How to develop and create great teams

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How to develop and create great teams: Master Greenkeeper Phil Helmn’s book ‘The Power of People’ looks at the strengths of effective leadership. Here’s an exclusive extract.

Talking about leadership strategies and styles can quickly become a bit ambiguous. It’s difficult to say exactly how each different strategy effect individuals or teams, however, it’s widely recognised that the old authoritative or draconian leadership styles have become understandably less popular in today’s modern world.

How to develop and create great teams

How to develop and create great teams

The important thing to keep in mind is that your role as leader is to influence, engage, and encourage people into action around a common goal. As a human being, leaders are just like everyone else, the same as any team member on the ‘coal face’. The initial thing to remember, as a leader, is that everyone has different personalities and as such, communication must be different. By adapting your message delivery style, fine tuning your communication, and using tried and tested management processes you will significantly increase your chances of helping lead your team to greater success. Team management and leadership focusses on the ability to administer and coordinate a group of individuals to perform a task. Team management involves teamwork, communication, objective setting, and performance appraisals. Moreover, team management is the capability to identify problems and resolve conflicts within a team. The method and style I have used to great effect and one which, if adopted, can increase productivity, improve efficiency and create strength and dynamics to your team is to build a strong foundation based around four key pillars.

Clarity

Define and communicate the team vision. Understanding the vision brings teams together under a common goal. They’re not simply working but performing together toward something. Something that is big and exciting!

Competence

Commit to continued education which develops continued growth and refinement through continued learning, practical application of skills, and networking both internally and externally.

Communication

Speak from the heart when communicating. Teams are motivated when leaders are passionately engaged in the team’s vision, mission, and goals.

Culture

Perhaps the best culture strategy and engagement tool for your team is to empower them by delegating greater responsibility. Finding areas which can be delegated creates responsibility and, importantly, creates the authority to get things done which builds an enormous sense of self-worth.

Leaders aim to practically manage teams in a multitude of ways by focusing on the following:

How to develop and create great teams

How to develop and create great teams

• Standardise operating procedures, keeping them consistent and simple. This is maintained by regular team meetings, with standard agendas and keeping open lines of communication from top to bottom and equally important bottom to top!

• Be present at key times in the team’s schedule. Be visible at breaks, lunches, team meetings and social gatherings to maintain contact with everyone.

• Know your team and tackle problems quickly. Even though our managerial challenges are important you must value the individual’s issues and appreciate no matter how trivial they may appear they are especially important to them. It’s also of the utmost importance to never promise on something you cannot deliver.

• Encourage feedback. Feedback is one of the cornerstones of improvement. You must nurture an environment where feedback is encouraged and is accepted as a means to progress.

• Delegate. With multi-functional team’s, it’s vital to delegate. Having a good culture means delegation is possible born through empowerment at all levels.

• Make communication and sharing of information a priority. The communication pillar can be the biggest influence on team culture and success. Individuals at all levels appreciate communication and by making time within the working environment to facilitate conversations is vital to sharing information.

www.philhelmn.com

Champion Cheltenham

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Champion Cheltenham: Scott MacCallum enjoys an extended socially distanced interview with Christian Brain, Grounds Manager at the prestigious Cheltenham College.

Writing articles while in lockdown is a different way of operating.

Champion Cheltenham

Champion Cheltenham

You do find yourself with more time to pull together the information you require, but, confined to barracks, you are a little more reliant on the likes of Wikipedia for background info.

So, I am particularly trepidatious to start this piece on the great work that Christian Brain and his team do at Cheltenham College by saying that the Cheltenham Cricket Festival, hosted at the school, is one of a huge number of Festivals carrying the Cheltenham name. Among the others are the world famous Cheltenham National Hunt Festival; the Cheltenham Literary Festival; the Cheltenham Jazz Festival; the Cheltenham Paranormal Festival and the Cheltenham True Believers Comic Festival.

