Now there’s a whole lot of sub-goals, or outcomes, involved in getting to this point, but as a goal, it’s pretty good. So, what’s your SMART goal for your golf?

Some SMART examples:
I want to win the Augusta Masters in ten years time.
I want to break 80 this year.
I want to play 40 times this year.
I want to drive over 240 yards by October.

Whatever your goal, I’d like to ask you this: “For what purpose?”

Your answer is important. Keep asking yourself that same question for each response. This can take some time, but it’s so worth while - at the end you find the real driver (no pun intended) to help you achieve it. Here’s an example from one of our coaching sessions:
“I want to break 80 this year”
For what purpose?
“To improve my game”
For what purpose?
“So that I’ll know I’ve improved”
For what purpose?
“So that I can beat my friend”
For what purpose?
“‘cos I want to win”
For what purpose?
“Because I like to win”
For what purpose
“To prove I’m the better player
For what purpose? This went on for a while in a loop from winning to better player and round.
For what purpose winning and being the better player?
“To be happy”
For what purpose?
“To be at peace with myself”
“and satisfied”
“and joyful”

Once the loop is broken through, the real drivers often come flooding out.
For this individual - the ‘real’ reason to break 80 is to be satisfied, at peace and joyful - the winning and being the better player is just a confirmatory result.

The best and easiest way to do this is to work with someone else. They coach you through the ‘for what purpose?’ and not let go until you say something ‘valuable’. Again, you’ll know when this happens - you’ll in fact observe a big change in physiology - a ‘warm glow’ is how it is frequently described.

Why is this important? Well, you like to know why you’re doing something don’t you? Just imagine if everything you did, every day, had a known purpose for you. How great would that be?

A trusted leader, has a thick bankroll of crisp bills. Every time you act inconsistently with your professed values, or break a promise, you must spend some of those crisp bills - when the bankroll is gone, so is the trust that others have in you. At this point, your personal appeals or persuasive arguments cannot buy back that trust. Once lost, trust, and the personal credibility it took to gain it, may take years to regain.

Trust & Credibility

Trust is much more than credibility. Credibility is a necessary precursor to trust - before someone will place their trust in you, they have to believe in you. Trust is when a person places something of value to them into your care an stewardship because they believe that you will take good care and, usually, return to them something of greater value.

As a leader, the ’something’ may be as obviously important as life - a military leader for example. It may be time or skills or an idea for a business leader. Whatever the situation, we place our trust in the leader. In turn, the leader trust you to deliver on your promise. The relationship is established beforehand, the leader’s credibility has been established and the result of this ‘transaction’ may reinforce or destroy trust.

In networking, the same rules apply. You might offer to introduce someone to a business opportunity. As the initiator, you must trust the person to be capable or risk your personal credibility and the trust your opportunity has in you. The individual you are introducing will also trust that you will genuinely do as you say and that it is a legitimate opportunity. Trust is a two-way street.

Establishing Trust
1. Be honest and open
The top leadership attribute of most admired leaders in Kouzes and Posner’s comprehensive survey is honesty. This isn’t just about telling the truth, it is also ‘doing what you say you will do’. And, it’s worth noting that honesty does not always imply that the truth is to your own liking nor the action something with which you agree.

Some networkers though fall into the ‘marketing trap’ - embellishing aspects of their business or person to such a degree that their honesty could quickly become suspect. It’s all very well having a fabulous 30 second ‘elevator pitch’ designed to intrigue and excite others though if it is too far removed from honesty, you may soon be dealing out some of those crisp bills from your bankroll.

Trusted leaders are open and transparent - particularly ion this post-Enron world. The suspicion surrounding UK politicians currently has a lot less to do with their actual expense claims and a lot more to do with questions about why such claims should be so secretive. Openness also means being open to question. Your elevator pitch should (according to those far more expert in this) invite questions - your answers to those being a robust defense citing evidence that supports your pitch. Can you defend your elevator pitch?

