Future of leadership

If you have been in the golf course industry long enough, you have probably seen the recent shift in the workforce labor pool. Gone are the days of having excess applications and the ability to fill an empty spot on your team by the afternoon. COVID-19 has altered our labor market in such a way that we have a surplus of jobs and a shortage of people to fill those roles. This has changed the dynamic between the potential employer and the recruit.

The average person seeking to join the workforce now has options and the ability to be selective in their recruitment. These options don’t just appeal to new recruits. You can be certain that your current workforce is aware of all the newly created jobs and the inflation of salaries being offered to hold those positions. There has never been a more advantageous time for entry-level labor employees to find jobs –and they know it.

It’s not enough these days to just offer good benefits. Look at any available job position. Most openings offer the same thing. Good wage. Health care option. 401k. Paid vacations. These are no longer incentives; they are now the new standard for employment.

What is keeping employees from leaving and enticing recruits to join the team? Leadership.

In its simplest definition, a leader is an individual who can motivate another to accomplish an action. The untold truth about leadership: the quality is based on behaviors learned through exposure to the leadership behaviors of others.

Leadership styles are as numerous as there are people on the planet. All categories of leadership are learnable. Nobody was born a leader. What we view as natural leaders are individuals who were raised with more exposure to good or bad leadership. Our individual styles of leadership are based on our own exposure to good – and bad leaders – in our lives.

Your current and future employees are going to stay with or choose you based on what they think you can do for them. Are you going to allow them to get their hours? Are you going to help them progress and make more money? Are you going to be understanding about their personal lives? You should have answers to these questions before hiring somebody. If the answer is no, be honest. Employees will respect you more for your honesty and enter the job with realistic expectations.

As a leader, you are ultimately responsible for two things:

• The goal you were appointed as the leader to accomplish
• The management of your subordinates

If you crush your subordinates, you will not achieve your goal. And if you coddle your subordinates, they will not reach the goal. A balance must be found.

In the past, it was possible to push your subordinates to their breaking points and see if they have what it takes to make it. If they didn’t, it was easy to replace them. I’m confident about 90 percent of the individuals reading this have worked for someone with that mentality. Now, employees aren’t that easy to replace, and they know it. This means we must adapt our leadership styles to meet the demands of our industry.

The future of leadership is called servant leadership. This leadership style shows your subordinates that you are operating with their interests in mind. Servant leadership is so powerful that even military leadership schools have adopted it. Invest in your subordinates and, in turn, they will go the extra mile for you. That is the main theme of this style. It takes trust, honesty and good intention to achieve.

Where can we start to develop this relationship with our employees? Begin with your normal work review process. Ask the following questions:

• What are your goals working at this job?
• What are your goals outside of this job?
• How quickly do you want to achieve these goals?
• Is there anything I can help you do to achieve these goals?

The above questions will give you a great starting point in developing this relationship. Write them down and use them to invest in your employee. Other ways of showing your employees that you want them to succeed can include the following:

• Get them enrolled in your club’s benefits package
• Provide a structure for career advancement
• Have financial professionals teach them money management skills

If you know they can’t afford things like health care, find local programs employees can use and provide that information to them. It takes extra work on our part, but the benefits are worth it.

It’s time to be the leader and mentor that your employees deserve.

Chris Warrick is the superintendent at Highland Country Club in LaGrange, Georgia. He is also currently a Staff Sergeant in the US Army Reserves where he has served for 12 years including one deployment to Afghanistan.