Now, I hope that I haven’t given aficionados of the paranormal or True Believer Comic books any false encouragement, or opportunity, to share their passions with the likeminded but, if so, I can only apologise.

Oh yes. This may be revealing state secrets, but Cheltenham is also the home of the country’s spies – GCHQ!

I mention this merely to show how much a town of population 116,000 (another Wiki info grab) impacts on the country and beyond. It surely punches above its weight.

Champion Cheltenham

Champion Cheltenham

Ironically, I hooked up with Christian on what is undoubtedly the strangest year of his professional life and at exactly the time he should have been watching the pitches, he’d so lovingly prepared, in action for the benefit of some of the country’s finest cricketers.

But the Cricket Festival, which brings visitors to the College from all over the world, was understandably cancelled.

Cancelled in just the same manner as every major sporting event in this country since March and, ironically, since the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival, which controversially went ahead when many had wished it hadn’t.

But despite this Christian was in fine form. The reason? He was just back at work having spent the previous three months on furlough.

“During the Coronavirus period the school took the decision to furlough some of the grounds staff, retaining a few members of the team to keep the grass cut and manage any urgent jobs,” explained Christian.

At the beginning of a time which was frightening for so many people on so many fronts Christian was understandably worried for what the future had in store.

“I don’t mind admitting that I did suffer from a bit of anxiety in the first three weeks of April. We were watching the death rates rising, the infection rates climbing and I was wondering when we would get back to working on the pitches. All those things were rushing through my head, and I did have sleepless nights over it.

“But thankfully thanks to family and close friends I was able to talk things through, agreeing that it was like a bad dream and that hopefully we’d all come out the other side.”

Champion Cheltenham

Champion Cheltenham

Christian used his time in furlough as productively as he could, talking to other Grounds Managers on their WhatsApp group and progressing the HND Level 5 he had been working through.

“I was able to work on my HND and actually took an exam while on furlough. You do three modules then an exam and then three modules and an exam and work your way through the levels,” he explained.

When Christian’s restart date arrived, he was chomping at the bit, but it wasn’t a case of back to normal.

“I was brought back slightly early so that my two lads could basically have some holiday as they’d been working solidly since March. The whole team will be back together at the beginning of August. By then we will hopefully have confirmed what we are going to be doing as at this point we don’t know for certain if it will be cricket when the pupils come back, or if we will be back into rugby.”

Cheltenham College is a school from the Victorian age having been founded in 1841 and caters for over 1,000 pupils spread over three schools – the PrePrep, Cheltenham College Preparatory School and Cheltenham College itself, while Christian and his team look after 10 hectares split over three different sites.

The issue of determining which sport to work on is particularly important at Cheltenham as the ground “doubles up”, working as cricket in the summer and rugby union in the winter – two of the main sports played at the school.

Champion Cheltenham

Champion Cheltenham

“We had a really difficult winter last year with so much rain. We are free draining, as we are built on sandy loam, but I had to call off some rugby sessions as well as some matches last year which is unheard of here.

We just couldn’t get the water away quickly enough and we did have a lot of damage. With the lockdown we haven’t had a change to repair it yet but are now looking to get some Limagrain seed in the ground, some sand dressing and some fertiliser on.”

The school rents out the cricket field to Gloucestershire County Cricket Club for the festival for a month to give time for stands, the marquees and the rest of the infrastructure to be erected and Christian is able to indulge his first love and prepare a first class cricket pitch.

Unlike most boys with a cricket interest, Christian’s dream wasn’t to open the batting for England, nor to become the country’s dashing all rounder, in the mould of Botham, Flintoff or Stokes. Christian’s dream as a boy was to be the Head Groundsman at Lords!

But Karl McDermot needn’t be too worried as Christian now believes he has the very best job, ironically as his own version of an “all rounder”, combining the variety of different sports surfaces, but also gives him an annual (not this year admittedly) opportunity to prepare a top class cricket pitch.

