Tag: leadership

Staying Sharp

Date:

In his business leadership bestseller, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey talks about the need to balance productivity and effectiveness in order to maximize potential.  The most successful leaders maintain their personal equilibrium, Covey says, by staying sharp through an ongoing process of personal change and improvement.  He likens the lifelong journey to “sharpening the saw,” which he says needs to happen across four dimensions: physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional.

Staying sharp is a disciplined process that takes shape over a period of time.  For anyone who wants to develop a plan for self-improvement, increasing motivation and creativity will be critical.  Here are some ideas that may help:

  • Rest your mind.  Diverting one’s attention from the problems of the day and, especially, work-related problems, invigorates the mind for expanded innovation and problem-solving.  A rested mind improves your memory and your mood.  A rested mind also empowers self-knowledge for those already skilled in their jobs.  Self-knowledge helps us be receptive to talking about other people’s problems, needs and expectations.  Improving self-knowledge helps managers learn from their mistakes and deal effectively with criticism and feedback.
  • Manage your time.  Leaders skilled in time management use their time effectively and efficiently, which allows them to focus efforts on priorities.  They are less likely to be overwhelmed by the wide assortment of challenges and demands in their jobs.  Effective time managers can address a broader range of activities and delegate with greater clarity because they recognize a start and stop to discussions, tasks and problems.

On the other hand, managers who are unskilled in time management are disorganized and wasteful of time and other important resources.  They tend to drift from problem to problem, leaving co-workers confused about priorities.  The resulting inefficiency only seems to grow with time.

  • Pursue work/life balance.  In a servant-leadership capacity, balance is sometimes fleeting because we’re always putting the needs of others before our own.  Nevertheless, pursuing balance between the professional and the personal is critical to effectiveness in each.  This balance is a direct result of taking time to sharpen the saw; it prevents leaders from becoming one-dimensional and fully capable.

Normally one is considered to be out-of-balance when he or she overdoes one at the harmful expense of the other.  At one end, workaholics seem to find never-ending demands for working while those lacking balance place greater emphasis on on-the-job fun and activities at the expense of effective professional conduct.  A clear signal of being out of whack is the inability to address priorities on either side of the balance point.

Bringing harmony to your four-dimensional needs – physical, spiritual, mental and social/emotional – helps managers be more productive and fulfilled in their lives.  Covey says it’s often a matter of working smarter rather than working harder.  Here are a handful of activities to consider while sharpening your own saw:

  • Invest time and energy into learning.  Learn a new language or how to play a new instrument.  It is difficult to worry about problems at work when your mind is at work learning.
  • Read about the lives of great leaders and the challenges they overcame to reach their potential.  We’re inspired by the trials and perseverance of others, which have a way of making our challenges a little less daunting.
  • Travel to a new city, region or country.  Travel provides a literal and figurative escape that often clears our minds and brings new perspectives to problems and challenges.

Finding balance not only takes time to sharpen our saws, it also takes a plan.  We can all learn from one of the great woodcutters in history, Abraham Lincoln, who said, “If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I’d spend the first four hours sharpening the axe.”

This piece was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Effective Beginnings

Date:

A good friend says he starts his list of New Year’s resolutions with one word written across the top of a legal pad. The word is “effective,” which is a good choice because it implies results. Results normally require action on our part – and usually not the same things, done the same ways. We need to do things differently and better before we can improve relationships, be more efficient and increase the value we bring to our businesses.

If you hope to be more effective in 2019, here are 10 suggestions.

1. Track your time. Even the busiest and most efficient people waste parts of their day’s most precious resource. The time-stealing culprits are numerous and easily mistaken: idle chit-chat, social media, meetings. Like a sensible diet, each has its place, but moderation is the key. Keep a log for a week to know where every minute was spent. Evaluate how much was spent effectively, in pursuit of goals and objectives. Then repeat the task the next week, keeping in mind the previous week’s wasted time, and compare results. You might be astonished.

2. Measure accomplishments, not effort. It was the Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle who wrote, “We live in deeds, not years.” It’s worth knowing how long it took you or your staff to accomplish a task or project, but it’s the outcome that is the ultimate measure of our work. Did that 12-hour day you just put in move the needle on a strategic objective? If not, where could your time have been better spent?

