Listen Now: Candid Conversations Podcast #3
Our third Candid Conversations podcast focuses on you, the superintendent, and how this will impact careers, staff development and team-building. We were fortunate to have Armen Suny join Tyler Bloom and me for the discussion. If you want to learn more about Armen and his remarkable background, read this: https://www.golfcourseindustry.com/article/armen-suny-superintendent-recruiting/. The short version is he's one of the top recruiters and career consultants in the golf industry.
A few key points:
Armen: This is the opportunity to develop those leadership skills the best supers have. This is what we can do. This is how we can help the cause.
Come up with an aggressive plan to control costs. Find the bare bones but also have a plan to come back when this is over. What's that next step when we're ready to open back up?
How do you counsel supers to assess their facility's financial health? "The unfortunate things is there are no options right now. Stay in place and do everything you can to make that facility successful, even if it seems like a lost cause. Stay in place and stay position-sheltered."
Tyler: This is a great time to be educating your staff. Reaching out to them even if they've been furloughed and keeping up with those relationships. Their schools are actually still calling me to find out how they're doing. Life goes on.
I'm also getting calls from supers who are using this time to reorganize and retool their teams. Now is a great time to look at your current talent makeup, look at the gaps in your team and think about skillsets you need to move forward. Who can you "upskill" and how?
Pat: Chapters have really stepped up but it still seems like other groups still don't engage even in a crisis. One more thing that pushes the stock up for superintendents is that they step up in situations like this.
Armen: Communications skills are going to have to be strong. If the club has a lot of debt, they're really going to get pressured to deliver quality conditions with a lot less money. That's going to go the rest of this year for sure and probably into next year. They have to be capable communicators to let members know why things are being done the way they are. After every recession, there's a mindset reset in the club business. I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of changes and the pendulum swinging hard towards economy.
Tyler: Salary cuts have been the #1 topic of discussion. How do you manage that conversation with your boss?
Armen: There's no doubt it's happening. The best way is to look at the management team as a whole and get everyone on the same page: ownership, membership down to management. Once those cuts are made, getting back to that level is hard. That needs to be addressed openly and honestly: how do we get back? There needs to be some kind of a benchmark structure based on revenues or budgets that benefits the super and the ownership. Try to get your goals aligned and create benchmarks. "Being a responsible business person who happens to be an agronomist is going to go a long way today and in the future. The fundamentals have not changed.
Armen's silver lining: This is a chance for younger supers and managers to rise to the challenge and learn a new skillset.
Tyler's silver lining: This is an opportunity for talented, passionate people to shine through.