At the center of the Shangri La Museum of Islamic  Art, Culture and Design is a courtyard where art, architecture, and history all meet.

Walking  here, the pull of this place is undeniable; beauty and meaning live within these  walls.

Similarly, for Dr.

Diane Paloma, place is everything.

Hawai‘i is both her  foundation and her source of strength.

I live in the same house that I grew up in,  which one I know is an economic decision as well as something that I just I love the house  that I grew up in.

My neighbors have been the same for the past probably 50, 60 years.

We actually, literally, just last weekend, my neighbor's oven broke.

She had to make banana  bread, so she called us up and she said, hey, can I use your oven?

And we're like, absolutely.

Do you think you can drop off a loaf of banana bread with that?

We'll take that as payment.

But  that's just the kind of relationships that I've had growing up.

And so that's, to me, one of the  best parts about growing up, I still have the same friends from elementary school, same neighbors,  right, the same family members that are still constantly around me and my family, and I think  that's what growing up in Hawaiʻi should be like.

Diane grew up in ʻĀina Haina, the eldest of three,  and like her mother, attended Kamehameha Schools.

My dad is pure Japanese, my mom is Chinese  Hawaiian, and I remember dad saying you know what Diane, I gotta send you to Kamehameha  so you can learn about your Hawaiian side.

And so I think it was a great, great foundation  for me.

I love performing arts, so of course, like music, mele, hula, art was really a big  plus for me, I got to travel the world in high school.

Japan, New Zealand, Alaska, we were  the dance group that got to go receive the logs that eventually became the Hawai'i Loa sailing  canoe, which is still going around the world.

And it just helped reinforce a lot of  those grounded family values for me.

Today, Diane is the CEO of Hawai‘i Dental Service,  the state’s largest dental benefits provider, serving more than a million members across  Hawai‘i, Guam, and Saipan.

Her career has always been in health care, though not in  the way she first imagined.

After Kamehameha, she studied physiological science  at UCLA and was set on becoming a physician.

But when she didn't get into  medical school, those plans changed.

When I didn't get into med school, and I remember  this so vividly, I sat down with my parents at the kitchen table and it was almost like this formal  apology to them to say, I'm so sorry that I didn't get into a med school.

But I don't think I want  to go anymore.

And, right, so thinking that, you know, my parents, oh no, you're gonna go,  you're going to try again, right?

That is your destiny.

We've told you this over and over.

But actually, it was my dad who said the exact opposite, like jaw-dropping moment.

He was like,  no, you know what, I think I owe you the apology because we just put you in that profession, right?

You got good grades.

We thought you'd make a great physician.

So that's what we thought you were  gonna be.

So, everything that we said to you was along those lines, right.

And that, right, and  there were, of course there were tears involved, but at the time I was like that is probably one  of the best lessons for me ever.

And of course, like my, you know, my samurai dad was like, who is  that guy?

Who just apologized to me, right?

Like, you know, Japanese dads don't do that to their  daughters, but it just also allowed me to test out other things, right, and to kind of have this  freedom of, oh my gosh, like book is wide open, clean slate, like what do I do now, I guess that early failure was probably, yeah, literally probably the best thing that  ever happened to me.

And it allowed me to stay in the healthcare industry, but not necessarily  have to do it through the role of the physician.

And that’s exactly what she did.

Diane worked  her way up through leadership roles at HMSA, the John A. Burns School of Medicine, and  The Queen’s Health Systems’ Native Hawaiian Health Program, eventually becoming CEO of  the King Lunalilo Trust and Lunalilo Home.

Along the way, she earned an MBA from UH Mānoa’s  Shidler College of Business and a PhD in Health Care Administration from Capella University.

At  Lunalilo Trust, she oversaw services for kūpuna, including the large care home in Hawai‘i Kai and  was at the helm when the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

Tell me about a time in your career  where you felt really tested as a leader.

Oh COVID.

