FEATURE: When Love Ain’t Enough by Gregg Patterson
How Could This Happen?!
Sometimes a really good manager with years of great service, outstanding numbers and raving fans get ZONKED. Exited. Fired.
Fear makes the survivers ask—— WHY??? How could this happen to a superstar like this??? What were the signals they didn’t see? Why didn’t they “smell the future”? What could they have done to avoid The End?
And the inevitable gets asked—what can I do to make sure it doesn’t happen to me?????????
Something Changed
Sometimes long tenured, highly successful, “happy in his or her job,” middle aged club managers get told that it’s time for a change. Why, they ask, would a board want to disrupt the apple cart, toss out a winner and go foraging in the “unknown” for a replacement? Why indeed?
Obviously something changed in the culture or the manager or in both and that “the alignment” between manager and club was lost. Dozens of “Maybes” get thrown on the table. Here are a few.
Maybe They Forgot that Love ain’t enough: Personality is important, but the business of clubs is equally as important. Was he or she lulled into believing that “the warm embrace” would compensate for operational shortcomings?
Maybe They Lost The Buzz: Youth, novelty, and new challenges create an adrenalin “Buzz” and members want their manager to provide The Buzz. Maybe the G.M. had it once—a new club, huge challenges, thirty three years old, fourteen hour days—and lost it? Maybe the business of clubs became “ho hum,” “same old, same old” and their buzz slid silently out the back door?
Maybe They Stopped Pursuing the New “New Thing”: Staff, members, committees and boards want to be informed about the New “New Thing”. They want to be kept “in the loop,” to be informed about what’s happening “out there” on the cutting edge of clubdom. Maybe the heat of youthful curiosity had cooled and the G.M. lost interest in Idea Fairs, management publications, networking with the new generation of club managers, unlocking club mysteries near the Cutting Edge—and the board knew it?
Maybe They Became a No Mamma: Young managers are happy to try anything once and their willingness to experiment is infectious. Committees don’t appreciate hearing a manager say that “I’m happy to try that idea again but we did that seventeen years ago and it was a dog. But things may be different now (smirk!) so let’s give it the old college try and to hell with the losses.” Maybe Manager X became a “No Mamma” with people who wanted to hear encouragement from a “Yes Mamma?”
Maybe They Were Too Aligned with the Old Politics: Managers work closely with boards and committees, and those work experiences weld them together socially, experientially and politically. The longer the working experience, the more aligned the manager becomes with the “power brokers” who got stuff done during their multiple tenures in the hallways of power. Maybe the new generation of leadership resented these earlier alignments, felt excluded from this circle of intimacy, felt that they were outsiders looking in on an old boys network that was impeding progress?
Maybe They Lost the Catalytic Edge: Managers are catalysts for the creative process. They start the process rolling by throwing ideas on the table and stimulating others to new heights of creative frenzy. Did the G.M. lose the “divine spark” that’s needed to get things bubbling, to get the sedentary moving and to make the comfortable itchy?
Maybe They Lost Focus: Running the local CMAA chapter, going to conferences, mentoring students, teaching at the local college, using up all one’s vacation time to view the great paintings of Europe—all good for personal growth but, in the eyes of staff and members, a long way removed from the management of the dining room, golf course and bar. Maybe our manager friend forgot that operational performance needs focus, that operational focus can be diluted by “peripheral interests,” that the members and staff would notice his or her other enthusiasms, and eventually resent his lost operational focus?
Maybe They Became Blind to the Signals: Managers need to “read the signals,” to interpret unspoken messages, and to act on this “insider information” once received and decoded. By their subtle comments and gestures, members, committees and boards let the manager know what they’re thinking well in advance of their saying it. Maybe Manager X lost his or her ability to “read the signals,” and became blissfully self absorbed and completely oblivious to the big sigh, the rolling eyes, the not-so-subtle glance at the wall clock while yapping along, smug and self-satisfied, blind to the signals of dissatisfaction?
