By Terry Anglin, CCM, CCE
A request we often receive from club boards is: "How can we develop high-performing management teams? How do we build a team that can succeed, and can implement and maintain high levels of productivity?"
At the core of this question is a desire to manage employees more productively. That has always been hard to achieve in any organization and today's pace of operating makes it even more challenging.
The successful general manager must balance multiple competing interests: the club's, the members', the employees' and the GM's own. But with a combination of the right philosophies and the right actions, your club can be set up to succeed, deliver and maintain high levels of productivity and service.
A word of warning: some of these ideas may run counter to what we have been taught in traditional management seminars, but when these tenets are fully enacted, they work. Better yet, they empower a club to achieve a highly functioning leadership team.
To begin, a general manager needs to understand that:
Not everyone can do everything, even with great training.
Great leaders don't focus on fixing people's weaknesses.
Great leaders recognize talent by treating some employees differently than others.
These ideas challenge long-standing management principles, but when evaluated through real-world experience, they consistently ring true.
Building on this mindset, there are four keys that great leaders use to draw exceptional performance from their teams:
Select employees for their talents, not their skills or experience.
Set specific and high expectations. Define desired outcomes and leave the methodology to the employee.
Motivate by building on strengths rather than trying to eliminate weaknesses.
Find the appropriate career path for each employee; not everyone is destined to be a general manager or COO.
Put together, these four keys mean that great managers select employees based on existing talent, specify outcomes while allowing employees to use their own initiative, focus on building strengths and find the right fit — rather than pushing employees toward the next rung on the ladder.
Talent, in this context, is a recurring pattern of successful behavior that can be productively applied. Great leaders believe talent is more important than experience or intelligence. As a result, talent within a specific field becomes the primary criterion for selecting new employees.
This key is about setting expectations for what should be achieved rather than how it should be done. Great leaders communicate clearly what success looks like and trust their employees to determine the best path to achieve it.
The goal is to help people become more of what they already are rather than fixing weak spots. Great managers help employees cultivate their talents to a higher level. This is an individualized approach, not a generalized one, and it does not mean treating everyone equally.
Great leaders recognize that not every employee wants to or should move upward within the organization. This is especially true when an employee's talents are best used in their current role. Great leaders create alternate career paths that align with both the organization's needs and the employee's strengths.
These four keys are not a series of steps, but a way of thinking that can be adapted to meet your primary objective: turning each employee's talent into consistent, day-to-day performance.
To build a highly functioning team, leaders should engage employees in discussions centered on four positive business outcomes:
Productivity
Financial success
Employee retention
Member satisfaction
These discussions naturally fall into four groupings:
What the employee receives and what is expected of them.
What the employee gives, with a focus on individual contribution and how that contribution is perceived by others.
Whether the employee is in the right position to make the greatest possible contribution.
How new ideas are introduced and how the group grows, with an emphasis on innovation.
This is only the beginning of achieving a highly functioning club leadership team. The effort required is daily and ongoing. If you are seeking assistance with structuring employee discussions or developing targeted questions, I encourage you to reach out. These concepts also translate easily into a club presentation, delivered via Zoom or in person.
We would welcome the opportunity to work with your club to develop high functioning leadership across your organization.
