I’m going to give a different slant on the Fitters Corner this week. This started from receiving a picture of a fitting sheet via text message, so this is about communication. I get fitting sheets like this all the time, so that is not surprising. It got me thinking about some of the things I see in the business world. It started with fitting, so here you go…

The focus of this section is to foster professional development. Normally, I bring up topics that help you in a fitting bay or on a driving range. The next few weeks will be to open your eyes to the business world, and maybe give you a thing or two that will make you a better professional – golf, business or otherwise. Yes, this applies to me and how you and I communicate, but it also applies to how you may communicate with me, a member, a student, your Mom, or anyone. I started writing this as a one Monday catch all, and it got bigger than that. So, for the next few weeks, I’ll give you tidbits of professional communication advice, tips and tricks. What’s protocol? What medium to use? When is it OK to hit send? Are there things buried in your apps that can help you? I’ll try to help you be more organized and more efficient. Stuff that will make you a business pro in addition to a golf pro. Let’s dig in.

I’m old fashioned. There. I said it. It’s out of the way, on the table, right there. Please keep that in mind as you read this. These are MY preferences, not laws. I’m also a techie. You can surely tell this by the way I talk about launch monitor data, swing data, and club/ fitting specs. Being this way doesn’t make a person better or worse – it’s what he does with it, and how he applies this interest that shapes him. So, buckle up. Take a ride with an old fashioned techie. Haha.

We all are public facing in our jobs. As a Golf professional, we deal with members, tournament committees, ownership, our management teams, students, our reps etc. Every one of those people has a different schedule. They all work different hours – perhaps even at different locations or in different time zones. In the day and age where many people work remotely, it can be difficult to know what the protocol is when contacting someone. Fortunately, I have some experience here. I’ve worked remotely for almost 35 years, with 24 of those years working in the golf industry from a home based office when I’m not on the road. To say that I need electronic communication in my position is a vast understatement. To say that I struggle to maintain a balanced work schedule is also a vast understatement. I have been forced to find ways to embrace technology and push it’s limits so that I can be better. I learn more about this stuff all the time, and the goal here is to dive into HOW can we all be better at communicating. I will share real examples that got me thinking about how we communicate in each session. Are there guidelines (or rules)? What’s acceptable? What is out of bounds? Is something better (or worse) for the person you are communicating with? I’ll share my thoughts. What works for me may not work for you, or may have to be modified for your use. If you say just once – “I never thought of that.” or “Wow, Cool!!”, this is worth it. Please remember, that these are MY preferences and thoughts, and this is based on what I do and use. Use as you wish.

All of us are great at talking to people. That is what makes a Golf Professional so special. Perhaps we get “talked out” during the day. Perhaps we are less efficient when we talk than when we type. Technology has certainly made it easy to get in touch with people. Maybe too easy? Work doesn’t end. I got work emails during the football game last night. After 8pm on a Sunday night. Really? Yep. From a person – not a auto sent blast to a random database. Remember, I’m old fashioned. Sunday always used to be family time when I was growing up, and I still like to have it that way. Working on a Sunday night when I’m having dinner and watching the game with my parents must be an OK time to talk shop and ask about an order. Got it. That almost sounds laughable, but the reality is the “sender” called me in to work without realizing it.

Wait, not he didn’t – he just sent you an email, you might say. I could have ignored it. I could have left my phone in the car. True, but my son was travelling and I was trading messages with him, checking scores, etc. – the things you do on your own time. In an instant, as my phone lit up, my mind went from a conversation with my Dad to this notification. Like it or not, my mind “got called into work”. You know the drill, you’ve been there before. It’s certainly happened to you. You’re out to dinner with your significant other and you get a call. It’s the club president who wants to talk about the incident that happened today. He “called” you into work at 8:30 on a Saturday night after you worked 80 hours this week. The nerve, right? He should know better. But… in his defense, he was thinking about it and wanted to talk about it.

So, the first topic is “Are there boundaries?” The examples cited above are commonplace, and happen every day to all of us. So, are there any boundaries? Seemingly, no. I get 50ish emails per day, about the same number of text messages, and a handful of phone calls. I work on the East Coast for a company that is based on the West Coast. My phone goes constantly from 8am to 8pm, and often until 11pm. Let’s do some math. 100 messages per day. I work 12 hours per day. 12 hours times 60 minutes = 720 minutes. Divided by 100 messages, means I get a notification on my phone, on average, every 7 minutes and 12 seconds. Every day, all day long. Add in personal notifications and phone calls, and it’s difficult to keep up. That, is not what this is about. This is about WHEN is it OK or NOT OK to send someone a message? Those are the boundaries.