It was this that attracted him to Cheltenham College, originally as Deputy, seven and a half years ago, having previously been at Radley College. He had attended the Festival as a youngster, mixing with the likes of Courtney Walsh and Jack Russell, and playing on the outfield during lunch and tea intervals.

“I like the school environment and with the annual first class cricket as well it combines both for me. Cricket is my passion and, I would say, my forte.”

This year’s postponement would have been the Festival’s 148th year, an event which attracts fabulous crowds of up to 6,000 a day and 30,000 over the fortnight from all over the world. It is basically Gloucestershire’s home ground for two weeks each year hosting two four day matches and various other matches too.

“Gloucestershire’s home is Bristol, in the south of the county and coming here brings cricket to the north. The county is spread out and a lot of people don’t get down to Bristol to watch cricket.”

Christian is in full charge of the pitch for the Festival and he works closely with the Gloucestershire Operations team, who this year were planning more of an on-site presence to take charge of the build-up, which previously had the propensity to drag Christian away from pitch preparation work.

“The lads sometimes get called away to help now and again but I’m in sole charge of the playing surfaces and that’s my role during the Festival,” he said.

Such is the close knit nature of cricket groundsmanship, Christian has a phone full of the numbers of some of the best in the business. He is particularly close to Vic Demain, at Durham, whom he knew from before Vic moved into first class and then Test cricket. Having had an extended time away from work Christian and the team are very much looking forward to getting back into the pace of school groundsmanship.

Champion Cheltenham

Champion Cheltenham

“Moving from cricket into rugby and into football means that there is always something happening, and there is always something coming up. So it makes time fly so very quickly. Added to this everything is split into terms and half terms. Before you know it, Christmas has arrived and another year has gone.”

As well as the natural turf pitches Cheltenham has astro pitches too which are used for hockey and tennis. The astro pitch is relatively new and regularly maintained by S&C Slatter.

“It’s great to have to have the variety of sport and our goal is always to improve on our surfaces each year and learn from what we have done the previous year,” said Christian, who has extended this drive for constant improvement by ensuring that his team – often the public face of the school when working on the grounds or attending weekend fixtures – have uniform which is befitting the professional approach they take to their work.

“Previously we had uniform from the local safety warehouse with a Cheltenham College badge added to it and it faded within a couple of washes. I persuaded the school that we needed to look more presentable and we have upgraded our uniform. We do take pride in our appearance and feel smart coming into work.”

As I mentioned at the beginning of his piece the town Cheltenham very much punches above its weight. I think, having spent some “virtual” time in the company of Christian, that we can pay that very same compliment to the Cheltenham College grounds team.

Can I just ask the “fact checkers” to be kind to me!

It’s time for tee

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It’s time for tee: On the vast majority of golf courses, it is the greens on which course managers spend a high proportion of their time and available course budget to ensure they are in pristine condition. It is also the surface where invariably, a game of golf is either won or lost. 

Irrigation requirements, uniformity and greens coverage is carefully evaluated, however, on most courses I have visited, but few have their tees irrigation sorted to the same degree.

It's time for tee

It’s time for tee

Golf courses’ tees come in all shapes and sizes, even being controlled on the same solenoid station.

When you have almost always got a different sized ladies, men’s and championship tee on the same hole, it’s no wonder then that people get a bit confused when it comes to their irrigation requirements.

Maintaining the best turf cover on these areas can only be achieved if your tees irrigation system is up to the task.

So, let’s talk about proper tees irrigation. To start with, we should only use a greens sprinkler to irrigate a tee block if the block is greater than 15 metres wide. For all narrow tee blocks, we need a sprinkler that is specifically designed for the throw it needs to make.

Luckily all the golf irrigation manufacturers have pop-up sprinklers available that will irrigate much smaller areas.

Here are some examples. If your tee block is six metres wide (regardless of its length) then we need to install a pop-up sprinkler designed to throw six metres radius. This is likely to be a ¾” BSP sprinkler and by choosing the correct nozzle you’ll be able to get roughly the right throw naturally. As a case in point, when you’re looking at the nozzle chart, most these days also have a column that shows you the expected precipitation rate (i.e. mm of water per hour).

