Learning to lead different people in different environments​

 

The biggest leadership challenge I faced during my time working for the PGA of America was learning how to work with people who were very different from me. When I worked the Senior PGA Championship in Florida, I really enjoyed the group I worked with. We worked hard, got along well, and I felt like we were able to get a lot done together. When I got to Minnesota for the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, I was working with a completely different group of people, and I had to learn how to work with them.

There were times when I became frustrated with the way some people worked. There were jobs that nobody really wanted to do, and I would help get started on them because I knew they needed to be done. After a while, I would look up and realize that some of the people who had been working on the job had left, leaving me to finish it. I could have just gotten frustrated and complained about it, but I realized that was not going to solve the problem. It mattered because we were working in event operations, and there was always a deadline. If a job did not get done, it could affect something else later. We could not just leave something unfinished because we did not want to do it. There were other people depending on us, and ultimately there was a golf tournament that had to be ready on time. Instead of continuing to get frustrated, I started paying more attention to how the people around me worked. I realized that I could not motivate everyone in the same way. Some people responded better when they were given responsibility, while others needed more encouragement or just needed someone to show them that the job could get done. I started trying to lead by example. If there was a job that nobody wanted to do, I was willing to be one of the people doing it. I also tried to make people feel like they were part of something bigger instead of just telling them what they needed to do. When people could see the progress we were making and knew that their work mattered, I found that they were more willing to put effort into it. I also learned that building relationships was a big part of being able to lead. I could not expect people to respond to me if I did not take the time to understand them first. This connected directly to my first Key Insight about building and maintaining connections. I learned through my experience with the PGA that relationships can create opportunities, but they also matter when you are working with people every day. My second Key Insight about adapting to different people also played a major role. The group in Minnesota was not the same as the group I had worked with in Florida. I could not expect the exact same approach to work with both groups. I had to adjust to the people I was around instead of expecting them to work exactly the way I wanted them to.

My third Key Insight about problem solving also became important. I realized that the problem was not going to fix itself, and being frustrated was not a solution. I had to figure out what was causing the problem and find a way to make the team more effective. Instead of looking at the situation as simply people not working hard enough, I started looking at it as a leadership problem that I could help solve.

This experience changed the way I think about leadership. Before this, I thought being a leader mostly meant being the person who knew what needed to be done and told other people what to do. I learned that leadership is much more about understanding the people around you and figuring out how to get the best out of them. I also learned that you do not necessarily need a certain title to be a leader. There were times when I was not the person officially in charge, but I could still influence the people around me through the way I worked. By being willing to do the difficult jobs, helping other people, and finding ways to motivate the group, I could have an impact without being the manager.

If I were put in a similar situation again, I would start by getting to know the people I am working with and figuring out what motivates them. I would set clear expectations, lead by example, and make sure people understand why their work matters. I would also make an effort to recognize people when they do a good job because I learned that people are more likely to take pride in their work when they feel like their work is noticed.

The biggest thing I learned is that leadership is not about making everyone work exactly the way you do. People are different, and a good leader has to be able to recognize those differences. My experience in Minnesota forced me to become more patient, more adaptable, and better at understanding the people around me. I did not always agree with the way everyone worked, and there were definitely times when I was frustrated. But instead of letting that frustration control how I worked with people, I learned how to adjust and find a way to get the job done. That experience taught me more about leadership than simply being in charge ever could. Working for the PGA showed me that leadership is about getting people to work together toward the same goal. In our case, that goal was getting a major golf tournament ready on time. There were plenty of challenges along the way, but we found ways to work through them and get the job done. That is the type of leader I want to continue becoming: someone who can understand different people, solve problems, lead by example, and help a team succeed even when things are not going perfectly.