Remember when your Mother said you can’t call before 8am or after 8pm? No? Mine did, probably when we had a corded phone hanging in the kitchen. It was good advice. Advice that I still live by today. As an adult, I put work email and text messages in the same time table. Work gets me 12 hours per day, 6 days per week. I try not to look at my phone on Sundays or outside those other times. Keep in mind that because YOU are working at 6am doesn’t mean everyone is. Because you think of something on your way home at 9:30pm on a Sunday night and you want to take care of it now, doesn’t mean that everyone is working and wants to deal with it now. The thought of I’ll send it now and he can work on it when he has time is unacceptable. You don’t know if that person CAN put it off in their mind until business hours. You don’t know if that person has notifications on or off, or what that person is doing. Work time is work time, and personal time is personal time. It’s not fair to the recipient for you to send when it’s convenient for you, regardless of the time and day.

Pretend for a moment that you work in an 8-5 job. I know, funny, right? Pretend that you can’t have your email on your phone, iPad, or a laptop – it’s just on your work PC that is at your desk. You can only see your email while you’re at work. Pretty cool that you can’t take your work home, and even cooler that your work doesn’t interfere with your personal time. This is not us. Our work follows us. Because of that, we all need to keep in mind the times someone may be working and the times someone may not be.

With mobile devices, it is impossible to get away from work unless you carry multiple devices, do not put work email/ or use your personal text messages for work. or you simply unplug. If you have one device, this means in order to unplug, you have to unplug from your personal life to be able to unplug from your work life. In my opinion, the responsibility lies with the SENDER or Caller. As I hinted at above, as a rule of thumb, 8-5, M-F is the acceptable window to communicate for business. In todays world, we work later, so extending to 8pm Mon-Thurs, and adding Saturday 8-5 is MY norm. Personally, I would consider this to be the norm in today’s business world.

People use their phones for almost everything. Do you use it for music when you are running on the treadmill at the gym? Sucks to get a notification of a work email at 6:30 am when you are on a run, doesn’t it? Or maybe your phone is your alarm clock, so it’s bedside. Stinks that the display lights up all night long, doesn’t it? I know, turn notifications off. And when you forget to turn them back on? Or someone really needs to get in touch with you and can’t? We’ll get into notifications in another session. Maybe I’ll even hammer on Apple watches in that session. 😉 The bottom line is YOU can’t control how other people have their notifications set up. What you can control is WHEN someone receives a message/ email/ call from you.

The responsibility is on the sender to respect these boundaries. Ever notice that you don’t receive this email at 5am or 10pm on Mondays? It’s always during business hours. hmmm.. Imagine if ALL of your work email showed up during business hours. No work emails when you are at Johnny’s Tee ball game. No business text messages at family dinner on Sunday night. Now that would be nice, wouldn’t it?

But… I AM working at 6am, AND I AM thinking about this now, and I want to get it off my plate. I’m going to be busy later, or I might forget. Are you saying that I have to mold MY work schedule to YOURS? I am not. There are tools that you can use to do this for you. Step one is to determine WHAT is an acceptable window in which to reach out to someone for business. If you’re not comfortable asking the person, use M-F, 8-5. Some people will say anytime is fine. I say anytime is fine, but I mean 8-8, M-TH, and 8-5 F-SA. If you use that window for an “anytime is fine” person, you’re OK.

But… I don’t work those hours, you might say. Perhaps that’s true, but you can make some of your electronic message applications work for you. For example, you can delay a send time on Outlook. Huh? Yep. Never thought about that one, did you?? 😉 Here’s how:

Delay or schedule sending email on outlook

I use this often. I can work on my schedule, but have it deliver to you at an appropriate time (I often write this on Sundays and delay sending until Monday during business hours). You can do this on Gmail or almost any other email client. This is more of a Desktop PC email thing (as opposed to a mobile device email thing). If you have an iPhone you can do the same thing in the native iOS mail app. Simply compose your email message, then press and hold the send (blue arrow) button, select “send later”, and follow the prompts.

iPhone Mail delayed send

Work on your time, arrive to someone else on their appropriate schedule. Yes, you can delay sending a text message, but it’s a major ordeal, and it’s a memory hog, so perhaps that’s one thing to think of when deciding between sending a text or an email.

The takeaway here is that people have boundaries. No one works all the time. Everyone has personal time. Respect BOTH of these times for them before initiating a form of communication. If you settle on a communication window, you’ll always be in bounds. If you don’t, just use extended business hours. Remember, the responsibility is on the sender. Be mindful of the day and time before you hit send. Utilize technology to work on your time, but have your message delivered at a good time for your recipient.

Next week, ironically, I’ll chat about some of the different platforms on which we communicate. Text or email? Who cares?? I do!! and you should too. Tell me how you use text vs. email. I’ll share some differences and viewpoints next week.

Happy Professionalism. Enjoy your work/ life balance.