Playbooks For Golf, the nation’s leading producer of custom-designed career web sites for golf course superintendents (see my February 25, 2010 blog on this topic), has expanded its product line to better serve the growing needs of the profession. Now, in addition to the well-established personal career web site concept, Playbooks is introducing the new less expensive concept of a personal “portfolio” to the world of the golf course superintendent.

A personal “portfolio” is a slightly less sophisticated version of the personal web site that is provided to superintendent clients in a “pdf-file” format that will allow job-seeking candidates to print out the personal portfolio in hard copy form for direct mailing to club search committees.

The “portfolio” approach complements and reinforces the web site concept because it provides candidates with two delivery options when applying for a job:

First: applications incorporating personal web site addresses would be forwarded “electronically” to search committees; and/or second: applications utilizing the personal portfolio concept would be forwarded by U.S. Mail, or the equivalent, to search committees. Clearly, candidates would be free to select either one or both of the above delivery approaches when applying for a job. When utilized, the double delivery approach will significantly reinforce the merits of a candidate’s credentials.

Playbooks Options For Superintendents & Assistants With Fees:

1.   Candidates can subscribe exclusively to the personal career web site service for a fee of $990.

2.   Candidates can subscribe to both the personal web site service (a $990 fee) and the portfolio service (a discounted $390 fee) for a combined fee of $1,380.

3.   Candidates can subscribe to the portfolio service exclusively for a fee of $790.

All above fees can be financed through a 12-month period via credit cards, etc.

Playbooks suggests that subscribing to the portfolio format alone might better suit assistants and the unemployed looking for jobs because it would cost less than a stand alone web site fee while at the same time producing a guaranteed quality final product.

Some may think that assistant’s careers lack adequate scope to justify developing a personal web site, or portfolio. It is a mistake to think this way because I have seen dynamic assistant-oriented web sites and portfolios.

Always remember that roughly two-thirds of all job interviews are awarded to candidates submitting web site addresses. This practice will continue and expand through the use of the personal portfolio concept.

During World War II when over 235,000 American military men and women were taken prisoners of war, post-war statistics later showed that for every one European theatre prisoner of war that suffered from  “post traumatic stress disorder” (PTSD) there were roughly 80 Pacific theatre prisoners of war suffering from the same malady.

Puzzled by the huge disparity between the prisoner of war PTSD data surfacing from the European war zone compared to the Pacific war zone, a number of in-depth studies were undertaken following the war to investigate the situation and to determine what were the discerning elements between the two wartime scenarios.

These studies concluded that while there were common inhumanities to man such as starvation, torture and long slave-like workdays throughout both theatres of war – the one clear distinguishing element between the German and Japanese treatment of prisoners was that the Japanese intentionally stripped their prisoners of all dignity (imagine the worst that could happen and then double it). Throughout Japanese prisoner of war encampments, personal degradation could be as lethal as a bullet.

Once the initial findings of these studies (as expressed above) were published, they were extrapolated to apply generally throughout society in the following manner:

“In the absence of personal dignity men and women are defined not by themselves but by what is done to them…

. . . not only as prisoners of war but throughout every walk of life; for example: by the potential harm imparted at the receiving end of parent-child relationships; teacher-student relationships; employer-employee relationships and so on. Before long, the above premise spawned the following mankind serving corollary:

“Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food and oxygen.”

With this premise established, golf course superintendents are encouraged to:

1.   Carefully monitor the manner in which they (and their assistants) instruct, evaluate and discipline members of their crews because caustic approaches undertaken in this regard can potentially diminish crew effectiveness beyond repair.

2.   Similarly, guard against caustic exchanges with a spouse or child because these will not only undermine family stability but, also, have the potential to severely curtail each child’s ability to succeed in life.

3.   Not allow (through the actions of others and/or their own) their personal dignity to be infringed upon in any manner because their ability to lead within a profession and a family could be irreparably damaged.

Man’s salvation lies in respecting and enhancing personal dignity; not in thoughtlessly undermining it.

(Above statistics and prisoner of war references are presented within Laura Hillenbrand’s nonfictional book entitled, Unbroken.)