There will be a stellar line-up of keynote speakers at the GCMA 2023 Conference, including former UK Golf Club Manager of the Year Kevin Fish
Kevin Fish appeared on the latest GCMA Insights podcast to provide a teaser of what people can expect from his keynote speech at the 2023 Conference.
With more than two decades of experience in the industry, Kevin won UK Golf Club Manager of the Year in 2004 and served in a leading role with Scottish Golf for seven years. He is now director of his own training and consultancy business.
He has been integral to the introduction of structured education for club managers throughout Europe and consistently tops the presenter charts sharing his knowledge of club governance, business planning, committee politics, customer service, finance and professional/personal development.
Are you excited for this year’s Conference?
KF: I’m an education junkie, so I like to get as much of this stuff under my belt as possible. When my work is done, I’ll be getting out my notepad and taking down notes on everything else.
I only go to conferences where the content is appealing, and from the moment the theme of this one was confirmed as being team culture, that sparked my enthusiasm. If I wasn’t speaking, I would be going as a delegate.
Why does the theme of team culture appeal to you?
KF: It made a huge difference to my career when I started thinking less about my success and putting the success of the team in front of mine.
I got a lot of success early in my career at The Glen and I was very proud to be the Club Manager of the Year, but I didn’t really enjoy being the leader of an organisation until I went to Scottish Golf.
I hit the reset button on how I went about things – not just managing but leading – and I realised that team culture is something I had not done so well, but I eventually got it right.
To then wrap that topic into a conference is a fantastic idea and I’m very proud to be kicking it off.
Why is team culture particularly pertinent topic in golf club management?
KF: There is a phrase that says it’s very difficult to keep all the people happy all of the time, but the more time I spend in the industry, the more that sounds like the job description of a golf club manager.
If you only had eight board members to keep happy, that’s one thing. But if you double that and take into account other committees, that’s another thing. You can double that again up to 32 with all the people who report into you, and if you keep on doubling a few more times you get somewhere close to the number of people a golf club manager has to keep happy.
You’re the one who is at the centre of all that, the one who has to maintain the balance and harmony between all those people – that’s team culture right there, whether it’s members, the board, or staff.
You’ve got a lot of moving parts and all I try to do is encourage people to have as stable a situation as possible.
Can you give us a taster of what to expect from your appearance at the Conference?
KF: We’re going to explore what those dynamics look like when you’re the one in the middle of all that.
People will have an opportunity to determine where they are on the spectrum – from ‘life is great’ to ‘get me out of here’ – and decide whether they’re in a good place or a bad place.
Then we can see what tactics you can put in place to start turning the dials a little bit to focus on those important areas.
We only have 45 minutes and you can probably tell that I could talk about this topic for the whole Conference, so if anyone wants to come over and chat it through, buy me a beer – I’m really cheap!
You can listen to the latest GCMA Insights podcast here
