Sunday, April 15, 2012

Assistants and Interns

"Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence." -Colin Powell



The time is approaching in which students and golf courses are preparing for their summer internships. Students are finishing up those grueling last few weeks of school, and golf courses are awaiting the arrival of their eager help for the summer. For students, their focus is shifting to the summer, and the excitement to apply what they have learned in school to the real world.

Interns are an eager group, ready to learn new skills and techniques special to where they will be for the summer. As assistants, we will be working along side them, teaching them and training them how to apply what they have learned in school to our courses. Motivation is key for interns, communication and cooperation are equally important to maintain persistence in their performance.

Internships are a time for assistants to teach, lead, and influence. One superintendent told me during my internship, "I take you guys because, I believe in investing in the future".  Its important for assistants to remember that message when working with interns. Connections, are what make us more dynamic as assistants, no matter who that connection is.

For us assistants, remember your best internship, your best bosses, and the most influential moments that made you who you are today. Those are the people and times, that have defined your success.....share it.

Monday, April 2, 2012

The Weeks Before the Tournament

"If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude." - Colin Powell


Every club has a few of those tournaments at their course that they want everything to look nice and be in tip top condition. Everybody on the maintenance staff feels this pressure and wants the same thing. What about the crew? Where does morale stand? Like any team you're only as strong as your weakest person. As an assistant if you haven't injected yourself into the crew the weeks before a tournament now is probably a great time to do so.

The crew employee is on the front line of making your goals and ideas become reality. Invest in those crew members just like you would a bank account and watch them grow. As you invest you gain interest and value in and from those individuals. As you work with different crew members their interest will grow, and so will their value for their own work. Pretty soon you have made your way around working with everybody on staff, and morale is boosted and self-value is insured in those employees. Your end product is a self-valued, motivated, synergetic team.