Page 27 - GM Winter 2021
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Grass
Easy Part
Beautiful aerial shot of Brightwood Golf & Country Club Walking up the 6th hole fairway. located in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
On top of loving her career choice, Sue has been a huge support- er of associations, education, and the latest research. She also sat on the ATRF (Atlantic Turfgrass Research Foundation) Board for many years and organized and ran the Atlantic Canadian ATRF/AGSA Turfgrass Conference for 5 years. “I enjoy being involved in the industry,” she contin- ued. “I attend the regional confer- ence every year, sign up for most of the online webinars that are offered and have taken online HR courses at Dalhousie University to improve my communication and management skills.”
When asked what piece of advice she would give someone gettingintotheindustry,shesays,”I would tell them to keep learning as much as they can throughout their career. Read, talk to and learn from peers, experiment, volunteer on
committees and boards, the more experience you can gain from differ- ent perspectives, the better off you’ll be in the long run.”
Crawford also believes that it is crucial in this industry to develop and fine-tune your communication skills to be effective and successful. “Growing grass is the easy part; it’s dealing with the people that is the challenge.”
With any success story comes challenges along the way from both a work and personal perspective. Communication is one of those challenges that Sue referenced as key to having a successful team and course. “I’ve had a couple of challeng- ing work environments where I’ve found it incredibly frustrating working with someone who doesn’t listen well and doesn’t convey the information I need to do my job.” She continued, “I also understand just
how important communication skills are for me and have made a concert- ed effort to improve myself in that area too.”
On the personal side, Crawford stated that one of the most challeng- ing issues of working her way up through a male dominated industry, has always been having to prove herself. “If a male takes a job at a golf course, everyone assumes he can do the job without a doubt, but as a female, I had to prove I could do the job.” She continued, “It takes me weeks to get the respect of co-workers when it’s instantly given to a male in the same scenario.”
It is disappointing to hear about these challenges in our industry, however, is encouraging to see all the support of many people and groups such as Women in Turf and Women in Golf coming together and continuing to break down these barriers. GM
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