goals

Be unencumbered

October 12, 2011 by Rosa Say

This is the advice I find I’m giving to my own children these days, as two young adults forging their way in a world where a lot of the rules have changed, or are still in flux. It’s advice I’m newly taking for myself too.

This is a day and time where the actions within free will, and the nimble mobility of easy movement, are abilities we must keep positioned to serve us, unrestricted and unburdened.

Be unencumbered

For to “be encumbered is to be restricted or burdened (by someone or something) in such a way that free action or movement is difficult.” (from my MacBook dictionary)

The root word itself is heavy, which is good, for it gets you to pause, and better understand.

Try saying it out loud; “Unencumbered.” It’s weighty too, as opposed to saying something like, “lighten up” which has other connotations anyway, or “protect your freedoms” which is presumptive and doesn’t capture everything which can be a possible culprit. For instance, on my current list of encumbrance culprits are:

Stuff — because I want lightness instead, both physical and mental. I don’t want to bother with maintaining stuff I don’t use often enough to really matter
Debt — because I want freedom from liability, and hate paying interest that just makes things cost more
Jobs — because I prefer to think about work and Ho‘ohana. Work is necessary, and where the rewards are to be found, whereas ‘job’ is too small a container, often with other restrictions
Dogma — because the only label I’m okay with is Thinker. I have gotten very wary about polarity, and how ideology and even branding can cause us to erect walls. I want to be more open-minded instead, and push myself to explore more in the learning I pursue
Should-ing — I tend to separate this from dogma, in that should-ing usually hits us closer to home, coming from people we know more intimately, spending personal time with them. And they are another variable, one we will not dismiss, for they are important to us, and we want them to be proud of us [I defined should-ing in this post: A Good Ruthlessness x3.]
Negativity — because Lord knows there is enough of it in the world, and I don’t want to be another contributor. From a practical standpoint, negativity is also highly ineffective
Bad habits — there can be several encumbrances here [the world of auto-pilot], and the caution I always start with is in regard to physical health. When you get sick, everything else gets to be a moot point
Sloth — because it’s such an energy killer. Look up sloth in a Thesaurus for the list of yuckiness it can include. No life can afford any of that stuff. Sloth kills creativity too
Envy — because it doesn’t make much sense (it’s about someone else’s choices, not yours), yet is easy to fall prey to. To me, the opposite of envy is the virtue of Ma‘alahi, that peaceful persuasion of calming contentment — so much better!

You get the idea. The list can go on and your list might be different. I usually stop with 9 of anything in working through my own listings of things (case in point: Our 9 key Concepts for MWA). 9 is quite enough, for each one of these can be expanded on, and the whole self-coaching of “Be unencumbered” is to keep each of them self-managed well enough so they aren’t unwieldy, and I can fold them into my trusted system with good results.

To be unencumbered, make it relevant to your life

Going back to my children, we mostly have these kinds of conversations these days: To set the stage a bit, they are done with college, and now support themselves. Yet they are still young, unmarried, and haven’t become parents. I want them to take full advantage of their youthful energies, for as the saying goes, the world is their oyster:

Be unencumbered of a mortgage, for owning a home isn’t what it used to be, and you have time; wait until the industry heals itself.

For that matter, be unencumbered by all ownership — question what maintenance every owned thing might come with, and see it as possible baggage. Better to use-with-immediacy, whether rented, borrowed, or bartered for, and then move on.

Be unencumbered of middlemen, and brokers of any kind. Do for yourself to start with, to learn completely and understand well: Define what “in your best interest” is for yourself, before you hire or otherwise allow anyone else to do something for you.

Be unencumbered of what anyone else believes, including me and your dad. Trust in your values, think for yourself, and make your own rules to live/work/play by. Then be prepared to eloquently explain the why of your choices (you know we’ll still be asking you about them, and won’t hold back our opinions, so be ready to take an educated stand).

Be unencumbered of convention, all of it, and especially in learning. The world around us is a little broken right now, but that’s opportunity for you in forging a better way. Learn from everything, and everyone around you, for the world itself must be your teacher right now if you’re to navigate it successfully.

We will be here to help, but not too much.

So “Be unencumbered” really helps as the catch-all of our Language of Intention as our family conversations continue. It becomes our insider-speak, and a shortcut about, then past why-we’re-talking-about-this, which helps us get into the meat of the matter quicker.

Then, make it relevant to your work

As you can imagine, “be unencumbered” is now part of my Managing with Aloha vocabulary too, in regard to the work of my businesses, for there are so many new conversations to be had, and had often. Vocabulary has always been tool-extraordinaire for us: The Best, Yet Most Underutilized Tool for Communication There Is.

