504: Right Advice. Wrong Club.

Welcome To Private Club Radio

Denny Corby 0:00

Welcome to the Private Club Radio Show, the show where you get the scoop on life inside private golf and country clubs. I'm your host, Danny Corby, and each episode is a real conversation with club leaders, the pros, the people and partners who help clubs thrive. We talk leadership, culture, food and beverage, member experiences, member engagement, marketing, governance, and so much more. If you want practical ideas, better teams in a club experience, members actually feel and talk about. You are in the right place now. Welcome to the show.

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In this episode,

Why Leadership Advice Conflicts

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I wanna talk about the right way, Because there's a lot of advice out there about leadership, a lot. We have, like, 500 episodes of leadership here just on Private Club Radio about club leadership, and then you have how much other content and books and videos and lectures and audiobooks and Advice There's just a lot of everything The manager should always be on the floor. The manager should never be on the floor. The manager should stay out of the way and empower the team. The general manager should always be visible every weekend. The general manager should not have to be there every weekend if the operation is running properly, right? You need to lead from the front. You have to lead from the back. You need to be discreet. You need to listen more. You have to move more quickly. You have to move more slowly. You need to slow down to build consensus and The weird thing is everybody is right. Well, maybe not everybody, 'cause there are definitely some wild opinions and a ton of wild cards out there. But a lot of people are right, and they are right about what worked for them in their situation, at their club, with their team during that particular moment in time. The problem comes when we take something that worked in one environment and decide it must be the only way to do it everywhere It worked at my club, therefore it is the right way. I've been doing this for 30 years, and everybody should do it the same way I did. Our members expect this, therefore all club members should expect this. But that's not really how clubs work. Every club is different. Every membership is a little bit different. Every board's a bit different. Every staff's a bit different. Every community is a bit different. Every leader is a little bit different There are clubs where members wanna see the GM walking through the dining room every Friday and Saturday night. They want the handshakes, they want the conversation, and they wanna know that the person in charge is right there paying attention. And as we know, there's other clubs where the members could care less where the GM is at 7:30 on Saturday night. They care that the food is good, the service is strong, and the team is supported, and everything works. Neither club is wrong. Neither manager is automatically better They are just simply different environments with different expectations I don't think the question is not what is the right way to lead?

Lead For This Club Right Now

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I think the better question is, what is the best way to lead here? Here at this club, with these members, with this board, with this team, at this particular point in the club's history Cause what a club needs today might be completely different from what it needs five years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now. And obviously we know that's why good clubs have good master plans and things and processes and all of that in place. And some aren't, and that's okay. Hopefully they are pushing through and trying to make themselves better and put the proper procedures and s- things in place to make themselves thrive and sustain for many, many, many, many, many years to club, uh, many years to come Because a club going through major change might need a visible, energetic, hands-on leader who's constantly and consistently communicating and pushing things forward. A stable club with a more experienced team might need someone who creates clarity, builds trust, and then gets out of everyone's way. One club might need a builder, another might need a fixer, another might need a steady hand, another might need someone who can bring people together after years of tension. Those are all totally different jobs. They might all have the same title, but they're not the same job. I think that's why finding the right fit matters so much And fit does not mean everybody thinks the same way. It doesn't mean a leader walks into a club and changes nothing. Sometimes the club is intentionally hiring someone to challenge the culture and create change But there still has to be that understanding between what the club actually needs and what the leader naturally brings. What energy do you bring into a room? How do you communicate? How do you handle conflict? How visible do you like to be? How much of your life are you genuinely willing to give to that position? How do you make decisions? What kind of people do you work best with? Right, what does the, what does the club actually expect and need when the season gets busy, the board gets frustrated, a key employee leaves, and there's three members waiting at your door? That's when fit becomes real I think sometimes people interview for the job they want instead of presenting the leader they actually are.

When Fit Becomes Real

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They hear, they hear a club wants a highly visible manager, so suddenly they're the most visible person in America, right? They hear innovation, so they start talking like they invented the future But eventually you have to do the job. Eventually your real leadership style appears, and the club's real culture appears too, and everybody stops interviewing. And that is where some people can discover that neither side is necessarily bad, they're just not right for each other. And that can be a hard pill to swallow, especially when it happens more than once, right? Cause you as the GM, you're like, "Oh man, is it, is it me?" And maybe part of it is, right? We should always be willing to look in the mirror, learn, improve, and take responsibility and own situations and things. And plus, it's always, I think, just easier just to blame yourself than, than others. Uh, but sometimes you're not failing as a leader, right? You're just trying to succeed in an environment that requires you to become someone that you're not And now that does not mean you should never adapt.