3. Stop multi-tasking. People like to brag about juggling multiple tasks and priorities. But time and efficiency experts agree that often these same people are deluding themselves, actually doing twice as much work half as effectively. Focus on one task, complete it and move to your next priority. Effective multi-tasking is called delegating.

4. Get started. If 80 percent of success is showing up (Woody Allen is supposed to have said that), getting started must account for at least another 10 or 15 percent. Knowing where to begin starts with knowing where you want to finish. So, start with one of your goals and work back. Develop a routine that gets you going each day. Whatever works, do it consistently.

5. Dress to impress. Unfair though it may be, people begin forming opinions of others before their first word is spoken. They do it based on an untucked shirttail, an ill-fitting sport coat and the shine on a person’s shoes. Don’t let any of those things negatively influence an opinion.

6. Write simply, clearly and factually. Most everyone is called on to report on programs and results. Maybe you’re making a pitch for a budget increase in your area. All of those things start with putting your thoughts on paper. What and how one writes greatly influences how people respond. Organize your thoughts, express them in short sentences composed of carefully chosen words, without misspellings and typos, and then edit carefully. Before hitting “send” or sealing the envelope, read what you’ve written out loud to yourself or a colleague. If the logic seems jumbled or the words don’t flow easily, take the time to fix it.

7. Read and then read some more. President Harry Truman noted, “Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.” For many of us, reading to keep up with trends and developments in our field is the last thing we seem to have time to do. If that’s the case, schedule reading time just as you would time for any other task.

8. Improve your workspace. Your workspace is a reflection of your state of mind and organizational abilities. Are golf clubs, coffee cups and boxes scattered about? Or is it purposely organized to help you to focus on your most immediate responsibilities and tasks? Simplify your work-setting by eliminating the clutter and you’ll find it easier to focus on priorities.

9. Establish your own wind-down routine. Be deliberate in finishing your work, just as you were in starting it. Make your priority list for tomorrow as a part of winding down and then leave, knowing there will always be more work to be done and that there’s always tomorrow.

10. Dream big. How else are you going to be really effective?

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

The Revenue Menu

Date:

At a typical golf club, who should be involved in building revenue for the club?

Building revenue is a part of everyone’s job at a club.

If you are a leader, it’s important that everyone under you shares your vision to increase sales.  That necessitates good communication, as with any efficient team, but if all areas of the club are on the same page when thinking about how best to benefit the bottom line, the results will speak for themselves.

They say no man is an island, and no part of your club operation is either.  If you want to build revenue, it needs to happen at all levels of your business.

How can a club encourage all levels of the operation to be thinking about revenue growth?

Attitude always reflects leadership.  If the leader’s attitude is demonstrated in a commitment to increase revenue, most subordinates will embrace the importance of the task.

Therefore, it is incumbent on team leaders to teach staff, not just what to sell – which goods and services yield the most profit margin for the Club – but also how to sell it.

Often staff members are enthusiastic about developing new skills and all they need is guidance.  The truth is, few among us are natural-born salesmen, but selling is a skill that can be learned.  Think about investing in a professional selling skills program to train the club’s staff, and the selling strength of the club will expand immensely.

How should the operations team decide on which revenue sources to focus their energies?

A great way to get the ball rolling is to create and use a ‘Revenue Menu’.  Think about all of your available revenue sources, list them out, and leave no stone unturned.

You will want your team to focus on what yields the most to the club and sell high-yield items as much as is reasonable; however, it is also important that each staff member knows all of the products and services that they can offer a customer.  This way, when the high-yield items are not appropriate they can move down that list.  It all adds up: if you don’t get the little money, you won’t get the big money.

Membership dues and guest fees are high-yield segments, as are fees for motor carts and range balls, and these are usually the best place to focus first.

However, one notable exception to the notion of focusing on high-yield products is instruction.  When people commit to becoming better golfers, they use the club more often, feel more loyalty towards it, and make it a priority in their thinking.  Helping others to enjoy golf more through instruction is a sound business approach.

What are some of the key tactics that should come from any “Revenue Menu”?

  • Membership dues and fees will be the primary source of revenue for most clubs, and should always be a priority.
  • Items that have little cost of sales attached to them such as motor carts and range balls.
  • Increase rounds played through non-dues golf rounds (guest play) and events.  This should be a priority for every pro.
  • Win the kids and you win the moms; win the moms and you win the game.  Treat children well – it’s good business.
  • Reward customer loyalty, but reward it only when you get what you want (e.g. buy 10 buckets of balls, get one free, etc.).
  • Cause customers to earn discounts.  When you do a points program at your club, be sure it doesn’t become a problem with customers looking for more.
  • Make instruction a priority.  Revenue comes in different ways, not only directly.

