We’re just ’bout that action, boss

It was Media Day at Super Bowl XLVIII. Marshawn Lynch, per his usual temperament, was reluctant to speak to anyone, let alone the media. In that moment, Deion Sanders, who was an NFL analyst at the time, approached Beast Mode and asked him why he was not openly speaking with the media. Sanders asked Lynch if he was shy or simply didn’t want to talk. Lynch replied, “You want something, you go get it. Ain’t no need to talk about it.” Lynch followed up with another, now famous quote, stating, “I’m just ’bout that action, boss.”

If you are still with us, reading this column after a seemingly strange, Lynch quote-riddled introduction, you are likely wondering where we are going with this. We get it — and rightfully so. Let’s try to stick together as we attempt to close the loop.

This column is being written in late August (on the eve of our fantasy football draft nonetheless) and should be published sometime in October. This timeframe, at least for us, brings up memories of what we were enamored with each season during the late summer and early fall — recruiting. We were engaged in navigating the inevitable annual — and sometimes seasonal — turnover part and parcel to our industry. We were performing the same level of maintenance with less personnel. The local, seasonal staff have gone back to school, interns have returned to university, and others have moved on to bigger, better or simply different jobs.

As we worked to attract new mid- to high-level management positions, courted interns from universities for the following season and worked to hire other late-season additions, we focused on selling the benefits of our organization. Higher wages, professional development opportunities, health care, PTO, free lunch and schedule flexibility were all great attributes we noted.

In retrospect, the previously listed employment benefits were relatively ubiquitous. Most golf courses offered the same or similar items. We assume you’ve come to realize the same truth. Something our current roles have helped us identify that we always recognized and understood, but maybe never deliberately focused on, was the culture of our department and how critical it was in our success, or lack thereof, when recruiting and retaining personnel.

The AI-generated definition of workplace culture notes the following: Workplace culture refers to the shared values, behaviors and attitudes that define an organization’s unique character and atmosphere, influencing how employees interact, work and achieve goals.

We hear about it all the time. Culture is undoubtedly one of the most anecdotal, overused, overanalyzed words in domestic workplaces across every industry. How do you develop, maintain and strengthen culture? In our opinion it is “’bout that action, boss.”

We hear superintendents and assistants talk about culture all the time. Those who talk about it are usually the ones who have been unable to effectively and successfully develop it. In these instances, culture is viewed as an abstract concept. It’s discussed as something that has several different flavors, like products on a grocery store shelf, allowing folks a chance to sit back, read, study and choose the culture they want to select and inject into their department. These efforts are futile. Rhetoric is transparent and hollow — exemplified by minimal action.

On the other hand, we readily observe that where culture is an action, instinctively expressed through deeds, pace, accomplishments and physical acts, it is real. The real-life embodiment is tangible — not necessarily as a physical object, but it persistently permeates. When being around the golf course, speaking with personnel and walking through the maintenance facility, it is readily apparent. A presence, feeling, intuition, confidence and swagger that becomes the foundation of how people interact with each other and with those around them. It is the basis for everything that is almost always directly correlated to the commitment, work ethic and attitude of those who accept it and embrace it. The translation is real and is oftentimes followed by operational and organizational success — however that might be defined in each distinct situation.

In today’s transfer portal-esque, fluid, reactionary employment recruitment and retention environment, maybe a slight methodical shift in culture on the heels of actions rather than words could be the difference in building a successful team.