During Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, Wisdom Works was honored to host another conversation in our What It Means to Thrive as a Leader of Color webinar series. This gathering created space to reflect on leadership through the lens of identity, lived experience, and human thriving.
Hosted by Karen Mims, Project & Creative Administrator at Wisdom Works, the conversation featured Gayle Karen Young, Organizational and Leadership Consultant at Cultivating Leadership, and Makalika Naholowa’a, Executive Director of the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation. Together, they explored what it means to lead in ways that honor both personal wellbeing and collective responsibility.
Thriving Is About Fullness
One of the strongest ideas to emerge from the conversation came from Gayle Karen Young, who described thriving not as happiness, but as “fullness.” She reflected on the ability to notice beauty, remain connected to community, and stay present enough to experience the small moments that often disappear in the speed of modern life. She shared a Zen teaching about “hell” being the inability to hear birdsong—a powerful metaphor for what happens when attention becomes consumed by stress or constant striving.
Gayle also spoke candidly about how many AAPI families were shaped more by conversations around survival than thriving. Achievement, security, and endurance were often prioritized over emotional expression or self-exploration. Her reflections opened an important conversation about expanding the emotional and relational range available to leaders today, especially leaders navigating inherited expectations around work, success, and identity.
That distinction between surviving and thriving surfaced throughout the webinar. The conversation repeatedly returned to the idea that thriving is not an individual performance project. It is relational. It is influenced by the people, communities, and systems surrounding us. This perspective closely aligns with Wisdom Works’ Be Well Lead Well® framework and research, which emphasize that leadership effectiveness is deeply connected to a leader’s internal state and overall wellbeing.
A Native Hawaiian Lens on Leadership and Wellbeing
When asked how her AAPI heritage influences her leadership, Makalika Naholowa’a shared how Native Hawaiian frameworks of wellbeing shape both leadership and everyday life. She explained that in Hawaiian culture, conversations about health and wellbeing are not abstract concepts or corporate initiatives. They are embedded into the culture itself influencing relationships, responsibilities, and community life.
Makalika described how Native Hawaiian wellbeing frameworks are intentionally preserved and articulated because of the ongoing work required to protect culture under colonial pressure. She explained that concepts such as healthy relationships, abundance, self-determination, and interconnectedness are foundational within Hawaiian ways of thinking. Rather than focusing primarily on individual achievement, the framework asks whether people are existing within healthy relationships that allow both individuals and communities to flourish.
She also shared insights into ho‘oponopono, a Native Hawaiian healing and conflict resolution practice she has formally studied for years. While Western legal systems often approach conflict through punishment or compliance, she explained that ho‘oponopono approaches dispute resolution through the lens of healing relationships and restoring wellness. In Hawaiian culture, she noted, this work is considered part of healing practice rather than governance practice.
The conversation also explored how these frameworks influence leadership itself. Makalika reflected on the differences between dominant Western leadership models and Native Hawaiian leadership approaches. In many Western systems, organizations are encouraged to solve problems primarily in service of their own goals, even when the burden shifts elsewhere. By contrast, Native Hawaiian leadership tends to think systemically and relationally, recognizing the ripple effects decisions have across families, neighborhoods, and future generations.
Leadership as an Act of Relationship
Another theme woven throughout the conversation was the idea that leadership is fundamentally relational. The panelists reflected on how people affect one another constantly through attention, presence, stress, curiosity, and care.
Gayle emphasized the importance of creativity, awe, and practices that reconnect people to meaning. Makalika spoke about allyship as something deeper than charity or performative support. Real allyship, she suggested, begins when people genuinely understand that another community’s wellbeing is tied to their own.
There was also a powerful discussion about curiosity. Again and again, the panelists returned to the idea that meaningful leadership across difference begins with openness, listening, and the willingness to understand perspectives beyond one’s own experience. In a time of increasing polarization and social fragmentation, this felt especially resonant.
At Wisdom Works, we believe these conversations matter because they expand how leadership itself is understood. They invite leaders to move beyond extraction, burnout, and purely transactional models of success toward approaches grounded in humanity, connection, and shared wellbeing.
As we honor AAPI Heritage Month, we are deeply grateful to Karen Mims, Gayle Karen Young, and Makalika Naholowa’a for sharing their wisdom and lived experiences with such generosity and depth. We invite you to watch the full conversation above and continue exploring Wisdom Works resources designed to help leaders and organizations thrive through the Be Well Lead Well® platform, thriving leadership research, and our growing body of tools for building healthier cultures and teams.
