“It doesn’t make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do; we hire smart people so they can tell us what to do.”
―Steve Jobs―
A simple concept, yet, many people do not get it.
In 2011, I was working as a Director of Food & Beverage for a golf club in Indian Wells California. My then boss; an old school hard-headed General Manager was one of these people.
Jurgen was a micromanager whose arrogance was so big, he could not see the tremendous amount of talent among his team, We had an exceptionally talented Chef, a great Golf Pro and one of the best Grounds Superintendents in the Coachella Valley just to mention a few.
Jurgen controlled every part of the business taking away every bit of accountability and initiative from us. All decisions included one perspective only; his. As a result, he destroyed the morale of the staff and almost bankrupted the Club.
On June of that year, The Board of Directors decided to let him go and offered me the position. I was thrilled and afraid at the same time; the Club had lost an average of 13 members per year during the 10 years of Jurgen’s tenure; we went from 250 golf members to only 119.
Friends and colleagues advised me no to take the job, particularly because as to be expected, Jurgen never prepared me to become a GM, even though I was number two for eight years and becoming a GM would be the most natural move. So, I did not know much about golf or turf and my marketing and financial knowledge was very limited.
After a couple of sleepless nights I took the job. I knew that by “including the various diverse perspectives and characteristics” of my fellow Manager/Directors we were going to turn the Club around. After all, all I had to do was to let them do what they did best, and give them credit for it.
We immediately started holding weekly meetings where decisions were made in a collaborative way. We all were very capable individuals in our own areas and every one brought something to the table. As stated in the text, “inclusion is the process of incorporating all of those differences” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014) by understanding that every one in that room had a unique set of skills, and that the only possible way for the Club to succeed was by incorporating all of those skills, everyone became an essential piece of the puzzle.
Because of the power of inclusion, in only twenty four months we were able to undo years of membership loss. In my third year as a General Manager, we had the best year since the Club’s inception (33 years).
As stated by the Authors, “incorporating diversity not only is a basic human rights issue, but it also can improve organizational functioning through encouraging creative problem solving and reaching new markets” (Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014).
Moran, Robert, Abramson, Neil, & Moran, Sarah. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences. Oxford: Routledge.
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