Episode 97: Kenji Hall’s Secrets to Creating a Winning Workplace Culture

Oct 28

Kenji Hall

Kenji Hall is currently the General Manager at Yaamava’ Resort & Casino at San Manuel. In this position, Hall leads the strategic execution and oversees the performance of daily gaming and hospitality operations at Yaamava’ while continuing in his successful role as an inspiring leader of workplace culture. Kenji joined San Manuel in 2017 as Chief Operating Officer-Hospitality, playing a pivotal leadership role in the renovation of Bear Springs Hotel and bringing record-breaking revenue growth to San Manuel Casino through the opening of new and phenomenally successful food and beverage outlets. Later, as Chief Operating Officer-Casino, Kenji oversaw the expansion of casino operations at San Manuel and the newly opened and rebranded Yaamava’ where he inspired a “team first” work culture throughout the property. Under Kenji’s leadership, Yaamava’ has received the Great Place to Work® designation two years in a row.

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When you are trying to make a profit for shareholders, it's one thing. But when you're doing it for a much greater cause, man, it feels a whole lot better. So it means that you have to be more in line with that. And we do so many things with the community. Our team members are amazing at contributing to those things. Kicks for Kids generated over 200 pairs of shoes from team members. They got they got it. given to Children who need shoes. Shoes are such a big part of the community of when you're growing up and kids get bullied for not having new shoes. And so to be able to do a little bit for, you know, the organization told us some of these kids, this will be their first new pair of shoes they've ever owned. Which is crazy.

You're listening to Prospecting on Purpose, where we discuss all things prospecting, sales, business, and mindset. I'm your host, Sara Murray, a sales champion who's here to show you that you can be a shark in business and still lead with intentionality and authenticity. Tune in each week as we dive into methods to connect with clients, communicate with confidence, and close the deal.

Kenji Hall is the general manager at Yamava Resort and Casino in San Manuel. He leads the strategic execution and oversees the performance of daily gaming and hospitality operations at Yamava. while continuing in his successful role as an inspiring leader of workplace culture. Prior to joining Yamava, Kenji's 30-year career in gaming and hospitality includes management positions with companies such as Prim Valley Resorts, Hilton, Boyd Gaming, and MGM Resorts.

Kenji joined San Manuel in 2017 as the Chief Operating Officer, Hospitality, playing a pivotal leadership role in the renovation of Bear Springs Hotel and bringing record-breaking revenue growth to San Manuel Casino through the opening of new and phenomenally successful food and beverage outlets.

Later, as the Chief Operating Officer at Casino, Kenji oversaw the expansion of casino operations at San Manuel and the newly opened and rebranded Yamava, where he inspired a team-first work culture throughout the property. Under Kenji's leadership, Yamava has received the Great Places to Work designation two years in a row, and that's what we're diving into today. Kenji, welcome to Prospecting on Purpose.

Thanks, Sara. Great to have you, to have you talking to me about this. I really do enjoy, that's a great introduction. First of all, it was as detailed as can be. But, when you think about, you know, my job is being the strategic leader or whatnot, however it reads at the beginning, creating a better culture and a workplace culture is really where the bread and butter for me hits.

It's where we can continue to succeed. If we take care of that avenue. And we, and we cover our culture. Everything else falls into place. So I'm really happy to be talking to you about that.

I'm so excited too. I was fortunate enough to stay at the property and I definitely did some gambling in June of this year. And what I really experienced was such an ownership and integrity with every staff member I interacted with. I travel a lot. I stay in a lot of different hotels. I work with big organizations and I've never, ever, ever experienced this level of culture that just like radiated through your people. So I really am excited to talk about how you did it and kind of the employee benefits, the guest benefits, and then the organizational benefits.

So maybe before we get into it, give a little overview of the Yamava resort and casino at San Manuel. Let's just orient the audience.

Sure. Yamava Resort and casino is, It's enormous. And so it's something like no other place. I think I'm glad you came out and visited and happy to spoke with our team.

