Cultivating a crew

Keeping a golf course green and healthy is obviously not a one-man operation. A superintendent needs a competent and dedicated staff to help with everything from placing pins to spraying pesticides.

Raven Golf Club at Snowshoe Mountain in Elkins, W. Va., has a staff of 15 workers led by superintendent Doug Dykstra, who tries to balance praise and discipline with his employees.

How superintendents manage their staffs can make a big difference. A hardened, brown course can be just a few failed steps away from a rich, vibrant track.

Christopher Smith, CGCS at Hudson National Golf Club in Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., manages 24 employees at the private facility. Much of the maintenance is done by hand, including mowing the fairways. Smith says it’s labor intensive, but the bonus is the quality of cut.

Smith joined Hudson National as superintendent in early 2004, taking over for Gregg Stanley, who became the superintendent at The Bridge in Sag Harbor, N.Y. Smith worked under Stanley from 1995 to 1997 when he was Hudson National’s assistant superintendent.

“I can’t say enough positive things about what Gregg taught me,” Smith says.
One of the lessons learned led directly to Smith’s management style – which he describes as hands-on.

“I like to work with the guys,” he says. “It’s important to show them you’re at their level. It’s important they know you’re management, but also willing to work.”

Joel McKnight, CGCS, left Hackberry Creek Country Club in Irving, Texas, in August 2004 and is now park operations manager for the City of Lancaster. While at Hackberry Creek, he managed anywhere from 15 to 22 people. McKnight generally takes the opposite approach when handling his staff.

“I depend an awful lot on delegation,” he says. “Unless you’re at a very small facility, you have so many more administrative things to handle. You have to have the right people you can trust and know it’s going to get done right. Let them make decisions because there’s no way you can do it all yourself.”

McKnight says superintendents have to let people make mistakes, but it’s wise to choose which mistakes they’ll be in position to make. There’s a big difference between a mistake that will be immediately visible to the members and management, and one only the superintendent will notice.

Doug Dykstra, CGCS at Raven Golf Club at Snowshoe Mountain in Elkins, W.Va., is in his fifth year at the 18-hole resort. Dykstra manages a staff of about 15 and says his management style changes every day.

“I’m either outside helping or stuck inside doing paperwork,” he says. “They both have their advantages and disadvantages, I suppose, but I prefer being outside.”

Problem solved
Matt Strader, golf course superintendent at Penn National Golf Club, a 36-hole resort in Fayetteville, Pa., says getting his staff of 30 to manage their time better is one of his top concerns.

Golf course superintendent Matt Strader had his staff working toward a common goal when Penn National Golf Club renovated all its bunkers.

“I ask them to do it on a continuing basis, with encouraging and positive reinforcement,” he says about time management. “I also give them the right tools and equipment to get the job done and make them check to see that they have the right stuff before they leave the building. That gets them involved – when they’re involved, you get good results.”

The language barrier proved to be difficult for McKnight when he left the Gulf Coast of Mississippi for Irving, Texas. Arriving at Hackberry Creek, he inherited a staff that was primarily Hispanic, but had forgotten the limited Spanish he knew. McKnight took language classes and worked hard to learn their culture. By showing his willingness to relate, he earned their trust.

Smith says he knows enough Spanish to communicate to his staff, which is mostly Latino, and says he’s always learning more from his employees while they’re learning English from him.

As for dealing with difficulties at Hudson National, Smith says one bad apple can spoil the entire crew and isolation is a good way to motivate employees.

“When you get a group of guys together, you have to have the ability to segregate so they don’t disrupt the core,” he says of a troublesome employee. “It could be the person is a hard worker, but just a troublemaker. You put them in a situation where they’re working alone. Ultimately, they figure it out and come around. They don’t want to work alone.”

Dealing with discipline
At Raven Golf Club, Dykstra tries to balance his employees with praise and discipline.

The staff at Raven Golf Club was rewarded with rafting trips for the extra time and effort put forth preparing for the 2005 West Virginia Open.

“I try to give positive reinforcement when I feel it’s validated,” he says. “They get the opposite when things aren’t happening the way they’re supposed to.”

For Dykstra, being a part of a larger company means there are policies and procedures he must follow when reprimanding an employee. Depending on the infraction, steps can begin with a verbal warning, move to a written reprimand and then to suspension prior to termination. He suggests keeping documentation for every reprimand and not calling out an employee in front of his peers.

“Make sure you always do it on a one-on-one basis and never in front of a group,” he says. “That can be very demoralizing.”

Strader echoes the one-on-one approach when dealing with reprimands at Penn National.

“I talk to them in private,” Strader says. “I begin with a compliment of something that they do very well and am sincere about it. If I begin by screaming at them, they never hear the point of the discussion.

“Let them know what you expect and why,” he adds. “To me, it’s a discussion about a few things that we can do better.”

Strader schedules a follow-up discussion because if an employee can’t count on a follow-up, he might not think it was that important.

McKnight also says he looks for ways to make a reprimand meeting positive. He’ll start with a positive and finish with a positive. He learned that from the founder of ClubCorp, Robert Dedman. Paraphrasing Dedman’s philosophy about dealing with customers, McKnight says, “Give them a warm welcome, a magic moment in the middle and a fond farewell.”

