Alberto Iglesias CCM is the current General Manager at Font del Llop Golf Resort in Alicante, Spain. He passed the CCM exam in 2017 and also sits on the Board of the CMAE.
In this Q&A Alberto explains what skills from his former career help him as a club manager and how important education is for the club industry in Spain
You are a former professional goalkeeper. What skills as a goalkeeper help you as a club manager?
One of the main skills that has served me is working as a team. Despite the loneliness of the goalkeeper in the goal, I learned that the individualities do not take you anywhere and the triumphs are achieved by the unity of the team. Everyone on the team has the same importance. Another one is the spirit of sacrifice. A manager must be the example of his team and for that he must renounce many personal things in order to achieve the objectives.
Prior to golf you sold real estate in the Caribbean and were very successful. What made you decide on a career change to club management?
My professional career has always been around golf, and my work in real estate has been on golf courses. In 2008, after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, which greatly affected the American real estate market, which was our main client, I was offered the opportunity to develop the opening of Font del Llop and be General Manager. After the celebration of meeting in 2009, CMAE at European conferences in Benidorm, I followed the advice of Daniel Asis to do the MDP path way, of which I will be eternally grateful and from that moment I started to train to be a good golf director to complete with the CCM exam and a Master hotel & hospitality management in Alicante University.
Do the sales techniques you used to sell property help you in your current job?
Everything learned always works, but the world has evolved a lot and, managers have to be constantly learning, today it is not sold or commercialized as it was 10 years ago, nor do our clients have the same demands or needs. Today the market is immediate, a twit is time spent five minutes after publishing it, so I have had to adapt to new technologies and sell techniques, although some old techniques are still valid.
You have been assisting CMAE in bringing the Management Development Programme to Spain and helping to deliver the course in Spanish, aswell as having twin boys at home and a busy work life. What methods do you take to help you with a busy home and work life?
Well, one of the first practices is time management, it is very important to have a good team around you and know how to delegate to them. I divide into three sectors, one that is my hobby that is training and helping our colleagues and that is why I dedicate my time to CMAE, another is my profession to which I owe, but never without taking into account that besides work there are more things in life, and another is the family that is a fundamental pillar on which my life is based and my children and my wife are. Without Vanesa, I would have achieved absolutely nothing of the goals that I have set for myself in these 10 years.
You are now one of seven Spanish CCM’s. How important do you think education is to the health of the club industry in Spain?
As I used to say all the CCM´s that exist in Spain are followers of our mentor Daniel Asis, and the same thing he did with us, we are doing with other colleagues, with which I predict a magnificent future of training in Spain. As before, managers are educating and preparing and a future is approaching with managers very prepared to manage our clubs. The network that we created 10 years ago is now more solid and alive than ever and when any partner asks for something, he receives immediately an answer. That is the greatest success that has been achieved.