If another tee is 10 metres wide you can probably use the same model sprinkler (the Rain Bird 5004 is the ‘gotoo’ tee sprinkler of choice) with a bigger nozzle in it.

It's time for tee

It’s time for tee

You just need to consult your sprinkler’s nozzle chart (which can be found online). This will increase the flow rate, but then we’re covering a bigger surface area and you will probably find that the precipitation rate is roughly the same for both areas. This means that although you have different nozzles throwing different distances and covering dissimilar sized areas, your application rates are much the same. This is called “matched precipitation”.

Incidentally, smaller sprinklers have lower flow rates so, even if you have twice as many sprinklers irrigating the tee area, you’ll often be applying less water with less wastage. More importantly you will be applying the correct amount of water to your tee blocks, regardless of how big or small each tee is.

These days it is all about ‘the intelligent use of water’. Preferably sprinklers should be installed around the perimeter of any given area: for a square tee block of eight metres x eight metres, plan to install a sprinkler in each of the four corners. Each sprinkler would throw eight metres radius (choosing the same sprinkler as above but with a nozzle designed for eight metres throw). If the tee block is eight metres wide x 24 metres long have one on each corner and then two spaced equally down each side (each of them therefore eight metres apart) adding up to eight sprinklers in total (four each side of the tee). This method of choosing the radius of throw to be the same as the tee’s width isn’t new; when the sprinklers are spaced the same distance apart as their expected throw it’s called “head-to-head coverage” and this method will generally maximise your uniformity. It’s important to have sprinklers on both sides of the tee if possible, again to maximise uniformity. This might seem like overkill but it will provide good coverage, which will allow you to grow a uniform surface of turf. If they are just down one side, then the side with the sprinklers will receive a load more water than the other side.

In a perfect world the course would have all the different tee blocks (championship, men’s, ladies’) on separate solenoid valves, but generally this just isn’t the case. When different blocks have significantly different characteristics, such as shading from trees, drainage and prevailing winds, you might want to consider changing your pipework to divide the blocks into two or more solenoid stations.

This can usually be achieved relatively easily if you have a decoder control system. If you don’t currently have your tees automated, then this is something you could consider as you incorporate them into your automatic system in the future. Divide your tees into blocks with different environmental or soil factors. For tees that are less than 15 metres wide there are smaller pop-up sprinklers (often with ¾” inlets) that are designed for these smaller areas. They will save you water and offer a greater level of accuracy than a bigger greens-irrigation style pop-up sprinkler.

Once the block is greater than around 15 metres wide you can use a 1” inlet pop-up sprinkler (or bigger), like your greens sprinklers, and just choose the right nozzle for the required throw. All this information should be available on the internet if you look up your sprinkler model’s specifications.

The same, incidentally, applies if you have other areas on the course you need irrigating, such as pathways you want to wet down (dust suppression is big business these days and has been highlighted this year in areas that have experienced unusually hot, dry conditions), ornamental area and gardens and bunkers that you want to irrigate.

There are even pop-up sprinklers with ½” bases that will accurately throw the water four to six metres radius, saving even more water and maximising your accuracy of coverage. For the edges of your bunkers you can use driplines, which can be buried under the surface of the turf around the perimeter of the bunker. It will supply that six inches of turf on the edges of you bunkers with some water, preventing burn-off and dieback, while nobody needs to even know it’s there. This can be installed having its own solenoid valve (you must include a pressure regulator) and added into your irrigation system.

Robotic mower top tips

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Robotic mower top tips: Looking to buy a robotic mower? If it’s your first time dipping your toes into this gadget world, here’s ten tips on what you need to know:

1 – You will need to measure out the area you are looking to cut as most mowers are chosen according to the upper limit on the size they can cut over a period i.e. 2000 square metres over five days, a total of approximately ten hours a week. Ideally you want a mower to cover the area quickly and most efficiently. This usually means choosing a mower that doesn’t waste time by stopping a lot, and turns instead of reversing, stopping, then moving off. This stop and starting makes the mower less efficient.