But, you know, look, we have over 7, 250 slots, which puts us the most in the West that includes Vegas. There's nobody bigger in that space there in the West. We do about 14 million visitors every year, which in California is second to just Disneyland in the entertainment field, which is. crazy, right? 2500-seat theater.

We put big names in the joint there. It's, you know, pink Ed Sheeran, Mariah's Bocelli like you name it. We have that type of entertainment experience, a five-star spa, a four-star hotel, and a four-star steakhouse in the Pines. You know, we, pride ourselves and are invested in class in every way. And sometimes when you think about all of the fun, Tools aspects, and amenities that we have.

You forget about our team and how great they are. You mentioned in the intro, the great places to work, being certified by Fortune as one of the great places to work, I take more pride in that than the 55 best of awards that we have won in the last year. So, you know, it's a big operation. We run very fast. But it's important that we're all aligned so we can move very fast too. We're a very agile, big company there.

And that's the other thing that I think was really eye-opening is I am learning how big the organization is. Obviously you're driving on the freeway, you see the billboards, then you go out to the property and it's so impactful. I'd be interested to learn a little bit about, Like, the company growth and how the values of your company have really kind of been your North Star in that growth.

Yeah, I think that you mentioned you hit that right on the head. It is the North Star When we talk about even the casino's values, you know, I've got the mission vision and values over my shoulder here but It talks about integrity, humility, respect, and candor while providing unparalleled service.

That's, that's what it is in a nutshell, but serving as the North Star, that doesn't change the size and the scope of the facility continues to grow. And my seven years here now, we've more than doubled the number of slots. We've added the whole casino, the resort, the hotel, the spa, the theater, all of these add-ons have happened with that.

The values have remained under the course of that, you know, with integrity, humility, respect, and candor. And it's an umbrella, underneath, the tribe's values. And so the casino and resort is an entity that belongs to the tribe, which is the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, and what they have in their values.

speaks very much to who we need to be as well. When we talk about culture and sovereignty and unity and education, spirituality, which are some of the pillars behind their values, we need to make sure that we're aligned with that too as well. It comes with a really big responsibility. I think when we talk about How do I create a culture here at the property?

And how do we do this for the team? Because we will be a direct reflection upon what the tribe is. So there's a little more responsibility and pressure, I think, with making sure that the culture is very aligned with that and that we do the right thing, because the tribe is known in this community and for years of being a symbol of great philanthropy and being a great citizen to the, tribe and to their ancestral lands. So. For us, it's how do we continue to grow and still maintain who we truly are, that's, paramount to our success here.

Well, I think that's such a great explanation, Kenji because I felt it as a guest of the property. I was chatting with someone in your guest service. I did some gambling while I was there and I won. So thank you.

Hey, that's good.

I think I walked with like 600, which was exciting, but I needed somehow, I think I was lost. And so I asked someone for directions and she had on pink shoes and I said, Oh, those are some fun shoes. And she said, Oh, we actually do a funky shoe day to drive attention to our shoe drive that we do every summer.

And so It was just such a, she was so excited to share it with me. And, and as we're walking through the property, she's bending over, you know, picking up a receipt, like a little receipt for like, it's interesting to hear how many people you have walked through the property to or visit the property because that's a whole nother layer of complexity. It's so impressive to see how that's, It's almost like it's filtering down, but also filtering up. Like, it's a feedback loop. It's kind of the impression that I got.

For sure. I think culture has to be driven from the top, but it has to be accepted by everyone when it comes down to it. And it's not one person's culture. And again, like, you know, having the tribe as your, as your leadership group there and what they do, again, not Easy, quick numbers. They've donated over 400 million to charitable organizations since they've been around here, I think almost 40 million last year. Having them as your, as your sounding board and the people who set the example, man, it makes it easy for all of us to follow that lead.

And it makes us feel good about what we're doing as an organization. You know, I've worked for a lot of different corporations and in different spaces. And when you are trying to make a profit for shareholders, it's one thing. But when you're doing it for a much greater cause, man, it feels a whole lot better.

