What Hawaii Business Leaders Learned at the 2026 Hawaii Resilience Forum

What we learned

We brought in Cindy Solomon, founder of the Courageous Leadership Institute, and a speaker whose client list includes Google, Amazon, and The Ritz-Carlton.

Cindy level-set by naming the landscape Hawaii businesses are actually operating in right now: labor shortages, rising costs, global trade instability, one of the most challenging regulatory environments in the country, and more.

These aren't new problems. But Cindy's argument was that leaders who navigate them well share something in common: a particular kind of courage, and the self-awareness to know which kind they're using.

Her research maps out four distinct types of courage that show up in leadership, which she walked the whole room through in-depth. Watching 177 people find their courage type was fascinating.

• Blind Courage — Driven by instinct and subconscious pattern recognition. Research shows 86% of highly successful entrepreneurs use this type to pivot quickly.
• Role Courage — The courage that comes from deep preparation and expertise. When you've done the work, the fear of failure shrinks. This is the foundation of technical mastery and effective people leadership.
• Crisis Courage — The instinctive action leaders take when there's no playbook and the situation is unprecedented. It can boost short-term performance, but sustained crisis mode leads to burnout. The leaders who rely on this too long pay a price.
• Core Courage — The long-term, proactive kind. Rooted in values and a clear “North Star.” This is the courage that doesn't wait for the crisis; it does the work of defining legacy and direction before the pressure hits, so the organization stays focused when everything around it shifts.

Another core insight lit up the room: Hire for value first, and train for skills after. As Cindy laid out, values are set between the ages of seven and twelve. Hiring, and managing a team, with value alignment in mind provided everyone in the room with the framework to level up their plans to manage the ongoing workforce struggles business owners encounter every day.

Attendees left with tools they could use immediately: Cindy's full workbook and a digital values interviewing guide to help them prepare for their next hire.