battle, even if slightly different than the one I talk about. Always great to feel you’re ahead of the game, right?

Walking my Talk: A Letter to my Legislators

In the past, I have urged you to be brave, and get involved in your community, both online and offline. Then a couple of days ago I posted a tweet on Twitter, after I had read this in our local paper: Hawaii lawmakers send governor bills to tax Internet transactions

If you are a Hawai‘i resident, you can get this info here:

• Directory of House Representatives
• Directory of Senators 

If you are in another state or country, Google/search for it: Pretty easy to find.

Briefly, there are two bills our Hawai‘i legislature has passed and I am hoping our governor will veto: From a summary by the Honolulu Advertiser Government Writer Derrick DePledge:

INTERNET TAXES

State lawmakers have sent two bills to Gov. Linda Lingle that could lead to greater tax collection on Internet sales.

Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SB1678 SD3 HD1 CD1) — Allows Hawai'i to join 23 other states to simplify tax laws and encourage retailers to collect and pay state sales and use taxes. Requires federal legislation.

Internet general-excise tax (HB1405 HD2 SD2 CD1) — Imposes the state's 4 percent general-excise tax on Mainland retailers that establish an economic nexus in Hawai'i through local Web sites.

The article ends with:

"Several local Web entrepreneurs have also urged Lingle to veto the bill, arguing it would handicap the growth of Hawai'i's online business and media industry.

Local Web sites can become affiliates of retailers like Amazon.com or sign up with brokers such as LinkShare, which connect local bloggers and publishers with advertisers. Local Web sites receive commissions when customers follow links to Mainland retailers and buy products or fill out surveys and become future leads.

Dean Takamine, president of Synertech Media, an online marketing firm in Honolulu, said that if the bill becomes law, many Mainland retailers will drop affiliate marketing in the Islands.

"Basically, what they'll do is they'll just kick off all Hawai'i advertising affiliates," he predicted."

Well, his prediction has come true.

Is this constitutional?

I have a personal interest in these bills as an independent businesswoman who leverages the internet within my own business (Ho‘ohana Publishing ring any bells?). I received a letter from Amazon.com this morning stating my account will be canceled with them on July 1st. They consider these laws an "unconstitutional tax collection scheme."

What that means to you, as part of my Ho‘ohana Community, is that you will no longer be able to buy Managing with Aloha from Amazon.com, AND I will no longer be able to offer you my other recommendations in the ease of the SLC Store and the JJL Store. It seems  unlikely that I will have the option of opting out of their affiliate program so I can keep the aStore convenience of supporting books sold by others in our community - and in other states (i.e. even if strictly as a non-commissioned storefront). Amazon.com writes that as of July 1st,

"...we will have to terminate the participation of all Hawaii residents in the Amazon Associates program on or before that day [the Hawaii law takes effect]. After the termination day, we will no longer pay any referral fees for customers referred to Amazon.com or Endless.com nor will we accept new applications for the Associates program from Hawaii residents."

Walking my Talk

Will I comply with the law? Yes, I am a law-abiding Hawai‘i citizen. However I am very disappointed. The constitutional question aside, I don’t think that either the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (Bill SB1678) or the Internet General-Excise Tax (Bill HB1405) make much sense, economic or otherwise.

This is one of those times however, that simply being “disappointed” doesn’t cut it.

There are other Hawai‘i websites which have composed form letters you can copy and send to the governor, but I doubt this will help for two reasons:

1. Form letters largely are ignored (when did you last read or respond to one?). You need to write a personal one to better your chances, and even then you have to hope they will read it.
2. We are a Democratic majority State with a Republican Governor, and should she veto these bills, it is highly likely both the House and Senate will move to override. (Tell me again how our government two-party system is not broken?)

When laws affect you, think about your own personal circle of influence. Who do you know, and how can you get heard?

This is the letter I sent via email to my House Representative, my district Senator, the Speaker of the House (and yes, in the spirit of full disclosure, Speaker Calvin Say is my brother-in-law: I am married to his younger brother), Senate majority leader Colleen Hanabusa and Governor Linda Lingle. I will be printing them and mailing paper copies as well, and thanks to the power of citizen publishing on the internet, I hereby publish it on Talking Story with links inserted in the hope that SEO-savvy Google Alerts work better than flooded inboxes.

I hope they don’t move to tax my blogs next....

12:45pm Update after a bit of Twitter talk-story:
To be clear, this is not about a loss of affiliate advertising revenue for me. You will notice that my websites are all advertising free, with the exception of the Amazon.com aStore as a convenience and in support of the other authors in our Ho‘ohana Community. I usually don’t make enough referral income to even cover my monthly internet access bill, and this is how my affiliate income, though modest, is used: The JJL Literacy Project.

My concern with losing the partnership of Amazon.com and other internet retailers, is about the loss of the storefronts, for we are already at a significant distribution disadvantage in Hawai‘i, and our options for promoting Made in Hawai‘i products are severely limited.

Think about this as a Hawai‘i consumer: How many times have you wanted to make a purchase over the internet for something not available here in the islands, only to get to your cart check-out and get the message that, “We are so sorry, we cannot ship to Hawai‘i.”

3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces

This past Tuesday I stated that the biggest sin in business today is mediocrity. Today’s post is about what I feel the answer is with correcting that sin, so if you missed it, click over to: The Biggest Sin in Business Today and then come back. (Great comments here at the Talking Story issue.) We’ll wait.

Ready?

How do you, the Alaka‘i manager, banish mediocrity in your workplace? I believe your best possible strategy is this:You replace mediocrity with energy.

Energy generates Ho‘o Power

As with Ho‘ohana, [intentional, Aloha-driven work], Ho‘o power makes things happen.