2. Don’t hide bad news
Northern Rock, Lehman, Fannie and Freddie, HBOS and an increasing number of others have suffered a major fallout, in part because the leaders hid the bad news (or the potential for bad news), possibly even from themselves. As the bad news leaked out, savers who had entrusted their money queued to withdraw it immediately. To regain some trust, the UK Government had to spend rather more than a few crisp bills from its bankroll.

Advertising of financial or pharmaceutical products now carry a warning of the potential downside or side effects (albeit in tiny print or spoken at a rate few amphetamine addicts would understand). Should our elevator pitch contain such caveats? It would be honest.

3. Don’t over promise
Making promises you cannot keep? Why do politicians rate as the most untrustworthy of people? They promise the world and seldom deliver. What about ‘Relationship Bankers’ - the ones who were heavy on profit and quiet about real risk in selling Lehman min-bonds - still to be trusted?

It’s a trap that many parents fall into. Talking to their kids about the exciting places they’re going to go and the fun they are going to have. From pimples - “you’ll grow out of it” to exhortions to study - “you’ll be able to do whatever you like when you graduate with honours”.

Leaders are prone to over promise - it’s considered perhaps an embellishment, a slight exaggeration or, the catch-all, marketing.

4. Walking the talk
Doing what you say you will do is probably the most critical component of trust. If any of the three points above are in doubt, there is little chance that you will be able to walk the talk.

How many times have you been to a networking event that ends in warm handshakes and empty commitments? When you say that you will introduce a friend to a contact, do it. If you say that you’ll pass on their contact information, do that. If you say that you’ll turn their business around and they will make 2 grand a month with just 4 hours work a week… Diligent follow-through sets you apart from the crowd and communicates trust.

Your trust bankroll is being spent every-time you:

How to rebuild trust

Even the greatest leaders can suffer a loss of trust. This may be the result of error in judgment or a mistake. Or circumstances may conspire against the leader (a favourite of politicians and ex-Northern Rock senior management).

Networkers are also prone to losing trust - perhaps the result of adverse market conditions or the failure of a supplier or partner. A respected and trusted networker can lose years of building trusted relationships through introducing a connection who failed to deliver on their promise. So how do we rebuild damaged trust?

Acknowledge the mistakes
When decisions turn out unexpectedly, the leader owes his followers an explanation. Inflated egos can make a leader quick to assign blame or make excuses, but a mistake unacknowledged is compounded.

A straightforward acknowledgment of the mistake should be the front end and made voluntarily. One forced (because I got caught) does nothing to re-establish trust. “I forgot to call” may not be something a networker likes to admit, but it’s more honest than making up a convoluted story of deceit that tries to shift responsibility elsewhere.

Apologise
Admitting that you are fallible, that what you did was wrong, that you made a mistake is an important step to accepting responsibility. Knowing that you made an error is one thing, admitting it to others, though painful, allows you (and often them helping you) to put the incident behind you and take action to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Make amends
Find a way to make amends with people you have wronged. If you have harmed, make restitution. People often forget that undelivered promises frequently have cost the other party. If, for example, you agree to meet someone at 2pm, and turn up at 2.30 - you’ve just cost someone 30 minutes. Next time who will turn up and when?

You may not be required to do so, and it may be that circumstances conspired against you, and it may be that it really truly wasn’t your fault - but accepting ownership and taking responsibility goes a long way to thickening that bankroll of trust.

Trust is the bedrock of the bond between leader and follower, the bond that makes a network work. As a leader and as a networker, trust will make or break your success in any industry or circumstance.

Let me take you through an simplified example of how our brain processes external events, then you can identify what must be happening inside your own mind.

You intend to play a game of golf this morning. You arise, look out of the window and see grey skies and a little rain falling.

What happens now depends on your previous experience right?

The external event is visual - you see the clouds and rain. It is auditory - you hear the rain hitting the ground, roof and so on. When you step outside, it is kinaesthetic, you will feel the water hitting you, the air will smell fresh(er), you may even taste the rain. You will feel the cooler air. You know that it is raining.

