Listen to the interview here!
Tom Morgan
Toni Reece: Hi there. This is Toni Reece. Welcome to the Get Inspired! Project for Berks County Living Magazine. Today I am with Tom Morgan. Hi, Tom.
Tom Morgan: How are you doing today?
Toni: I’m doing great. Tom, tell us a little bit about yourself.
Tom: Obviously, my name is Tom Morgan. I am the Director of Golf at the Reading Country Club, where I’ve been for the last 13 years. I’m happily married, living in Honeybrook with two lovely daughters, 8 and 4. I’m excited to be in Reading.
Toni: That’s fantastic. Thank you for being part of the Project. Let’s go into the first question. What does inspiration mean to you?
Tom: Inspiration to me means someone that is a leader that leads by example – doesn’t need to be told to be a leader, just acts their role in life and in their job or whatever it may be, and they just lead by example. They don’t have to be told to be a leader. It’s just someone that takes on responsibility, is kind, is genuine – just someone that is a joy to be around.
Toni: How do you know somebody like that when you see them?
Tom: First impressions, definitely … the handshakes, eye contact, physical, how they respond to a gesture of a handshake and a smile on a face. I always try to teach my staff to smile when they answer the phone, because it does come through. Certain things like that.
Toni: You are inspired by those qualities.
Tom: Without a doubt. You can see yourself and myself in a conversation where someone that is not as confident (or whatever you want to call it) just get shy, sit back a little bit, whereas sometimes we may feel as aggressive being, “How are you doing?”, who you are, and just trying to find out more about that person and see what makes them tick and what makes them happy.
Toni: That’s nice, too, because there are some people that wouldn’t take the time if someone were a little uncomfortable. For someone to be kind and open and receiving like that, that would inspire me if I were to witness that.
Tom: Sure.
Toni: How do you put that type of inspiration into practice here in Berks County?
Tom: I like to lead by example at Reading Country Club as the Director of Golf, and my staff, trying to make sure that everybody that walks into that place playing golf has a great experience, and that’s mostly by your interactions. Whether they’re getting your golf clubs for you, or the interaction at the counter. I try to tell everybody, “What if your grandmother was walking in? How would you treat her?” You try to think of the most loving, caring person in your life, and a lot of people go to their parents and grandparents, so I always try to use that as an example.
Toni: Can you give me an example of something you’ve witnessed or you’ve demonstrated yourself where you thought, “This is what it takes, and this is what happens?”
Tom: It’s funny, because as the Director of Golf, I am the boss, if you will, and members or even guests who see that and know that kind of feel bad that I’m carrying their bag.
Toni: Okay.
Tom: So when I’m out there, I like to lead by example. I’m out there just trying to make sure that these people are having a good experience, whether that’s my staff getting their bag; if my staff is busy, then it’s me – but it doesn’t have to be somebody down the pecking order of, “It’s your responsibility.” Everybody on my staff knows that we’re all for one and one for all.
Toni: That is fantastic. How about a personal experience? Have you ever witnessed that?
Tom: Just people going out of their way. It’s that same thing of holding the door. Right now in this day and age, that is unheard of, and sometimes it offends people. If you hold the door and somebody says, “I can hold the door,” and they get offended. I just say it’s unfortunate that they have that kind of life experience to be that upset. It’s just easier to smile than frown.
Toni: It is, isn’t it? And it’s so contagious.
Tom: Without a doubt.
Toni: Why sit in front of somebody that’s miserable?
Tom: You can tell that. That’s something I teach a lot with my kids. I have a lot of kids that are coming to me when they’re 16, 17, 18, in high school and then going to college. Whatever you want to do in life, be happy, because you can put a monetary value to it, but it’s not going to last. If you’re happy, who cares where you are, because you’re happy with what you’re doing, and you’re at work most of the time.
Toni: Do you think being happy with your work experience also can make a great leader?
Tom: Without a doubt.
Toni: How so?
Tom: Just from my experience, I just love to be there. I love the people. I love the atmosphere. I want to create a good atmosphere so that there’s no issues.
Golf is golf. You can have a great round of golf, but a miserable experience because of the interactions. You can have a bad round of golf, but a good experience because to the interactions. I just let everybody know, what they do from hole one to hole 18 is on them, but outside of that, we have a lot of effect.
Toni: Who in Berks County inspires you?
Tom: My wife. Teachers.
Toni: How so?
Tom: They get into it with knowing that that golden egg is at the end of the tunnel, and nowadays, they’re just getting looked over. We all look at teachers as the future of our world. They’re teaching our kids. If they aren’t taken care of or they don’t feel they’re taken care of, that’s going to affect how they teach our kids.
My wife got into it in the late 90s, and it’s tough. You see it affected day in and day out. She loves what she does, but the politics and the BS of it unfortunately is life, because of economies and because of budgets and because of where we are in the world we’re in, but they still go in day in and day out. They love their vacations, as they should, but I’ve seen a lot of them just at the end of their career not as happy as they thought they’d be, and maybe they’re better now because they’re getting out, but the ones that still have 10 or so years left, the unknown is just scary because they weren’t able to save all that money they could have if they were in a different job and whatnot – but they still trudge through, and they lead our future, so I give them a lot of credit.
Toni: I can tell you, I believe after doing many, many Get Inspired! Project interviews, you are the first person who spoke about teachers in general. There have been one or two that have called out specific teachers, but teachers in general – that is amazing. Thank you for that.
Tom: My pleasure.
Toni: What do you want your legacy to be?
Tom: I’ve always thought about trying to be who you are. When people think about me and Tom Morgan when I’ve left this lovely earth and gone to heaven, I just want them to think of me as a kind and loving person.
Toni: The legacy part of this is really the living legacy, and based on how you’ve answered these questions, and based on the mentoring you must be giving to the young people who are working for you as well, the fact that you mentioned carrying bags and mentioned teachers, you are living that legacy. Thank you for doing what you’re doing, and also, thank you for being part of the Get Inspired! Project.
Tom: My pleasure. I’m looking forward to see how it all unfolds.
Toni: Thank you. Take care.
Tom: Thank you.