Maybe They Gave Too Many Freebies to Friends: Maybe the manager gave too many FREEBIES to their manager friends—rounds of golf, shirts, lunch, booze and miscellaneous stuff because professional courtesy “demanded it”. Maybe the members noticed that these friends got freebies when they, The MEMBERS, had to pay. And they said, enough is enough!
Maybe the Board Wanted to Drive the Bus: Club members are successful in their “other life” and learn how to “drive the bus” early in their corporate careers. For many of these members, the club is merely another bus to be driven. Maybe the board and committee chairs tired of having the manager tell them what should be done, who should be doing it, when it should be done, and how much the club’s going to spend to make it happen? Maybe the board came to resent hearing from members that Manager X is “the BIG CHEESE,” that the G.M.’s so wonderful because they did this, that or the other thing for the membership, that he or she—NOT the board—is the symbol of the club? Maybe they wanted to “drive the bus,” to wear the cap and to get the glory?
Maybe They Wanted to Save the Big Bucks: Long time successful club managers cost a whale of a lot more money than someone in their thirties, hungry for the opportunity to lead an already successful club. Maybe the board figured they could pick up an enthusiastic upwardly mobile neophyte who would give them three good years and be gone, allowing them to hire someone else who would be equally as hungry, as young and as cheap? Maybe the salary, the perks, the benefits, the diversions, and the pampering of Manager X became too much for their “return on investment?”
Maybe the Lieutenants Were Enough: Great managers hire, train, and retain great lieutenants. Confident managers delegate lots to their lieutenants and are pleased when things run smoothly while absent from the club. Maybe the members came to believe that with a team like this they didn’t need the manager anymore, that with a major league team this they could run the place with a minor league manager?
Maybe They Were Moaning and Groaning Too Much: Leaders are eternal optimists who see the good in every person and every opportunity. Cynicism has no chapter in their management textbook. Maybe Manager X came to moan and groan a bit too much about aberrant members, unproductive staff, feudal club politics, the pile of paper on his desk, or the fact that he or she can’t get an upgrade on United for their five-week vacation to the Seychelles?
Maybe They Forgot “The Serpent in the Grass”: Maybe the G.M. forgot that there are members who hold a grudge against the manager—long time, big time. They didn’t want you hired in the first place. They’re angry that you suspended their son for underage drinking. They’re seething because you wouldn’t let them have eight golfing guests when only three are allowed. These characters are dangerous and ready to strike when the opportunity arises. They wait in silence. And then when they get on the board or have the ear of the president, they do everything they can to “get you gone.”
Maybe They had no Supporters in High Places: Managers need to have raging fans on the committees and in the board room. Maybe Manager X lost his or her advocates at the policy level and there was no one left in the room to halt the accelerating spiral downward of negative comments and commentary about the manager and their performance?
And the board decided—it was time for a change.
Be Warned!!!
Members and Boards explore themes like these every day—behind closed doors, on the seventeenth fairway and in the card room at 11:00 p.m. It starts with whispers and builds. Managers can’t respond because they rarely hear the comments or are blind to the signals. The momentum builds, the anger grows, the conviction mounts, and it finally comes down to a single comment—“It’s time for a change.”
“Time for a change” is code for other things. Knowing those things is key—for the club and for the general manager.
Members change. Boards change. Expectations change. The world changes. Keep up or get out—and make sure the board comes along for the ride.
If the wait list is long, the financials are good, the turnover is low, the clubhouse is glowing, the course is number one, the dining room is booming, and the buzz is on— these Big Negatives are never mentioned. But if the opposite is true and the club is on the ropes, the chirping will start, these negatives will be pondered, and the whispers will begin—“It’s time for a change.”
Sometimes it is. Sometimes it isn’t.
Anticipate the whispers. Smell the precipice. Prepare for the fall to avoid the fall.
And enjoy the journey———————-