This is a time to defy convention, and seize the opportunity to create better: Trump those Old Rules with Your Values.

As an Alaka‘i Manager, how can “Be unencumbered” help in your workplace huddles? What are the hot spots which come to mind for you, and can you discern what their encumbrances are?

Money, budgeting strategy, and financial literacy comes to mind relatively quickly (as with my last post, in regard to current affairs), but there are so many other encumbrances to consider.

What would be your first target?

Here is some help in the archives, one for each of the encumbrances on my list:

Stuff: Spring Cleaning at Work: Junk is not the Stuff of Legacy. How much junk is costing you money, and worse, cluttering up those spaces where good work, important and creative work, should be getting done instead?
Debt: What does ‘financial literacy’ mean to you? An oldie, from 2005: One of the first posts I published here on Talking Story, about The Managers’ Kuleana we revisited a few days ago.
Jobs: A Job of any Merit: Your 3 Options in Worthwhile Work. In case you missed it, this was the “we can do this!” post within a string of others this month.
Dogma: Imagine having a Thought Kit: The story behind Business Thinking with Aloha.
Should-ing: Have you caught the curve ball? A new initiative has come down from the top (corporate, your boss etc.): What do you do now?
Negativity: Staying Positive in a Negative Workplace: When the downer isn’t the job itself, but the workplace culture.
Bad habits: The 3 Sins of Management: About the bad habits of tacit approval, automatic pilot, and lies of omission.
Sloth: Distract, Interrupt, Intercept, Disrupt: A simple way to focus, and deal with distractions.
Envy: Downsizing gets cool: Today you have to pause a bit when you hear the word. Can we downsize to warm up to change?

A How-to Postscript: Are you using the tags here on Talking Story, listed at the bottom of each post? That’s how I came up with this list for you. For instance, try energy and/or creativity for sloth (the link I chose above was to help you with distraction.)

So much lies beyond that chain link fence… Be unencumbered so you can reach it.

The G in Goals stands for Greatness

March 3, 2011 by Rosa Say

And the M in Manager stands for Matter. Make a difference.

Our talk story this week started with a deadline many managers share, and our wayfinding to make the best of it brought us to goal setting.

That’s a happenstance I’m pleased with, for goals is the stuff of ‘Imi ola — creating our best possible life.

Love this passage from Robin Sharma in his book, The Greatness Guide:

I know what you’re thinking: “Robin, give me a topic that’s fresh and original and challenging. Why are you writing about goals? We know this stuff. It’s boring!” Few success practices are as important as articulating your most closely held goals and then reviewing them daily. Getting masterful at setting and then considering your goals on a consistent basis is essential to a life of greatness. And yet, guess what? Most people don’t spend more than an hour a year doing this. It’s true: People spend more time planning their summer vacations than they do designing their lives.”

I admit to you that I’ve had my ups and downs with it too. Goal setting is hard, especially the kind of goal setting that Jim Collins explains as BHAGs: Those Big Hairy Audacious Goals you know will cause your life to shift in a way that will change you at your core forever.

Managing with Aloha was the achievement of a BHAG for me, and now, 7 years later, I’m still seeking my next one.

I’ve had much more success in helping my employees and customers set their goals, guiding them and supporting them, than I’ve had with setting goals of my own.

However I keep trying, for the evidence is crystal clear to me:

I feel alive, attentive and accomplished when I’m focused on a goal, even a small one.

When I ‘take a break’ from goal setting I’m fully aware that I’m stalling. I feel directionless and unsatisfied about a lot of things, not just the lack of a new goal.

When I help others with their goals, I’m working on my own how-to-achieve-them mastery too: It all counts.

When I recognize my next BHAG cresting over the horizon, I’ll be ready for it.

So please. Don’t succumb to giving lip service to goal setting.

If you think it’s boring, do what you must to light your fire with it again. Get it to work its magic for you personally, and as an Alaka‘i Manager who matters in the lives of other people.

Here’s more help from Joshua Becker: How to Fulfill Dreams

“Setting your goals is a bold play for your best life. Setting your goals is an act of heroism because you are reaching for the potential that has been invested in you.”
— Robin Sharma

Annual Appraisals: What should I say?

March 2, 2011 by Rosa Say

This was a reader email in response to my last posting about performance reviews. Please read that first for best context if you have not yet done so: Annual Appraisals & Performance Reviews: There’s a much better way.

