Managing with Aloha: Bringing Hawaii's Universal Values to the Art of Business

by Rosa Say

Book Overview

"Values" may be the most frequently spoken word in business today. Yet Rosa Say, founder of Say Leadership Coaching and former Vice President of Hualalai at historic Kaûpûlehu, boldly proposes that... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0976019000
• ISBN13: 9780976019008
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Ingram
• Length: 266 Pages
• Weight: 1.28 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Great management book for all, especially if you do business in Hawaii

An excellent managment book that takes traditional Hawai'ian cultural values, and places them into a management framework so that organizational mission and respect and development of individuals can occur simultaneously. Although the book is written from a Hospitality industry standpoint, the concepts can be applied to any industry anywhere. This book has been most helpful in bridging the cultural barrier of my traditional US Mainland experiences with the pan-Asian business culture environment. The book is a relatively short, easy read with many real life examples of how to apply the core concepts. I highly recommend this book.

Valuable Insights about Leading With Your Values

Managing with Aloha is written to help managers become more successful. This in itself doesn't make the book unusual or outstanding; there are hundreds of books about managerial effectiveness. What makes it stand out is that the reader is taught these lessons from the perspective of the Hawaiian culture - specifically 18 values. The author weaves her vast management experience into each chapter - one for each of the 18 values. As a reader you learn from Rosa's experiences, you learn about the values of the Hawaiian Islands and you begin to see how these values are more than Hawaiian - they are universal in their application. The use of Hawaiian terms in the book may seem at first to be a bit challenging as a reader, but these native words and phrases quickly become a part of the reading experience. Rosa Say is a proud Hawaiian, an experienced manager and a talented writer. Reading this book will allow you appreciate these three things - the things that separate this book from the vast number of books for managers. I highly recommend this book, and Rosa's blog, Talking Story as well. (http://www.sayleadershipcoaching.com/talkingstory/)

Managing With Aloha - A book to read, to treasure, and to learn from

So I finally completed reading Managing With Aloha by Rosa Say of Say Leadership Coaching, and so it is time to reflect on what I have learned. I have a few key points to share, and an overall feeling from the book. Nana i ke kumu - Look to your source, and find your truth. This is the chapter I just finished, and the one that will stick in my head the longest. Looking to my source to find my truth, I find myself surrounded by those I care for deeply, and realize that I have many to be thankful for. The other truth I have is lifelong learning, and the reflection time that comes with reading a new book or magazine and learning something I knew little or nothing about. It's why I have Rosa's book in my hands and have been reading for the past 2 months to get it completely. Aloha - If you were like me, before I started reading Rosa's Talking Story blog and her book, I thought Aloha was simply a greeting. Aloha as in hello, and aloha as in goodbye. Now I realize Aloha is a value of unconditional love, and the outpouring and receiving of the spirit. Wow, now that's a word that says so much more than "Hey!" Again, getting back to my truth, I realize that I must do a better job of sharing my Aloha with my family, friends, direct reports, peers, and supervisors, and really everyone in my world. I need to slow down and let people know how much I appreciate them, and how much Aloha I have for them. The last thing I learned is that one must strive for Pono, or rightness and balance. This is something that I am often guilty of not having as much as I would like to have. I am happily content in many things in my life, and that helps my balance, but I know there is more that needs to be in balance for me. My overall feeling of Managing With Aloha is one of awe, for there are so many values in the book that one can learn from, and put into practice, as managers and leaders. Rosa's idea of the Daily Five Minutes is my favorite, and can be quite simply summed up as taking 5 minutes each day to spend in a comfortable place with a direct report and let them tell you what's going on in her/his life. The key is you have to really listen to hear what's being said, and make the effort to not be judgmental, rather just listen and pay attention. I also learned that managing and leading are 2 very different things, and one does not need to be a good leader to be a good manager, or be a good manager to be a good leader. Never before was it so clearly laid out as in this wonderful book. I like to think I am an effective manager now, and with practice and continued review of the key concepts in this book, I can only get better. Make It a Great Day...If you're a manager or leader, buy Managing With Aloha, for you or someone else who wants to become more effective as a manager or a leader. Now in it's second printing, this book is timeless and worth the investment many times over.

Wonderful!

I found it challenging to write about Rosa Say's book Managing With Aloha. The book-actually, the very idea of the book-touches me in so many places that I didn't know how to begin or where to end. There was no way for me to write about this book without writing about myself as well. So, if you are looking for objectivity, you won't find it here. Questions about values have been near the heart of my own work for nearly thirty years, but I have never seen such a beautiful and comprehensive treatment of one person's lessons and joys within the dance that values and work must do if the work is to be done with integrity. I am also envious because my own traditional values were dimmed by the emigration of my ancestors to the US, by their desire to assimilate, and by my own indifference. This is not to say that I have no values, or that I do not know what they are, but that there is something deep and profound in Rosa's knowledge that I suspect I can never experience. While paging through this book I was visited by the same sense that often overtakes me while strolling the less populated streets of ancient European cities: Brugge or Bath perhaps, or Pisa. It is a sense of deep rootedness and profound import: a sense that the place (this book) is significant in ways that I cannot appreciate or even fully understand. The book also resonates with recent work of my own. Not too long ago I interviewed twenty accomplished, recognized leaders to discover how leaders win the commitment of others at different levels: intellectual, emotional, and spiritual. I found that the ability to integrate values with the work of leadership is crucial to winning the highest levels of commitment. I call this ability Enacting Beliefs. A Jewish elder, a Catholic sports mogul, the Buddhist mayor of a town in Arizona, and others, all either spoke of enacting their beliefs or performed the dance of values and work so naturally that they thought it barely deserved comment. Rosa shines light on this ability with detail and clarity that I very much admire. Then too, Rosa quite rightly insists on the nobility of management as a calling, which is an affirmation of my own insistence that all work can be thought of and done artfully if it is approached by the whole person as an endeavor of the spirit and not merely a job. I recommended Managing With Aloha to a friend whose business is helping young Jewish leaders bring traditional Jewish values to their leadership roles. I told my friend, "You don't have to be Hawaiian to appreciate the lessons in this book about how to bring your values to your work." If you aspire to that kind of integrity, I recommend it to you also.