Blast from the past:

My favorite Hawaiian coaching word is a very short one: Ho‘o. We hear it more as a prefix to other Hawaiian words, as it turns nouns into verbs. By itself, ho‘o means to make something happen. Ho‘ohana: Work on purpose, and with intention. Ho‘ohanohano: Bring dignity and respect to your actions. Ho‘okipa: Give unconditional hospitality, and serve. Ho‘oponopono: Make things right, bring them to balance.

Workplace energy functions the same way batteries do for your favorite electronics: You can have the most high tech camera in the world, and it will do absolutely nothing if its battery is dead. It no can Ho‘o.

Our Say “Alaka‘i” vocabulary is worth repeating:

• LEADERSHIP is the workplace discipline of creating energy connected to a meaningful vision.
• MANAGEMENT is the workplace discipline of channeling that mission-critical energy into optimal production and usefulness.

Great managers cannot channel good energies they are unaware of, or energy which doesn’t exist. And remember – you can’t shift this responsibility to someone else within our discussions here: Alaka‘i managers are those who both manage and lead. We refer to management and leadership as disciplines, not as separate roles, titles, or positions on an org. chart. If a designated leader is not creating energy, then the buck stops with you.

Alaka‘i managers are Energy Creators

If you are a manager (and all business owners are managers too) assume the role of energy creator in your company. Change the title on your business card to Energy Creator; come on, I dare you. Whatever you have there now is probably more normal, and normal is boring.

Your greatest resource in any workplace is NOT time (or financing), it IS the energy required to make the time and other resources you have available count for something worthwhile and meaningful.

Your greatest asset in the workplace is NOT your people, it IS those people with the most consistent energy levels; energy to dream, create, evangelize, and perform magnificently.

Energy powers your production capacity.
Energy powers your service capacity.
Energy is what will dazzle and delight your customer.
Energy is what sustains a vital business, and a lack of energy is what will kill it.

Mediocrity is your red flag that energy is missing, however that’s never a situation that a great manager can’t fix, and fix pretty quickly.

To Start, Be Kūlia Contagious

Great management takes great work and there are no magic pills: You aren’t going to get a complete how-to in this one blog post. The over-arching goal of Say “Alaka‘i” is to trigger possibility, help you reach higher, and break things down into week-to-week actions you can work on, continuously recharging your own battery cells of self-motivation.

However what we can do today is remind ourselves of the big picture view, while making that big picture embraceable and achievable: We can set the stage for positive energies to grow and flourish more than they presently are.

Here are three ways you can begin to be the Energy Creator you need to be, starting TODAY.

1. Be Contagious, for Energy begets more Energy

Ho‘ohana: Work on you first, and produce the best work you possibly can. As far as your staff and partnerships will be concerned, self-management must be in residence within the person in charge before they’ll allow any management or leadership technique to step foot in the door. Your reputation for being a self-managed individual will be key to the privilege you earn in your calling for managing and leading others.

Then, get excited: Tap into company vision by remembering why you are in business in the first place, and set your sights on making magic happen. Yep, magic. When you really think about it, the Ho‘okipa I still crave will be great, but you want more than deliriously happy employees and customers don’t you. Of course you do! You want magic in your own life, so go for it. Magic for you doesn’t happen in boring work. Amp it up, take some risks and have some fun while you work, and set the best possible example for others to follow. Make room for them so they can join you, and co-lead with you. There will always be enough followers, but there are never enough leaders.

2. Avoid the Middle and Work on the Edges

Commit to the value of Kūlia i ka nu‘u: Excellence generates enthusiasm and is contagious; everyone loves it and everyone wants it. However excellence isn’t ordinary or normal – when something enters the realm of the normal it’s no longer viewed as excellent. The more something is thought of as normal, the more ho-hum boring, commonplace and mediocre it gets. Even if you copy the best practice of something, it’s still a copy and is no longer as compelling, exclusive, cool or sexy.

Therefore, if you want excellence (and really, why bother with anything else), you’ve got to be willing to push at the edges of virtually everything, and nothing can be sacred – absolutely nothing. In fact, the more unexpected your targets and projects the better. Constantly ask your team “Why not?” about every wild idea which comes up, and be enthusiastic in recognizing and rewarding their creativity. You have to pursue what others think of as impossible, and you must repeatedly insist: Everything we know of was impossible until the first person did it. Let’s be first. “First” is found on the fringes and way up in front. “First” leads and never follows.

3. There can be no Basic Standards, only Extraordinary ones

At this point I can guarantee some of you are getting an attack of the “yeah, but”s and are thinking, “Well Rosa, reality bites. I can’t work on cool, sexy and edgy until I can clear my decks of all the existing normal stuff.” You know what? You’re right.

However it’s also true that the minute you clear your desk something else lands on it – also in that category of the “normal day to day stuff” and you feel like you’re caught in a vortex or vicious circle. While there is a good case for the importance of standards, they really can hold you back and weigh you down unless you are more intentional and deliberate about them.

Sidebar: Dave Navarro recently wrote a good essay about this: Why You Do What You Do (And Why It Should Scare You). I highly recommend you give it a read.

There is really only one answer: As the saying goes, you have to kill two birds with one stone. As you “clear your decks” you need to tackle them with the first two approaches we’ve spoken of: Ho‘o and Kūlia: Be relentless about being the best, and excel. Eliminate or reinvent any process which drains energy instead of generating it.

And don’t you dare wimp out and stop at systems and processes! Be the Best Boss with the highest value standards and develop your people: Not only do people love and want excellence for themselves, they want to be surrounded by it, finding it in their peers. No one wants to be associated with a mediocre workplace which is populated by mediocre people.

Ready to Roll?

If I am missing anything here I would love to hear from you: Let’s make Ho‘okipa energy happen. Is there anything else you feel is critically important in the big picture view of creating energy in your workplace?