So it means that you have to be more in line with that. And we do so many things with the community. Our team members are amazing at contributing to those things. Kicks for Kids generated over 200 pairs of shoes from team members. They got they got it. given to Children who need shoes. Shoes are such a big part of the community of when you're growing up and kids get bullied for not having new shoes.

And so to be able to do a little bit for, you know, the organization told us some of these kids, this will be their first new pair of shoes they've ever owned. Which is crazy. But it also is it speaks to if we are blessed with the fortunate ability to do that, we should do those things. And then our guests contributed hundreds of shoes as well, into the program.

So to be able to share that, that vision, that, you know, pride in the community, with our guests and our team is huge. We do it with toys for tots. We did, I think it's like three or four truckloads of toys for tots in Christmas time we adopt families. Our teams adopt families for Christmas. I think they brought a refrigerator in for someone who needed a refrigerator last year, like again, two truckloads, 120 families.

Like, We believe that we can help uplift the community with us. And that's very much, that Mary pretty much comes from the tribe and their vision and expectations of who they want to be and. You know, my personal expectations of who I want to be is to be a better person than I was yesterday and leave the planet in a better place. Man, I can't be in a better place to do that. This is, this is so much aligned with who I want to be too.

And I think one of the big takeaway is that there's like purpose behind it. You had given the comparison, like driving for shareholders versus driving for purpose and impacting the community. And I think that that's really where you can start to see like the excitement and the ownership. And I want to talk a little bit about how Culture because, I'm just, this is, I know this is not why the tribe is being philanthropic, but it made me feel a lot better gambling. Cause if I lost, I knew that some of the money was going to go to a good cause.

So I feel like there's gotta be a lot of business outcomes that come from. Putting your people first and having a great company culture. So can you share some of the business objectives that are met or maybe what's the word I'm looking for like the results from having such high caliber values and ownership on the culture side?

Yeah. You know, one of the things I will always go back to is that if we can create that culture of engagement and have people caring about what they're doing, they care and they care deeply about what the tribe and how they represent the tribe, the decisions they make are always going to be and for the right reasons and doing the right thing and building relationships and doing some of the above and beyond things that are out there.

You know, when I think about Some, some ideas of what we've done as a group, as guests, and as team members, just getting their information and communicating is huge. And so our team focuses on what the guests' needs are. And when they hear things that don't sound right or are a bad user experience for our guests, they want to bring it up and figure out how to fix it.

We have this thing that we call a next-level idea. And what we do is, we encourage our team members to bring up ideas that are going to help our organization. And we have an engagement task force that runs through these ideas and says, how can we make some of these things work? And if they can't work, how do we, you know, we need to talk to the team member and see if there's another way of doing it.

We've come up with some just really cool things like, you know, we have a leadership immersion training that we do, where we send leaders of one department into another so they understand what other departments do. Because. While they may not understand the complexity of slots where some people think you just plug the game into the wall and you're good, there's a lot more complexity that goes to it or why a jackpot takes longer.

When they know that and they're a cocktail server or when they're a beverage manager and they hear about that when a guest has a problem or was waiting for something, they know what's going on in the background, so they have a better understanding and explanation of it and they can help appease the guest, understanding what's going on too.

You know, we have this other thing that we do called continuous improvement program that's run by, we have a, we have a team that does this. And so it's along the Kaizen philosophy of how do we make things better every time? And we bring in people from all different departments to set a task and say, this task is a roadblock that our guests are telling us and our team members are telling us, how do we make this more efficient?

And then we'll map it out and they'll say, They'll run through all the different ways of doing it. Usually, there's 20 or 30 items to fix when it's done to go. If we do all of these things, we can create a seamless experience and make our guests happier, make our team happier. And that's a result of just strictly caring about what you do.

If you're in a culture where people just don't care, and they just come in and work their eight and skate, they're just going to come in and listen to people complain, and then walk away. They aren't looking to try and make solutions for it. So to have this culture in place, that love and that care for the team and for the guests and the tribe, man, it works great for us there because that helps solve a lot of problems that are just, you're blind to when you're in leadership sometimes.

