Aloha; the Intent of Great Managers

It is time for our February Ho‘ohana, the work we will focus on this month with passion, with purpose, and with full intention. Thank you for being here!

This month, we have the magnificent opportunity to talk about love in business!

Each year, resplendent in Valentine greetings, February arrives as the perfect month for us to revisit Aloha. Aloha is the value of unconditional love and acceptance of both self and others. From Managing with Aloha:

Aloha

Aloha is a value, one of unconditional love.

Aloha is the outpouring and receiving of the spirit.

The arms of Aloha are inclusive, and they seek to serve.

Aloha is an attitude, one that is positive and healthy, for Aloha is the value of unconditional love and acceptance.

To be a great manager is to share the intent of Aloha.

You must give your employees an outpouring of your spirit, and you must receive theirs.

This is Aloha. This is the calling of great managers.

The truly great managers of our world believe in people. They believe in their capacity and in their innate goodness. They believe in their incredible worthiness, and in their ability to create a better future.

The truly great managers of our world believe in love of self too. They believe it is their calling and their role to coach and mentor those they manage, while we are all on the journey to self-actualization. They believe in what German writer, scientist and philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) had said so well:

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

There is an Aloha approach to managing that brings the very best of what people have to offer to the forefront, and this sensibility for work (and for life) is what managing with Aloha is all about.

This month, I hope to explore more about Aloha in regard to six different discussions:

1. Within Aloha is the concept of what I call mana‘o pono, when deep and certain belief drives one’s instinctual actions, actions of rightness and intellectual honesty with self.

2. You must learn to embrace the intent of Aloha if there is any fear in your work organization, and if you are to be successful in eliminating it. It is entirely possible to preserve someone’s dignity and self-esteem while you coach to improve their behavior.

3. The Intent of Aloha transforms mediocre managers to truly great ones who believe those they manage are worthy of the faith they place in them, and capable of great things.

4. Once we understand that Aloha is something everyone has universally, we are able to “see” the talent which exists in people much more readily. We are able to perceive strengths where before, we may have only seen weaknesses.

5. “Lessons of Aloha” usually turn out to be stories about how the human spirit can and will triumph. I have a story or two to share with you, and I hope that you will share yours.

6. No matter what the Values Statement of a business, any business, the hierarchy of values chosen must somehow be rooted in the foundation of Aloha if all the people associated with that business are to feel good about their association with it.

Make no mistake about it: Feeling good about who you are, where you work, and who you are associated with affects just about everything else you do — it affects just about everything, period.

Aloha. Love. Sharing. Unconditional acceptance. Love of self, love of others, respect for others. “”the outpouring and receiving of the human spirit.” A love for being in service of the good to be discovered and celebrated in others.

February, we are glad you are here.

Also to look forward to this month, our 2nd Annual Love Affair with Books. Without a doubt, this was one of our most popular Ho‘ohana Community forums last year, and in addition to the forum which ends our month, book reviews will be sprinkled throughout our Ho‘ohana on Aloha to mix things up a bit here on Talking Story.

February Dates to proactively mark on your calendar:

2/14 – Valentine’s Day: Visit last February’s article to get inspired.

2/20 – MWA Jumpstart to March will be posted on www.managingwithaloha.com
    Update: posted here.
2/24 – Our 2nd Annual Love Affair with Books will be posted here on Talking Story.
    Update: posted here.

Meanwhile;

a. If you’d like to share a book review with the rest of the community this month, by all means, do send it to me. You may find yourself published here!

b. Catching up with MWA? Consider getting started with our MWA Jumpstart program.

c. New to Talking Story? Consider joining our Ho‘ohana Community. Learn more in this article: Ho‘omau; Cause the Good to Last.

Let’s Ho‘ohana: work with intention, with purpose, and with passion.

Celebrate February with me immersed in Aloha.

Rosa

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