Where to Focus Yourself to be Most Effective

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While it seems our world is crazy right now (and it is), it is also very easy to slip into a downward spiral of anxiety, stressful “what now/what next” questions and general helplessness. If that is you, don’t worry, we all deal with this at times. While I’m not fully qualified to provide counseling on areas of your life that are outside of work, I am here to help you with how to focus yourself to be most effective in your efforts.

For your reference, please check out the PGA Member Assistance Program resources provided by the PGA of America.

Focusing on Your “Locus of Control”

To provide a good definition of what Locus of control is, let me quote mindtools.com. They state that “Locus of control describes the degree to which individuals perceive that outcomes result from their own behaviors, or from forces that are external to themselves. This produces a continuum with external control at one end and internal control at the other, as shown in figure 1, below:

Locus of Control. People who develop an internal locus of control believe that they are responsible for their own success. Those with an external locus of control believe that external forces, like luck, determine their outcomes.” With that in mind, let’s see if we can apply how locus of control applies to something we all care about.

Your Locus of Control for Your Compensation

Would you like to be paid more? (I know it is yes.) If you’re going to get a raise, how will that happen? Will it be because of luck, or because of consistent delivery of excellence (or close to it) in the key areas “that matter” to the decision and negotiation and that you can actually control (or have influence over)?

For the compensation question, it would seem these are the areas YOU can have influence over including:

  • Complete the Compensation Profile (at least once a year, and anytime after your compensation package “situation” has changed). It takes 20% of the time the old Compensation Survey took to complete too!
    • The more unique your career path is, the more it matters.
    • The more rural your facility is, the more it matters (because we have less facilities to compare yours with.)
    • The opposite is also true, the more metropolitan (due to costs of housing, commuting time costs, and much more.)
    • The more unique your facility is, the more it matters.
    • The more unique your career goals are, the more it matters.
  • Work with me to create a comp report YOU CAN USE. Thanks to some collaboration and suggestions by longtime Section professionals and leaders, I have been able to create an effective compensation report that fully considers the bullet points above regarding compensation. These bullets and a few others are really the questions that define a particular facility and/or their golf professional’s “neighborhood.” My comp report seeks to collaborate with the lead professional(s) at the facility on accurately defining that neighborhood based on tangible and intangible factors. And, with greater participation in the Compensation Profile, I have access to reporting that allows me to build better, more relevant comp reports based on the right “neighborhood” for the given facility/golf professional.
    • If you’re interested in getting a comp report of this nature from me, here’s what I’ll be looking for:
      • Are you the highest ranking PGA at your facility? (If not, how can we work with that person to help everyone at your facility?)
      • Have you (and your staff, if applicable,) completed your comp profile?
      • Which position to study first?
      • What is the “right neighborhood” for you?
      • What is the due date? More time is better!
    • Be as valuable as YOU CAN BE. This goes back to some of the other conversations and education I’ve shared over the past few years. Being as “valuable as you can be” is measured in results, (like sales, more member dues, more participation in events, etc.) and these objective results when they’re “wins for the employer” create value that can become leverage in a negotiation. Just think of the value that Steph Curry produces for the Golden State Warriors and you see it is not hard to understand his new contract to play for the Warriors. Some key highlights to consider in your value and leverage conversation include the following:

In each of the concepts above, I hope you better understand that when it comes to your compensation, your locus of control doesn’t have to be solely based on outside factors or luck. You have some influence over how your compensation story moves ahead from here based on your commitment to focus on what you can control and the “things that matter” in your unique compensation equation. I welcome the chance to assist you with this and more in the coming months if you trust me with the opportunity.

Hope to see you around the Section sometime soon,

Monte Koch, PGA Certified Professional/Player Development | Career Consultant
PGA Career Services | PGA of America
Serving PGA professionals, employers in the Pacific NW & Rocky Mountain PGA Sections

Email: Mkoch@pgahq.com Cell: 206/335-5260

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