If you don’t want to publicly comment here for me, that’s okay – IF you talk about this with your own workplace team. Ho‘okipa, the Aloha-inspired way that we in Hawai‘i should be delivering great customer service – to the visitor, and to each other – is what will keep you in business.

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

---

Photo credit: Yellow Orchids by Rosa Say.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• The Biggest Sin in Business Today
• What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?
• Be a Deskless Manager: Ho‘o!
• If you want to know, ask!
• Can you define your Leadership Greatness?
• Who says you can’t do that?
• How Managers Matter in a Healthy Culture
• You Are Your Habits, so Make ‘em Good!
• While the Big Cat was Away
• The 2 C’s of Technology and Early Adoption
• Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate

---

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
3 Ways Managers Create Energetic Workplaces

---

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

The Biggest Sin in Business Today

A Preface for Talking Story:
Right upfront, this post is a bit longer than most (my rants turned into stories usually turn out that way.) However I think this is important, and I hope you will take the time to read this, and choose it as one of those posts you copy and share with your staff in your next huddle: This concerns them too. Get their help.

Planning ahead:
Today’s post presents a problem, and my follow-up post Thursday will present what I feel to be a big part of the solution we can collaborate on.

---

We interrupt our normal programming of Tuesdays’ leadership topics to talk about Ho‘okipa: Aloha inspired customer service. But then again, everything is about leadership —or the tragic absence of it.

I need your help

I recently set a goal to write about exceptional customer service in our Hawai‘i nei, for we are the land of Aloha, right? I love spreading the good word about how our values play out every day the way they do. So I went in search of a new story I could share with you and also build a presentation around (my Ho‘okipa class schedule resumes in September), one which would inspire and motivate us anew as we Ho‘ohana together.

Unfortunately I failed. In fact, I ended up with a rant I had to sleep on and tone down. I hate when my writing slips into any negativity at all, however I also seek to write about what’s current and about the way things are; I have learned that it’s best to tell the truth, even when it is less than pleasant. So I need your help in creating a new truth I can write about.

Here’s the story the way it played out.

It’s not because of the recession

Last week was one of assorted errand-running for me; it happened to be one of those times I could batch the things I had to get done into workdays which were scheduled close to home. So I lined up those appointments which fall into the category I’ve come to call, “the business of life” —servicing my car, going to the dentist, picking up a printer I’d taken in to repair; those sorts of things. I was sure I would have lots of opportunities to work on my Ho‘okipa writing goal.

The businesses I happened to visit would all qualify as those who are more recession-proof than most; competitive pricing and discretionary patronage isn’t really part of the picture. Consider the dentist: Skipping your semi-annual appointment with the hygienist can really come back to haunt you. When you (the customer) seek out these basic-need, business of life companies, you just need them, period, and you’re counting on them performing well for you. Chances are you’ll need them again one day in the future, and so you have this vested interest in them; you truly are pulling for them, wanting them to succeed and do well, remaining in business for the long haul. You know they support you, and you are willing to support them.

Customers want to feel smart

A good part of this wanting them to do well, is that you ARE going to pay for their products and services because you do need them; due to different variables, you feel that your choices are limited. So you want to pat yourself on the back for being an intelligent, rational and choosy consumer, making a smart choice even if reality bites and you don’t really have that much of a choice at all.

Sometimes you’ll feel this way on O‘ahu, but when you live on a neighbor island “slim-pickings” can be quite the understatement, and you learn to live with scarcity and the so-called “price of paradise” at the extreme ends of the scale. When I took my run yesterday morning they were changing the price at my neighborhood gas station to $3.27 for regular unleaded – and the cars were patiently lined up, waiting their turn to obligingly swipe in their plastic charge cards for a full tank.

Sadly, the businesses I visited over the last week were a bitter disappointment. They made me feel like a dummy customer and a victim of their complacency – pure yuck.

I didn’t have much choice with certain things – for instance, where I live, my spare tire had to make a 45-mile drive for me to get a new one from the only place which had it in stock (which doesn’t necessarily mean the new tire would match my other ones; it doesn’t). I waited over an hour past the time they committed to having it done, two hours altogether for a 15-minute tire change, and then just as I gratefully approached my ‘finished’ car to leave, I noticed that the tire pressure was so off balance the car looked visibly crooked.

The mechanic didn’t disagree when I pointed it out to him and asked him to recalibrate the tire pressure for all four tires; he did so. However I felt so deflated and disappointed; how dare they make me feel like a fool for choosing them? How dare they make me feel grateful to finally leave them and their stifling hot waiting room, where no one bothered to let me know the job would take longer? How could I be so foolishly accepting of a new tire which cost me $131.73 (yep, one tire) and so much aggravation, a price tag I paid without a second thought or complaint? How dare they make me now feel that it wasn’t a good choice to have been there at all, and I was the one who was wrong, dumb enough not to chance driving another twenty miles on my spare tire to give my business to someone else?

Is there a pulse here?

This is just one example of what I think of as the biggest sin committed in business today: complete mediocrity. By the time the week was over I’d collected a few more unfortunate stories which gave me a very severe case of Ho‘okipa withdrawal. I was craving some exceptional service somewhere, or even uneventful service, but from lively and engaged people! My expectations were getting so low, that surely the warmth of Aloha alone would trump product and service quality, wouldn’t it?

I am sure that no one working at the businesses I visited wanted to do a bad job, or deliberately set out to get me (believe me, I know that being a nice customer works much better than being a complaining one).

No one intentionally lied to me, and no one was rude to me. They did something worse: Either they ignored me or took me for granted.

No one abused me or flagrantly ripped me off (I don’t think… please let my ignorance be bliss, and don’t tell me what you paid for the tire you last bought for what is one of the most common cars found on our roads today).

It seemed that no one had enough energy to intentionally be awful; they just kinda slumped their way into a downslide, and then they stayed there.