Obvious right? Sure? Ok then, how do you know it is raining? That’s right. You’ve experienced it before. You have processed the data ‘sensed’ from the external environment, passed these experiences through your brain which has tallied the sensory experiences with a similar event in the past (or a combination of events) and applied a word or phrase which adequately describes the external event for you.

You will also realise that different people will react differently to this exact same external event and use different words or phrases to describe the situation. If you are in the UK it’s possible that a phrase such as “miserable weather”, “drizzle”, “slight rain”, “downpour” would be used. it is also likely that your tine of voice would be suggestive of dissatisfaction, or unhappiness, or resignation or something similar. If, on the other hand, you were a golf course manager whose course desperately needed water, you’d likely use different words and express a tone of relief, happiness, pleasure. Same event, different behaviours manifest… because the context has changed.

Let’s dig a little deeper. When we experience an external event through our senses, the incoming data stream that hits our eyes, ears, skin, nostrils, tongue registers in the millions of bits of data. All of this data is coming to us and our brains restrict the amount of data that is processed - typically a human being processes between 5 and 9 chunks of data at once - averaging 7 chunks of data and around 300-500 kbits of data (?? check numbers) We have filtered the incoming data stream and reduced the volume of data requiring processing. We ignore all the other data. Unconsciously we have chosen which data to process. So how do we filter?

Some of the data that we accept for processing is not important to us. Based on our previous experiences, we delete that data which we consider is not relevant. (Husbands, ask your wife about this - you do it all the time. Wives, you’re right, it appears that husbands don’t listen, that’s because they think it is not relevant - it is done unconsciously).

Some of the data that we have chosen to process, does not quite fit with our preferred experiences and we distort it to our preferences. That is, we bias our fresh data with past experiences.

Some of the data we process is recognised as a momentary event - you might say that we don’t really have sufficient data to be certain about this reality, so we generalise - again based on our previous experiences.

All of this non-deleted, distorted generalised dat is processed through our own language, memories, decisions, values and beliefs, attitudes and our very personal way of deleting, distorting and generalising.

This process then provides us with our very own, unique internal representation of the external event.

It is based on this internal representation that is influenced by and influences out internal state (the way we feel) which in turn triggers changes in our physiology and the behaviour we exhibit.

Wow! And that all happens in nano-seconds!

So what’s wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. Our brains are phenomenal organs and more powerful than any computer is or can ever be.

The important point here is to understand that we filter, in our own unique way, the external events occurring around us all the time. No two individuals will see exactly the same external event (they even experience it form different places in time and place), and even if they were in exactly the same spot - they would have a different internal representation of the same event. Each individuals changes in physiology will be different (maybe very subtle, but different nonetheless) and no two individuals will behave in exactly the same way as a result.

The good news is that you can leverage some control over your own filters. The even better news is that, we can learn how the great players, the great leaders, those people that you most admire, filter similar external events.

The truly great news is that you can apply some, or all of the same filters into your processing.

You may not be able to physically swing like Tiger, or Nick, or Jack, or Seve - but you can think like them. You can process data in a way that is very similar to them. Want to?

Do you see a golf course as a series of obstacles to be avoided, or do you see the fairways and greens as the thing to hit. There are a few people who actually aim for the obstacles because they excel at the tricky shots - something discussed in the session on character and nature.

For most people, the self-directed anger resulting from dissatisfaction is not a positive state to be in. If you condemn yourself for playing poorly and use self-talk phrase such as “I should have…”, or yelling (at yourself or outwardly) your self-disgust such as “useless idiot” and perhaps more colourful phrasing - you are doomed to repeat it. Not only will you repeat the ‘error’, you are physically hurting yourself - self-condemnation causes self-directed anger causes stress causes physical distress causes physical sickness and, for many, heart failure. It’s a little as if your heart decides that’s it’s had enough of your inward abuse and is desperately trying to communicate your need to stop doing it. If you’ve had a heart attack or stroke you’ve probably completely reassessed how you live your life - and sought more tranquility, less stressful behaviours - in some cases avoiding the major contributors to your previously high stress levels - work and/or golf.

