Energy and enthusiasm levels among club managers and staff are as high as I’ve seen them in ten-plus years. But below the effervescent surface, it’s often not hard to detect some troubling turbulence.
The introduction of a wide variety of new club activities and services; design innovations and improvements that have been brought about by a flurry of facilities renovations and upgrades; the influx and influence of a new generation of club members that has been attracted by effective marketing of family-friendly features.
These are all exciting developments that, combined with the improved economy, make it fun to visit virtually any club property these days. Energy and enthusiasm levels among managers and staff are as high as I’ve seen them in ten-plus years of covering the business.
Below the effervescent surface, however, it’s often not too hard to detect some troubling turbulence. Many of the changes that are creating new excitement at club properties have been generated by a change in top management, which in turn has usually sent a rippling wave of turnover through many, if not all, of the various operating departments.
There is often plenty of justification for these moves, especially in cases where the new GM was brought in to shake up and turn around a struggling ship. Still, I’ve yet to come across too many, if any, situations where a completely new management team can be put in place, making it much easier for the GM to seamlessly implement his or her new initiatives. More likely, it’s going to have to be done with a mix of new and old, because there will inevitably be some “untouchables” who are firmly entrenched in their positions, for both good and bad reasons.
In some cases, as with the club we are featuring in the October issue’s cover story (“Flying High Again in Florida”), a new GM will have the extremely good fortune of inheriting long-tenured, respected and popular department heads who will be invaluable resources and won’t hesitate to enthusiastically support new agendas for change. But it’s more typical, I’m afraid, to encounter atmospheres where it’s not hard to sense, no matter how much effort is made to mask it, that managers who were previously in place are harboring an attitude of “I’m bullet-proof and don’t have to go along with what they now want to do.”
Below the department-head level, another trend is percolating that is creating a different form of old-vs.-new-ways challenge. For many years, club managers almost exclusively cited other respected clubs as their models and benchmarks for the service standards and initiatives they sought to implement. If they went outside the club industry at all to describe what they were trying to emulate, high-end hospitality examples like Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons were mentioned.
Lately, however, I’ve been hearing a lot more references to places like Panera Bread, Applebee’s and Home Depot, as managers describe how they now seek to provide products and services in response to member and guest demands, and how they want to train their workers and direct their operations. While these can also be good examples to follow, and are perhaps more relevant as club environments become more casual and active, they do bring their own set of cultural characteristics, and could in fact require some undoing of what long-time club workers have been trained for and have practiced.
The good news is, the positive results that are being generated by the industry’s newfound energy can go a long way towards getting even the most resistant or hesitant people on board. But managers who are barreling ahead in their quest for game-changing influence would be wise to turn around once in a while, just to make sure that everyone on the team they’re trying to bring along with them is also facing forward.
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