The key is that your Revenue Menu needs to be a living document, not just a one-time event.  It’s important to follow and map the items on your menu to see how they are performing.  This allows you to adjust your tactics as you move forward and discover which items are more fruitful investments at your club.

This article featured insights from GGA Principal and Partner Henry DeLozier. 

Polish Your Skills

Date:

Of all the career counseling advice given over the years, Abraham Lincoln probably nailed it when he said: “The best way to predict the future is to create it.”

With one more grass-growing season under your belt, maybe you’re reflecting on your career and wondering where it’s going. Maybe you’re worried it’s not going in the direction you hoped or that it seems stuck. Maybe it’s time to take charge of your career and start creating your future. Here are nine capabilities that must be developed and improved upon to advance your career:

Leadership/Command Skills

Are you the person to whom others look in times of difficulty or crisis? John Cunningham, who began his career as a golf course superintendent and is now the general manager at Aronimink Golf Club, views career paths as a four-lane highway rather than the one-lane road many see. “Do not pigeonhole yourself as just an expert in one area. Once I started learning about the entire club business, I realized that the leadership and management skills that I had been working on in one area of the club business were transferable to many other career opportunities.”

Professional Selling Skills

Those who understand the science of professional salesmanship have a distinct advantage when trying to move someone to their point of view. For them, persuasion is a process of describing both the features and benefits of the course of action they advocate.

Business Acumen

Do you understand how the business you manage works? Are you an accomplished financial manager? Countless programs are available through CMAA, GCSAA and the PGA of America to help aspiring managers understand the business necessities of their clubs and employers.

Learning on the Fly

Many lessons in club management are learned on the fly without time for rehearsal or in-depth preparation. This requires that a manager be open to change and comfortable when dealing with unexpected problems. Mark Bado, the GM at Myers Park Country Club in Charlotte, says, “Aspiring managers should be patient and hungry to learn and to stretch themselves. We all experience setbacks and get knocked down. Surround yourself with people who have been there also and will you get back up on your feet.”

Standing Alone

The people who make major career moves are often those willing to explore new concepts and find new solutions to complex problems, ones such as labor shortages and escalating personnel costs. Often it is the champion for new concepts who reverses operational losses and plots a new course for a club’s growth.

Organizational Agility

“Take a chance and ask for help,” Cunningham advises. “The relationships that I have developed in the club business have afforded me so much perspective and insight. We all have blind spots and being collaborative and reaching out to others regarding your career will be invaluable.” Develop your own list of go-to experts in various aspects of the business and remember to pay their kindness forward.

Dealing with Ambiguity

Those who advance their careers function effectively in a state of continuous learning. Paul Levy, the current president of the PGA of America, has learned great lessons “in the heat of battle,” as he calls it. “Work on improving your communication skills (because) it’s often not what you say but how you say it that matters.”

Performance Management

“Today we live in a world where most people respond best to positive direction and motivation,” Levy says. ”When you must give feedback on performance or behavior that needs adjusting, it must be done positively and with a plan you both agree on for improvement that benefits both parties.” Every leader is held to account for his or her results; knowing how to track and measure ongoing performance yields improved results.

Hanging Tough

Adversity finds each of us. As the Navy SEAL saying goes, “The only easy day was yesterday.” Leaders are admired for their unwillingness to give in to problems. Your next promotion may come as a result of showing the determination to find a solution for which others have given up searching.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Make Grit a Habit

Date:

In the 2010 remake of True Grit, Arkansas farm girl Mattie Ross sets out on a quest to track down her father’s murderer. Knowing her journey will take her over tough terrain and across the paths of some ornery dudes, the feisty 14-year-old enlists the help of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman named Rooster Cogburn.

“They tell me you’re a man with true grit,” Mattie says to Cogburn, whom she somehow figures is just the man for the job, despite outward appearances. Later joined by a Texas Ranger on the trail of the same outlaw, Mattie, Cogburn and the Ranger each has his or her grit tested in different ways.

