Business Core Values

Team Orientation 
Last week we did a mini-orientation for the team at one of the golf courses we manage. We had not met more than half of the team and most all of them had not met us before. As a seasonal operation the golf course was not open yet, but many of these people were going to be returning staff from previous years and it was our first season as the Club’s Managers.

A lot of things need to go into an orientation but we’ve always attempted to keep the meetings relatively short and upbeat to get the team motivated for the season ahead. One of the more mundane subjects to go through is the employee handbook. Who wants to sit, watch and listen to a Manager or Supervisor read, line by line, from a manual that is right in front of them? Not us either. We try to hit on the highlights of our polices, procedures and expectations verbally and ask that they take the time to read the handbook prior to their first day of work.

Core Business Values
As the years have gone on we’ve changed (improved) the way we’ve done these orientations. One thing we’ve become more clear about is addressing our core business values, which is really a fancy way of letting everyone know our expectations while at the same time knowing that they can expect the same from us.

We thought we would share these with you:

1. Trust – We trust you, until you give us a reason not to. Without trust we have nothing. We also expect you to trust us. When we say we we will do something, we will.
2. Consistency – What ever you do in your job be consistent in the completion of every task and/ or in the messages that you communicate. You can expect the same from us in our decisions for the business and for you. We often use the line “what we do for one person we have to do for everyone, so think through the impact of your decisions”.
3. Adaptability – Things are going to change, they have to. We continually need to improve the business. That means making changes. It also means that “the way you’ve always done it” needs to change to “this is how we do it now and it makes sense, I’ll give it a try”.
4. Business First – The golf business continues to be in a challenging place financially. Whatever decision you make has to put the business first. Ask yourself, “does this make sense for the business”? If it does great, but if you cannot answer that question with certainty that it is a yes than it is probably not the right decision. If we ask you how the event went last night, the answer is usually tied to the financial performance of the event, not whether people had a good time or were happy (those things are important too but not the top thing). The answer lies in whether the event was successful financially for the business as well as for the customers.

We, Jeff and Tara Ciecko of CK Golf write two blogs, one is our 19th Hole Blog where we share personal experiences and the other an Industry Blog where we comment on general business and internet marketing best practices, sales strategies and give golf industry related opinions. We have owned CK Golf  for 9 years and provide marketing, social media and business services to the golf and other industries. As of August 2016 our life and our business will be ‘location independent’. Our 19th Hole Blog is about the places we visit and the things we do. If you have any questions or comments, or happen to be in the same location as us please reach out and contact us anytime.