No one person can successfully manage a club by him or herself. Teamwork is essential to successful club management, which leads to an enhanced member experience. So, it’s only natural that managers would want to look at teamwork and find ways to improve it.

Instead of looking at strengthening management with an initial goal of simply “improving teamwork,” what if managers approached this from the perspective of the end goal: member satisfaction? Realistically speaking, this is the end goal for much of what we, as industry leaders, aim to do. No matter what the problem or solution, our ultimate goal is to optimize the member experience. more...

According to a special section that appeared in Harvard Business Review in January 2012 entitled “Spotlight on Happiness”, happy employees are 31 percent more productive, their sales are 37 percent more and their creativity is three times higher! The takeaway of the spotlight section was that organizations that create and sustain a workplace environment where employees thrive (high engagement and happiness) will ultimately lead them to greater profitability.  more...

As I’ve been traveling to various USPTA division conferences during my first 120 days as CEO, I’ve had the opportunity to share with USPTA members our new partnership with CMAA as part of our commitment “to become more closely aligned with our allied organizations,” which is a key pillar of my strategic plan for the association. There is no question that CMAA members have a great deal of impact on USPTA Professionals, and because of this influence over the livelihoods of USPTA Professionals, my goal is to encourage all of our members and CMAA members to have an on-going dialogue.  more...

S. 460, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 , is set to be considered by the Senate in July. This measure would increase the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 in three steps. Initially, 60 days after enactment, it would increase to $8.20. One year later, it would increase to $9.15. After two years, it would jump to $10.10.  more...

While working on my PhD research on entrepreneurship education, I noticed that faculty members and industry entrepreneurs almost always are affiliated with a specific aspect of entrepreneurship.  For example, faculty members say that they teach technology entrepreneurship, marketing entrepreneurship, or engineering entrepreneurship. Industry entrepreneurs say they are social entrepreneurs or serial entrepreneurs.  

While co-authoring a chapter in a 2012 publication titled Current Research in Hospitality and Tourism, I realized that the same definitional challenges around entrepreneurship happen in the Norwegian language. In Norwegian, most people think of entrepreneurship as  the start of  an entity. more...

 “A lot of us have been here a long time.” 

I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry over the phone when a salesperson gave this answer to my question about investing in a sales and service training program for her team. To me, these few words were both comical and tragic to me at the same time, and told me all that I needed to know about the organization – and why it was behind in its performance. more...

It is time for another delay notice for the Affordable Care Act. Earlier this year, the employer to employee notice requirement regarding exchanges was postponed. Now, the Administration has announced the delay of the Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP). The purpose of this program is to allow smaller employers to pay into the SHOP and open up a number of choices to employees for health care.   more...