No one seemed to have a pulse. Everyone was just so blah and uninspired. So going through the motions unremarkable. In fact, they weren’t even passably good. They skipped steps and didn’t even notice that they did.

The biggest sin in business is mediocrity

Customers today expect more, even if you are the only game in town. If anything, we the customers who feel forced to patronize you for basic needs feel that you’ve been assured of our continuing business, and thus are able to do better – you’re the one with a palpable revenue stream right now! We can clearly see your veins; an example is the monthly bill we get for your ‘utility,’ but your pulse with not taking us for granted is getting alarmingly weak and hard to find.

I didn’t wait two hours for that new tire because they had too little business, but because they had too much business and couldn’t keep up. And it wasn’t an unexpected jump in business – they’re always like that. The only customers who actually wait in their establishment are those like me who live the coastline drive away. When they got behind, they didn’t seem to care; when a customer sitting in your waiting room for hours doesn’t make you or your staff uncomfortable, something is very, very wrong.

I don’t blame any of this on the recession.
I blame it on a lack of energy, the absence of imagination, and the death of creativity and vitality that results from poor leadership and poor management.

Your employees and partners blame it on you too, even if they are the ones doing a rotten job or uninspired and mediocre work. You’re not around or engaged enough as their leader, managing and leading enough to improve things. You are settling for less than is possible, no matter how horrible the economy might get – attentive energy isn’t totally dependent on your bank account. There is always something to be improved and reinvigorated; there is always someone to be coached into achieving their full potential.

Your customers blame it on you too. As is the local way, they will generally be very forgiving of your employees – I was, and I’m a coach who has a very hard time keeping her mouth shut when I’ve got a living laboratory right before my eyes! Customers will blame anything hinting of monopoly behavior, an arrogant resting on laurels, or a recession cop-out attitude on you the owner, you the boss, you the manager. They will blame it on your poor leadership and management, and in my opinion, they’re right, for you’re better than that.

If you are committing the sin of mediocrity, allowing energy to drain out of your company, your business will die. Your customers may not have a choice now, but the day they do, it will be all over for you.

If you have customers right now, dazzle them

Please: Be Alaka‘i great. [From the archives: Can you define your Leadership Greatness?] Help your employees and every one of your business partners be great every single day, and with every single customer. Banish mediocrity by proactively choosing to lead and manage exceptionally well.

It is not that difficult knowing how to begin: Look at your business the way a customer does. Start where you can visibly see you need an infusion of fresh energy. We will talk more about this in my next posting on Thursday.

Turn your customers into raving fans who feel smugly smart for choosing you and giving you their money. When you do that, this negative, “oh woe is me” recessionary thinking will end for all of us. The raving fans you want talking about you (and writing about you) are those customers who feel savvy and in-the-know brilliant that they chose you: When someone recommends you to their family and their friends, the quality of their opinion is on the line, and they know it.

I am not giving up on my goal.

No way. If anything, I am more determined than ever to talk about Aloha-inspired Ho‘okipa customer service.

Has mediocrity been banished from your business? If you think your workplace has service levels which will dazzle me, please write and let me know about you.

And don’t waste your time telling me about your product features: Even a great product never reaches true excellence without a human service component attached to it.

On the other hand, if you are Aloha and Ho‘okipa exceptional, our Say “Alaka‘i” readers deserve to know about you, and I want to help them choose you and give you the patronage which will help you thrive.

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

Photo credit: Hawaiian Time Hours by Rosa Say.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• Aloha Training? Make it all personal
• And in Aloha our government officials shall lead us
• Be a Deskless Manager: Ho‘o!
• Set your price, charge it, and stand behind it
• Lead the Slow Charge
• Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate
• We’re supposed to be good at being ‘local’
• If you want to know, ask!

---

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
The Biggest Sin in Business Today

---

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
Alaka‘i Managers Coach, and they Facilitate

---

Finding versus Making

Some of the best management advice I got over the years came from my dad. When he heard my news of an early-in-my-career promotion, one of the things he said to me was, “Now you can find your decisions instead of making them all by yourself.”

He was very aware of my natural tendency with on-the-spot decision-making based on my own sense of logic and common sense. In fact, he’d counted on me honing in on confident decision-making as one of my strengths: I was the oldest of five children, and my siblings were often left in my care as both my parents worked to make our family living. But wise man that my dad was, he knew that once I got into management, I had to get better at finding the right decision about a whole wealth of different things. Another secondary strength with explaining my own intuitive, from-my-gut-feeling decision already made, would serve me much better as a contingency and back-up option when my hunt-and-seek missions came up empty.

Finding versus Making would serve my workplace better too; it would deliver more Lōkahi [unity and harmony]. Now to find the really good stuff, I had to learn facilitation and coaching.

Coaching has become a big management expectation

‘Coaching’ is an example of an old word which has exploded into management overwhelm because it became a new profession. Yes, it’s a profession which includes me, influencing my decision to name my business Say Leadership Coaching six years ago, so no small wonder that I believe the coaching profession to be helpful and worthwhile. It provides a great service to many, and it is personally fulfilling for me. However the downside to coaching having gone professional and certifiable, is that coaching as the verb has become intimidating to many managers, and they will say, “But I am not really qualified to coach my staff.” Big, big “yeah, but” and I say, you are – once you choose to be, and start working on developing your coaching skills within your management calling.

Your Alaka‘i Kuleana [responsibility] is this: If you choose not to develop your own people, at the very least you’d best claim your responsibility with helping them find someone who will, and whom they choose to. The alternative is to settle for a stagnant, mediocre working environment of non-learners likely to resist change. [From the archives: How do you Learn? Really, how?]