Similarly, our own grit (call it perseverance, resolve or steadfastness, if you like) is tested on a regular basis. Dr. Angela Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder and CEO of Character Lab, is well-respected on the topic of grit and how to build more of it. In her book “Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance,” she writes: “Where talent counts once, effort counts twice.” In fact, she has reduced her research findings to the following formula:

Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

So, how do superintendents and other managers of golf courses and clubs develop more grit to achieve more of their goals? Here are seven suggestions:

  1. Start by doing what interests you. If grit is a result of passionate commitment, it is wise to choose a field or projects that matter to you. Choose a field and pursue accomplishments worthy of your best efforts. You know the old saying: Make your job your hobby, and you’ll never work a day in your life.
  2. Surround yourself with gritty, determined people. In his story of incredible survival against the ravages of the Antarctic sea, Earnest Shackleton noted that it was the dogged determination of key crew members that made the difference in living and surviving. Likewise, acclaimed management guru Jim Collins advises managers to get the right people on the bus with you and see that they are in the right seats.
  3. Establish a clear-cut plan of action. Managing others requires that all involved fully understand and support the plan. Educate, inform and paint the picture of the successful outcome. Reiterate goals and objectives continually. Commit the plan to writing and support it with visual cues wherever appropriate and possible. One finds his or her way home when remembering clearly what “home” means to them.
  4. Dare to succeed. Fear of failure is called atychiphobia in the scientific community. The antidote is courage, which can be learned and developed. Push beyond your comfort zone. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do something that scares you every day.” Some managers are afraid of failing or appearing to be a “failure.” Be brave and strive for higher, bigger and better goals. These goals should be a core part of your plan.
  5. Be conscientious. Pursue goals in a consistent and resolute manner. Do the right things right and help those around you to do the same. Learn from small losses along the way; celebrate wins in their time. Revisit your goals daily and remind people why they’re important to the bigger picture.
  6. Prepare for and embrace difficulty. Peyton Manning practiced throwing wet footballs, knowing there would be rainy Sundays. Golfers at Oklahoma State University are taught to relish bad weather with the certainty that they will be better prepared than their competition. Bad weather or poor conditions become a competitive advantage to that mindset. OSU’s longtime golf coach, Labron Harris, taught his players that one must put his hands close to the fire if you want to get warm.
  7. Pursue excellence. Perfection is often unattainable, while excellence is an attitude that rewards the determined few. Faithfully pursuing excellence enables successful results and an emboldened team. It was Aristotle who wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Similarly, grit is not an act as much as it is a habit, an attribute that can be more fully developed with careful thought and advance planning. About you, would they say: “They tell me you’re someone with true grit?”

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Agronomic Planning – Avoid Canine Brunch

Date:

Those who know our firm are aware of the value we place on plans that focus resources and actions against strategic goals and objectives. But too often our plans turn into something resembling a dog’s breakfast: a mess of opportunity, necessity and happenstance. To avoid agronomic plans that are similarly inconsistent and random, here are three steps that will give an agronomic plan order and purpose while showcasing the author’s professionalism.

1. Educate

Golf course superintendents are agronomic experts with scientific training and specialized knowledge. Club and course managers are similarly well-educated professionals. They are keenly interested in the results supers produce, but not so sure how they pull it off. Therefore, superintendents’ plans must educate, providing the knowledge and understanding that help course owners, club directors and fellow management professionals see the inherent logic and forethought.

An informative agronomic plan:

States standards of excellence. Mowing and trimming frequency, height of cut and fertility programs need to be explained beyond frequency or fertilizer blends so club and course managers understand how the superintendent’s tactics connect with the facility’s overall goals and objectives. Once they do, they can become supporters of the plan.

Environmental objectives should be considered in this same context. Elements of the conservation plan should be described to help club managers understand the use of pesticides and standard practices for water taking. Information about beekeeping, bird and bat houses, and milkweed cultivation for butterflies, for example, also reinforces the facility’s overall sustainability efforts that can be passed along to members and customers.

Explains importance of standards. Many become confused when asked, “Why is that practice so important?” The superintendent who uses the agronomic plan to educate helps golfers be even more supportive and understanding.

Quantify needs. Measure everything and see that every line item in the budget is backed up with specific data points for acres or square feet being mowed, irrigated, fertilized and kept. Every number in the budget should have support tied to key data points. For example, labor – including wages and benefits – is increasing significantly in most markets across North America. Fuel prices are likely to remain volatile with the risk of sudden increases driven by geopolitical events.