Some people don’t realise that this is what they are like. The way you drive your car is often a good indicator of your style. How angry do you get when someone cuts in to the queue in front of you? When you pull up to the red traffic light, do you swerve over to the other lane to be at the front of the queue? When motoring along are you more concerned about getting somewhere quickly, or more concerned with the traffic around you?

Back to golf. When you stand at the tee, what do you focus your attention on? Your target? Avoiding the trees/bunkers/water/rough? I hope the former by now if you’ve been with me all this time. What you focus on is what you’ll get.

Motivation is  a multi-faceted phenomenon. In large part, motivation is about the satisfaction of values held. It is the result of using particular personal resources towards a specific goal that satisfies a value or value held by that individual. Connecting any of these three in any order, resources, values and outcome creates the feeling of motivation. In smaller part, though often the critical component, is encouragement to achieve a goal.

It is worth spending some time here on what we mean by encouragement. The word has ‘courage’ at it’s root. Thus, to encourage is to develop, enhance or build courage. Courage, you’ll remember, is not the absence of fear but the continuation to do something of which you are fearful. It follows therefore, that if we ‘encourage’ ourselves - we are building the strength to overcome our fears and commit to an action. Encouragement itself, is often mistaken for motivation - or exchanged for it. In order to get someone to accomplish something - they will need to be motivated and/or encouraged to do so. it is possible to get someone - or even yourself - to do something which does not satisfy a value - but such actions are not repeated if no personal value is realised.

For example, many beginner golfers give up playing after being encouraged (usually by a relative or close friend) to take up the game. They continue to ‘try’ to play until they find that they do not realise something of value for themselves. Yes, there are people who don’t like or enjoy golf. Shocking but true. Encouragement is good, but it is not a substitute for genuine motivation.

There are some fundamental needs that we as human beings find motivational. There’s plenty of books and papers on the subject for the interested individual and I don’t intend to argue every combination here. However, there are some generally accepted ‘big’ motivators that the academics agree on - even if they want to put different labels to each term and put them in a different order.

In golf, there are only two things that affect your game. Yes, sorry, just the two things. The first is physics. The golf ball, your clubs, the course are all subject to the laws of physics.

You might say that the weather changes the way the ball behaves. Yes indeed it can and does, cool air temperatures effect the turbulence of the air and hence the flight of the ball… just physics.

You might suggest that your swing technique changes the way you strike the ball and hence its direction and distance - yes true - just physics.
The only part of golf that is not directly about physics is the you part - not your technique, strength, everything physical is, well physics. No, the only non-physical part is mental. There are those that will scientifically argue that this too is physics - after all, the mental part is about electrons, neurons etc that obey the laws of physics. Yes this may be true, however, there is an important distinction, you can do nothing about the laws of physics. Not a thing. Rien. Zip. Nada. Naff all. Zero. You can’t change it - you can use it - because the laws of physics don’t change - knowing what physics is at work and how to use that knowledge to increase distance, improve direction and so on - now that’s useful knowledge - see, you now wish that you’d paid more attention in school. The distinction is that the mental part of the game is something that you can change. Yes the neurons and so on that carry the messages and inform the parts of the body to do what they do will do so, because they obey the laws of physics. It is the message that they carry that you can change. Now, since this actually applies to everything in your life it could be a revelatory moment for you in everything.

So, we come back to the basic critical decision point. Are you at cause or effect? Do you cause your golf ball to fly in a particular direction? Yes, of course you do. Do you allow your playing partner to effect your playing? Do you allow the weather to effect your playing? The answer is that all things going on in your surroundings will effect your playing - because they effect your mental attitude, they effect the message that you send to your muscles.

