Former Kaua‘i Senator and County Councilmember Gary Hooser was honored Friday February 3rd by an invitation to offers words of “reflection and contemplation” to the Hawai‘i State Senate. Hooser was invited to speak by Oahu Senator Les Ihara and welcomed to the podium by the present Kaua‘i Senator and Senate President Ron Kouchi and the entire membership of the Hawai‘i State Senate who gathered for their official floor session.
“We are all leaders and leadership comes in many forms. I encourage all in attendance today to think about the path of servant leadership. Leadership is about serving others. It is not about power, or money or position, but about helping and serving others,” said Hooser. He followed by reading
“A Leader’s Prayer” (no known attribution).
Leadership is hard to define.
Let us be the ones to define it in justice.
Leadership is like a handful of water.
Let us be the people to share it with those that thirst.
Leadership is not about watching and correcting.
Let us remember it is about listening, connecting and acting.
Leadership is not about telling people what to do.
Leadership is about finding out what people want and then helping them and empowering them to achieve that.
Leadership is less about the love of power and more about the power of love.
As we continue to move down the path of leadership, let us learn from and follow in the footsteps of those servant-leaders that have gone before us.
Let our greatest passion be compassion.
Our greatest strength love.
Our greatest victory the reward of peace.
In leading let us never fail to follow.
In loving, let us never fail.
Dawn Morais 
This is a wonderful sharing from Gary Hooser. It is the type of reminder, reflection and contemplation all leaders need from time to time. In our currently troubled world, we need to pause, study the issues carefully and thereafter reflect deeply. Only then, should we act and that too in a responsible manner.
Nice…very nice! I might make one quibble, re the line “Leadership is not about watching and correcting.” It seems to me that “watching and correcting” can be valid and even crucial elements in a comprehensive leadership paradigm. I’m thinking not only politics: the commercial sector, clergy, teaching profession, medical/health endeavors….