EPISODE 111

Luke Two club team members really stuck out to me, and one was Raleigh Carlson, who was the GM, and then Lane Wickham, who is the head golf professional. And the way that they made me feel, how they made me feel part of the community, cared about, was really what sort of inspired me to become a head golf professional. And to get into the hospitality business because that sense of belonging that I felt there was something that I wanted to deliver to others, and have other kids in my position feel the same way I did. And so that led me to Florida Gulf Coast, where I went to PGM School. Then, kind of up the golf side of things, and had some great mentors along the way – Nathan Olaf at Interlochen, Louisa Bergsma at Minicata, and Dave Tentis and Brent Sider at Troy Burns. It’s been really fortunate to learn from some great people. I think at every job you learn great habits from people, and you pick out the best things that they do. But I think what’s probably been most impactful is that at every job I’ve learned more about what I like to do, where my skillset and passions are. And that’s probably what’s really driven all of my sort of changes throughout my career and how I’ve gotten here. I learned that I’m really inspired to deliver a great experience, and I want to go and pursue opportunities, and I’m going to be able to deliver a great experience for the membership, provide those wow moments. And then I love working with people. My favorite part of every job is working with the people. And so, what opportunities and what side of the business was going to allow me to have the most influence on the member experience, and what was going to allow me to work with the most number of people?

Derek Yeah, that’s awesome. Shout out to Rollie. Rollie is the greatest. As our business was honing in on the private club industry, Rollie was instrumental in kind of helping me, giving me some advice. So you’re the general manager now at The Club at Golden Valley. This is not your first general manager role. You’re now coming up on the end of that first 90-day period. Before we talked about what that looked like, what did you think it would look like? You’d been through that experience before, you know, walking into a new organization, new team, new membership, new culture, even a new location. What did you think that first 90 days might look like?

Luke I would say I plan on prioritizing people. And so with that, maybe even being a bit ruthless about my schedule, which is I wasn’t going to spend a lot of time on it if it wasn’t going to allow me to build relationships, both with our team members and club members. And so I really viewed myself as being able to be highly visible in those first 90 days, spending a lot of one-on-one time with our team members, a lot of interactions with club members, and I would say, so far, largely, it’s been sort of representative of that.

Derek When you walk in for the first time, and you start taking in and observing everything, it’s such a critical point. It’s fresh eyes. No bias. I mean, there’s a perception that you have come in with. The club that you’re now joining has a reputation. It is in the same market that you worked in previously. So you are aware of it, and it’s a relatively smallish community. So it’s not brand new. But when you walk in for the first time, outside of the operations, but I’m thinking just sort of within that people side, culturally, how do you make sure that you’re observing that in the most honest and authentic and fresh way to really help you get a baseline of what this place is about?

Luke I’m a really big believer in actively seeking out opportunities to learn and actively seeking out opportunities to listen. Two ways that I’ve done that here, and that’s been successful in some of my previous roles, is we have these bi-weekly club member insight chats. So it’s an hour every other Saturday, we invite 10 members at random from all different backgrounds, different membership categories, to sit down and talk about the club. What do we do really well? Where’s there opportunity? What are the strengths of our culture? I also flip it back to them. They have a chance to ask me any questions they’d like to about me or the club.  It’s a good way for me to get a pulse in the club and hear about the club from a lot of different backgrounds and experiences, and allow those members also to hear the varying experiences of their fellow members. And then Member Round Table Chats with a couple of team members from every department. We talk about what we do great as an employer, where we have opportunity as an employer, and how they would describe our culture at its best. And so I think hearing all those different perspectives and then bringing that together helps remove just sort of what I think. I’m really trying to learn what our key stakeholders, our members and team members, what do they think of our culture? How do they describe it?

Derek The position you walked into, you inherited an identity, a brand. You inherited a culture. The identity of the club has gone through an evolution of that identity recently. And in complete transparency, my company played a role in that. So, having seen and participated in guiding the club in landing on that statement that expresses what the club is all about, which is life well played, in that key message. And in updating that primary symbol, what we call the Rally Horn, the G, that has a couple of inside components that speak to people who, if they know, they know that are members. There’s a visual transformation, but there’s also been some clarity working with the board, with the committee, with the former GM, with some key invested members on really getting clarity on defining the culture specifically at that club. And that was done before you arrived. What’s it like stepping into that, versus somebody who I’m sure would, in many cases, have preferred to have participated in that and played a role in that. To inherit that, and then to be tasked or have the role of moving that forward and stepping into something, and that kind of momentum, what’s that like?