How much you allow external events to effect your playing is your choice.
It’s important to preface this section with a reminder that everyone, every single human being has a choice to do something, or not do it. To learn something, or not to. Everything we do in  this life is a choice. Yes, there are many many (far too many) people on this planet who do not have a good choice - or a ‘real’ choice. There are, too many people who’s struggle for life overwhelms their choices in life. The choice to live or die in such circumstances, is however difficult or impossible, still a choice. Please realise that I am not denigrating anyone here, nor am I saying it’s easy simply because I assert that they have a choice. I simply want to ensure that you have a mindset that you can be at choice. Improving the opportunities for choice for the millions of those with little real choice is another matter entirely.

So, if you are at choice, which frequency do you listen, cause or effect?
How you influence others is somewhat obvious, but how you influence yourself is perhaps a little more obscure. We will take the obvious route first and then apply it to self. In the Mind Advantage, we are very strongly focussing on your self-leadership - how you lead yourself to greatness in golf. In our workouts on the Leadership advantage, this section is much bigger and meatier - because leadership is pretty much all about influencing others.

The Conquerer
On the golf course, this player dominates. Blasting a drive as far as possible brings great joy. The conquerer plays to shorten every hole and every shot - going for broke every time. Often an exhibitionist player and like to brag about their prowess.

Long carries over water whet the conquerers appetite - long par 5’s with a copse on the dogleg right to over-fly bring pulses of energy and make the endorphins flow.

As a leader, the conquerer revels in adversity and challenge. The more impossible others consider the position, the more the conquerer defies the odds. They want results, and they want them now. Excuses will bring wrath, and success will bring a new challenge. Seldom satisfied with the result, it can always be better.
Golf players who are conquerers include: Greg Norman, Bubba Watson, Arnold Palmer, Sam SneedFamous leader conquerers include: Margaret Thatcher, George W. Bush, Carly Fiorina, Lee Ka Shing, John Chambers, Michael Dell, David Johnson
The Conjuror
These golfers find excitement in difficult lies, thoroughly enjoy being tested in the rough, or an impossible shot between the trees. They excel in the bunker, and become easily bored with routine fairway shots. They gather their wits before a troublesome shot and have marvellous imagination which they are very capable of transferring directly into their game. About half of the conjurors like to show-off, whilst the other, quieter half, like to core well.

The conjuror leader triumphs over adversity again and again. Seemingly intent on making their own lives difficult and forever deliberately putting themselves and their teams into new challenges.
Golf player conjurors include: Seve Balesteros, Tom Watson, Phil MicelsonConjuror leaders include: Herb Kelleher, Hank Greenberg, Michael Eisner
The Craftsman

The clear headed technical player, deeply aware of their swing. Knowing their game intimately. These golfers, rehearse and practice even during a round - working on particular aspects of their game that needs attention.

This player excels when tinkering with the minutai details of how to play a particular shot. These players prefer a low stress game, hitting the fairway just right, and onto the green all day will suit them just fine. Quiet and concentrate more on scoring than exhibition, these are solid players and maintain a consistent game.

The Craftsman leader similarly likes a smooth-running business where they can constantly and continuously improve aspects of their business in incremental steps.
Gary Player, Nick Faldo, Ben Crane, Charles Howell IIIGordone Bethune, Andy Grove, Sandy Weill
The Cavalier

The consummate performer - the true exhibitionist of the game, these players like to shape their shots as much as possible and work the ball towards the target. How the shot, and they, look is important. This is the player who says “watch this” as they carve a beautiful shot around a tree and over the water onto the green. Others do this occasionally, with luck, but these players thrive on it. They like to wow the crowd and fellow players and are the shot-makers of the game.

