Lee Cataluna: Serving up lessons in leadership

Years ago I wrote a piece about wanting Dave Shoji to run for governor. Or mayor. Or really just putting him in any position of leadership in Hawaii government so he can run this place tight and right and coach us all to greatness like he did for Wahine volleyball. Discipline, focus, high standards, a clear plan. That’s what Hawaii needed. That’s what Hawaii still needs.

Coach Shoji laughed it off. He’s cool that way.

But really, a leader not only manages departments and budgets and makes strategic plans; a leader leads people, brings them together and raises them up to their highest potential.

Robyn Ah Mow should be governor. Or mayor. Or our representative to Congress.

I mean, not really. She’s exactly where she should be as head coach of the beloved University of Hawaii Wahine volleyball program, successor to the great Shoji, mastermind of a new era for a team with a proud history, the best fans in the world and a really promising squad this year. Ah Mow is too good for elected office, and all the glad-handing and empty-promise-making required of politicians seems to be exactly the opposite of who she is and how she rolls.

But wow, is she a model of strong, experience-­based leadership and oh, is she fun to watch.

The whole team is fun to watch, this diverse collective of young athletes from around the world and around the way, as they live up to the Wahine reputation while making their own mark on the program. But Ah Mow’s reactions as they play are something to behold. When she’s mad, she doesn’t have to say a word for everyone to know who and why and what to do next. When she celebrates a great play, she’s celebrating the skill and execution of her players, not the luck that brought them the point.

There’s a kind of base-level honesty about her, a “this is how I am, this is how it is” vibe that she carries as she stalks the sidelines during a match or begrudgingly answers questions during yet another interview. She never seems like she’s putting on a show for anybody, though there are times it’s clear she’s holding her tongue. She manages to be candid but careful, guileless but savvy, and always true to herself, which is so rare in a time when people cultivate their “brand” with highly staged images on social media that have little to do with real life, real feelings, real accomplishment.

Coach Ah Mow’s team is on a winning streak, but beyond the scoreboard she cultivates a winning style, a straightforward way of being in the world, a devotion to the mission, and something so different from the questionable examples of leadership and warped measures of success that we see today.

When asked in an interview about what secret or strategy was behind her team’s improved synergy, Ah Mow said simply, “That’s just effort.”

Effort. Working hard. Just making it happen. Wow. Leaders don’t speak that simple truth much these days, but they should.

Reach Lee Cataluna at 529-4315 or lcataluna@staradvertiser.com.