The three legs of a well-crafted property: the golf course, operations and hospitality

One of the more difficult areas of the leadership role is investing time in finding and hiring talent. The ability to recruit, hire, coach, and retain key people is essential and it is hard. It is hard because it can feel like an extracurricular activity as often the effort is about tomorrow, while today, you are knee deep in hosing down a stream of fires. Hiring talented people is a skill developed over time through experience and the mistakes of days gone by. Every leader responsible for attracting talent feels the same stress and angst that often land on your desk.

Finding talent is a job unto itself. Although noted as just another line item on the job description, experience shows it is challenging, time-consuming, and fraught with land mines. No matter, it requires your specific time and attention. In a time when fewer people want to work while for those interested candidates the home is the workstation of choice, hiring talent in hospitality is hard. It is just plain hard. This In My Opinion post will focus on three important hires. These are people who make the property go. This post will provide thoughts on the superintendent, the director of food & beverage, and the director of golf. They each lead an important segment from course conditions to the F & B experience to the level of service on the operations side. While every hire is important, getting these three positions right is essential for stability, growth, and long-term success.

The golf course is your product. It is what draws the golfer to play, to join and build your story. It all begins with course conditions. Golfers demand great conditions. They expect tournament conditions on a Tuesday morning, just as for their Saturday morning nassau. Hiring and supporting an excellent Superintendent goes a long way to creating great conditions as well as building reputation and branding for stability today and growth tomorrow. The strong Superintendent commands a solid pay package. For that they work long hours, do anything that is required, and love the course as if it were their own. Locate the best candidate, hire them, and allow them the space to create the story.

It’s so much more than a sandwich and a beer. Great atmosphere: you either feel it or you don’t. Any place serving food has a feel, a personality. No matter the menu, you have people coming through the door who expect to continue to find fun in their day. Hire a happy leader, a people person. Find the Food & Beverage leader who…