Yeah. And I think what's really, I mean, there were a bunch of takeaways in that Kenji. I love the leadership immersion and this concept of cross-training because it makes your teammates more empathetic to one another. And what they're going through, but also it's going to better service the guest because they're going to be able to flex.

I also really like the next-level idea concept because again, we're talking top down, bottom up your team, feel safe enough to bring ideas to the table and know that they might get implemented or not going to be, you know, like they're not going to be, nothing bad's going to happen if you bring an idea.

And they've come up with so many good ideas, whether it's revenue generating or expense saving or about recognition or communication or just team member development, those little ideas sometimes come out to be million dollar ideas.

And that's where you go. How do we miss this? I always think about that. It's like someone should have seen this, but it took someone thinking about it differently. And, if you can have that open communication and that safety and what people ask for and say, and you have the communication that goes back to the team member who has said something and says, Hey, we can't do this because of whatever the reason is.

Then you're, in a better place because they know that you've looked at it, you've listened, you've taken an idea, you figured out why it will or won't work. And if there's another way around it, then let's talk about it and see if there's another way around. And the best person sometimes to understand how to figure out another problem is a person who does it every day.

I like that. Because I think so many people, especially from a leadership perspective, you kind of unintentionally put blinders on. Because you're solving problems, but I like that you guys open the door. And if people are listening, what are some ways from a leadership perspective that they can start to Maybe drive this directive from the top down. Like, what are some ways that have helped you and your team on just being open and really executing this well?

I think being humble is one area, that has to be there. And, you know, I always say that you know, being, being who you are is great, but you need to be a good human being first because if you're a bad human being, I don't want you to be who you are.

You need to be someone better than that. But, being humble and remembering where you came from is huge. We've all been inline-level jobs. I reported to the guy in the mail room my first job. I've done almost all the jobs on the floor. It feels like at one point in time or another. And so I need to remember that when I have my conversations and know what they're going through on a daily basis.

Being human helps that and being relatable, being approachable, listening for understanding, not listening for response. Those are key components and how we can be better leaders. I don't want managers. I want leaders is what I want. And so making sure that they understand their role and their responsibility in that is to help the team and figure out a better way.

Open communication is huge too. We've got to be able, to have open communication, good and bad. You know, that's where candor lands in one of our values. Sometimes having tough conversations are not fun. But if you do it the right way and with the right frame of mind and the right heart, you're going to create a better solution than you ever could have if you just ignore it or if you treat it as a punishment only.

You know, it's funny, Kenji, because when you were talking about, I was taking notes on the values and you had humility, integrity, respect, and candor, and I even mentally was like, well, I'm going to have to ask him about that because that's not a value you hear that openly and candidly, like upfront. And so I think it's really interesting to hear how you use it to create that safety because I think you're right.

Those crucial conversations are uncomfortable. But if it's done with love and kindness and the human first versus business first, the business results seem to really follow. And that seems to be, what we're seeing at the Yamava of a reserve and casino.

Yeah, you just don't get better unless you've been, someone's been honest with you. Oftentimes you'll do a speech or you'll say something and someone will go, that was great. And you'll know in your head, it wasn't great. I want someone to tell me after this podcast is over things that they wanted me to say. I think that's a more important feedback tool for me than to say, oh, you did great and blanket it that way.

Even if I didn't. That is how we all get better. One of the, again, you know, I'll refer to something else that we do here to help with the culture of growth and learning to as well is that every leader has a management business objective, which is part of their bonus plan of what they need to do to get a bonus, which is great.

But one of their management business objectives is team development. Every single leader has that. So they should be focused on developing their teams. And how do they help better develop their teams? And one of the only ways that I always say to develop your teams is, you need to walk them through the things that they do great.

You need to walk them through the things they need to improve. And we need to figure out how to coach them into a better location, into a better spot where they're going to be passionate about it and they're going to continue to grow and succeed. Because if they do, your job is a whole lot easier if your team is engaged and better.

Yeah. I'm communicating and feeling safe and being candid. I love that. And I, I'd also like to hear a little bit about, because obviously, I have my own view because I stayed at the property. So I have my own guest view, but I'd like to learn from the guest standpoint, how do you see the culture manifesting and how the guests are interacting with the staff and or interacting with the products or the services that you're providing.

