How to Get Your Board to Think Strategically About Your Club’s Brand (A GM’s Guide)
You’re in another board meeting. Someone suggests updating the logo. Another board member mentions the website needs a refresh. A third brings up inconsistent signage around the club.
Everyone nods. These are real issues. Visible issues.
Then someone says: “Let’s get quotes for a new logo and website.”
And just like that, your board is spending time and money on symptoms instead of causes.
This happens at clubs everywhere. Leadership sees surface-level inconsistencies and jumps straight to tactical fixes without asking the strategic question underneath it all: Who are we, and what makes us special?
As a general manager, you do not have time to referee these debates or manage projects that solve nothing. You need your board thinking strategically so your operations can run with clarity and confidence.
This guide provides a practical framework for shifting that thinking.
Why “We Just Need a New Logo” Kills Strategic Momentum
When boards say “we just need a new logo,” they are treating branding as a cosmetic problem. A visual refresh. A design project.
But here is what actually happens when clubs approach branding this way:
The logo changes. Nothing else does.
The new logo does not help staff understand how to greet members. It does not guide your food and beverage director in programming decisions. It does not give your membership team clarity on who your club serves best.
It is a new symbol for the same undefined identity.
And six months later, someone will say: “I’m not sure this logo really captures who we are.”
Because the logo was never the problem.
The problem is that your club has not defined its strategic identity: the vision, culture, member experience, and competitive positioning that should guide every operational decision you make.
Without that foundation, every decision becomes a debate. Every investment becomes a guess. And you, as the general manager, spend your time managing opinions instead of leading strategy.
The Real Cost of Tactical Thinking (And Why Boards Default to It)
Tactical thinking feels productive. It is concrete. It is visible. It is easy to understand.
“We need a new website” makes sense to everyone. “We need clarity on our strategic identity” sounds abstract.
But tactical thinking without strategic clarity creates three expensive problems:
- Misaligned investments Clubs spend millions on renovations without knowing if those projects strengthen what makes them special or just add amenities. One club we worked with invested in a state-of-the-art fitness center, then realized their members valued social connection over individual wellness. The facility was world-class. The utilization was disappointing.
- Inconsistent member experiences Without a defined culture, your staff improvises. The front desk is formal. The bar staff is casual. The membership director writes emails that sound corporate. Members experience three different versions of your club and wonder: “Who are we, really?”
- Decision paralysis When boards cannot answer “Does this align with who we are?”, every decision becomes a political negotiation. Projects stall. Momentum dies. And you spend meeting after meeting debating opinions instead of making strategic progress.
The clubs that avoid these problems do not have smarter boards. They have strategic clarity that gives everyone a shared lens for making decisions.
Five Steps to Shift Your Board from Tactics to Strategy
You cannot force your board to think strategically. But you can guide them there by reframing how you present challenges and opportunities.
Here is the proven framework we have seen work at clubs across the country:
Step 1: Start with the question, not the solution
When someone says “we need a new logo,” do not debate whether the logo is fine or outdated.
Instead, ask: “What problem are we trying to solve?”
This single question shifts the conversation from tactics (what we will do) to strategy (why we are doing it).
If the answer is “our logo looks dated,” dig deeper: “And what is the cost of that? How is it affecting member perception or our ability to attract the right prospects?”
If the answer is vague, you have just revealed that the logo is not the real issue. The real issue is lack of clarity about what the club stands for.
Step 2: Connect decisions to outcomes
Boards respond to results, not process. So frame every strategic conversation around tangible outcomes.
Instead of saying: “I think we should invest in brand strategy.”
Say this: “I have been tracking some inconsistencies that I believe are costing us momentum. If we had clarity on our strategic identity, I think we could double event participation, reduce staff turnover, and make our next capital project decision in one meeting instead of three.”
You are not asking them to care about branding. You are showing them how strategic clarity solves operational problems they already feel.
