Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 3, 1 March 2015 — Fostering exceptional leadership [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Fostering exceptional leadership

A s new attention turns / \ to the strate-

Agic direction being taken by the Offlce

of Hawaiian Affairs, my top goal is to help get the Board of Trustees functioning at a high level. To meet this aspiration, I have taken some immediate steps to help us raise our game. In January, the state's Office of Information Practice conducted for us a training workshop

on ethics. That same day, the Board of Trustees also participated in a workshop on the state's open-meeting law. Early this month, a procurement workshop is scheduled to largely help remind us of the need to exercise reasonable care in all decision-making, without placing the organization under unnecessary risk. Other workshops on budgeting and governance are also planned to better help us ensure that our organization is well-managed and that its Ananeial situation remains sound. What I have leamed from experience is that working at a high level takes discipline and time. But in my judgment, the recipe for an exceptional board is made up of many different ingredients. For us to truly heeome a highperforming board, we need to make sure we stay objective, unselfish, responsible, honest, trustworthy and efflcient. We need to make sure we reach informed decisions; bring out the very best in management; identify current leadership strengths that should be continued and new leadership attributes that should be sought. We would also need to be better advocates for sound govemance principles such as accountability and transparency. Above all, we need to see our most important role as selecting the right leadership for OH A. That means having muhiple discus-

sions eaeh year about leadership succession. This would

involve spending time identifying our organization's next generation

of leaders as well as creating ways to get to know these candidates personally and observe them in crises and under pressure. At the same time, it is critically important for us to develop a trusting relationship with our CEO. Our relationship with our CEO should be

very open, candid and interactive. It should make our CEO feel comfortable bouncing things off us all the time and drawing on the expertise of Trustees, particularly if we have a specialized knowledge in a specific area. Our CEO should be talking to every Trustee by phone at least onee between every meeting - more often if there is an issue that someone on the board knows a lot about and is helping us with. We don't always have to agree, and some of the conversations might even be difficult, but it's critical to have them. Having served on several boards, I have also learned that the real test for us comes when our organization is in crisis. I want for us to be a Board of Trustees that our organization ean count on to step up to our responsibilities in difficult times. Our accumulated wisdom and judgment are supposed to be crucial to helping our organization make sound decisions under the pressure of time and media attention. So, along with making Nā Lama Kukui a joyful workplace for our Administration and staff, and a pu'uhonua for our beneflciaries and constituents across the pae 'āina, I want Nā Lama Kukui to be a joyful plaee for my eolleagues as well. For that reason, my goal is to elevate our status as a Board of Trustees from what it has been to exceptional and extraordinary. ■

/ LEO 'ELELE V > TRUSTEE MESSSAGES "

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Rūbert K. Lindsey, Jr. Chair, TrustEE, Hawai'i