Adapting Versus Pretending

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Great leaders adapt constantly, but adaptability and pretending are not the same thing. Adapting means understanding the room, adjusting how you communicate, how you lead, and how you support people. And pretending means building an entirely different personality just to survive that room You can adjust your volume without changing your voice. That is the balance. You need to know who you are, but you also need enough awareness to understand what the people around you need also. That a- that awareness usually comes through experience. Sometimes it comes from great experience, sometimes it comes from rough experiences. Uh, sometimes you have to work in an environment that does not fit you to understand what the right environment will eventually feel like.

Lessons From Tough Performances

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Like, I remember early in my performing career of doing, doing my shows, I would try to purpo- purposely put myself in as many difficult performing situations as possible, so that way when I could come to a situation, I... it probably isn't my first time there. I'm not gonna be as nervous or anxious. Like, "Oh, hey, no, I've been here before. This won't be as bad." Right? So I remember early on I tried to put myself in scenarios of performing surrounded or with bad angles or with difficult people, right? Performing at places that ha- naturally have a difficult audience because you... because I know then if I can kill it and perform for this very unique, difficult audience, then you can put me in almost any room and all is always gonna be well Oh, and speaking of my show, shameless plug.

Shows And Management In Motion

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If your club is looking for one of the most fun member event nights, you have the Denny Corby experience. There's excitement, there's mystery, also there's magic, mind reading, and comedy. A ton of laughs, gasps, and holy craps. If you wanna learn more, head on over to DennyCorby.com. We are currently booking a couple last fall dates, but well into 2027 Learn more at DennyCorby.com. Performed for well over 350 clubs to great success. Check out the testimonials, all the videos online. And while you're on the website, DennyCorby.com, checking out all the cool stuff, you might wanna head over to the Management in Motion tab and learn more about the fun day conference, management in Motion, my leadership event, putting it on year number two, Management in Motion at the Monticello Motor Club, September 21st If you're feeling burnt out, come and burn out with us. We are gonna have so much fun. We're gonna take high-speed M- BMW M vehicles, drifting, drag racing, high-speed laps, lead follows. We have some go-karts. We have a crazy cool poker tournament. And in between all of the driving sessions, I have leadership put on by your fellow peers about how, how they use their motions to lead in their perfors- in their professional and personal lives. It is so much fun We are almost sold out, less than 20 spots left. Check it out, m- DennyCorby.com/managementinmotion But anyway, performing in those scenarios,

Reps That Build Better Leaders

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right? That was education It forced me to adjust. It forced me to figure out how to hold attention, how to position myself, how to make something work when the environment was not naturally helping me. Was it the best or perfect performance environment? No. Did I learn from it? Absolutely And leadership is the same way. Sometimes you need reps in uncomfortable situations. You need to experience the difficult board meetings. You need to inherit the divided team. You need to work through the event that does not go according to plan. You need to discover what happens when your natural leadership style is not landing the way you expected nobody wants the difficult experience while they are still standing in the middle of it, but it often teaches you something that the easy experiences never could. It teaches you what you value. It teaches you what you can tolerate, what you need to improve. It teaches you the kind of environment where you do your best work, and it also helps you recognize that environment when you finally do find it That's why I love hearing different perspectives on leadership I love talking to managers who are incredibly visible and hands-on. I love talking to leaders who are, who have built such strong teams that they don't need to touch or make or be a part of every single decision I love hearing s- someone explain why they're at the club every single weekend and then also hearing somebody explain why they intentionally are not I don't have to choose one and declare the, the other

Turning Advice Into Useful Tools

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person wrong. We can all learn from both Good advice is not always an instruction. Sometimes it's just another tool. You listen, you learn, you think about the environment, then you decide whether that tool belongs in your toolbox Cause the best leaders are not the people who follow every piece of advice They are the people who understand which advice belongs in which room So yes, learn the fun- fundamentals, treat people well, communicate clearly and early, be honest, be consistent, be considerate, take responsibility, understand the business, know your members, support your teams. Those things matter almost everywhere, obviously But after the fundamentals, there is a lot of room for different styles There's room for different personalities, different types of leaders, and the challenge is finding the place your strengths are valuable, your style is understood, and your energy matches what the club needs, what the members need, what the strategic plan needs And sometimes you will discover that the club you are in is not the right fit for you, and that is okay Sometimes we know the job looks great on paper and even in interviews. The compensation is right, the title's right, the location's great, but the fit is wrong. And recognizing that is not failure. Sometimes staying too long and trying to force it is the bigger mistake. You don't need to fit at every club. You need to find the club where you can do meaningful work, support good people, continue growing, and still recognize yourself when you go home. So listen to the advice, learn from everybody, take the parts that help you, question the part that don't. Keep getting your reps, keep learning who you are Keep learning what environment brings out your best There is no right way to lead.

Find Your Fit And Close

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There is only the right leader for the right people at the right time at the right club Find your fit and then crush it Lead the hell out of that place That's it Hope you all enjoyed this episode I'm your host, Denny Corby You wanna learn more about the Denny Corby experience and Management in Motion, head on over to DennyCorby.com. That's this episode. Until next time. Catch y'all on the flippity flip