Luke Yeah, so I guess I’ll talk about it from two different perspectives. One, a new GM onboarding and getting to know the club. And then two, from kind of a strategic perspective, a longer-term look. One of the greatest benefits of it, and I really felt this as I was going through the interview process, is that by having this clearly defined culture, I knew whether or not I thought it was going to be a good fit for me. And so, knowing what the club represented, knowing how they define their experience and how they want it to feel, whether or not that was the culture that I would be most successful in, and one that would excite me, and that I felt that I could be successful in. So, a huge benefit to knowing what you’re getting into as you come into it. So I already felt aligned with where the club was headed. Then I think internally, by having it defined, I think all clubs have an identity. They just haven’t done a great job of defining that, and in the absence of definition and in the absence of having that communicated, you end up with some fragmentation. And so your membership isn’t as aligned. Stepping into what is a very aligned membership, they’ve rallied behind the brand, behind the identity. And so as we make decisions, as we drive direction, a lot of the fundamentals are already there. It’s membership who’s signed up and said, Yep, this is who we are, this is where we want to go. We have a team that’s able to make decisions towards that. And so I think it’s going to allow for really meaningful progress much quicker than when you don’t have that sort of infrastructure in place.

Derek I’ve witnessed and noticed already some changes that are happening, some things that you’re doing that are already implementing with respect to how that identity and that culture are starting to be reinforced and expressed. When a new general manager comes in, and the board has put their trust in that role, how much of a balance is it between taking those first 90 days to listen and learn, again, not just culturally but operationally, versus feeling any pressure, whether that’s coming from the board or not, to be acting and implementing noticeable, visible changes. How does that balance work for you?

Luke I guess I’d go back to the active engagement approach. And having dedicated, maybe formalized ways, to get feedback, I think has been super important. That way, the membership and the team also see you getting out there, quote-unquote doing stuff. And I think that’s really productive, so you can point back to exactly what you’re accomplishing, what you are taking out of it in a way that maybe you can’t if you’re just touching tables and sort of wandering through the facilities, and people wonder what they are actually doing, and it adds pressure. I think you also just have to embrace the reality that a lot of people do want to see some impact. What’s always sort of worked best for me is in these meetings and in these formats, our team members and club members tell you exactly what they want. And if you listen close, oftentimes it’s really small, simple stuff. And so I’ve always described them as quick wins. They’re low financial impact, and they’re low effort. And if you just hear them, you can knock some of these things out. Both from a team member perspective, but also from a club member perspective, feel a little bit of that impact, and it isn’t these massive transformational sort of projects, but it’s just recognition that you’re engaging, you’re listening, you are hearing, and you’re also going to act on it.

Derek I’m envisioning how long your list is coming out of all of these active listening sessions with all of those members telling you exactly what they want. Like you said, members don’t have any problem telling you what they want changed, or what they want added, or what they want tweaked, or what they want to stay the same. And I have to imagine that list is long. I’m sure there are some commonalities and some voices are probably louder than others in those expressions, but it’s really your job to kind of filter through and say what of these are low-hanging fruit, and of the ones that are more substantial, more impactful, might need to be a little bit more thoughtful about which ones to prioritize that actually make the most sense here.

Luke Yeah, there’s definitely themes. So look at what themes and say, okay, this is part of a strategic plan. This is part of a longer-term look at how we get there. And also, what are just sort of the nuisances or small little things that we could do right away that just haven’t happened? A really small, simple example on our team member side is we had a printer that always gets jammed, like never worked that well. And so, let’s call it about an hour of effort to get a new printer in here. And now it works, and everyone’s lives are a little bit easier, and not transformational by any means, but just a simple win that makes the lives of our team members just a little bit better. And you do the same things on the club side. Have you seen that we’ve updated some of our communication to try to make it a little bit easier on the member? Not an unbelievable amount of effort to do that, just a little bit slightly different approach that things have been really well received too.

Derek Whether it’s in one of these active listening sessions or just in a conversation that happened as you were walking around and talking with people, whether it was a staff member of the team or a member of club, any of those conversations or have you had any experiences that shifted how you think about this particular club compared to how you thought about it as you were coming in or as you’re interviewing for the position, any changes or even confirmations once those experiences started to happen?

Luke Yeah, probably more confirmations. I think one event or sort of day that sticks out is that I was here through dinner service, and I started off with this family of four. They came here after school. They’ve got a table. Two minutes later, it’s eight. And then I went into my office, and I came back out, and the table now had expanded to four families. And so, here are four families that didn’t know that the other ones were coming to the club. And they just sort of came, and they’re friends, and their kids are friends, and then they built this great table of community, and everyone was having fun, and then as the evening moved on, the kids transitioned to our bistro and were playing games and hanging out there, and the parents had a few extra minutes to enjoy dessert and an extra cocktail. It really started to hit me like, this is exactly how a club is meant to be used. Here’s great community that’s being built. Here’s long-lasting friendships that are being built, and an experience that you can’t have just anywhere. You can’t have that sort of freedom to just let the size of your group expand, and the freedom to let your kids go have an awesome, fun time playing and hanging out in a separate space. It was a good reminder that that’s a strength that we really need to continue to double down on and make sure that that isn’t just something that happens once in a while, but we have that sort of experience happening all the time for all the different families here at the club.

Derek That’s awesome to see the energy, to see the personalities. We talk about how one club could be across town from another club and they could both have the same amenities or name brand golf course, architects, maybe even be the same cost to join, but one thing that’s always the differentiator that I’m assuming you’ve witnessed at all the clubs you’ve been at that are never the same are those cultures, the spirit and the energy that that particular club’s membership and their families create.