“Rosa, assuming we’ve done our homework as you described, can you give us more suggestions on the conversation we can have within the appraisal meeting itself? I really stumble with that expectation that it’s a good time for goal setting, and handling it without feeling like I’m forcing the issue.”

Great question, for you bring up an excellent point: What’s the objective of the appraisal meeting, and are you accomplishing it?

The answer may vary in different companies (this goes to the point within that last post about understanding your mandates). While I was employed by the Hualalai Resort, annual reviews were tied to compensation, but with an added layer of complexity: Profit sharing via an incentive program structured via departmental bell curve (promoting ‘healthy’ competition), which was also tied to annual goal-setting. That alone was a big job to tackle!

Learning to deal with that expectation, and accomplish that objective well, was a big factor in my subsequently developing a different model for the MWA OIB (‘Ohana in Business ® model) where performance review coaching (which many managers assume is ‘officially done’ in an annual appraisal) isn’t actually done then, for it’s considered everyday management: Your People are Your Daily, and deserve way more than an “annual review.”

Objectives versus Goals

Let me share a bit of clarity in our vocabulary here, for it’s an important distinction:

We use the word ‘objective’ to refer to company-wide objectives,
i.e. All annual appraisals in this company are done for this specific reason (whatever it may be for you), as a shared objective across company divisions: It aligns with our values, and is conducive to achieving our mission and vision.

In comparison, ‘goal’ varies individually, and is set personally,
i.e. Warren’s goal is increase his skill level with matching typography to the graphic designs he works on — on our behalf, as the job he performs while working here.

All employees differ, and so in addition to understanding your company objective (and fulfilling it) you have to personalize annual appraisals for them: Never lose sight of the fact that an appraisal is documentation connected to their good name!

Company objectives largely seek strategic consistency in an organizational culture, whereas goal-setting should focus on individual talents, strengths, skills, and Ho‘ohana dreaming — and how their most fervent goals can be a shared win, in that they benefit the company employing them as well.

That, to me, is the overall objective of performance coaching: Managers mentor their people in the delivery of performance which grows them (i.e. helps them achieve their personal goals) while they simultaneously make an important, and meaningful contribution to the mission and vision of the company employing them. Besides earning compensation for their efforts, that contribution is what employees have agreed to deliver when they hired on. Hopefully, they chose their job well in the first place, having anticipated that it would be a Ho‘ohana connection for them: They make a valuable contribution and enjoy doing so.

So in my view, and returning to answer your question, that’s the conversation you are having when you help employees with goal-setting. This is what I’ve suggested in Managing with Aloha (page 49 in the hardcover):

Great managers make it their practice to schedule periodic reviews with employees to talk through these five sets of questions:

1. Now that a few months have gone by, how do you feel about the goals that you have set for yourself? Do we need to work on any revisions or shall we continue to work on course? Are your goals still a match for your mission? (Has Ho‘ohana and ‘Imi ola connected?)

2. Where do you feel you have made the most progress? Why do you suppose this has happened? How can we duplicate your success? (Look for the pleasure that Ho‘ohana, working with intent and purpose delivers.)

3. Were there any unexpected results? What kind of challenges have you encountered? How can I help you? (Time for more Aloha?)

4. Are you comfortable with the measurements we’ve set up to monitor your progress and quantify your achievements? (Have numbers count success, not failure.)

5. What is your next step? What kind of timeline are you setting for yourself? (Keep ‘Imi ola at the forefront, seek the best possible form, the best possible life.)

After each question, be quiet and listen: Give them enough time to respond to you. All of these questions are designed to get them talking, and you listening. The reason this is so important, besides the obvious things about good listening, will become clearer in the next section.

When are new Goals set?

I think this is an important question to answer, for as alluded to in this reader’s question, an annual appraisal meeting may or may not be the best time (remember point no. 4 about Acing Your Timing?) It could be a progress meeting, versus the celebration of having accomplished one goal, and now moving toward working on another one.

So let’s wrap up with this:

What is the manager’s role in goal-setting?

Here is where we run into another assumption, that managers are supposed to help others set goals. Yes, I buy that much, but how exactly, are you helping? My experience has been that managers stumble into two different kinds of sticky points:

1. What a goal should be
You can guide people through different choices, but motivation is an inside job, and an individual needs to set his or her own goals. If you try to set goals for them, and they let you, it’s highly likely you’ve sabotaged the whole deal, for their heart will never be in it completely. You want them to do it for themselves, and not to please you. So guide, but get them to decide. Call them on it if you sense they’re settling for less than they should be: Go for that burning “Yes!” where they sit up a bit straighter and their eyes light up, and not a “Okay, sounds good” as they glance at their watch.

