How do you define success?
Being happy with enjoying and finding special meaning in what you do is the key to success. Most important is knowing you’re a positive influence on your team and company. Getting up in the morning and being excited about getting to work more days than not—is success.
What do you hope to see in your industry in the next 10 years?
It would be fantastic to see the hospitality industry, local communities, and cultural leaders come together and truly understand everyone is living and working in a symbiotic relationship. Each can only be successful if all are successful.
What do you love most about your job?
Castle Hospitality Group is an entrepreneurial, aggressive local company based in Hawai‘i. The best part of my job is to be able to help to strategically steer the direction of the company overall. Castle’s ability to adapt, innovate, and evolve at a pace much quicker than our larger competition is truly the company’s competitive advantage and why it’s awesome.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing your industry?
Over the past two and a half years, the pandemic created—and continues to create—massive challenges for the hospitality industry. Loss of staffing due to people leaving the state, supply chain disruptions, high rate of taxation, cost of living, overall cost of goods and services are everyone’s challenges.
What are some words of advice for an exit strategy?
Don’t enter.
What do you do for fun?
BBQ, beach, golf—no wait—BBQ, beach……
What are some surprising lessons you learned in becoming a leader?
There are so many lessons:
A very wise boss of mine always told me, “It’s not who you know, it’s who you grow.” This is truly the best part of leadership. The ability to help or mentor someone to grow and succeed is the ultimate leadership reward.
Leadership is about setting the pace. A leader always must be on their game, upbeat, and positive because who wants to work for someone who isn’t, right?
A leader needs to be strategic, creative, and imagine new ways of approaching complex problems or opportunities.
A leader should always speak up and fight for what they believe is right for their people and their business.
You can learn just as much from a bad leader as you can from a good one.
Talent always has options so leaders should take very good care of their talent.
Leaders surround themselves with people who are better than they are and then are smart enough to get out of the way.
Feedback is a gift. Leaders need to be open to giving and receiving it. A leader needs to ensure a culture of feedback is foundationally embedded in their teams.
Leaders don’t have meetings to have meetings! If you’re having a meeting about how many meetings you have, you have too many meetings!
A leader understands what gets measured—gets managed.
Perception is reality. A leader is always trying to investigate and improve their blind spots with the understanding they are not who they think they are.
A leader is nice. You never know what someone has gone, or is going through.
You don’t leave a job. You leave a leader.
Leaders celebrate and enjoy their victories because they’ve earned them.