The Cavalier leader is the ‘show-offs’ of the leadership world - not necessarily egotistically, but because it motivates them. Often, they will stun the audience with acts of derring-do and controversial behaviours. These leaders enjoy the limelight and are more frequently in the press.
Cavalier golfers include: Lee Trevino, Corey Pravin and Chi Chi RodriguezCavalier leaders include: Richard Branson, Ken Lay, Bill Gates, Martha Stewart
The Conductor
These are the players who pull the others together as much as play for themselves. Often, the unsung heroes of the regular round with friends, these players organise, cajole and hustle. More concerned for everyone’s enjoyment than just their own, they thrive on playing with others. Taking part is more important than winning, they can glory in other’s success. Few of the world’s top golfers fit this style, yet without them, the amateur game and local competitions would not exist for long. Disciplined and organised, these players like to keep accurate scores and seldom show-off.

Most leaders would like to be considered as conductors, concentrating their efforts on bringing the symphony together in perfect harmony towards a particular goal. These leaders empower others and seldom take centre-stage in public view (like an orchestral conductor, they have their back to the audience and their guidance focused on their team.)
Players who are conductors include: Tony Jacklin, Colin MontgomerieLeaders: Charles Heimbold, Carol Bartz, Elizabeth Dole, Ralph Larsen, Bill Marriot
The Chess player
These are the strategists of the game. These players plot their way around a course from point a to point b to point c. Positional golf is their forte and they are content to hit fairways and greens and two-put all day with an occasional birdie. They know that consistent, planned performance will win most of the time against all other styles. The Chess player gets the most from their game when they are thinking clearly, and using their minds throughout the round. Nothing flashy about their game for the most part, these players are good in all aspects of each hole and tend to strike the ball cleanly and well. These are the scorers of the game - they may appear to showing-off but that is due to their considerable skill and focus.

All leaders would like to consider themselves to be chess players, understanding the ‘art of war’ and the plethora of books on strategic management. But that’s just it, the vast majority of strategists are managers, not leaders (except by title). These leaders understand the environment, the context, the shifting positions of the competition and play a solid game along known successful routes, not too greedy and with contingencies for rough times. They understand foremost, who they are and what drives them, secondly they know their people and leverage their strengths and deploy all their resources to best effect.
Golfing chess players include: Ben Hogan, Bernard Langer, David Toms and Tiger Woods (an ex-conquerer turned strategist)Leadership chess players are most exemplified by Jack Welch, Walter Shipley, Howard Schultz, Gordon Bethune, Tony Blair

Each of us in reality possess aspects of each of these styles in our game and in our leadership. Underneath the situational style we may have developed though, lies a core style that suits us best. A style in which we are truly ‘playing with ourselves’ - a place where we are at ease with our game, and feel confident that we will achieve what we set out to achieve. Knowing your pre-disposition for a preferred style means that you know where, when the pressure is on, you are going to play naturally and with least effort. Knowing yourself and trusting in the strengths of a particular style will enable you to actively reduce your golf score and pro-actively lead your people.

So, remember, everything that you do has a positive intention for you - this applies to everybody else on the planet as well. I’d like you to put your moral objections aside just for a moment to consider if someone who takes a gun into a school classroom and shoots 20 kids at their desks actually had a positive intention for himself? It may be, in your map of the world, deluded, cruel, sadistic, mad, whatever, but in their map of the world, it had a positive intention. Just to reaffirm here, I am NOT advocating that anyone should follow such intentions under any circumstances - go and get some help you sicko, now.

When you step up to the tee and go through an habitual routine telling yourself that the last time you played this hole you sliced it into the woods, or “I always top it in the bunker” - you have, believe me, a positive intention… even though you are setting yourself up to fail. Or perhaps you have the mantra “I never win tournaments, I’m just not good enough” running through your head - it is to protect you from winning! Obviously your unconscious mind is clear that you can not win a tournament because your egotistical nature would cause your spouse to up and leave you after recounting the winning stroke for the 1000th time.

