For many executives, the golf
course is a sacred escape from the stresses of corporate
life. For Don Padgett III, the golf
course is corporate life.
Not that the Akron native
minds. As executive director of
the World Golf Championships
— Bridgestone Invitational at
Firestone Country Club, Padgett
enjoys the work as much as a
fairway junkie enjoys an afternoon on the back nine. It’s just
that his time on the links is a bit
more chaotic than that of your
average foursome.
“We have approximately
80,000 people that come out to
the course during [tournament]
week,” says Padgett, whose
father served as Firestone
Country Club’s general manager
for more than two decades.
“Add to that 75 of the world’s
best golfers, and there’s always
things that you’re looking for on
the radar screen.”
To ensure that the event goes
as smoothly as Tiger Woods’
swing, Padgett never hesitates to
step back and reassess a situation, ensuring that he makes the
best possible decisions while
managing four full-time employees and 1,000 volunteers.
Smart Business spoke with
Padgett about how a to-do list
can give you extra clarity in
times of chaos and how to get
everyone on the same page.
Step back and prioritize. You
have to constantly prioritize
what needs to be done and
what the most important
thing is to knock out. [It’s
being able to] roll with the
punches and then being able
to wait to hit on a curveball.
They’re not always fast balls.
You’re going to get some curve-balls and some changeups, and
you’ve got to learn to be flexible and adjust.
Just always make sure you
take time to take a step back
and look at things. Take
some time in the morning
and sit down and just make a
[to-do] list, and look at that
rather than just jumping
right in and going at it with
your nose to the grindstone.
Take that five or 10 minutes.
I always look at it and say,
‘Here’s what I’ve got to get
done for the day. Here’s what
I’d like to get done for the
week.’ That changes on a
daily basis, but I usually start
my day out like that. We
always have a Monday morning meeting, and we go over
it there, as well.
We do an annual calendar.
There are things that you do
each year that you can put
on that annual calendar.
When we look at that each
week, sometimes it might
vary a little bit, but then you
know you have that on your
tickler list to do either that
week or that month, and you
make sure that everything
gets knocked out and falls
into place.
It helps you to stay on top
of things. Nothing gets overlooked if you take a couple
steps back.
Get all the information you can
before making big decisions.
You’ve got to make timely decisions, but you’ve got to
be methodical at times, too.
You’ve always got to think,
‘Is this something that I can
make the call on my own, or
do I need to consult my staff
and involve them so I don’t
paint them into a corner?’ If
it’s something in their specific area, I usually consult with
them before I give a timely
answer 100 percent back to
somebody.
If there’s something or some
detail that you didn’t quite consider or weren’t fully aware of
the impact that it might have,
you wouldn’t want to make a
rash decision and then not
have thought about the whole
complexity of the issue.