Susan Mazza, author of the Random Acts of Leadership blog, has written an excellent article that delves into this question of manager and/or coach, and I highly recommend it: 3 Ways to be a Manager AND a Coach. She writes:

Of course a manager CAN be a coach to someone who reports to them. But the assumption that once I am your manager I am also your coach is seriously flawed.

I continue to see this assumption at play in organizations of all sizes. It can cause a lot of mischief in the relationships between managers and the people who report to them.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an advocate of managers developing strong coaching skills. Yet when we fail to establish the foundation for a successful coaching relationship, we end up with far more failures than successes and a whole lot of unnecessary frustration and disappointment.

Susan has crafted a terrific article, and you’ll learn much from the comments she’s attracted as well - do take the time to read them. As you make your own decision about this — “will I be a manager who coaches to develop people?” — I’d like to suggest learning facilitation skills as a good place to start.

Alaka‘i Managers must facilitate

Must. This is not an “if” or “when you choose to” for me: I believe that facilitation comes with the management job, harking back to when you first earn any supervisory stripes at all.

Supervision implies other people in the mix, and the assumption I’m making here is the same basic assumption made in Managing with Aloha:

“I have come to realize that yes, good managers do work with good processes, however the great managers are the ones who concentrate on how they manage people.”

Let’s not allow facilitation to intimidate us the way that coaching might. Let’s keep this simple.

To facilitate is to find a decision, just as my dad had taught me. That decision is the best-in-time result of the input of those people involved with, or influenced by the scenario that decision will seek to improve.

When we had that early conversation, and it came up repeatedly, my dad was coaching me to be absolutely sure that I asked versus told, and that I learn the humility [Ha‘aha‘a] of open-minded and inclusive [Kākou] thinking. It had usually been okay that my younger siblings were not included in my decisions while I alone was responsible for their well being in my home care; it was definitely NOT okay that I leave out my employees in our workplace, not to mention that big fact that they knew way more about the work situations they were much closer to than I was. To leave them out of my decision-making process was downright foolish.

Don’t make your next decision; find it.

Learning facilitation skills requires two things as prerequisites to the actual skill-learning: Curbing your impatience for quick decision-making, and the willingness to have many more conversations than you are presently having, both one-on-one and in the meetings, team, and group environments we are more accustomed to associating facilitation with.

Practice this. Your opportunities will present themselves daily. Do it the local way, and bring more conversation (and sense of place) to the workplace by talking story. Don’t jump to making your next decision impulsively or intuitively; FIND your next decision by talking to the people who are involved.

You may prove your initial gut feeling to be right, but chances are that you will learn much in that affirmation, and better yet, you will earn a higher degree of respect and appreciation from those you’ve asked for input.

Facilitate first, then learn to coach. If you aspire to be an Alaka‘i manager and feel you have that calling, I’ll bet you can do it — and I’m sure you will discover you are developing your own strengths in the process. When you are ready to coach for people development, I’ll bet the people you manage will choose you to, for you have shown them you possess a very necessary qualification: You listen.

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

---

Photo credit: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom by Thomas Hawk. Thomas writes in his caption:

"Ran into San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom tonight at the Powell Street BART station. Mayor Newsom was out talking to homeless people who hang out and panhandle at the BART station with a few of his staff. He was trying to tell them about his programs for them and when I asked one of his staff members what they were doing he said that they were out on the streets of San Francisco talking to the people and trying to clean up the City. It was interesting to see the Mayor out on the streets just talking to people. There were no reporters or TV crews or anything else, just him and some of his staff talking to homeless people mostly."

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?
• How Managers Matter in a Healthy Culture
• Can you define your Leadership Greatness?
• Who gives you your Second Opinion?
• If you want to know, ask!
• Bring Hawai‘i to the Workplace by ‘Talking Story.’

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

The 2 C’s of Technology and Early Adoption

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
The 2 C’s of Technology and Early Adoption

---

A new reader who’d checked out a few of my ‘techie-type’ posts in the archives sent along an email saying,

“You seem to be an early adopter, but most of the managers I work with don’t embrace technology this much: How important is it that we keep up with the newest advances? Isn’t it smarter for leaders to work on their own ideas, and hire others who specialize in this technological stuff, having experts do it for them?”

Great questions.

Hire an expert, or learn it yourself?

I’ll answer the second question first, and then we’ll get back to the early adoption part of it:

Isn’t it smarter for leaders to work on their own ideas, and hire others who specialize in this technological stuff, having experts do it for them?

I’d say it depends on how much technology is part of the idea that leader is working on, and where their own strengths will best serve the project at hand. Thus the answer is an industry-by-industry call, and the technology menu of options gets bigger every day. Go with your strengths (i.e. where your stronger work activities will serve you best), and compensate for your weaknesses.

However do understand that the most successful leaders have big-picture awareness: They may not do it all (and usually can’t), but they are aware of what it takes, and most importantly, they are aware of what might be possible. I believe that bigger visions result from consequential learning [the Hawaiian values of ‘Ike loa and ‘Imi ola in action.]: The more you learn, the more you realize how much more is possible, and the bigger you dream.

Remember our Alaka‘i leadership definition: Leaders generate energy, and energy doesn’t come from lackluster visions which don’t get us excited about future possibility.

Generally I do agree that partnering with others is a fantastic collaborative and creative strategy – especially when you hire those who are smarter than you, and who will raise your own game. Not only can you attain greater synergy, it’s usually much more fun. In most things both in and out of business, life is not a solo proposition; we human beings feed off each other’s brains.

That said, I do believe that technology has become a very basic workplace competency expectation, and to not learn whatever might be considered the basics in your industry – plus a bit more to give you a competitive edge – handicaps you. It’s shortsighted and possibly foolish: Prospective employers will judge your learning capacity on a technical AND technological scale (see the difference here: Job Competencies for 2009: Let’s figure them out.)

Answer the bigger question: Why Bother?

