(Advancing the game) A career check list

After more than 25 years of counseling employers as they seek to hire superintendents, coaching superintendents into jobs and stabilizing families when the superintendent of the house has lost a job, I see two clear patterns that, with hindsight, paint a definitive picture of two kinds of superintendents: career secure superintendents who succeed at their jobs and realize a balanced life and superintendents who too often have to worry about their jobs and fail to realize the comforts of a balanced life.

Accordingly, I have prepared the following 42-item check list to help superintendents and assistants gain an objective perspective relative to their career and family planning effectiveness. A judicious left-to-right, line-by-line reading of the two columns below presents a unique learning opportunity.
Should the number of boxes a superintendent or assistant checks on the right side add up to more than a handful or two, they and their families are risking not smelling the roses as they pass through life. Better career and family planning will remedy this situation effectively. Look to improve your test score each year and you will do well. GCN

Jim McLoughlin is the founder of TMG Golf (www.TMGgolfcouncel.com), a golf course development and consulting firm and is a former executive director of the GCSAA. He can be reached at golfguide@adelphia.net. His previous columns can be found on www.golfcoursenews.com.