At the peak of COVID when we were  looking at potentially sending residents home with their families.

I felt that kuleana of  me as the leader of this organization that I did not have control or I did not have  the ability to take care of my residents, I will, I always refer to that as like one of the  hardest moments of my career is what happens if COVID enters this facility?

What do I do?

Because  all of the news that we saw for COVID first came out of Kirkland, Washington, and it was a nursing  care home, and they got wiped out.

40% of their residents gone in three weeks.

So that was the  only number that we had in our minds.

We're like, okay, what happens when 40% of our residents  are gone?

What do we do?

How do we plan?

And so how did you get through that because you  ultimately are the one who has to make the call.

Lots of pule.

In our hālau, na ʻaumakua  right, we're asking for ʻaumakua guidance and help.

That was like morning, noon,  and night.

Trusting in your employees, so I had some awesome managers and  awesome staff who showed up every day.

And she showed up too,  working right alongside them, doing everything she could to keep  her team and the residents safe.

I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and do the hard  work too.

And to me that's also a value because I've seen that over the years for leaders that  really would get down and dirty and like roll up their sleeves and get it there in with you  and then other leaders who would be like, well, I'm going to stay over here and  I'd like you to do this but I'm gonna stay from afar.

And just the dynamics of how  that moves people or doesn't move people.

You know, I think as a leader  you have two kinds of power, right?

You have the hard power,  you can hire and fire someone, and then you have the soft power, which is  what you're talking about, which is to get folks to align with your vision and to follow  you forward without the threat of being fired.

I would definitely say I feel like  I am the soft power leader.

Well, maybe my kids and my husband might think  otherwise, but maybe it flip-flops, work and family.

The authority, it's not  an, an important value for me as a leader, For Diane, leadership begins with trust, built  on loyalty and lived with aloha.

For her, hula is where those values move.

More on that, when we come back.

Every Sunday, Diane steps into  a different kind of leadership, rooted in her Hawaiian ancestry and  deep connection to these islands.

I'm a part of a hālau, Ka pā hula o ka  lei lehua have been dancing since pre-high school, and there's something about hula that has  just kept me going.

I've danced the entire time, throughout my entire career, and this hālau ʻohana  is my true family.

It grounds me.

No matter what.

We always say hula is life.

Hula is  not an extracurricular activity for us, it's not an exercise regimen, it is a  philosophy and it's the way in which we process the world and it is the way in we look  at the world through our lens and it is just such an innate part of us and I think that's what  has helped me in my professional career path.

You know, it sounds like being grounded in culture  gives you a lot of confidence.

Tell me about that.

Oh, absolutely.

I think it's one identity.

Going to Kamehameha, it is imbued in your blood about who you are, and at a time where you  can actually learn your identity and be proud of it and pass that on to future generations  because without my identity, I don't think I would have had the confidence to take on CEO  roles or get a little nudge from someone to say, hey, I think you'd be great for this role  and you've never thought about it before.

Hula helps keep my mind clear.

It helps me focus,  and it also just, it constantly reminds me that we're not alone.

So, when I am right alone  in my office, or having a frustrating moment, knowing that your kūpuna surround you in so  many ways.

It really makes you feel like you're not doing anything alone, which is comforting  and also gives you the strength to know that, okay, somebody's done this before, long ago.

It'll  happen again in the future, but for now there are opportunities to know that, right, like someone's  got your back, whether they're seen or unseen.

And just like in her career, here,  Diane is a leader.

She is a dancer, yes, but she is also the hoʻopaʻa, the  chanter, whose drumbeat guides the way.

There is a ʻOlelo noʻeao that says,  I leʻa ka hula i ka hoʻopaʻa.

So, the vibrancy or the cheerfulness and the animation  of the hula is really driven by the hoʻopaʻa.

If you're chanting a little more solemn or slow, then dancers will pick up on that and reflect  on it, and exude that same kind of emotion.

If it's upbeat, and bright, and happy, you'll  see that reflected in the dancing, too.