Luke Certainly. There are a lot of great golf courses, a lot of awesome clubhouses, a lot of great clubs. But what separates and what keeps the members there is the sense of community and feeling like it represents who you are. And certainly, I think, a strength of Golden Valley and the club here is the community and the culture. And so if you’ve got a great culture, and if you’ve got a great piece of property, you’re going to have a really great club for a long time.

Derek The identity, the club’s branding, the foundational elements, the vision statement, the mission statement, and that clarity on what we would call guiding principles, sometimes that work gets done, it’s hard work, and it ends up in a document, or best case, it ends on a wall somewhere. We think about guidance on how staff greets staff and how staff greets members, and language that gets used and phrases and turns of words that at this organization, these are the kind of things that we do say or don’t say that reinforce and nurture the way that we are and how we want to continue to craft and build that reputation that we want. What I don’t have a direct line into is how do you take all of that and then activate that into your staff? Has that already started to happen with all the conversations that you’re having, or is that continuing to phase in? I think you said you just met with the last member of the team. To me, that feels like a very large initiative, a very big responsibility to basically be the steward now of that identity and make sure that the staff is living that. How’s that going?

Luke You know, I feel fortunate I stepped into a culture and a team here that was really pushing it. And so, my biggest responsibility right away is just to make sure that they have the resources and tools to be able to embrace this and activate it throughout our experience. And so that’s been one of my focuses right away and part of even these conversations. What resources and tools do you need to be able to best represent the club’s vision, to help get us there? Really fun. A large part, they’re pushing me harder than I’m pushing them to make sure that this is done. But I do think there’s also that second element, which is just asking the questions. Challenging us on the way that we do everything. And I think it’s important that we’re always evaluating every practice at the club. And now, are we doing this to best support our brand, or are we doing this to best support the member experience as this representative of where we’re going, and if not, where can we improve this? And so just making sure we don’t get stuck in sort of this is how we’ve done it, this is how we’re going to continue to do it. The teams really embrace it, try to give them resources, and then continue to question and challenge and say, how can this keep getting better?

Derek I think you’ve had the benefit of being a GM prior. So you’ve gone through this onboarding, this first 90-day opportunity, previously. So I think you have the benefit of maybe knowing what to expect and having an agenda of the key things that you want to take from this. I’m thinking about a person who’s walking into that general manager role for the first time. What’s the risk for that person of not using this first 90 days most effectively? What could that cost them, cost the club, or become harder to fix if they’re not focused on the right things at this time?

Luke I think the hardest thing to fix and repair is relationships. So if you don’t dedicate enough time and energy to building relationships in the early days, it’s going to be really hard to be successful, and it’s really hard to undo any damage that potentially was done early on. Whether that’s making decisions without building consensus behind them, or not giving people the opportunity to feel heard and listened to. Those early impressions will stay. You can’t solve that with money. GMs, myself, make lots of mistakes. Sometimes they cost the club money. Sometimes they don’t, but those are easily corrected. If you paint the walls the wrong color, you just paint them a different color. But when we’re talking about relationships, if you don’t approach the first 90 days in the right manner, you don’t build meaningful relationships. It can be hard to undo that damage, and it can also be really hard to make progress. You’re going to have to make decisions at times that aren’t popular. You are going to make mistakes, and the way you get through those is by having team members and club members know that you really care about them. You really care about their club, and if you don’t take the time to get to know them and build that relationship, progress is really difficult.

Derek One last question, if I’m a GM and I’m listening to this, or I am either about to take a GM role or I’m about to transition into my first day at a new club to me, what’s one point of advice that you would give that person that they could be or should be thinking about or doing heading into that new position?

Luke I think it’s just to be authentic. You’re going to get lots of advice on how to handle it. There are going to be lots of expectations on you and expectations about how you’re going to approach your first 90 days, and what that first interaction with you is going to feel like at the club. And, you know, not to try and necessarily meet other people’s expectations or trying to match how you approach it to what you think they want. You don’t want to have it be unauthentic, and then a year later, you’re trying to change what people have gotten used to to feel like it’s more you. It’s a lot easier just to be yourself from the start.

Derek Couldn’t have said it better. Really appreciate your time. This was an awesome conversation. I’d love to do it again sometime. Thanks for joining us today.

Luke I would too. Thank you so much. Really appreciate the opportunity.

Derek This conversation has been a great reminder of how rare and valuable the first 90-day window of a general manager’s onboarding really is. Luke’s approach, listening before acting, honoring what was built before him while finding his own footing, is exactly the kind of leadership that turns a strong identity into a living culture. One more thing. We are launching Clubs Made Meaningful Insights, and we would love to have you as one of our readers. The conversations that we’re having on this podcast with general managers, membership and marketing directors, consultants, architects, and club leaders from across the country are inspiring us to take this thinking further. Not episode recaps or show highlights, but original content like frameworks, perspectives, and ideas on identity, belonging, member experience, and Club culture. It’s something you will be able to share with your board or your leadership team. Sign up at clubsmademeaningful.com. At Sussner, we help private clubs build brands that create belonging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with someone in your club world. And until next time, let’s create something worth celebrating.