McKnight also tries to keep his emotions out of the discussion.

“I sleep on it,” he says about a negative event. “I don’t react right then so emotion doesn’t play a role.”

Praise when deserved
Reacting to a negative can be instinctive, but knowing when and how to praise an employee for something positive can be a bit more difficult.

Tips on managing a staff

• Provide positive reinforcement. • Keep documentation for every reprimand. • Don’t call out an employee in front of his peers. Meet one-on-one. • If disciplining an employee of the opposite sex, include another person in the meeting. • Show employees you’ll do the work you ask of them. • Speak your employees’ language and learn their culture. • Create a positive atmosphere. • Isolate troublesome employees. • Schedule to get a set amount of work out of employees every day. • Get involved and maintain close contact with employees. • Get the staff involved in a common goal. • Support employees’ ideas and suggestions. • Give employees the right tools and equipment to get the job done. • When meeting with an employee, begin with a compliment and finish on a positive note. • Let employees know what you expect and why. • Don’t stop managing your staff. They look to you to manage. • Don’t let emotion play a role in discipline.

Smith took Stanley’s way of encouragement to heart and practices it regularly.

“You have to let them know they’re doing a good job,” he says. “The more you do that, the more it encourages them to continue doing a good job.”

Hudson National also has a bonus system. If an employee shows up for his shift every day, he receives a percentage bonus on every hour he worked for that month. Excused absences are allowed if they’re phoned in, but no-call, no-shows aren’t tolerated.

At Raven, which hosted the West Virginia Open this year, the resort arranged two river rafting trips for Dykstra’s staff, and Dykstra is looking into hosting a golfing event for them as a reward for all the long hours worked and the extra effort put forth.

McKnight says he rewards good effort with a paid half-day off (when allowed) or rewards an employee with tickets to a sporting event.

“I expect people who work for me to take ownership of their jobs, not just be there to draw a paycheck,” he says. “Once they start doing this, it’s very easy to give them verbal praise.”

To bond with his staff, McKnight would host a cookout once a month and was able to break a lot of barriers with the staff.

Strader says positive and negative communication is beneficial to the course and its employees.

“When the course is in good condition, we tell them,” he says. “When we receive compliments from members and guests, we pass them on to the staff. When we mess up or miss something as managers, we share it with the staff. We let them know that we’re human, and how we plan to get it right the next time.”

Maintaining staff
While at a previous course in Nebraska, Dykstra says it was difficult to compete with many other businesses for his maintenance staff because the unemployment rate was low and fast-food chains were paying well to attract employees. The opposite is true at Raven. Dykstra says the area is very rural and the majority of his staff has been there for years.

Smith also has little turnover. He credits that with a positive work environment and the possibility of advancement.

“I try to constantly elevate them in their abilities,” he says, adding that an employee might spend an entire summer weed whacking and then learn how to operate a mower the next season. “We try to create a positive atmosphere and provide them with little perks that keep them coming back.”

Along with providing uniforms, some of those perks might be an occasional picnic lunch or extra items the staff has accumulated along the way.

“We try to give them something,” he says for boosting moral. “What seems small to us is a big deal to them.”

Strader says by managing his employees through training, the staff becomes more self-reliant.

“They learn what your expectations are and, as long as you support them, they’ll do the best they can to repeat those expectations,” he says.

McKnight and Smith stress the advancement of assistant superintendents. Working with ClubCorp, McKnight says one of his responsibilities was training assistants to move up within the company. He says three to five years in one location is ideal before moving on to another course to become exposed to several ways of doing things.

“It’s nice to have a comfort level with someone you’ve worked with long term, but if all a person is going to be is a lifetime assistant, are you really doing your job?” he asks.

Smith’s uncle, Dudley Smith, was a superintendent at Silver Lake Country Club in Orland Park, Ill., for years. Dudley Smith taught his nephew that it’s more rewarding to send assistants on to their own courses than it is to collect awards and accolades.

“I tell my assistants they might not have a $1.4 million budget at their next course, but their work ethic can make it look like they do,” Smith says. “I’m constantly encouraging them to see what’s out there because it’s getting so competitive,” he says about the job market. “And they see you as recognizing their abilities and potential.”

Ideally, it’s a chain affect at Hudson National, Smith says – one guy moves on and the other moves up to take his spot. They then bring in a fresh assistant to begin the process again.

Important to manage
So how important is management? Smith says it’s very important.

“Scheduling and the timing to get a set amount of work out of the guys every day are the keys,” he says. “It’s amazing how it falls into place if you have a good schedule.”

Dykstra feels a close relationship with employees is needed. While he is clearly the boss, getting to know his workers has great benefits.

“The more you talk to them and involve them, the more pride they take in their jobs,” he says.

Strader says getting the crew involved in a common goal and supporting their ideas and suggestions are important, but one should never lose sight of his responsibility.

“You can’t stop managing your staff,” he says. “They look to you to manage.”

McKnight thinks dealing with people is every bit as important as fertilizer and pesticides. He was told anyone can grow grass … the hardest part of the job is dealing with people.

“Become a people person or find another job,” McKnight says. GCN