Michael Lee Stallard

Managing Aloha by Rosa Say is an excellent book that I’m adding to my recommended reading list for managers.  Rosa Say is a Hawaii-based leadership and executive coach who formerly worked as a manager at various premier luxury hotels and resorts in Hawaii.  In reading about her journey and experiences as a manager, we learn the values and practices that Rosa has identified as critical to success and happiness at work and in life.  They are also the values that Rosa aspires to live out and to pass on to her children. 

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book.  What was especially fascinating to me were the rich descriptions of the values Rosa identifies.  While readers will recognize many as being the universal values identified by positive psychology research, Rosa expresses them in Hawaiian words and in an Hawaiian context.   In doing so, the values are more resonnant, i.e. they connect more with Hawaiians.  This greater emotional connection is in part due to the fact that expressing universal values in native terms and stories gives Hawaiians a  “sense of place” and pride that Rosa writes about in the book.  After reading Managing with Aloha, I now look for ways to contextualize values for those I’m teaching and training.

I appreciated the way in which Rosa introduced new values while connecting them to those introduced  earlier in the book.   This building approach helps readers see the inter-connections among the values and how they play out in real life rather than viewing them as discrete concepts that are unrelated to one another.

Rosa’s values provide the optimal mix of task excellence and relationship excellence that is required to achieve sustainable superior performance.  In the stories she tells, we see a manager who expects excellence, and works hard to achieve it herself while caring about the people she is responsible for leading.  

Another benefit that comes from reading this book is that you learn about the practices that Rosa has developed.  One in particular is called “take five.”  When a manager asks an employee to “take five” it is an invitation to meet briefly together so the manager can hear what is on the employee’s mind.   This simple practice gives every employee an opportunity to express his ideas and opinions and it motivates him to be continuously thinking so that he will be prepared when it is his time to “take five.”   This practice increases the elements of Value and Voice that I write and speak about in my work.

In addition to Managing with Aloha,  I encourage you to check out  several websites that Rosa maintains.  Here are links to them:www.ManagingWithAloha.com
www.SayLeadershipCoaching.com 
www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/MWAcoaching
www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/TalkingStory

www.JoyfulJubilantLearning.com 

Live Mint, a new Wall Street Journal publication in India, today published my thoughts on what makes Apple so successful.   Here is a link to the Live Mint article entitled “‘Think Different’ is What Makes Apple Stand Out.“

Earlier this year I posted about the unity among the members of the band U2 and how it contributed to the band’s success.  Comments from several individuals made me dig much deeper into the band’s story (thank you Astid, David Zinger, Lee Smith and Rachel for enlightening me). What I discovered was an extraordinary journey the band made to evolve into the force it is today. 

The article I wrote about it was published today in The Economic Times (in India) and it will be published later this year in two of the American Management Association’s publications (Moving Ahead and the AMA’s Catalog).  Here’s the link to The Economic Times’ article. 

Let me know what you think. 

Another theme that emerged from Communitelligence’s Employee Engagement conference in Chicago last week is what I would describe as “Moving from Process-centric to People-centric.”  It seems that every organization has a robust set of process-oriented programs in place such as Six Sigma and Balanced Scorecard.  These programs have helped organizations but people sense something’s still missing.  

The next steps in the evolution of organizations will be focused on people and their values rather than additional process improvements. Organizations had lost their way in some respects by focusing so much on processes.  By turning their attention to their core values, organizations were finding their way again, re-discovering their identities, who they are and what’s important to them.

Here are my observations from various presentations: Read more »

Disconnection occurs when an acquiring company and the employees of its newly acquired company define excellence in different ways.  In this month’s Atlantic, Mark Bowden writes about this issue in an excellent article entitled “Mr. Murdoch Goes to War.” The article, as you might guess from its title, is about how Rupert Murdoch is altering The Wall Street Journal.

One of the three elements of a Connection Culture is Vision, which includes an organization’s mission, values and reputation.  Altering an organization’s identity is tricky business. This is especially true when the employees of an organization have a strong emotional connection to the organization’s identity.  In such situations employee engagement can decline and quality of execution along with it.  

This is a story I’ll be watching closely for possible inclusion in my next book. If you have any insights about changes at The Wall Street Journal, please post about them or email me at mstallard@epluribuspartners.com.   

A friend’s email just reminded me of Benjamin Franklin’s words to his fellow signers of the Declaration of Independence.  ”We must hang together, or we shall surely hang separately,” opined Franklin following the Continental Congress approval of the Declaration.  Franklin’s words conveyed a literal meaning in that signing the Declaration was treason according to King George III and therefore punishable by death.  Since that time, “hanging together” has kept America strong.   Adolf Hitler, Nikita Khruschev and, more recently, Osama bin Laden, proclaimed that America’s diverse ethnicities and creeds would result in disunity in the face of adversity.  They missed the real source of America’s unity. Read more »

Check out a wonderful column in today’s The New York Times written by one of my favorite journalists, Joe Nocera.  The column is entitled, “The Sinatra of Southwest Feels the Love.” In it Nocera contrasts the sober atmosphere at American Airlines annual meeting in Dallas this last Wednesday morning to the lovefest at Southwest Airlines annual meeting that commenced a couple hours later across town.  The article focuses on Southwest’s co-founder Herb Kelleher and his belief that treating your employees well provides a competitive edge.  Nocera shares his observations about Kelleher and explores other possible reasons for Southwest’s success.  Like everything Nocera writes, it’s an enjoyable read with thought-provoking observations and insight.   

Award-winning, veteran journalist William J. Holstein has written a little gem of a book filled with wise advice for CEOs about how to manage today’s media. Manage the Media is one of Harvard Business Press’s new “Memo to the CEO” series.  It’s a quick read and to the point which should be perfect for time-starved executives. I highly recommend it for CEOs, board members, members of senior management and anyone interested in media coverage of organizations.  Read more »

I recently recorded an interview with Wayne Turmel, host of the “Cranky Middle Manager Show” on The Podcast Network. Wayne is an interviewer extraordinaire.  His valuable insights and sense of humor always enliven and enlighten listeners (and guests) alike. Wayne and I had a great chat about Connection Cultures and how they increase employee engagement.  To listen to the interview, click here.  Also, be sure to check out the other 139 interviews Wayne has recorded since the Cranky Middle Manager show’s inception.  

Apple is on a roll. And so is its co-founder Steve Jobs. Why?

In a world of muted, bland corporate identities and product designs, Apple dares to take a stand. Its corporate visual identity, store design and product designs are inspiring. They move people on an emotional level when most products utterly fail to inspire. Who can forget the Think Different ads featuring iconic individuals such as Gandhi, Einstein and Picasso, the animated ads featuring U2 performing their hit song “Vertigo,” or the stunning design of the iPhone? When critics of the iPhone complained that Apple sacrificed battery functionality for design, I thought to myself, “what did they expect?” Steve Jobs has an off the charts passion for aesthetic beauty and excellence. Understanding this is key to decoding what Jobs and Apple are all about. It also helps explain why they’ve been extraordinarily successful.

Let’s begin by making it clear what Steve Jobs is not. Read more »