So, how do we rid ourselves of habits, well, it can be a lengthy process. See, if you get rid of the ‘H’, you still have ‘a bit’. You get rid of the ‘a’, and you still have a ‘bit’. You get rid of the b, and you still have ‘it’. To get rid of the ‘i’, you have to look to the ‘t’ and choose to be at cause for your life, your game and not at the effect of the whims and fancies of others or the environment. If you truly want to improve your game, there are going to be some sacred cows to slaughter.

Let’s take a slightly different approach. I suspect that you have, inside you, at least two ‘voices’ - the pro voice and the con voice. The optimist and the pessimist. The good and the bad. You may have more, you may not consider them as ‘voices’ - that’s OK, I hope that you can work with me on the concept for a little while.

Let’s say that this is two radio stations, 55.5 and 66.6. The first station on 55.5 is supportive - bolstering your ego, always proud of you and your achievements. The second, on 66.6 is the doubter, always casting doubts in your mind, running you down, always suggesting that others are trying to get you, that you should not listen to 55.5, it always lets you down - you never realise the dreams that 55.5 suggests. 66.6 reminds you of the difficulties you had the last time you tried to do this or that. How nothing ever works for you, that it’s all about luck and fate and chance and that you just are not a lucky person. If you buy a lottery ticket, you will always miss by one number at best. That nobody else deserves to win anything either. Basically, this is a bad voice.

I can see some of you nodding your heads as you read this. Don’t worry, you’re not schizophrenic - this is normal, everyone has this going on. Some days it’s like a continuous debate, others, one or both are quiet with little to say. You know you have a problem when you cannot distinguish between the voices and which of you is real.

So, which station do you tune into?

Here’s the two stations output for a few common golfing scenarios…
66.6
Approaching the first Tee on competition day: ‘Well, it’s a lovely morning with plenty of gusty breezes to knock your ball off centre, and a touch of rain in the air, but very unpredictable whether it’ll rain now or later. You did some good practice yesterday but you know it’ll all go to pieces today don’t you? You know that you always screw up on the first drive and there’s no mulligans today. See your competition today, wow, that first group were good weren’t they. No chance you’ll keep up with them is there. Still, perhaps you can just enjoy the game for a change and not worry about winning or losing - after all you know you’ll lose, so why get your hopes up? Ridiculous game, I don’t know why you bother, should have stayed home and cut the grass. be more useful than out here, being mocked by your friends… oh no, talking of which, there they are, why do they have to come and watch my first drive. They’ll cough or chatter  just as I’m lining up, I know they will. Oh well, my turn now, what a disaster, prepare for the worst and don’t get angry…
First Tee shot: So nicely lined up, but then anyone can put a ball on a tee can’t they. Now settle down, breath, how’s the grip - that instructor why did he have to change my grip, it won’t work. Right align my feet, look up, look down, those people down there, are in my line, why do they have to stand there, don’t they know they could be hit… calm yourself, that’s right, may as well get calm now, because once you hit it there won’;t be any calm left, And if you screw up this drive, it’ll all be downhill for the whole day. never recover, so get this right. Wiggle the bum, yes nice, settle, legs bent just right, what if my weight shifts before I strike then hit those people standing there. i wouldn’t mind hitting that smug bastard - he’s such a flash git. Custom clubs, custom balls, bet he cheats, never puts a foot wrong, wipe that smug grin off his face, I’ll show ‘im. Back swing, nice, but is it right, no of course not, arm down, elbow’s bent at the wrong time, as usual, THWACK….. follow-through may as well let go of the club, it’ll go further anyway.

