On my most recent plane flight, I was catching up on my reading. We receive many monthly magazines at our house and we let them pile up to read on long plane flights.
One article in Golf Digest Magazine – Undercover Tour Pro – really got my attention. The recurring feature article offers anonymous insights from professional golfers about various aspects of tour life.
The article was not about golf. It was about how frustrating it is when you are part of an organization, but are not kept informed about what’s going on.
Here is the background: In the golf world, there is quite a divide between the long-time PGA Tour (Professional Golfers’ Association of America) and LIV (financed by the Public Investment Fund of the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia). To make a long story short, LIV was started in 2021 and offered huge sums of money to professional golfers to leave the PGA and join LIV Golf with promises of shorter tournaments, larger payouts and different format and structure.
Since 2023, there have been supposed behind the scenes negotiations and discussions between the PGA and LIV to potentially merge, join forces or do something.
Back to the Undercover Tour Pro article – this pro was saying how frustrating it is to NOT know what is going on in his organization- the PGA. He commented in the article that he gets asked all the time, “What’s happening with the PGA and LIV?” and truthfully he has nothing he can say.
He commented that it would be nice if the CEO would send out a monthly update via email, or would have periodic conference calls so all the members know what’s happening. Anything would be better than the lack of communication he experiences now.
His tone and level of frustration reminded me so much of what I hear from employees or associates of companies and organizations.
Too many leaders don’t think it is necessary or beneficial to keep their employees updated on projects or initiatives they are working on.
For example, when I coach CEOs, I will ask them how often they communicate their strategies, goals, and initiatives to their leadership team and/or their entire company. Usually, I get one of two answers:
1. I don’t do any kind of regular communication – I’ve never thought about it.
2. I update my leadership team periodically. There is no reason to update everyone else – they just need to do their work.
For both answers, my goal is to guide my CEO clients to understand that if they want to build a strong culture and strong performance, then they need to have open and frequent communication. With everyone. Obviously, the types of information you share and the lingo may be different at the various levels of your team members, but the more engaged and informed the team members are, the better the performance and alignment of the organization.
What’s your communication plan within your enterprise? Do you have monthly or quarterly update meetings? Do you bring in company clients to talk to your team, from a client’s perspective? When you land a new client, do you announce it to everyone so they can all celebrate together?
Imagine the benefits of keeping everyone informed (appropriate to their level). No matter who works for you, they interact with friends, family, clients, suppliers and others. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone, at every level was excited about what your company or enterprise is doing? It would be like having a large public relations team spreading the “love”.
And when you have everyone on your team informed with a shared vision, your chance for success is significantly greater.
As for the golf pro who authored the article – I am hoping that his suggestions are heard. I give him credit for sharing the real concerns of his fellow golfers and truly all employees and associates of companies. By keeping your team members informed, they are not forced to “make it up in their heads” about what is really going on in their company.
Onward and Upward,
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