10 WAYS TO BE A
POWERED ON LEADER
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Once This is Over….Be Ready To Be The Same!!
Leading Yourself, Your Team and Your Club Back to the Future!
No matter where you are in the world, you and the people you work with are now forever changed. From new ‘non-touching’ ways to greet our friends, to washing our hands the ‘right’ way, and most likely, to a new and improved perspective on what we view is ‘really’ important in life. This pandemic, once it’s finally over, will be remembered for creating fear, economic uncertainty, and mostly, for instigating numerous changes, good and bad, to our daily life.
So, when the time is right to get your club back to the ‘new normal’, how will you lead your team from all this chaos to a new kind of clarity?
By being the same.
Fortunately for us, golf and all the benefits that it provides, will be EXACTLY what the doctor orders to get people happy, healthy and socializing again.
When the time comes, our clubs will be even more important in providing a safe, reliable and comforting place for our members and guests. The joys that come from being part of a club and the many friendships that exist, added to the lifelong benefits that golf provides, will help our clubs provide an extremely valuable service to our customers… familiarity!
In this effort, I think it’s important to focus on three very basic but important pillars that will help you and your club be all that it can be during this time of transition.
First, focus on your people!
A great leader is an empathetic one. Your people will have been impacted by all of this, some a little bit and others significantly. They will have fears about job security, about job safety and about how they will be able to manage. As leaders our job is to connect with our people one on one. Not through a memo, an email or group meeting. No, we need to meet in person in a comfortable ‘6 foot’ environment and hear from them about what they need from us and what we can do to help them get back to work in the most positive way possible. At the same time, we can share with them our plans and strategies for rebuilding our business and how they will have a positive impact on this endeavor.
Second, focus on your customers!
Positivity. Excitement. Safety.
These are the key messages that we must yell from the tops of the clubhouse.
“We are ready (and government approved) to be open!”
“We can’t wait to see you”
“Your wellbeing, and the health and safety of all our members and staff, remains our number one priority”.
After the oppression of social distancing and staying home, people will have a new discomfort with increased social contact and yes, even joy. They have been denied, and isolated and that’s what they’re used to now. The idea that you might all of a sudden greet them with a hearty handshake and a pat on the shoulder may have them feeling uncomfortable. Think about the habit we’ve cultivated and how hard it will be to break that.
If you are one of the few courses that has been able to be open in your region, but have put various social distancing requirements in place, then you may want to consider removing them slowly so as not to have your members feel that you’re reckless. Continue to “greet from 6 feet” for a time, and approach slowly. Put the rakes back in the bunkers, but let the players decide if they’re using them. If you’ve implemented one person per cart, then maybe keep that as an option.
Having said that, it’s still so important to be positive! There is enough doom and gloom in the media, and our role is no longer to duplicate that message. Instead, our role is to ensure our customers know that as soon as they are, we will be ready with a ‘virtual’ open-arms to welcome them back.
Third, focus on experiences!
Like all of us that have been mandated to practice social distancing, your members are badly missing connecting with others, and that is truly one of the great benefits of being a member of a club. Experiencing awesome events and celebrations with our friends and loved ones. Get your calendar of events ready, your posters on the walls and your website updated, and pick a date for your ‘We’re So Glad to Have You Back’ celebration. Even if the pandemic makes you push that date back, it’s critical that your members know that you WILL have a party as soon as you are able.
Someday soon life will return back to some form of new normal, and as leaders, we need to ensure that our business is ready for whatever that new normal looks like. Golf, with all its traditions and history, will be able to provide golfers with a sense of security that will be much needed after all this is over.
Be strong, be healthy… and be a powered on leader!
James
PS…. With all this time on our hands we have been developing a very exciting and new website that provides on-line training, tools and templates that will help any golf course improve their staff, their service and their profits! More details to come very soon! Stay healthy!