Express aspiration. Describe your vision for the golf course. Be brave in setting higher standards for your facility. Describe improvements that can enhance the reputation and earning power of your course.

2. Organize

While there is the need to educate, club managers can become weary reading about unfamiliar agronomic standards and practices. Help hold their interest by organizing your plan. Starting from mission critical, first cover the most important topics – care and upkeep standards, expense and budget management, and expected outcomes. Then describe routine matters and needs that preserve working conditions and standards of excellence. Last, address matters such as storage needs and practices, staff training and break-room amenities.

3. Paint a Picture

Photography, video and other graphics can be highly valuable support tools for your audience. People who are not scientific experts need the additional understanding that imagery provides.

  • Show intended results. Teach readers of the plan and what they should expect in terms of denser turf, deeper color in maintained turf, reduced pesticide use and reduced water consumption.
  • Provide graphics for such details as mowing patterns and explain why your crew mows greens from different alignments.
  • Show how carefully your usage of manpower is planned. Help others understand that you command your category of expertise with knowledge and experience.
  • Support budget projections and expense trends with graphs and third-party data sources. Show the actual expense history of your course and how your own trend tracks local, regional and national patterns.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

The Equalizer

Date:

At one point in Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning Biloxi Blues, Sgt. Merwin Toomey tells his young recruit, Eugene Morris Jerome, “If there were no such thing as problems, we could all go home at lunch.”

As managers, regardless of title or type of facility, we’re all problem solvers – or we better be. Not only do most of us face enough problems to keep us from going home at lunch, but solving them is also what is expected of us by our boards, general managers, owners and employees.

The best problem solvers share a number of characteristics:

  • They plan for problems. Many managers develop sound and well-conceived plans. Then something unexpected happens. Effective planners develop back-up plans to deal with unforeseen or unintended outcomes.
  • They use rigorous logic and progressive-step methods of analysis. They organize their work into constructive increments.
  • They tap into substantial reserves of research and data to make fact-base decisions. But they’re also capable of learning on the fly. They can harness emerging information, and search for patterns from previous study and experience to extract the underlying essence of how things work.
  • They are comfortable being uncomfortable. They often enjoy the challenge of unfamiliar problems.
  • They continually expand their network of resources. They use professional and peer networks to learn how others have dealt with similar challenges.
  • They research other business segments and disciplines for solutions to similar problems. They leave no stones unturned. If more research is needed, they dig back in to explore creative ideas, continually testing new theories and hunches.
  • They are positive, determined and patient. They roll up their sleeves and get to work, knowing that problems seldom solve themselves and that a solution exists for every problem.
  • And when the solution is found, they share so their fellow professionals can learn from the problem and the solution-finding process. Writing white papers for magazines or presenting your experience in peer-study programs expands everyone’s knowledge and proves you to be a tireless learner and a genuine professional.

In contrast, unskilled problem solvers struggle to find new solutions in time-worn practices. They often miss the complexity of an issue and try to force-fit simplistic solutions.

Effective leaders and managers develop their problem-solving skills through a variety of means: formal continuing education, trial-and-error and with the help of mentors. While there is no substitute for the experience of having faced a major problem and figured out a solution, you also can learn to be a more effective problem solver. Here are three strategies:

Get help

The golf business offers terrific resources, including associations, consultants and peers who have a shared interest in helping to find the best solution. Some people are too proud to ask for assistance, but their stubborn and prideful isolation not only compounds the original problem but deprives them of relationships with the many generous and knowledgeable people in our business.

Work the problem

One need not solve all problems or even every aspect of one. It’s like the answer to the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time. The key is to break the problem into manageable chunks, solve that part of the problem and move on to the next step. If you have a strategic plan, prioritizing problems becomes easier because your plan tells you which problems are standing in the way of meeting your objectives.

Reverse engineer

Stephen Covey advised “begin with the end in mind,” which is the approach of diligent problem solvers. What will success look like? What will it take – whether it’s capital, labor or persuasion – to get there? Reverse engineering brings focus to the intended outcome. Use it as your magnetic north.

Our jobs surround us with problems, making problem solving the unwritten part of every job description. The better problem solver you become, the more valuable you will be in any position your career takes you.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry.

Menu