SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/40933
"wishing we were somewhere else." Mental health sick days are al- lowed at our place. When your staff is small, empower and allow each member of the staff to make decisions and then "have their back." It's cliché but true: we learn more by our mistakes than we do by our suc- cesses. Challenge your staff and acknowledge their value. Allow each person the opportunity for growth. Learn and understand the capital project process and your role in that process. A very gratifying part of my transition is being part of the capital projects team. Since many or most capital needs are field or facility related in one way or another it's natural that the position I serve be a player on that team. Our athletic di- rector understands the value of deferred maintenance. His stance is that money is precious around here so it's imperative we take care of what we do invest in. As turf managers we always aspire to be a bigger player in the decision making process of project design. We toil on our fields and analyze many things while on the seat of those mowers and machines! We're fortunate to see other facilities while traveling with teams or through chapter workshops or National Conference Tour on Wheels events. Through networking we learn many do's- and-don'ts from our colleagues, practitioner and commercial, around the country. Develop a good mental filing system of things you've heard about or seen first-hand and roll the best of those into your facilities. Better yet, take pictures! When you're asked to step to the plate and represent your department in the design phase rather than after the fact during the maintenance phase, swing the bat! We're able to bring to the table all those opinions and com- ments we've heard or spoken throughout the years of managing fields and facilities. Some properly get shot down but even more of them have validity and end up improving the project. Know that there are days that my new position is a great strug- gle. I was looking for a new challenge when this one was set in front of me and it certainly has been and still is a formidable chal- lenge. I make mistakes every day but I think I'm learning from those mistakes and thank goodness my employer and the great people I work with keep showing patience. On the other hand this has been a very gratifying journey in many ways. For years as a sports turf manager I heard about and then professed the "soft skills are critical to success" philosophy of management. I'm certainly a work-in-progress (aren't we all?) and struggle every day to feel worthy of leading a department. Skills I learned from fellow sports turf managers are the skills I rely on every day. It doesn't matter what the environment is, we succeed or fail based very much on communication and soft skills; with cus- tomers, contractors, designers and certainly with fellow employees. If you're offered an opportunity to expand your position jump in with both feet! Know that the skills you learned as a sports turf manager and as a member of STMA will be the ones you can lean on throughout your career. I'm still a sports turf manager, now just from a different perspective. ■ Mike Andresen, CSFM is Facilities & Ground Director at Iowa State University in Ames. He is a past president of the Sports Turf Managers Association and one helluva fisherman. www.stma.org SportsTurf 11