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Editor’s note: Do you have questions for Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle? He said he didn’t have time to be interviewed in advance of this article, but agreed to talk with Civil Beat on Tuesday morning. What would you like to know from him about his first six months on the job? Send questions to alafrance@civilbeat.com, and we’ll ask the mayor for you.

Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle is used to being the boss.

He is aggressively confident, almost to the point of exaggeration: In the pinstripes he likes to wear, in the twin “Carlisle for mayor” bumper stickers on his bright blue Mustang, in the way he tends to bob his head and roll his eyes as he delivers a punchline.

But in his first six months as mayor, Carlisle has had to begin to integrate his obvious leader’s instincts with some of the more collaborative nuances that his new job requires.

For one thing, Carlisle has to work with the legislative branch at Honolulu Hale. That wasn’t the case in the prosecutor’s office he helmed for 14 years, and Carlisle hasn’t always handled the relationship between his executive branch and the City Council delicately. Then again, “delicate” isn’t really in the mayor’s repertoire.

On the stage of political theater, Carlisle oscillates between comic and grim. Cutting tension with jokes and delivering bad news seem to come equally naturally to him. He still hasn’t been able to shake the lawyer jokes, or the law enforcement demeanor — pointing, glaring, gruffness — of a man who would look like he belonged in Gotham City instead of on Oahu if not for the occasional aloha shirt.

Carlisle’s supporters relish this persona. They love his frankness, his willingness to say outrageous things, how he comes across like the kind of guy who would tell a great joke before he’d deliver a speech that gives you chicken skin.

Carlisle’s critics lambaste him for the same characteristics. They say he doesn’t act like a mayor ought to, that he lacks grace and composure, that he’s glib, even thoughtless. He doesn’t listen, they complain, so he doesn’t understand.

Maybe it’s why some at City Hall call him “the one-minute manager.” (Read a related article about the mayor’s record after six months vs. his campaign promises.)

The mayor has said he wants the big picture from his department heads, and he wants them to lead. He doesn’t want to get bogged down in the minutiae of their jobs, and he doesn’t want to hover.

Carlisle has said that empowering people to lead by encouraging them to speak about their accomplishments can inspire people to greatness.

The breathing-room approach is in stark contrast to the reputation of Carlisle’s predecessor, Mufi Hannemann, who was famous — or infamous, depending on whom you ask — for his micro-management. Hannemann talked a lot about dotting every “i” and crossing every “t,” but to those who worked for him it wasn’t an idiom. The former mayor was known for wanting final approval of all kinds of projects.

Hannemann was deeply invested in city business before he became mayor. He was a City Council member for nearly a decade, and lost in his 2000 bid for mayor before ultimately winning in 2004 and again in 2008. When Hannemann resigned last summer to run for governor, Carlisle stepped up to run to replace him.

Not a Politician, For Better or Worse

On the campaign trail, Carlisle heralded the fact that he was not politically connected to Honolulu Hale as a point of pride. Despite his long run as city prosecutor, Carlisle didn’t have much direct experience with the legislative or executive branches of city government.

He said this gave him fresh perspective, and showed he wasn’t beholden to any political interests. He also repeatedly pointed out he had no aspirations to higher office. Carlisle said he wanted to be Honolulu’s mayor for the next decade, and promised he would never move to Washington, D.C.

But without a politician’s ambitions, Carlisle also lacks some political instinct. He was in Washington on business when there was a near-catastrophic structural failure at Waimanalo Gulch. To avert disaster, the city landfill’s operator released contaminated stormwater into the ocean. Vials of blood, syringes and other medical waste began washing ashore on nearby beaches days later.

By the time Carlisle returned to Oahu, the crisis was mostly under control. But he still missed an opportunity to demonstrate mayoral leadership — and concern. The pure politician would have been at the landfill — with TV crews in tow, no doubt — immediately upon return. But more than 10 days passed before Carlisle got to the site, without any fanfare.

Still, where the mayor missed an opportunity to reinforce his image as a strong leader, his ability to actually lead in a time of crisis appears to come naturally.

On March 10, when a devastating earthquake in Japan triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami warning, Carlisle proved his ability to be a leader in a time of crisis. The mayor was serious and calm. He provided direct information, instructed citizens with clear directions and refused to speculate about what might happen.

Carlisle demonstrated a stateliness that many Honolulu residents had not seen in their mayor until that point. It’s in his handling of the day-to-day crises, when the stakes aren’t as high, that the mayor isn’t always as successful.

Joint Leadership

Some council members have criticized the mayor for being obtuse. He has faced criticism for what one city council member perceived as insensitivity to serious City Council concerns. Other City Council members have pointed out that he genuinely tries to connect with them, making personal phone calls and agreeing to face-to-face meetings when necessary.

Carlisle’s typical hands-off approach to managing his Cabinet means he doesn’t know every last detail of how the city works. Some city staffers have questioned whether that means he doesn’t care.

Carlisle often appears comfortable admitting ignorance on a subject, and deferring to his Cabinet members. While it came as a surprise to some that he opted to surround himself mostly with Hannemann appointees, it’s worth noting that Carlisle’s closest confidants are incredibly loyal to him, personally.

The mayor and his executive assistant, Jim Fulton, have been friends for more than 30 years. Carlisle’s right-hand man is Managing Director Doug Chin, who worked with Carlisle at the prosecutor’s office for more than a decade.

In many ways, Chin is the anti-Carlisle. Where the mayor offers a one-word answer, Chin follows with a detailed explanation. Where Carlisle is absent from a City Council meeting, Chin stays for the duration. Partly, this is a natural division of labor. But Chin and Carlisle have strikingly different public personas, which is one of the reasons Carlisle said he wanted Chin as his managing director. Chin is patient, deliberate, thoughtful, kind. It’s not that Carlisle isn’t those things, but they are not the qualities that tend to be used to describe him.

The Carlisle-Chin leadership dynamic is almost “good cop, bad cop,” with Chin firmly positioned in the role of good cop. Six months since the two moved into City Hall, this reporter has yet to hear a serious complaint about Chin. In short, people love him.

Chin’s job often requires him to do the mayor’s business while Carlisle is busy acting like the mayor. While Carlisle is walking in parades, waving from stages and accepting lei, Chin is the one back at Honolulu Hale sitting through hearings, performing damage control with the City Council and deliberating with department heads.

Carlisle said selecting Chin for that role was a no-brainer, and Chin brings a dimensionality and complexity to the mayor’s leadership approach. Carlisle seems aware now that there’s a distinction between being elected mayor and actually being the mayor, talking about the city’s problems and actually solving them.

In his State of the City address, Carlisle talked about how pleasantly surprised he was to learn that people were praying for him, personally, as mayor. He said they prayed for him to demonstrate “sound judgment, maturity and insight.”

He said he knew that people were ultimately praying for a “transformation, professionally and personally” in him.

In a speech otherwise peppered with quips, Carlisle was earnest when he talked about how grateful he was for the prayers, how humbled he was by them, and how hard he will work to see them answered.

The way Carlisle tells it, the city has a long way to go before it’s in the kind of shape he’s promised to put it in. Carlisle has a way to go, too, before he establishes the kind of mayor he will be. He believes he can transform Honolulu, and himself with it.