Step 3: Make the invisible visible
Most boards do not realize how much inconsistency exists until you show them. Start noticing and documenting the disconnects:
- How members are greeted at the front door versus how they are served at the bar
- The difference in tone between the website, email communications, and in-person interactions
- How presentations to the membership look different every time
- Why staff members give different answers to the same question about club culture
Then bring these observations to leadership casually: “Have you noticed how much our membership director struggles to keep communications consistent? Would it not be easier if she had a messaging framework to guide her?”
You are not criticizing. You are revealing the cost of working without strategic clarity.
Step 4: Reframe requests from tactical to strategic
When you need to request a budget or board approval for something, lead with strategy and let tactics follow.
Tactical framing (weak): “We need a new logo so our website looks better.”
Strategic framing (strong): “We have an opportunity to clarify our identity and positioning before our clubhouse renovation. This would ensure every investment we make strengthens member attachment instead of just adding amenities. The visual identity comes as part of that strategic foundation.”
Same project. Completely different conversation. The first sounds like a design expense. The second sounds like strategic leadership.
Step 5: Reinforce, repeat, reassure
Strategic thinking does not take root in one conversation. It needs to become part of how your club operates. Build brand thinking into:
- Board orientation: Give new board members the strategic foundation so they understand what guides decisions
- Staff onboarding: Help team members understand not just what to do, but why they are doing it
- Leadership retreats: Make strategic identity a standing agenda item, not a one-time discussion
- Operational planning: When discussing capital projects, programming, or member experience improvements, always start with: “Does this align with who we are?”
The more you reinforce the framework, the more natural it becomes. And the more natural it becomes, the less time you spend managing debates and the more time you spend leading strategic progress.
What Changes When Your Club Thinks Strategically
Clubs that make this shift do not just have prettier logos or more consistent communications. They operate differently.
Decision-making gets faster. When someone proposes renovating the bar into a sports bar, the board does not debate opinions for three months. They ask: “Does this align with our vision and strengthen what makes us special?” Clear answer, fast decision.
Staff becomes more confident. Your team stops asking you how to handle every situation. They start telling you how they handled situations, and you can hear that they are thinking the way you want them to think.
Member experience becomes cohesive. Every touchpoint reinforces the same culture. Members stop experiencing randomness and start experiencing intentional, aligned experiences that build pride and attachment.
Capital investments create value, not just amenities. You stop building what other clubs have built and start investing in what strengthens your unique identity and competitive positioning.
You spend less time managing and more time leading. Because everyone shares the same foundation, you are not refereeing debates or explaining decisions. You are guiding a unified team with strategic clarity. One general manager told us:
“I used to dread board meetings. Now I am energized by them. We make decisions in one meeting that used to take three, and everyone leaves aligned instead of confused.”
That is the difference strategic brand thinking makes.
Your Next Step: Start the Conversation Today
You do not need board approval to start shifting how your club thinks about its identity. You just need to begin the conversation. Here is how to start:
- Notice the inconsistencies. Spend one week documenting the disconnects you see in member experiences, staff communication, and leadership discussions.
- Bring it up casually. Do not schedule a formal presentation. Have a conversation over coffee: “Have you noticed how our presentations to members look different every time? Would it not be easier if we had a consistent template that reflected who we are?”
- Offer a solution to the problem. Do not just point out challenges. Show how strategic thinking solves them: “If we had clarity on our identity and member experience vision, these decisions would be so much easier.”
- Ask the diagnostic question. In your next leadership meeting, ask: “Do we truly have a brand here, or do we just have a logo?” Let the conversation unfold from there.
If you are ready to move from conversation to action, we have built a diagnostic process specifically for general managers who need their boards aligned, their staff confident, and their decisions defensible.
Schedule a 30-minute discovery call. We will help you assess where your club has clarity and where strategic thinking would make your job significantly easier.
Not ready to talk yet? Download our free Club Brand Workbook. It includes the same questions we ask clubs in our first strategy session. You will know in 20 minutes whether your club needs this foundation.
You did not become a general manager to manage chaos. You became a GM to lead a club forward. Strategic brand thinking gives you the framework to do exactly that.
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