If I may, I’d like to point you back to this posting in the archives: Can we still opt out of technology today? Take a quick look and come back: Within that article I stated that the primary “tech effect” on business today is two-fold:

1. It’s about Competency, as mentioned above,
2. and it’s about Communication.

It’s in this area of communication that I feel technology today is extremely exciting, particularly with social media and virtual community-building, because there are pronounced trickle effects. Maybe you’ve said “No” to Facebook, to Twitter, and to LinkedIn, and you don’t spend much time online at all; you wouldn’t dream of writing a blog. If you are reading this at all, or even the print version of The Honolulu Advertiser, I’ll bet you now know other people who have become adopters, and if they send you emails, the way they write them is now different. Whereas before they’d explain in detail, they now embed a link, or a photo, or a YouTube clip. They expect you to know about Google, and search for a definition whenever you encounter a word you don’t know instead of asking them to define it for you. Don’t feel they are being lazy: Take it as a compliment! They feel you are up to speed, and in-the-know.

From what I see, technology is getting us to talk to each other more, not less, and it’s encouraging us to welcome more people into the conversation. One of the most frequent challenges I have with managers, continually finding it within a wide spectrum of workplaces, is in getting them to network and benchmark their learning; I challenge them to reach out to others beyond their own workplace. Independent and silo work is still done where teams and interdepartmental networking would achieve far, far better results. When you are ready to lead, you must clear your insular industry hurdle as well.

The great Alaka‘i managers today push non-stop communication relentlessly; they have to if they are to achieve any competitive edge whatsoever. They also know that technology is a tool, an enabler: The truly consequential learning to be gained is to be found within other people.

So ask yourself that “Why Bother?” question for each of those 2 C’s:

• Why bother in the context of Competency, and
• Why bother in the context of Communication, for Communication is our Killer App.

Early adoption is not all it might seem

Back to the first question:

You seem to be an early adopter, but most of the managers I work with don’t embrace technology this much: How important is it that we keep up with the newest advances?

I’m not really an early adopter; I’m a right-time-for-me adopter.

For example, I have enough techie knowledge to publish my own websites, yet I’m a long-time PC user who still hasn’t made what many who do what I do would consider as the “obvious” switch to Apple’s Mac. Gadget-wise I’ve actually regressed a bit: Used to work with the Palm Pilot, but ditched it when I left the corporate world and still say “No” to the iPhone and Blackberry. My cell phone is for making and receiving phone calls, and that’s it. It has a camera, but I’ve never used it (even though I'm a big fan of Flickr), and despite all I do online, it’s not hooked up to the internet. I am well past 6,000 tweets on Twitter, but I only tweet from my laptop.

Early adoption has pros and cons, as does late adoption, and I am usually somewhere in the middle. I’m one who likes to give new advances time to get the kinks worked out. I’m not one to go to a new restaurant until they’ve been open for about six months or a year, and I feel pretty confident they’ll dazzle me with what they’ve learned since opening. I want a good meal, and a great experience!

However I love staying informed: Do I know about the newest toy on the market? If they are on the radar of those I communicate with most, and if they matter within my Ho‘ohana, [my calling to worthwhile work] then yes, I certainly do. I find out enough relevant to my purposes.

Here’s the Alaka‘i-relevant way that I look at this: Leaders emerge in the right time of any best-selling blockbuster story, and it’s not always in the beginning.

Mahalo for the questions.

I know this was longer than usual, and I hope you stuck with me! I admit that I do love thinking about technology today and working with it, (LOVE knowing you are using those archive indexes!), and it’s so great when you ask me, “Why?” because I will gain my own reality check that way too.

“Why” is always a good question, and all Alaka‘i managers should be asking it – a lot.

Let’s talk story.

So what might you be adopting these days? And what is your right-time-for-me reason: Why do you bother?

---

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• Do you ask good questions?
• If you want to know, ask!
• Hiding from the Web is Foolish: 5 Steps to Smarter
• Job Competencies for 2009: Let’s figure them out
• Can We Still Opt Out of Technology Today?
• Talking Story, Meet Twitter
• How do you Learn? Really, how?
• Can you define your Leadership Greatness?
• Communication is our Killer App
• What’s your Calling? Has it become your Ho‘ohana?

Photo credit: Glad someone knows all this! by Rosa Say.

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

Kamehameha’s Legacy of Values

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
Kamehameha’s Legacy of Values

---

It is June 11th: Today is King Kamehameha Day here in our Hawai‘i nei.

In my study of our Hawaiian values I have learned quite a bit about the Kamehameha monarchy and legacy though I had not originally set out to do so. The learning was simply unavoidable; it was also enthusiastically welcomed, for Kamehameha the Great (i.e. Kamehameha I) was an ali‘i [monarch] driven by the guiding light of his values. Distinctive within his dynasty of rule is how he associated value-alignment with the principles of Alaka‘i leadership in the society we now refer to as the “Hawai‘i of old.” He made this association for us in what he said, and in what he did: Kamehameha; Law, Legend and Leadership.

When we make the decision to commit to the values we’ve articulated and deliberately chosen, we do so understanding our decision will make a contribution: It will shape the character of our community. King Kamehameha understood that the values of our ali‘i could, and would lead the way in this shaping; they are highly influential because they are evocative. Through our values we Ho‘o! [we make things happen.]

Our values move us to act.

Imagine being Ruled by Values

Imagine something with me.

Imagine that Hawai‘i is still a monarchy, and King Kamehameha still reins over our islands. Within this picture of “what if?” imagine that the challenges we face are just as they are now: The only difference is that Kamehameha is our king. Give your picture your personal context: Shape it with the specifics of the variables you think influence you most.

How do you suppose things would be?

The answer is that it would largely depend on the values from which Kamehameha rules us. Whether we like it or not, the same is true of our present government. Make no mistake: When we elect someone to office, we are choosing their values.