Robotic mower top tips

Robotic mower top tips

2 – What about the edges? The closer the robotic mower can cut up to the edge of any lawn, the less time you have to spend in cutting that edge. The best robotic mowers on the market are the ones that have side trim technology. This means they can leave the smallest possible edge to trim or none at all, depending on layout.

3 – Garden zones and complexity also makes a difference to which mower you choose. If you have both a back and a front lawn, you need a mower which you can set up in zones to cover more than one area. You also need to have a mower that can move between these zones easily. If, for example, you have a narrow passage or strip of grass between zones, look out for a robotic mower that can traverse a narrow passage without getting stuck and one that will still cut that strip of grass as it travels between the zones.

4 – What about the weather? It is a good idea to choose a robotic mower that has a weather sensor on board as cutting wet lawn is bad for the grass and can damage it if the mower’s wheels slip in the mud. A rain sensor means your mower will automatically decide whether to go out and cut the lawn and cease cutting when it begins raining, going out again once it’s stopped, after a time to allow the lawn to dry.

5 – Does it have slopes and how steep are they? If you have sloping lawns or hills within the area you are looking to cut, make sure the robotic mower can handle these gradients without slippage.

6 – Charging stations are an important consideration. Most robotic mowers have a large flat dock they sit on which can take up a lot of room and look untidy, especially as they reverse and wear the grass around their base. The more advanced mowers on the market have discrete, side-charging docks on a grid-base which allows the lawn to grow through, making it almost hidden and definitely more pleasing to the eye.

7 – Another consideration is maintenance. As the mower will be going out for ten hours a day, five days a week, you ideally want to make sure that the mower has durable blades that can cope with the continuous cutting. Look for a robotic mower that has a deck that rotates both ways while cutting, optimising both sides of the cutting blades and reducing maintenance in half.

8 – Apps and wifi. Some mowers on the market have an app which provides an easy way to set-up your robotic mower and programme it or adjust the schedule from anywhere, at any time. It’s also a great way to keep tabs on how much mowing your mower has done and how many hours the blades have been in use – very useful to know when it’s time for a service.

9 – Modular – to future proof your robotic mower, look out for mowers that you can easily upgrade certain features or add features to later down the line, when technology advances. This also means you are not paying for features you don’t need, but have the option to choose them should you wish to get them in the future.

10 – Obstacle avoidance. Most robotic mowers on the market will hit into objects that are in front of it. This can cause damage to the mower itself or to the object it hits. Most importantly the mower will have to stop, reverse, stop and start over again making it less efficient. Most mowers get around this problem by physically excluding them when you are laying the boundary wire. Currently there are only a few mowers on the market which have solved this problem by having obstacle avoidance sensors on board, allowing the mower to go right up to the object and then curve around it like a slalom skier. This saves time during cutting without needing to stop and reverse, as well as effort on installation, and in the future as for additions to the garden.

Grounds management is vital if we are to get back to play

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Grounds management is vital if we are to get back to play: 2020 will undoubtedly go down in history as the season of no sport. With tournaments cancelled, a nationwide ban on sport, and lockdown meaning everyone has ‘stayed at home’, the turf industry and those within it have been seriously impacted by the coronavirus crisis.

As of this month, Project Restart is beginning to unlock sport at a professional level, and with calls for sport to return as soon as it’s safe to do so, Covid-19 has reminded us how intrinsic these games – and the pitches they’re played on – are to our nation and communities.

Grounds management is vital if we are to get back to play

Grounds management is vital if we are to get back to play

Despite the important role sport plays at all levels, we are facing a crisis at its very foundation. GMA’s new report and research, Back to Play, has shown that a lack of investment and appreciation for local grass pitches, and those that maintain them, could significantly limit play once sport resumes.