So, it's a very symbiotic relationship between  the dancer and the chanter, and right, so it's the chanters' role to be able to imbue  that energy so that the dancer exudes that.

This group has danced at  the Merrie Monarch Festival, the world's premier hula competition, where months  of practice culminate in just minutes on stage.

Everything that you learned about the hula, you put on that stage and it's an exhilarating  feeling that you right have practiced so hard for a particular moment.

And that  moment you give it your 100 percent.

It strikes me that when you're performing and also  when you doing work in a more traditional sense, that it all comes down to the practice.

It  comes down the preparation.

That this is really, you can't fake it.

If you didn't go every  Sunday.

It's not gonna, it’s not gonna work.

You cannot fake it on the stage.

And even in,  especially in ceremony, you cannot fake it.

Like, somebody is gonna see that and call you  out on it.

It's a discipline, right?

So, hula is a discipline for me and that's where  focus comes from.

That's where planning and strategy come in.

We say practice doesn't make  perfect, perfect practice makes perfect so when you're constantly striving for excellence,  whether it be in a craft or a job, there's preparation that needs to take place.

And that's  what hālau has taught me after so many years I mean in my mind, if you can dance Merrie  Monarch, you can probably do anything.

Oh, maybe.

I think so.

That takes tremendous courage and discipline and  practice.

I mean when I watch those performances, I just think about the countless hours of work.

Oh yeah.

And the countless hours of study and so  knowing that preparation, you know, there's a, I have a deep respect for that and so think about  the parallel it's a well if you could do that.

Hours and hours for seven minutes on stage.

So why do that?

What makes it worth it?

It's that journey, right?

It's the process  of getting to that point where right, the seven minutes are only seven minutes of  months of practice, months of growth.

And just like learning and getting to a graduation point or  rising up through the ranks of a corporate office, it's that, journey and that process where you  take all those little bits and pieces along the way.

The final moment is really only seven  minutes, very short period of time in one's life.

But really, like, look at all that you have  amassed in that time and the people you have connected with over time, the places you have  learned about here in Hawaiʻi, a place like no other.

And, to me, that is the jewel  of what hula brings to me and my world.

The practice is the point.

That regular steady drum beat, or that regular  steady Sunday practice where I know, yeah, I'm gonna sweat.

I might not be able to walk  downstairs the next day because my legs are so sore, but it's a spiritual recharge for  us and a reminder that we are connected to our kūpuna to our past and that we are also  carrying it forward for my kids, grandkids, right?

We talk about in Hawaiian culture  seven generations ahead of us.

That's what we're planning for.

So that is my kuleana,  right, to be able to learn these songs, recite them, perform them and teach them to  somebody new so that I know that this song will be carried on down the road, just as when I received  it, right?

This is hundreds of years of culture.

We hear the word kuleana in Hawaiʻi  a lot.

What does kuleana mean to you?

So, kuleana, right, is responsibility.

Oftentimes  it's a burden, right?

That's your kuleana, right.

That's you job to do that, your parameter.

But for me, kuleana is that privilege.

It's, wow, how lucky we are to be able to  have this opportunity to take on this role or to be the vessel to pass on some  kind of knowledge somewhere, some place.

Still ahead, the strength Diane found in hula would become her anchor through  one of life’s hardest battles.

Diane Paloma has spent her life working in health  care, leading teams, caring for others, supporting patients.

But at 40, everything shifted.

Suddenly, she was the one who needed care.

My grandmother had breast cancer in her  60s, passed away when I as an infant.

My auntie had it in her 50s, and I kind of  knew that it's in my DNA, family history, But nothing to the effect of, okay, my 40th gift  from the universe was a breast cancer diagnosis.

There's nothing like mortality to give you  a good kick in the butt, to make you think of what is the most meaningful, what is the  most important, and what are the things that are going to keep you going.

And it's really like  those closest people around you, friends, family.

