I promised last week to offer strategies for training club employees, but I’d like to postpone that another week. Instead I want to discuss the major issues of manager and supervisory training, since a poorly trained manager or supervisor can do far greater harm to your operation than a line employee by failing in any of the areas mentioned here.
- Managers and supervisors direct your front line employees. If they don’t have a complete understanding of their duties and your expectations, your service message and vision for the operation will not be passed consistently to employees.
- A management team with different leadership styles ranging from service-based, to military, to athletic, to collegial, to Neanderthal, will not interact with employees consistently or fairly — and consistency and fairness are touchstone issues in meeting the requirements of equal opportunity, discrimination, morale, and motivation. Ideally, an organization would have one management and leadership style, promulgated by the Board or General Manager and practiced uniformly by all managers and supervisors; anything less invites trouble.
- A club’s organizational values and culture require constant reinforcement to all employees and must be consistently emphasized in word and deed to employees. Without appropriate manager training and development, the example and message will be inconsistent and confusing.
- Managers and supervisors are your people with the answers. In addition to their job specific knowledge and skills, they must have a thorough understanding of all the club’s rules, regulations, work policies, member policies, administrative and accounting systems and procedures. Without training they cannot have a firm grasp of these complex and interrelated matters. Stop for a second and consider the problems that can be caused by two different managers giving conflicting direction or answers to employees or members.
- Managers and supervisors act as agents of the club. If they do not have an in-depth understanding of all the laws and governmental regulations affecting your club, the club is open to liability issues and litigation. Examples include: the Fair Labor Standards Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, Alcohol Law Enforcement regulations, Equal Opportunity issues, Sexual Harassment, Food Sanitation, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, and others. While you may have experts in each of these matters on staff, their knowledge must be shared with other managers to avoid what could become significant problems for the club. Throughout my career many of the most significant problems I faced were as a result of subordinate managers without a proper understanding of these important issues.
- Ethics training for all managers. Some think this isn’t necessary, but experience shows this to be a naïve assumption.
To expect that different managers with different backgrounds and experiences from a variety of operational disciplines — golf, golf course maintenance, accounting, personnel, facility maintenance, food and beverage, membership, activities, tennis, and aquatics — will have a common understanding of and approach to leadership and management is foolish.
Bottom Line: Without strong, stable, and consistent leadership and management at all levels of your club, your staff is a bunch of tribes, often at odds or in conflict — and this is no way to run a railroad, much less a club.
We’ll talk about strategies to train next week.
Thanks and have a great day!
Ed Rehkopf
This weekly blog comments on and discusses the club industry and its challenges. From time to time, we will feature guest bloggers - those managers and industry experts who have something of interest to say to all of us. We also welcome feedback and comment upon the blog, hoping that it will become a useful sounding board for what’s on the minds of hardworking club managers throughout the country and around the world.
Club Resources International - Management Resources for Clubs!
Tags: leadership, manager training