So like, there's a few areas that I can point to that I think are really important when I, when I think about that, but. If you look at our social media pages, there's a lot of engagement that comes back and forth. And typically when you have social media engagements, you have a lot of both sides of it.

Like we love you. We hate you. You're right. You're terrible. Like we have guests that come to our rescue when people try to say bad things or incorrect things. Those are great that we don't have to go and do that. And that just speaks to, I think our guests do also care about the way we do things and the way we treat people.

I think from a perspective like you see from a service perspective, we're here to create memorable experiences and you can't do that with unhappy team members. You just don't. Grumpy team members don't make great guest experiences there, but if they are good and they're engaged and they're happy, you can create this environment, which sounds like you.

Had some of that engagement when you were here and that's an everyday engagement. You were on a setup. Nobody knew who you were. You're one of 14 million people walking through the door, coming to gamble. It's you're one of 14 million, but we need to treat you like you're someone special and make sure that everyone takes that step.

It happens more frequently than, it doesn't. Do we make mistakes? Yes, but can we learn from them? Hundred percent. I think we do it well enough that our guests continue to come back and visit us. And they prove it by coming back oftentimes frequently. And that's where I go. This is why we're succeeding in some of these spaces.

Because our guests see it too. They understand that we care about them. We care about their, and how their time is here in our building. They care about the experience that they get here and, we want to make their day memorable. Those are the pieces, that I think help us go from here to the next level.

Well, I have a funny story for you. You have, you know, between the hotel and the casino, there's, you know, doorways and then there's a security guard posted and you have this beautiful flower arrangement. And I'm walking behind this couple and the man leans over and sniffs the flowers. And then I leaned over after him and I sniffed the flowers and the security guard sees us both doing this.

He goes, do they smell good? And we both, all three of us were like, yeah, they did. So then he went and sniffed the flowers. Like it was just such a fun, like wholesome moment. And it definitely, yeah. The energy that I got was, I don't want to say Disneyland for adults, but that's kind of what it was. It was a luxury experience at every step of the turn from the security guard to guest services.

Like that's, I think what was very cool. And I understand how that results in repeat business. My grandma's 90th birthday, she lives out in Upland. Her 90th birthday is coming up and I'm like, let's take the family to the Yamava. Like let's go gamble and have some fun because she likes to gamble. But, I just think that you know, Everyone on your team is directly or indirectly contributing to revenue. And I think that's what people who don't understand the hospitality business don't always see. And just, you're just such a shining example of how to do it the right way.

So you like, I know that your specialty is in that sales field and something you brought up when you spoke to our team was ABAV, always be adding value. And if our teams are always adding value to what they're doing on a daily basis for our guests, that is a sale for us. We continued the deal. There are casinos California in the west and slot machines, they have

You have a choice as a consumer of where you want to go. We want you to not have it. We don't want you to make a choice. We want you to say, I'll go there. And this is my only choice. We want to eliminate your choices. And if we do that by creating that environment, that's warm and comforting and friendly and knows that you're going to be taken care of and creates a great vibe for when you come in here. That's, that's the key ingredient for us.

That was such a vibe. I had the best time. And so as people are listening to this, so, you know, maybe let's kind of wrap it up Kenji with like, what type of tips would you recommend for listeners and leaders who want to really harness this power of company culture, like what are some tips and takeaways you'd leave us with?

So if I had to give you a couple of tips, I'll give you three things that I think are the most important in my head. And the first one I've talked about briefly is already being a good human being. That's the start of it all. As a leader and your team, your executive team, and everyone from top to bottom is your goal should be to be a good human being and that's, you know, with integrity and compassion and humility and you had a speaker on about humility.

Gosh, it was last year at some point in time. And he said, humility isn't about thinking less of yourself, but thinking about yourself less, which is exactly what I think about when I think of how do we want to proceed ourselves. We're not going to say, Hey, we're the best and all that. We want you to believe that we're the best, but we don't need to tell you about it.