Saving the grassroots game

Many of our favourite sports are heavily dependent on our natural turf pitches, and those that maintain them. But there is potential for a steady decline in both the quality and the number of pitches available. As local authority budgets are tightened and resources are stripped back or limited, we’ll undoubtedly see this accelerated by the pandemic.

In England today, we have around 56,891 rugby union and league, football, and cricket pitches – one pitch for every 984 people. Many of these pitches have been overplayed due to rising demand, resulting in a steady deterioration of existing grounds.

Demand will also likely increase, as access to sports will be crucial to our recovery. We’ve been unable to play, which will have impacted on our physical and mental wellbeing. Our grounds staff will therefore have to manage even more demand, while continuing to create a safe playing environment.

If this trend continues, the number of rugby, cricket and football matches played will be reduced over the next decade. Our report has suggested a fifth of people who play rugby and football will be unable to play every week, and more than half of people who play cricket will see matches reduced, without urgent action.

The ‘new normal’

The Government has announced a return to professional sports (without the fans), and much has been mentioned about the players and staff, whose safety is paramount. However, what isn’t discussed is the restrictions, and the direct impact they will have on the groundstaff teams. Teams will be expected to maintain pre-pandemic standards, with less resources, less budget and with safety protocols restricting what can and cannot be done.

All these aspects will change the nature of working practices. Grounds staff have proven themselves to be an essential service for our sports, seamlessly producing playing surfaces as teams returned to training.

Commercially-driven clubs, who will be desperate to recoup lost revenue as a result of the pandemic, must support the grounds teams in the coming weeks, months, and years.

It’s likely that grounds staff will be asked to produce ‘fit for play’ surfaces with quick turnaround, in a concentrated period – not to mention winter sports playing through summer and summer sports extending into winter months.

We’ve witnessed flooded February, a pandemic, and the driest May on record, so further unexpected weather may well exaserbate the challenges that lie ahead.

For many clubs at all levels, surviving will be challenging. Clubs need support, and while sports bodies have been quick to establish funding, they themselves have been impacted by the pandemic. Sport is part of the fabric of our society, yet our grassroots infrastructure has suffered from decades of under-investment and a lack of focus. While we await the return of recreational sport, when the green light is given, volunteers will be vital in producing playable pitches.

Making more sport possible

With proper investment in our sector, we know the decline can be averted, and sport can continue.

While there are pitch improvement programmes, including the successful ‘Grounds & Natural Turf Investment Programme’ (GaNTIP), more must be done.

If we improved existing grass pitches, almost 1.4 million more children could play rugby or football every week and 489,859 more could play cricket every season. By investing more in grass pitches, those that maintain them, and influencing a new generation of skilled grounds staff, we can reverse this trend, improve our grass pitches, and enable sport to continue.

Getting involved

With our Back to Play campaign, we’re calling for people to join the sector, both as volunteers and professionals, and more resources to improve access to community-level sport.

Our sector is facing a recruitment crisis, and with only 19% of children currently considering a job in grounds management, we must work together as an industry to address this. We know people in our industry love what they do. Over 90% of those working in the sector are satisfied or very satisfied with their job, highlighting high levels of job satisfaction.

We’ve also seen hundreds of thousands of people volunteering to help out in their community, be that through signing up to support the NHS, or helping out an elderly neighbour. It’s vital that this spirit continues once sport resumes.

Matches and training cannot take place without a suitable playing surface. Clubs need great pitches, and they need grounds staff and volunteers to make that possible.

It’s imperative that more sportloving young people enter the profession, creating a new generation of passionate and dedicated grounds managers, and that more volunteers look to support local pitches, even just for a couple of hours a month.

As turf professionals, it’s our job to inspire this younger generation, as well as potential volunteers of all ages, to join us, and work with the wider sporting industry to highlight the important role that grounds staff play. Sport is a cornerstone in our communities, our identities and our lives and we must ensure sport is possible for everyone, wherever and whoever they are.