Coaching with Storytelling.

Managing with Aloha is excerpted in the Honolulu Star Bulletin’s thINC. feature this morning:

The boss, island style. (not a direct link, once there, click on Think Inc. in the left column)

“Your own belief that the people you manage are innately good is the single most important prerequisite to your own success as their manager.”

The business editors of The Star Bulletin had chosen the excerpt after reading Managing with Aloha for themselves. The effect of the story they picked (an early aha! for me in regard to how others see aloha) has continued to surprise me. In fact, it wasn’t one of the stories I included in my first draft of the book. As I wrote it, my editor would continually encourage me to add more stories, and I am very grateful to him for his insistence, for when people now talk to me about Managing with Aloha, it is usually about one of the stories within it.

What I enjoy most, is when they’ll say, “I had something similar happen to me” and start to tell me a story of their own. We all have our own stories, and as managers we find that telling example stories is one of the best ways we teach and coach. The trick is to stop thinking of your own experiences as episodes, trials or tribulations — think of them as relatable coaching stories. And be brave: make them personal, where they are about you and your own learning curve. Your staff loves knowing you weren’t always perfect!

Lord knows I wasn’t (and I’m not now!). I bumbled a lot along the way. This morning’s SB article is a story of one of those times. My sincere mahalo to the Star Bulletin writers for presenting and packaging it so well. Editors are wonderful!

By the way, if you haven’t had a chance to play with my Talking Story categories, you may want to start with the one called “Stories of Aloha.” Scroll down the left column for the link.