You know how when you’re at work and things are going OK but then the boss walks in and the whole tone changes? Everyone gets stiff and silent and suddenly people start making stupid mistakes because they’re so nervous. The air in the room turns sour and tight.

Or you walk in a store and instantly sense there’s something going on. All the employees are acting formal and strange, and their eyes are wide and worried. It takes you a while to figure it out, but then you turn the corner and see the person in an expensive suit holding a clipboard or file folder and you realize, “Oh, of course. The boss is here. That’s why everybody is looking so nervous and acting so weird.”

A couple of years ago, I got on a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Honolulu to LA and there among the sunburned tourists heading back to the West Coast and the Hawaii families going to Disneyland was Mark Dunkerley, the airline’s CEO. I braced for whatever his presence was going to mean for the airline employees trying to do their jobs over a five-hour flight and how that tension would in turn affect the plane full of travelers.

Nobody wants an uptight flight crew. Nobody wants five hours of trying-too-hard fakey customer service or, worse, having to bear witness to the staff kissing up to CEO. Yuck.

But it was a great flight. The cabin crew was relaxed and genuinely pleasant. Dunkerley spent much of his time away from his first-class seat and hanging out in coach, chatting with staff and travelers in low-key conversations around the galley. It was clear that he was a boss who was respected but not feared or resented. His presence did affect the employees though — they seemed happy to have him on board. They seemed proud of their team.

Dunkerley took Hawaiian Airlines from a company that had been in and out of bankruptcy to an airline that is in growth mode. During his tenure, Hawaiian also went through a huge reputation transformation, particularly with local residents.

For years, Aloha Airlines was seen as the “nicer,” more accommodating airline while Hawaiian seemed colder and less likely to help you out. Hawaiian was also reliably unreliable to the point where their late arrivals became worn-out punchlines. Now, Hawaiian’s national, No. 1 on-time record is a source of pride, and the warmth and professionalism of their service is pretty remarkable compared to the in-flight experience on other carriers that fly the same routes.

Dunkerley accomplished that thing that has been tried again and again in this little island state but so rarely works. He came from the outside but respected the inside; he brought new ideas but learned what works in this unique, idiosyncratic market; and he made a local company better by holding it to the best of local values, not transforming it into something that worked somewhere else.

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