As for your guiding them, my suggestion is that you focus smaller versus bigger: Forget the 1-year, 3-year, 5-year goal stuff, and talk about goals connected to specific talents, skills and knowledge. Be a manager who helps others learn in a focused way, and help them build on their strengths while correcting course on any weaknesses. That’s the way you support them in setting their own ‘bigger dream’ goals. Remember what we talked about earlier, and make the connection to the contribution they deliver — reaffirm how important it is.

2. Why bother?
Our goals can best be thought of as the tools which tweak us: They enable us to stretch and grow while we are making a contribution of some kind in earning our keep (whether we do so for a paycheck or for profit). Goals elevate performance and keep energies ramped up. They introduce creativity and new invention to work so we aren’t resting on our laurels, becoming complacent, and getting bored.

Sometimes managers lose sight of all these benefits, and they go through the motions with employees just because it’s expected of them — please don’t! Everything you give your attention to should be on-purpose and Ho‘ohana intentional.

Do yourself and your employees a favor, and get excited about goal-setting again by focusing on the benefits: Add more excitement and energy to the entire process, and get them to say:

“I feel strong when I talk to you.”

Model Me This

April 20, 2010 by Rosa Say for Say “Alaka‘i”

We took a look at business models last week:

” and I got an email asking,

“Mission, vision, or goals Rosa, which is more important? I think I’ve got too much in my model, and I want to make it simpler. I know all three can be important, but which one will be my trump card?”

Which one sets your heart on fire? That’ll likely be your trump card.

There’s little use having a model you’d get an “A” for in some business course — including one of mine, because those are get-your-training-wheels places that at best, will steady you in your seat. The models you study get your thoughts somewhat less random when you’re wondering where to start, or what to kick-start next. The truly good stuff will be in the detail peculiar to you that you never edit out because you want it so badly.

I’m a fan of models because they keep me organized once I’ve already identified what the one thing is I want to build: They’re directional. They point me in the right direction, but in my heart of hearts, I know what I want to find once I arrive there: I want to arrive at a supremely productive, deliriously happy and healthy workplace culture.

So you can use one of my models if you want the same thing, but ultimately, the true goodness of using it will be in the details that you are most passionate about. You will work on what you want to work on because it lights up your business life. You will ignore the rest, and that’s actually a good thing.

Great business stories don’t happen because of models, they happen because of the part of the model you worked on the most, devoting all your dreaming and doing energies to.

When we were kids, those Revell plastic replica kits were the rage of the toy stores. When my kids were young, Lego took over those same toy store shelves, but the sales technique was the same: A glossy box cover with a tantalizing photo of what the result would be once we put the model together.

It was that box cover that got us to choose the one we wanted.

My dad was the one who cared about the number of pieces in the box, and about how much glue he’d have to buy to go with it, and if we could handle the level of difficulty it would present to us, but us kids? We didn’t care, we wanted that box cover to come alive in our hands. We wanted that feeling knowing that we made it, and that all those things my dad cared about didn’t really matter — we’d get through them.

So model me this:

Model me your box cover.

But if you’re an Alaka‘i Manager, don’t stop there.

Model me “that feeling knowing that we made it, and that all those things [organizational obsessives and business gurus cared about] didn’t really matter.”

You’ll have the best model you can possibly have.

And you know what? Those other things you asked about? Mission, vision, goals… they’ll come with your box. Your team of model-makers may not identify them with those words exactly, but they’ll be there.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My mana‘o [The Backstory of this posting]
Each Tuesday I write a leadership posting for Say “Alaka‘i” at Hawai‘i’s newspaper The Honolulu Advertiser. If this is the first you have caught sight of my Say “Alaka‘i” tagline, you can learn more on this Talking Story page: About Say “Alaka‘i”.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Talking Story connections [Learning the 9 Keys of MWA]
If you have now Become an Alaka‘i Manager, how would you connect this post to your ongoing learning of MWA Key 6?

6. The ‘Ohana in Business:

The best form for your life can be the best form for your ‘Ohana in Business ® as well, where the goals of each will support the other. A business can be more than self-sustainable and profitable: It can thrive. We learn a value-based business model and organizational structure simultaneous to learning productivity practices which drive ROI (return on investment) and ROA (return on your attentions).

Talking Story Category Page: Key 6—The ‘Ohana in Business