With her husband and their three  young daughters by her side, Diane faced her diagnosis with determination,  fueled by love and a fierce will to fight.

My oncologist was Clayton Chong, one of the  first Native Hawaiian oncologists in the world.

And he goes, Diane, I'm going to give you all  these tools, right?

He had this boxing analogy, That cancer is like putting you in a  boxing ring, right.

You coach, you train, you keep up your stamina, you do all these  techniques so that you can last in the ring.

Because he told me.

When we go through  this process, whatever this process is, I'm gonna be putting you in the ring.

I'm going to  be in the corner.

So, I'm right there with you.

I can throw in the towel.

I can call a timeout.

I can call the match, whatever.

But Diane, you got to go in the ring alone.

So, are  you ready to do that?

And I was like, okay, I think I watched enough Rocky movies,  so.

Okay, I'm ready, right, and I put me in.

Because of her age and family history,  Diane chose a bilateral mastectomy, a decision that spared her from radiation and  chemotherapy and gave her a second chance.

I'm so grateful to have come  out on the other side, right, cancer-free.

The universe gave me an extra  pass and said, okay, like.

Come on, Diane, now's your time.

What are you gonna do  with this rest of the remainder of that?

What of that experience do you still carry with you now?

How has it influenced how  you lead and how you live your life?

Well, like, basically, it's like, okay, life is short.

Like, I'm gonna try  and do everything that I can now.

What do tell your daughter's about leadership?

How do you hope to grow them as leaders?

Be kind, right, have aloha, because you  may not always know what's going on with other people when you're talking with  them.

When you interact with people, make sure that kindness and aloha are  those foundational spaces for you.

You seem very connected to place.

You live in the house where you grew up in.

You know, it seems like relationships, relationships and where you're from is very  important to you.

I wonder if you'd ever, if you have considered or been tempted to go to  the continent, tell me why Hawaii is your place.

I think because college was enough for me  to go away, to explore, but really always knowing that this is my home, right, ke one  hānau, this is the sands of my birth and that there really is no other place like it.

You  can mimic it, you can try and replicate it, but it's hard to replicate the people, the  sounds of the ocean, right, the lifestyle.

I mean, like you have the allure of a brand-new  house for under 500K in Vegas.

Yeah, of course, it's alluring, but, but I don't want to live  anywhere else.

I want to live in Hawaiʻi.

I think anybody who lives in Hawaiʻi has  made some kind of sacrifice but instead of focusing on the sacrifice, let's focus  on what makes it magical to live here, because it is, really, who  wouldn't want to live here?

What do you think Hawaiʻi needs  from its leaders right now?

A lot more aloha, a lot more grace, and from  what I've seen is, I think in my time growing, as I think of myself when I was a rising  leader, I still consider myself kind of rising, rising leader still, but we, we revered  and respected our elders in ways that I think sometimes we forget and I think  we're all guilty of it at some point, but we didn't talk over our elders.

We didn’t,  we asked questions but we did not question them.

And I think in today's society we see so  much more of the tearing down of the, I mean, I'd say kind of almost borderline disrespect,  that it actually takes away from the building of a relationship between each other.

And that's  what I think we're seeing in communities today.

What's the best piece of advice you ever received?

I'm gonna say my grandfather, when I went away to  college, he's like, yeah, you gotta study hard, you gotta work hard, but don't forget  to play.

You don't have to play hard, but don't forget to play.

And I did.

Ha ha ha ha!

And do you still?

Yeah!

Why is that so important do you think?

I don't feel that there's ever a way  where you can find absolute balance.

We talk about work-life balance.

And  I think my grandfather understood that.

There's a time to study.

There's  a time to just dig in, work really hard, get those moments accomplished.

But then there's  also the time to celebrate it right, and enjoy it.

For Diane, leadership, like  hula, is a rhythm of discipline, care and joy.

And always a reminder to play.

For A Leader's Journey, I'm Yunji de Nies.