A private club is a remarkably complex small business. It’s home to multiple enterprises such as a restaurant, tennis center, gym or a golf course that would otherwise serve as stand alone small businesses out in the community. With so many moving parts that are customer service centric, detail oriented and fast-paced, it’s crucial that a club be led and operated as a well-oiled machine. The key is teamwork.
While there is no shortage of industry wisdom on how to achieve success, I’d like to add another perspective on how best to wed the disparate talents and wishes of staff, club members and club leaders into a coherent whole.
Club managers, like dieters, are reliable consumers of five-point checklists that offer the promise of goals attained and the opportunity to live happily ever after. To be clear, this is an aspirational list. At no time in my career have I managed to align each of the five tools described below. Success can be found in their absence, and their presence is no guarantee that successful teamwork will ensue. They simply make up one roadmap for successful cooperation.
At its best, teamwork is characterized by a shared sense of purpose, trust in your teammates, equal opportunities to contribute, mutual respect and accountability. The root of each of these ideals is communication that is clear, honest, constructive and consistent. Author Ken Blanchard famously said “feedback is the breakfast of champions” and I will say that “communication” could be substituted for “feedback” with no loss in meaning. All of the tools I’m recommending involve giving or receiving some form of feedback. Whether it’s a member indicating what the club can do better, or an employee telling his or her manager what matters most in terms of creating a productive work environment.
When embraced by the team, these five tools can create championship-level teamwork in a private club:
1. Strategic Plan
2. Performance Review System that includes a review of the GM
3. Member Survey System
4. Employee Survey System
5. Board Performance Audit
While this list may seem short and simple, I’d suggest that there are few honest club managers or directors who can claim that all five of these tools are part of their club’s culture, viewed as important or fully utilized.
Strategic Plan: Defining a Club’s Identity Today and Tomorrow
In the private club industry, the term “Strategic Plan” is used to mean so many different things that it has almost lost its meaning. Strategic plans that focus on facility building or improvements are common. However, I’m advocating for a strategic plan that asks three questions: Who are we? Where do we want to go? How will we get there? These plans successfully document the defining elements of a club’s culture. The biggest obstacles to club success at the board and senior management level are the lack of shared agreement about what makes the club unique and the absence of a shared vision of the club’s future.
The club community will function efficiently and harmoniously if everyone is on the same page as far as the club’s culture, mission and vision for the future. Any club member should be able to answer a question about what makes their club so special. An employee should be able to describe how their work contributes to advancing the club’s mission. Having a clear strategic plan is like handing each employee, member and director a clearly marked map to a destination of enjoyment and success.
Performance Review: A Practical Process
Virtually all clubs have a performance review system in place. In theory, a review system exists to improve performance—anything else is secondary. In practice, most review systems are of the “check the box” variety, mandated from above and completed annually to warrant pay increases. Review season is typically greeted with a deep groan by both writers and recipients. Having authored complex review processes, I’ve seen that while they offer the promise of better dialogue, they require so much effort that once completed, participants need two weeks off to recover.
One approach asks participants to identify three things done well and three things to work on in the coming year. If done thoughtfully and discussed quarterly, this approach balances the time invested in the process with the practicality of improving performance. Usually, the general manager is left out of the club’s review process, or he or she receives a cursory review delivered by the club president who is as comfortable as someone telling a 12-year-old the facts of life. Most presidents can manage the “three things” model, which should include input from the full board. The board should see the final review as well.
Redefining the Goal of Member Surveys
While the use of member surveys has become quite common, their inclusion on a list of tools to facilitate teamwork may seem odd. In my experience, a disproportionate amount of board time is spent discussing “what members really want,” and too many important decisions are based on these untested assumptions. The failure to resolve different views about member wishes by the staff, board or both, accentuates differences of opinion and undermines trust. Distributing a well-constructed member survey every 3–5 years at a minimum is required to move the conversation from determining what members want to building consensus about how to respond to their needs.
Why Employee Satisfaction Matters
The value of employee satisfaction surveys is underappreciated in our industry. The average club employee has little input into a strategic plan, is likely to regard a performance review as something that is done to him or her rather than for him or her, and likely hears about a member survey only after it is complete and the results have been shared with the members.
An employee survey system, if done well, has very tangible value. The key word here is “system,” because the real value of the survey goes beyond asking questions and sharing results. If done properly, the results are shared and discussed with the staff by senior management and should lead to an action plan addressing any shortcomings. Like a performance review in reverse—senior management, with the support and knowledge of the board, publicly holds itself accountable to act on staff feedback and regularly report on progress.
Improving Board Leadership Through a Board Performance Audit
This last item may be the most “aspirational.” Formal board performance audits are quite rare in the private club world, but less so in the charitable and nonprofit worlds. The rationale for a board performance audit, a self- administered performance review, is straightforward. It is to identify opportunities to improve club governance, and to commit to a plan to make specific improvements. The typical new board member volunteers for board service to make the club better. There are times when personal agendas frame what “better” looks like, but most board members hope to be part of a change process that leads to improvement together. Aside from best practices like an annual board retreat or the development of a strategic plan, there are few times when a board examines its internal processes and culture in order to ask how it should change to provide a more productive and satisfying board experience.
The greatest responsibility of any leader, and this includes the board and senior managers of every private club, is to create an environment where people can succeed. Michael Jordan once said “talent wins games but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
Intelligence is plentiful in the private club world, but too often differences of opinion, perspective or vision are ignored or go unresolved. It is the ability to address and resolve these differences together that distinguishes the very good from the great clubs in our industry.
Phil Kiester is the general manager of the Country Club of Virginia in Richmond and is the secretary of the National Club Association.