Measure twice, deal constantly

Once your 2026 budget is finalized and approved, two factors still loom that can determine its overall success and influence performance. As golf course operating budgets increase with what might seem to your owners and managers as unchecked control, superintendents must reckon with two often overlooked factors: 1) measuring and managing the work and, 2) dealing with ambiguity.

Measuring and managing work is essential to your leadership role.

As budgets escalate and staff comes and goes, superintendents are under extreme pressure to deliver work that is accomplished on time and on budget. The only way to evaluate your team’s performance and defend your results is through exhaustive measuring and managing.

Four factors determine your effectiveness:

Clearly assigning responsibility. See that each crew member knows what is expected. Show examples of the fitness and finish that you require. Don’t assume that everyone knows how to do whatever task they have been assigned.

Instead, teach, demonstrate and explain. Doing so leads to happier and more satisfied crew members, a more visually appealing course and reduced stress.

Setting clear performance objectives and measures. Most superintendents closely monitor allotted time requirements for each job, knowing that time is money. Another important performance measure is the quality and appearance of the work relative to how the crew has been taught and your expectations. Because many of us are visual learners, photographs or sketches are effective tools to show desired results.

Monitoring process, progress and results. “Management by walking around” is a leadership theory described by authors Tom Peters and Robert Waterman in their business bestseller In Search of Excellence. Let your staff see and interact with you while they are executing the work you have assigned. Your presence and involvement reassure them that what they’re doing matters.

Designing feedback loops or performance checking that work. After the work is completed, and after you have evaluated the work and the workers, ask if your prep was helpful. And how could you have been more effective in coaching them? Closing the feedback loop is essential to great work results.

Dealing with ambiguity is elemental to the job.

The job of the golf course superintendent is chock-full of ambiguity. You and your superintendent brethren are expected to deliver Augusta National conditions while maintaining — and hopefully reducing — expenses across the board.

Good luck with that, right? 

How do you deal with ambiguous and sometimes contradictory expectations? Those who have cracked this code are adept in four areas:

Coping effectively with change. Recognizing that your work is redundant and yet ever changing makes it easier for you to respond to ambiguous expectations. Change is uncomfortable; addressing it openly and seeking and providing clarification when needed is a key.

Shifting gears comfortably. Staying flexible recognizes that one of the more important factors a superintendent manages is anxiety. You can manage it up or down depending on what results are needed.

Making decisions and acting without all the facts. Ambiguity can come in all shapes and sizes and rear its fuzzy head without warning. The weather is the most obvious example, but human factors come into play too. These situations are uncomfortable for those who prefer a more deliberate decision-making process. Acting outside our comfort zones is, by definition, uncomfortable, and the best workaround is experience and preemptive planning.

Moving ahead before everything is finished. Sometimes managers get tripped up when circumstances require action before a project is completed. While this circumstance is undesirable and uncomfortable, it is sometimes necessary.

When circumstances require moving ahead, make sure you have addressed safety and security matters and that the details for how the task will be completed are fully buttoned down.

Getting your 2026 budget to the finish line is not just a matter of your manager’s and owner’s approval of the numbers. In some ways, their approval is where your work begins. Measuring and managing your team’s work while dealing with the ambiguity inherent in the job is a year-round process.