In spite of this, by some divine intervention, the ball soars through the air and lands smack down the middle of the fairway, 220 yards at least beautifully set up for a second onto the green and a possible birdie: Whoa - didn’t know you had it in you. Nice shot, so lucky, you’d never do that again, not in a month of Sundays.
Still, plenty of time to screw up yet…

ENOUGH!
Sorry, I just can’t write anymore of this - it’s just too depressing. Is this you? And, were you the one who said that they didn’t influence themselves?
55.5 on the same situation…
What a beautiful day, a few gusts, possible rain in the air. Be a good idea to look at the trees as we walk down the course, see where the gusts are going. if it rains, we’ll change clubs and, quick, borrow an umbrella from Jim there, he can pop back and get another from his car. So nice that my friends are here to cheer me on. Great guys. Now I’m going to show them a great drive. I can see it now, smack down the middle of the fairway, perfect for a chip up to the green and a birdie. I can’t wait to pick up that trophy at the end of the day. Good to have some strong competition - nothing better than a real challenge.
First Tee shot: Breath nice and deep, slow my heartbeat and see that drive. A little gusty from left to right over those trees, just align a fraction to the left because this ball’s going to soar above that line. Glove, into the zone. Complete focus, nice alignment, well done, now a beauty practice swing, nice and loose in the shoulders. Firm stance, good lad, check alignment, now trust your swing. THWACK.
In spite of this, by some divine intervention, the ball soars through the air and too far to the left, way over to the left and lands smack down into the rough by the trees, maybe even really in the trees: Beautiful drive, well done, aligned just a little too far left, so we’ll make sure to fix that. I think maybe the wind dropped as well. Nice lay-up for the second shot - I can use that chip techniques I learned from watching Seve on TV, good for a par if I’m really in the rough, and good for a birdie if it’s not too long. Good, well done.

Now, which station do you want to listen to? The one that derides you no matter how great you are, or the one that supports you and encourages you no matter how poor the shot?

“I don’t care” says someone, so long as I hit great shots I’ll put up with either. Fair enough. Which one do you think will help you enjoy your game? Which one will help you towards a stroke lying ill in bed feeling miserable and no-one coming to visit because you don’t even like yourself, let alone anyone else?

Extreme? Sadly no. Go find the most miserable-faced player in your local club and ask them which station they tune into…

Jurong Country Club provides recreational and social amenities for the high-profile professionals and executives working or conducting businesses in Jurong, the industrial hub of Singapore. Since its birth in 1975, it has blossomed into one of the finest and most reputable golf clubs in Singapore, luring members and clientele from all over the island.

The brief

Continuous change and improvement is the norm at JCC, like other country club, innovation and continued excellence in customer service is key to continued growth. With the development of the Integrated Resorts, competitive pressure mounts and demand for high quality staff provides club management with additional pressure to lead change more and more effectively.

The intervention

One of the most highly acclaimed leadership development programs underpinned by this model is GAINMORE^TM Golf - developed by Dr. john Kenworthy and world famous PGA golf teaching professionals, we use the game of golf as classroom and metaphor.

In this customised half-day program, participants learn and develop their own leadership and management capabilities through a unique, powerful and enjoyable golfing challenge. Participants do not need to be a golfer to fully participate in these events, even if they have never lifted a club before - if they know who Tiger Woods is, that is enough. Most groups participating have a mixture of some golfers with mostly non-golfers. Whatever the make-up of the group, we have fully accredited and certified PGA golf professionals to teach you the basics or improve your technical ability, so that you can fully participate and enjoy this unique and enjoyable learning experience.In this programme, the focus is on Communication and Influence as a key process of leadership.

Before the non-golfers amongst you panic!
We know! Some of you are golfers, many are not. We’ve designed this program so that you can all fully participate and enjoy this unique learning experience. Our golf professionals will be teaching you the basics or helping you improve your current golfing ability and all of you will be developing your leadership capabilities through the facilitation of Dr. John Kenworthy, the author and creator of GAINMORE^TM Golf.

The outcome

After this training program, participants:
• Understand the affect and effect of continuous change
• Realise ways of handling change for yourself
• Are proficient in helping and leading others to change
• Know the importance of effectively communicating outcomes and goals
• Are able to motivate yourself and others to change behaviours and work patterns
• Value the importance of continuous improvement to achieve goals

The outline of the half-day:

For further information please contact the GAINMORE™ Golf team

Download this case study here