Inside the Club: Lines of Communication are Now Open

In every business there are growing pains. When new people and departments are added to your business it’s a catalyst for change. For yourself this can be very exciting, but if your staff isn’t prepared for certain pieces to be added to their daily work life, it can become chaotic.

Open lines of communication between yourself, your leaders (and your leaders to their staff) is vital to the success of your business. Through these open lines you should focus on designing a clear vision for the person in a particular role. If you can’t understand what their role will be, they won’t be able to either.

When lines of communication aren’t open or clear, they can bottleneck and you can experience issues all the way down the chain of command. It’s like playing a game of telephone — you tell someone one thing, they repeat it to another person (but slightly different), and then they tell another person and so on, until the message is completely diluted. An already confusing message has no chance of making it to the end with any clarity whatsoever.

At this time of year it’s even more important that your communication and expectations for your staff are as clear as possible. Your club is hopefully firing on all cylinders at the moment, with every department doing its best to either sell new members or retain new members. This isn’t the time to completely change the play on one of your leaders. If you’d like to call an audible in the play and make a slight adjustment to something you witnessed, that’s completely acceptable, but ensure that you convey exactly what you’re looking for from your leader.

Open communication can be difficult. In today’s society we are continuously being bombarded with new ideas and feelings about our current business. Without spending time in thought and developing clear ideas on your own, you won’t ever be able to communicate properly to your leaders. Likewise, if you don’t provide enough time for your leaders to do the same, they won’t be able to clearly convey needs and duties to their staff.

Like I said, this time of year you’re firing on all cylinders, which is fantastic. However, now it’s crucial that you communicate clearly to your team. Convey your thoughts and needs properly without simply reacting to your stress. When you can do this properly you will develop more respect from your team, as well as operate a more successful and enjoyable business.

Tyler Montgomery is the Editor-in-Chief of Club Solutions Magazine. For thoughts on his blog, the print issue or the industry, reach out to him at tyler@peakemedia.com.