Your Managers Will Never Be As Good As You… Or Will They?

We as GMs work hard.

We create all the best policies, handle every situation perfectly, make decisions better than anyone else possibly could and somehow run the absolute most perfect and efficient golf operation on the planet.

Nobody runs a golf course as well as we do.

Or so we think.

Depending on your level of arrogance you may actually believe all of that.

The truth is, we have gotten to where we are because we've done a lot of things right. And I mean a lot of things right.

But let's be honest with ourselves.

We still have room to grow.

And here's the tough part:

Our managers will never do things like we do.

They'll never handle situations exactly the way we would.

They'll never make every decision exactly like we would.

They'll never be as good as us.

Or…

maybe they can.

But it starts with us.

One of the biggest responsibilities we have as GMs is developing the people underneath us. And sometimes that means letting them make mistakes, stepping in when they need guidance and helping them learn how to handle the next situation better.

I recently had a situation where one of my managers managed with pure emotion.

A decision was made based almost entirely on an immediate reaction and the combination of emotion and reaction created a situation involving another staff member that suddenly seemed like it could be very difficult to resolve.

This is where I come in as the hero of the day!

Or…

Maybe I was just the leader with a level head who knew some guidance was needed.

I was very hopeful that I could help both sides work through the situation and get them back on good terms.

The first thing I did was probably the most important thing of the entire process.

I took texting out of the equation.

People misread texts all the time.

You can't hear someone's tone. You can't see their expression. You don't always know what they meant when they typed something.

And when emotions are already involved, texting can make a bad situation go downhill very quickly.

So I needed them to stop texting and start talking.

Get them to talk.

Let them hear each other out.

Let them explain what they were actually trying to communicate.

And most importantly, let them understand what the other person was actually needing.

It's such a simple solution in today's world that we sometimes forget about it.

I'll admit it.

I'm a big texter.

But the second I sense that the message isn't being received the way I intended, I want to get face to face or get on a phone call.

Sometimes five minutes of talking can solve what 25 text messages made worse.

Once I established that a phone conversation needed to happen my next step was listening to the manager.

Not correcting them.

Not immediately telling them what they did wrong.

Listening.

I wanted to understand the emotion they were feeling and why they reacted the way they did.

Then came the teaching part.

One of the biggest things I wanted them to understand was that emotion and reaction are two things we need to be very careful with when we're managing people.

That doesn't mean you can't be frustrated.

It doesn't mean you can't be upset.

It means you don't always need to act on those feelings immediately.

Sometimes the best management decision you can make is…

wait.

Wait a few hours.

Wait until tomorrow.

Sleep on it.

Think about the situation.

Look at it from the other person's perspective.

Then make the decision.

I use this one myself.

Especially with upset customers.

Trust me, I've written some really great emails in my head that probably would not have been my finest moments if I actually sent them.

But I have learned to listen to my instincts and wait.

Then, instead of firing off the email, I'll make the phone call.

And almost every time, that conversation goes better than the email I was ready to send.

Anyway, I then talked with the employee involved and explained how I would approach the situation differently.

Not because they necessarily handled everything wrong.

I simply wanted to give them another viewpoint.

Another way to look at the situation.

Another set of options they could consider.

And then came the most important part.

I gave the manager the opportunity to manage again.

I helped rebuild the connection between the two of them, then stepped back and allowed the manager to make the decision and have the conversation with the employee.

And you know what happened?

The manager got the confidence they needed from the staff member and the two of them were able to work through the situation together.

Both sides ended up in a much better place.

Was it stressful?

Absolutely.

But that's management.

My job wasn't to swoop in, solve everything myself and make the problem disappear.

My job was to guide the manager toward a better approach.

And hopefully, the next time something similar happens, they won't need me.

That's the win.

I also hope the employee learned something from the situation as well.

Communication matters.

Knowing when to pick up the phone matters.

Understanding that a text can be interpreted differently than you intended matters.

Those are lessons that can follow them for years, especially as they move into future positions and take on more responsibility.

And honestly, I'm proud of both of them.

They were put into a difficult situation, they worked through it and they came out the other side.

Now, not every situation is going to be resolvable.

Some problems are bigger than a conversation.

Some relationships aren't going to work.

And sometimes a decision simply needs to be made.

But I believe that when situations are handled correctly, you give yourself a chance to resolve them.

That's the part I think we sometimes forget as GMs.

We can get so caught up in being the person who has all the answers that we forget one of our biggest jobs is teaching other people how to find the answers.

So the next time you think a situation is completely unresolvable, take another look.

Ask yourself:

Did this really become a problem… or did one misread text start the spiral downward?

You can't unsend the text.

You can't erase the reaction.

But you can rebuild the trust.

You can pick up the phone.

You can have the conversation.

And you can give your managers the tools and confidence to handle the next one better.

Because maybe your managers really can be as good as you.

It just starts with you.

Good luck!