As a young professional in the boating world, he understands the importance of continuous improvement. Since his first job, Patrick Green has grown as a professional at some of the industry’s most reputable organizations.  Read on to learn more about how Patrick navigates the workplace in order to create a positive work culture.

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Q: How did you get started in the boating industry?

Green: I got my first job working summers at Gordy’s in Fontana, Wisconsin on Geneva Lake. I actually was able to save enough money working my first two summers to buy a car on my own before I turned 16.

Q: Being a young professional, you fall into the category of Millennial. How do you navigate the workplace, as a leader, with that “label”?

Green: Reading the room. One of the biggest lessons I hope to carry with me 20 years from now, is understanding & learning from the generational gap. When a company’s culture becomes stagnant so do its people.

Q: Tobler Marina is a Marine Industry Certified Dealership. As the Director of Certification, what benefits are you seeing within the dealership after completing and actively participating in the program?

Green: We’ve gotten in the habit of including the Certification Curriculum in our weekly manager meetings, and then trickling it down through weekly dept meetings. This has enabled us to reflect, but also allowed us to push forward with simplifying process. The accountability tools have also helped us understand why the process is so important. Employee feedback is key.

Q: As a professional who puts an emphasis on growing and continuously learning, what would you say was the most important thing you learned in the business this year?

Green: It’s important to have values in an organization that match personal values. This also relates to employees and customers – and the relationships that coincide.

Q: We always end our Member Spotlight interview with this… What are 5 things that people may not know about you?

1. I was a zipline guide in Alaska for one summer after college.
2. I went snowboarding every month for 23 months in a row.
3. I love to rock climb.
4. I studied Philosophy in college.
5. I aspire to do the Great Loop.

Equip. [ih-kwip] verb. to provide appropriate provisions, resources, and preparations for performance or action.

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A lot can be learned about leadership in the dojo.

To be a world class martial artist, you must be equipped with flexibility. Among other things, it allows you to deliver a devastating and lightning-fast kick to your opponent’s head.

That’s why, about 11 years ago, on a slow and plodding journey to black belt, I bought a stretcher. I knew that at 32 years old, I was not going to become a world class martial artist. But I aspired to get as close as I could. I had good motivation: It doesn’t take receiving very many kicks to the head before you wish you could kick to the head too.

To use this piece of equipment, which resembles a medieval torture device, you strap your legs in and then crank a wheel a little further each day, each week, until you’ve reached your goal of a full split – which brings with it the ability to deliver that devastating kick.

Similar to the martial arts world, to be a leader in your dealership, you need to be equipped with a kind of flexibility. In the 18-month Leadership Development Program offered by Spader Business Management, the word David Spader uses is “adaptability” – not exactly the same as flexibility, but a close cousin.

David goes so far as to call adaptability “the single best predictor of our sustained individual and organizational success.”

So, dealership leaders, are you equipped with adaptability? Well, there are two prerequisites. One, a desire to adapt. And two, a willingness to feel the discomfort of doing things differently.

If you have that desire and that willingness, the MRAA has a lot to offer you. We’ve partnered with leading educators – people like David Spader – to develop a wealth of training resources, tools and courses to help you improve and grow in this fast-changing market.

In fact, one of the central themes of our upcoming conference – the Marine Dealer Conference & Expo – is future-proofing: looking forward to what’s coming toward us to minimize the shocks and stresses of the change ahead, so we can maximize our success. There’s no better place to gain insight into adapting yourself, your department and your dealership to the evolution of our customer and our industry.

In the end, I’ve learned that adaptability is, in fact, more important than its cousin, flexibility. A few weeks into the use of my torture device, I landed in the doctor’s office. Turns out my hips were not made to flex like that, much to my chagrin, and my attempts to try actually chipped a piece of bone off the edge of my hip socket.

The doctor gave me a choice: Pick another sport or stop trying to kick to the head. Needless to say, I love martial arts. I wasn’t going to pick another sport. So, instead of relying on flexibility, I’ve equipped myself with another martial arts skill. Hint: Watch out for my hook.

What new skills are you and your team developing to adapt to the changes taking place under your roof and in your boating community? Share them with us in the comments or at the MDCE in December. See you there!

Empower. [em-pou-er] verb. to give (someone) the authority or power to do something.

Make (someone) stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights. 

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In our business world today, where leadership and management courses, consultancies, books and countless other resources constitute a multi-million-dollar business, we can easily be led to believe that empowerment is something that must be done to us. We must have a manager-type empower us to make decisions. We must have a leader to authorize us to do something or to accomplish something. Someone that is not us must grant us the authority to make things happen.

I don’t believe this thinking could be further from the truth, and I believe that its guidance misleads many would-be leaders into thinking they have to wait for the signal — to wait for the message that someone believes in them enough to allow them to step up and create results.

At a time when we are striving to recognize young leaders in our industry and at a time when there’s a great deal of conversation about generational differences, I wonder if we’re doing a good enough job of encouraging and supporting our up-and-comers? I wonder if they feel empowered or if they’re waiting for us to fulfill the perception that someone must empower them?

At MRAA, we exist to support you, your business and your team with tools, resources and educational programs. We go so far as to say that our annual conference will engage, energize and empower you and your team to greater results.

But this “empower” is not about what MRAA can do for you or to you. It’s about making resources available so you can make the critical decisions. So, you can empower yourself and your team to be better today than you were yesterday.

I like to think of it as a challenge for myself, for my team, and for you and your team, as well: Give yourself the authority to do something incredible. Take control of your business, your career trajectory, your customers and the results that you desire to create.