[From the archives: And in Aloha our government shall lead us]

Values are the Construct of our Culture

Values drive our behavior, and their pervasiveness (or their absence) will define our sense of place. Shared values will determine our conversations; and those conversations articulate the thoughts we once held privately within the confines of our own beliefs. We share them with others who will either dispute and negate them, or embrace and enroll in them with us.

As described by Dr. George Kanahele in his book Kū Kanaka, Stand Tall, A Search for Hawaiian Values (University of Hawai‘i Press, 1986), the values King Kamehameha the Great chose for his rule included:

Mālama, or Caring: The wise ali‘i was advised to take care of his lesser chiefs and commoners alike, “for together they are the strength of his rule.”

Ha‘aha‘a, or Humility: “Looking after the welfare of people arises from an underlying spirit of sensitivity and feeling for others that flows from humbleness rather than from a conviction of superiority.”

Kūpono, or Integrity: “Kūpono combines two words: kū in this case meaning in a state of, and pono, meaning rectitude, uprightness, or goodness … according to the Hawaiian way of thinking, there is little difference between being honest, upright, good, fair, or worthy.”

Na‘auao, or Intelligence and Wisdom: “Na‘auao combines na‘au, mind, and ao, or daylight. Literally it means the daylight mind, or more appropriately, the enlightened mind … No more fitting term can be found for the quality of mind that Hawaiian leaders, particularly the ali‘i, aspired to than that implicit in the ‘enlightened mind’.”

Koa, or Courage: “In a society whose chiefs were trained in the arts of fighting from childhood, and who proved their mettle on the battlefields, physical courage can be expected as a badge of leadership. But courage has two sides: the physical, and the nonphysical, that is, the emotional, moral, or spiritual. Opposition to a hero comes in many different forms.”

Which Values do we choose today?

Inspired by King Kamehameha’s legacy, these are values we can still choose today. We can make those choices and then commit to aligning our everyday actions to them; we can direct our creative energies toward the making of a future that will continue to uphold their complete integrity.

I’m quite sure that were King Kamehameha with us today he would feel those choices to be Pono [right and just] and to be quite obvious, for our values give us great clarity.

So as we honor Kamehameha this month, choose your values. Several Hawai‘i historians concur with Dr. George Kanahele, in believing that “no one surpasses Kamehameha the Great in leadership, historic achievement and lasting impact, or in having a transcendent vision for his people.” His vision? That the islands and the people of Hawai‘i be Lōkahi: Live in harmony, and remain united.

You might also feel that “no one surpasses Kamehameha the Great in leadership.” Perhaps not yet, but it is still possible. For you, your choices and your actions are still possible.

If you’ve read this far, or if you’ve read this blog before, you hunger for your own expression of Alaka‘i leadership, and you know that both management and leadership matter. So Nānā i ke kumu: Look to your source and your truth, and choose your values.

[From the archives, the values we chose for our study during 2009: Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009]

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

---

Photo credit: La Hae Hawai‘i by Rosa Say.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• Be a Deskless Manager: Ho‘o!
• And in Aloha our government shall lead us
• Do you ask good questions?
• A Triple Bottom Line for Hawai‘i
• Hau‘oli Makahiki Hou: Hawaiian Values for 2009
• How Managers Matter in a Healthy Culture

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

Lead the Slow Charge

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
Lead the Slow Charge

---

If you are a business owner, this recession may be doing you a favor. You may realize it in your head (albeit somewhat begrudgingly), but are you seeing it yet in the faces of your customers as you continue to collect those revenue scraps you are wishing will merge back into cash flow?

Why are they still leaving those scraps for you? Why do they keep returning? And what if it suddenly got crowded and busy for you tomorrow, the next day, and the day after that; would your recession-days faithful keep coming back?

I make a very good café latte

I’ve been thinking about these questions as I watch what’s happening at several of our island businesses and consider the state of Ho‘okipa, their customer service.

Let’s use my local Starbucks as an example, for as ubiquitous as coffee has become in our lives, most of us can relate to it. There used to be three of them within a 15-mile radius of my home, but two became victims of the recession and were recently closed down, theoretically consolidating the business of three into the profits of one.

Theoretically. You see, we customers do have another choice, and that’s to make our own coffee and not patronize that one remaining Starbucks at all.

Starbucks has always been the first to admit that their business is not about the coffee, but about their “third place experience.” Here at the Starbucks remaining in my neighborhood, the struggle to maintain this experience is clearly evident as the line snakes out the door and the stress is glaringly transparent on the faces of the ‘local joint partners and proprietors’ who have become even more efficient technically, but are far less gracious baristas and cashiers-in-training again.

We, the “slow days” customers, miss our local joint partners, and we can tell they miss us too. We’re all still there (new brains in old bodies) – still there for now – but we are losing patience with the transition period, and we are afraid that our “third place experience” might be lost forever.

I use my Krups espresso maker way more than I used to.

Brand this New Day as your Slow Charge

Our habits are changing. I have cautioned you before: Leaders Don’t Wait for Any Cycle. Think of this recession as the shift it is, and not as an “economic downturn which will swing back up if we’re patient.” Get impatient; patience is not a virtue in a recession.

Throw out the cautionary, politically-correct but clueless language before it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy for you: You don’t want to go back to the way things were, and your customers don’t want you to either. Neither do any of your partners and stakeholders – even if they still think they do.

We, the people of 2009 have come to like being frugal and selective. Being green is being cool. Minimalist living is more mobile, and technology is helping us be more social and less material. The challenge of the day is about how well you can craft your life with as little as possible, and we are discovering that we like being good at meeting that challenge.

We are discovering that we like slowing down – and we like it a lot. However nesting is anti-social, and connection is where it’s at. Communication is our Killer App. 

