Great Power, Great Responsibility

“Baton, bellwether, big wheel, bigwig, boss, captain, chief, chieftain, commander, conductor, controller, counsellor (sic), dean, dignitary, director, doyen, eminence, exec, foreman, forerunner, general, governor, guide, harbinger, head, head man, herald, honcho, kingpin, lead, lion, luminary, maestro, manager, master, notability, notable, number one, officer, pacesetter, pilot, pioneer, precursor, president, principal, rector, ringleader, ruler, shepherd, skipper, superintendent, superior.”

This is what you get when you search Roget’s Interactive Thesaurus at thesaurus.reference.com for synonyms for the word “leader.” My search was prompted by recent changes at the top for many prominent local businesses and institutions. In short: Faye Kurren retired from Tesoro Inc.; Hamilton McCubbin resigned from Kamehameha Schools; John Monahan entered Hawaiian Air Inc. as a court-appointed trustee; Stanley Takahashi passed away and Ernest Nishizaki became the local head of Kyo-Ya Co. Ltd.; and David Heenan is now chairman of the board for Maui Land and Pine Inc.

These businesses and large landowners are key players in Hawaii’s economy. It will be interesting to see how new leadership steers each respective canoe. We all have a stake in the leaders’ performances, given the interconnectedness of Hawaii’s people and institutions.

Notice the “leader” word list includes the word “governor,” but not the word “legislator.” I may have to write to the Roget’s folks about that omission. I would argue that our lawmakers are key leaders in Hawaii. We need them to lead well as much as we need the executive, but that’s a civics debate in itself.

Every once in a while conversations on leadership in Hawaii will begin to bemoan the lack of it. We need true leaders. We need people with vision and commitment in all sectors of our state to move it forward. We need “lions,” “maestros” and “pacesetters.” We do have a few good ones. We need more. In some ways, we get to measure the performances of those who head businesses (especially publicly traded ones) and political institutions. My hope is that real leadership is being exercised where it’s not so visible, too. As Uncle Ben told Peter Parker, “With great power, comes great responsibility.”

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