We think that we're going to be there, but if we just want you to have a good time, that's the most important thing. But being a good human, you know, it's tougher than it seems. It's super easy in words. And it's great when things are going great too. Being able to be a good human when you're under duress and difficult environments and different businesses all over the world.

That's when you really can take it to the bank. Is if you can still be a good human under those conditions, that's strong. And then the other part is, you know when it comes to being a good human, I always tell people that ask me about culture is, would you want your mom or your kids to work where your culture is, where you're at your environment?

And if the answer is yes, then you're on your way and you can continue to make it better. If the answer is no, then guess what? We have a problem and we need to fix that. So that's number one. Number two. Yeah. My second tip is, remember where you came from. I think you always have to be, and that's part of the humility too, but focus on every team member from the top to the bottom.

When I have, when I speak in front of the team, I think about Or make decisions. I think about that line-level team member. I think about my housekeeping crew. I think I'm an EBS team. I think about my dishwashing crews and what they're going through and that a decision I make doesn't affect them negatively because I see it from a different point of view.

So thinking about it from there and then what and how you communicate matters to them. I don't want to speak at you know, PhD level in meetings when they're in attendance for an all-team meeting, we have these great all-team meetings. I don't want to be talking about theory. I don't want to be talking about EBITDA.

I don't want to be talking about those things. I want to talk about what's important to them. So thinking about that point of view and always remembering that will always steer you down the right path. And then. The third thing is just focus on continued learning and team development, for yourself and for your teams.

I think that I still, again, I listen to podcasts. I've listened to your podcast. I've listened to a ton of other podcasts. I still read books and every time I read a book, I go, wow, I learned something new out of that I can apply to what I do every day. And then focusing on my team, I believe that passion for your job is a necessity.

And when you talk about your team, you want them to be passionate about what they do. And part of your job as a leader is to figure out what that passion is, and to help them understand what it is for them, and to help them guide into that space. And sometimes, you know what, their passion isn't in the job that they're in.

I have hundreds of different jobs and departments here. Let's get them into a department that they're going to be passionate about, so that they will love what they do, and then they can progress forward in an area or a field that they want to be in. Because. We work over 30 percent of our waking time.

We're at work. Why not do it somewhere thing, do it somewhere that you love doing something that you love? Those are how you help develop your team. That's how your leaders become leaders and not managers. And that's how you can continue to succeed in building a culture.

I love it. Be a good human. That's the mic drop moment too. Like it's, you're right. It's simple to say, but it's not always easy. It's easy, but not simple. So I just want to so much. so much for your leadership and your time and coming on the show and sharing your expertise with our audience. I will link everything in the show notes, but if people want to connect with you and or visit the hotel and casino, how can they do so?

Well, connecting with me on LinkedIn is the easiest way. Send a message. Say you saw me on Sara Murray’s podcast, I'm in. I usually don't accept unknown folks, but if they know you and they've heard this, I'm in.

You're in good vibes. Yeah, the audience. Good vibes

For sure. Good vibes. I know that you're trying to improve who you are all in. And then Yamava. com, there are so many things that you can see there. It's an all-inclusive website. It covers everything that we do. Come see us in Southern California. If you're in the area, you got to come check it out. If you've never been here before, I promise you, the one thing you will say is I had no idea.

That is how we believe we get business continually is when people see us for the first time, they go, I have no idea, and we changed behaviors that way. We hope you feel the same way when you walk in the door that you had in your experience. For sure.

Oh, I've been singing it from the rooftops. I'm gonna be back there in a couple weeks with Grandma

Fantastic. I can't wait. We'll be here. We'll reach you with open arms.

I know, I know. You'll, I really appreciate it. Kenji. Thank you so much for joining us and I hope to see you again soon.

Absolutely. Thanks, Sara.

Thank you so much for listening to the Prospecting on Purpose podcast. If you'd love what you heard today, subscribe to the podcast, and please rate and leave a review for more info on me. Or if you'd like to work together, feel free to go to my website, SaraMurray. com on social media. I'm usually hanging out at Sara Murray sales.

Thanks again for joining me and I'll see you next time.

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