We like making choices which we feel better about, in that they are better for us, better for our communities, and better for our planet.

Aloha the Few, Say Aloha to the Many

So you get that favor I’m talking about, don’t you. The recession is forcing your hand with changing the quality of your business for the better. For the Ho‘okipa experience better.

If you are a still-surviving business owner, your Alaka‘i leadership challenge today and every day going forward is this: How do you lead the “We Like it Slow” charge within your business, and still be profitable?

You love the few and faithful, and smother them with Aloha and Ho‘okipa, and you leave behind the many for good. ‘Aloha the few’ as the value of Aloha, that unconditional love you give with the utmost of grace and sincerity. ‘Say Aloha’ (as in saying goodbye) to the many who might give you short-term dollars, but not long-term profits.

It may sound cold at first, but think about it: If you never see them again, why bother? What does your business feel like to them? Does it feel good enough to return to and stay with? Are you creating cash register jingles or faithful customers?

If my local Starbucks can still pull off their “third place experience” goal despite these new hoards of people crowding their small space, my Krups goes back in the box for good. I’ll still be having my tall café latte, double shot every morning. Chances are, I’ll pull up a chair and have a second one a half-hour or so later. Life’s too short to rush it. I like it slow.

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

---

Photo credit: 6am Double Tall Latte and Grande Drip by Rosa Say.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• You Are Your Habits, so Make ‘em Good!
• Set your price, charge it, and stand behind it
• Communication is our Killer App
• Aloha Training? Make it all personal

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email

When is ‘Good’ good enough?

~ Originally published on Say “Alaka‘i”
June 2009 ~
When is ‘Good’ good enough?

---

As you read last time, (Can you define your Leadership Greatness?) I like making a practical difference between ‘good’ and ‘great’ just as much as I enjoy working with the pragmatic differences between management and leadership. Alaka‘i leaders are tenacious in their pursuit of greatness, for they know that nothing less will do in a world overcrowded by mediocrity.

However I don’t want you to discount ‘good’-ness totally: Good can be good enough, and there is an acronym I learned a couple of years back from Employee Engagement expert David Zinger that has served me well in that reminder. David taught it to me as GEMO, which stands for “Good Enough, Move On.” As David explained, GEMO “helps avoid perfectionism, dithering, delays, and other productivity traps and snarls.” GEMO can be a great tonic for any analysis paralysis or obstinate behavior which might trip us up.

We all want Progressive Work

When you really think about it, most of us will not bemoan hard work. Working up “a good sweat” is thought of as worth the effort it takes —when we see or feel results follow. What irritates us is stalled work, or those efforts which seem to be repetitive without going anywhere or producing anything. We aren’t satisfied or fulfilled when the work we do isn’t progressive; instead, we feel frustrated.

Remember our Alaka‘i management definition? “Management is the workplace discipline of channeling mission-critical energy into optimal production and usefulness.”

Frustration is one of the biggest energy-drainers there is. Alaka‘i managers know this, and as they walk through a workplace their frustration radar is on high alert – it’s part of that respect for people’s time and effort we spoke of last time. When they notice people getting frustrated in any way the Alaka‘i manager will zoom in and ask what they can do to help.

So what is ‘GEMO good?’

“Good enough” means that stepped-it-up progress has been made and you can now “Move on” in some way within the process you’ve set your sights on completing.

Every operations and systems-thinking person on the planet will likely think that’s a pretty loaded sentence, and I agree —it certainly is. It is also highly contextual: Good enough in ABC company may not necessarily be good enough in XYZ company, or at all related (apples versus oranges), for it depends on the vision that the mission-critical process is trying to achieve. The reason I asked you to do some in-writing definition this past Tuesday, is because your definition of greatness matters BIG time. It has to sync up to your energy-creating, highly meaningful vision. If you pull it out now to read it, you should instantly see your contextual connections to different workplace processes.

A useful metaphor

I’m a late-in-life learner to the game of Chess, and I happened to learn it at the same time I was struggling to understand my contextual GEMO in one of my own company projects last year. The project was new; we’d never done it before, and so we couldn’t rely on historical learning from our past mistakes or successes. We were creating something new, and the best marker for our sights was forward to our vision.

Chess was a very useful metaphor for me at the time, for as I learned more about the game I could tell that I would never improve much if I did not learn to think two or three moves ahead: If I stayed stuck in single-move thinking I would never win a single game unless my opponent happened to fall asleep at the game board.

To win at Chess means moving with baby-step progress. Moving any other way is just stalling, and your opponent knows it.

GEMO to your workplace win with Conversation

Systems work and process management is everyone’s business in every workplace. Alaka‘i managers don’t have all the answers, but they channel the energies it takes to come up with them, and the easiest way you can do that is by being a conversation starter.

Those who are closest to the work at hand will always describe it in the most detail. What great managers can do in the service they provide to the team, is slightly shift the normal conversation about work so that it is more expansive – stretchy enough to welcome in open-minded new thinking and fresh ideas.

The GEMO conversation shift is about movement and progress. Get your team together in a huddle, and talk story to pool your answers. When you break down a work process you are presently working within, when is there movement and progress, and when does it stall and seem repetitive?

Let’s talk story.
Any thoughts to share?

---

Photo credit: No Going Back by Mariano Kamp.

For those who prefer them, here are the Talking Story copies of the links embedded in this posting:

• Do you define your Leadership Greatness?
• If you want to know, ask!
• Bring Hawai‘i to the Workplace by ‘Talking Story’

For more articles similar to this one, subscribe to Talking Story, and join the discussions held by the Ho‘ohana Community of the Managing with Aloha ‘Ohana in Business.
If you are already receiving this via email alert, do click in and comment directly on the blog so everyone can meet you!
Read more at this page About the Site.


Subscribe to Talking Story with Say Leadership Coaching by Email