DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM Glenn Furuya, president and founder of Leadership Works, gives a breakfast workshop on leadership at Alan Wong's Pineapple Room in Macy's Ala Moana.

Furuya has high
expectations for
Hawaii’s leaders

Glenn Furuya >> Position: President of Leadership Works LLC >> Number of clients: More than 132 companies statewide, including Kaiser Permanente, Big Island Candies and Young Brothers >> Consulting: Founded Leadership Works in 1994; worked as consultant for 21 years

What is Leadership Works LLC?

It's a Hawaii-based consulting firm. We basically work with many organizations in Hawaii, helping them get a higher level of performance through three things -- exchanging their systems, improving leadership and empowering the people. I was a student of W. Edwards Deming's work. He went to Japan in the early 1950s and taught the Japanese what quality was all about. I tried to absorb his theories and his practices. He was a statistician, and originally worked as a consultant who went over there to teach them theory centering around building better systems. One of the things we do in our organization is attempt to make the organizations we consult with flow a lot smoother. That's the key premise of my practice, except that smooth has three o's in it.

What do the three o's stand for?

Organize, orchestrate and optimize. You've got to get things better organized, sit on top of the organization and look at it whole-listically to orchestrate it, and then optimize the situation by streamlining the process to increase profits and cut down on costs. Too many companies, the way they're structured, their systems are not very organized. They tend to be silo based. Everyone's in a little silo and all the silos are competing with one another and customers are being tossed from silo to silo. So there's no connection. There's no integration. It's every little sub department doing their thing, but it never comes together as a whole. In other words, there's not an integrated flow to the system.

So how do you make it flow smoother?

It's my philosophy that when I do my work, I work off a lot of metaphors to explain and teach my concepts. When we talk about this system being better organized, the metaphor would be a funnel. You have two choices with a funnel. You can look through the small hole and see a bigger view. That's what we call whole-listic thinking, where you see the whole of a system integrated to one consistent flow. Then the other option you have is you can look through the big side of the funnel and all you see is one little point. That's what we call analytic thinking. It's tunnel vision.

What else did you learn from W. Edwards Deming?

Dr. Deming taught me that in business the next process is truly your customer. This is a philosophy we try to ingrain in the companies. What this means is whatever you're working on, you must do everything and anything possible for the person downstream from you, because it's an integrated flow.

Getting back to the other things you teach, what do you mean by empowering people?

What we teach is that the leaders have obligations they have to fulfill with their people. The Japanese word for obligation is "on." In empowering people, leaders have to fulfill obligations to people -- everything from placing them in the right job, making expectations clear, teaching the people, listening to the people, acknowledging the people. In the Japanese language, one delivers "on," which means from the heart. You fulfill your obligation. And you get back "giri," which means reciprocation. You work hard and give back great service because you feel you've been supported and nurtured. If leaders fulfill obligations to employees, people will reciprocate by working hard.

What are the most important traits of leadership?

There are two very critical things -- the difference between working on vs. working in. In leadership, working in means a leader pretty much gets sucked into the system running around like chickens without heads, reacting to things. They're fighting fires. They're doing technical things. That's working in and many leaders are inundated in the in. What a great leader has to do is work on their company. Get involved in planning, strategizing. It's about building a better system. It's like lifting yourself over the organization in a helicopter and looking down on the organization. How do I work to make it better? To optimize? To improve. To empower power? That's a critical distinction in leadership.

Can you contrast the pros and cons of a leader who delegates vs. one who micromanages?

Delegating or directing is a function of two things. You have to do a diagnosis. You have to look at two things with every employee -- whether they're competent or have ability, and whether there's commitment or there's a will. It's skill and will. Now, a good leader will diagnose if the competence of skill is low. If the employee needs high direction, you might have to micromanage. That would be appropriate because the person doesn't know how to do something and someone has to show them how. If a person has low commitment, the good leader will be in high-supporting behavior. The leader will be listening, supporting, encouraging. If you have a person with high skill level and high will level, that's the only person you can delegate to. You can't delegate to a person who doesn't have confidence and high commitment. There's now a lot of malpractice because leaders are not reading the employee properly. You always have to look at skill and will and, depending what you read, you're either going to be in high direction or high support. It's like being a linebacker. You do a lot of reads and respond appropriately. Micromanagement is totally inappropriate for someone with high confidence and high commitment. You just turn them off. It would be very appropriate if a person has low confidence. You want to be there micromanaging because they don't know how to do their job. The essential skill of a leader is to diagnose and respond appropriately to where the employee is at.

How do the Hawaii people stack up as leaders?

I have a strong belief that the people of Hawaii have the potential to be great leaders because many of the ways of the people of Hawaii are very consistent with the characteristics of effective leaders based on empirical research. Like the givingness of the people. The fact that most of us are immigrant stock brings a lot of drive and will into the picture. Also, the fact that good leaders have an essential balance of drive to get results, but they're caring for the people. Empathy and drive. In Hawaii, because we're all Americans, we have the drive. But because of the Eastern and Polynesian influence, we have the humility and the empathy. Where else in the world can these three great cultures -- the Polynesian, the Eastern and the Western cultures -- blend into one place?

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Inside Hawaii Inc. is a conversation with a member of the Hawaii business community who has changed jobs, been elected to a board or been recognized for accomplishments. Send questions and comments to business@starbulletin.com.