-- Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr. has published The Stewardship Standard: A Hospitality Operating System for Private Golf Clubs, a practical playbook aimed at helping club leaders build organizational culture, uphold operational standards, and plan for institutional continuity beyond their own tenure. The book merges what its subtitle describes as corporate intelligence, operational excellence, and intentional hospitality into a single applied framework.
Photo Courtesy of Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr.
Gibson is a business executive and operations leader whose career spans automotive management, golf operations, and resort leadership. He currently serves as General Manager at Marietta Motors and Westfall Towing, and has held golf and hospitality leadership roles, including Senior Director of Operations, Resort Operations Manager, and Head Golf Professional with National Golf Management Group, as well as General Manager and Head Pro at the Golf Club of South Carolina at Crickentree. Earlier in his career, he served as a Military Intelligence Analyst in the United States Army, an experience he has said continues to shape his analytical and strategic approach to leadership.
Structured across eight chapters and sixty-three modules, the book moves from foundational philosophy into direct application before closing with a focus on legacy and succession. Chapters four through six address leading culture, stewarding people, and stewarding excellence, covering topics such as vision, trust, accountability, dignity, mentorship, standards, consistency, and continuous improvement.
In a foreword to the book, James Mitchell Harrison, former President of the Club Management Association of America, wrote that "the eight chapters and sixty-three modules provide club professionals, general managers, board members, and emerging leaders with tools they can implement immediately, while also challenging them to think beyond their tenure." Harrison added that this balance "between the urgent and the important, between today's operations and tomorrow's opportunities, represents the essence of stewardship itself."
Gibson said the book was written to address a gap he repeatedly observed during his career in golf and hospitality: leaders who are operationally skilled but lack a broader framework for building lasting culture. "One pattern kept showing up over and over," Gibson said. "The organizations that lasted, the ones that built fierce loyalty across multiple generations, were being led by people who saw themselves as custodians of something bigger than themselves."
The book's final chapters, covering the stewardship of legacy and the steward's calling, address succession planning, institutional memory, and generational leadership, positioning these topics as practical extensions of the operational material introduced earlier.
In his foreword, Harrison frames the book's central challenge to club leaders directly: "The question is not whether your club needs stewardship. The question is whether you are ready to become a steward."
Gibson said the book's broader aim is to shift how club leaders see their roles altogether. "What we lead does not belong to us," Gibson said. "We are temporary custodians of institutions shaped by previous generations and destined to serve future ones."
The Stewardship Standard is available now on Amazon and Kindle.
Visit Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr.'s website to learn more about The Stewardship Standard.
About Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr.
Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr. holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Virginia College and multiple associate degrees from the Golf Academy of America, specializing in golf operations, turf management, and teaching and player development. He is also active in community mentorship through organizations, including Celebrate Recovery and the First Tee Golf Program.
Contact Info:
Name: Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr.
Email: Send Email
Organization: Don Carlos Lee Gibson Jr.
Address: Tennessee, United States, North America
Website: https://www.doncarlosleegibsonjr.com/
Release ID: 89198053
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