The ‘expert’ pundits around the globe are now predicting a long, slow haul out of the current economic crisis. Previous ‘expert’ predictions of the turnaround in the second half, third quarter. President Obama is, however, sure of recovery in spite of the dire jobs data – seems that the “recession is slowing” but where is this bottoming out that we’ve all repeatedly heard?

Billions of dollars have been poured into world economies. Millions more into civic projects. Yet, just as with Madoff’s ill-gotten loot, the whereabouts of all this money is still in question.

So, just how can the small business get itself out of this recession sand trap?

For some, the sand trap is the scariest place on the golf course. Sand traps have the ability to intimidate even the most skilled players every now and then. No-one intends to get the ball in there and very few people relish the thought of playing out, but the experts all agree on at least one point with regard to getting out. Follow-through!

There are rules in golf that make this particular shot more challenging because you are not allowed to touch the sand near the ball before making the shot. You judge the need to open the clubface (to slide the club beneath the ball and sand for greater loft) or to close it (to ‘dig’ through the sand to get under a deeper embedded ball) is by eye and experience. Judge this badly (or indeed, execute wrongly) and you might hit the ball thinly, taking too little sand, or thickly, taking too much.

The key is to commit to the swing and follow-through. Stab at the ball without follow-through and there’s a 90% chance that the ball will remain in the trap with the club abruptly stopping (especially in wet sand). Ideally you hit the sand directly behind the ball, allowing the club and the sand to carry the ball out of the bunker.

Like many golfers, business people don’t practice enough, and they certainly don’t practice the tricky shots. (Pop down to any driving range and count the number of people practicing in the sand pit in front of the bays.) So, every business down-turn becomes a novelty. Fear and panic set in quickly and we witness many people trying to hit the ball out. Cut prices, sell ‘hard’, slash costs. Does it work? For some yes, they hit the ball thinly and the ball ends up on the other side of the green and often, out of bounds. Some attack the problem hard and hit the ball thickly – taking too much sand and burying the ball deeper a few inches further along.

Those that get out well, judged the situation, chose the right tool for the job, adjusted their stance and clubface and then they committed to the shot, took just the right amount of sand with them and followed-through.

Maybe you just misjudged that first attempt. There’s no point berating the green keepers, the course designer, your tools, your competitors, or worse, your customers. Learn from the experience, stop complaining, quiet your mind, judge the new situation, take your stance, adjust the use of the right tool. Aim for the sand not the ball! Commit. Follow-through.

Image by Keith Allison via Flickr

What helps distinguish leaders and managers is about control and, quite literally, how “hands-on” you are.

When you first learn the game of golf, the chances are that you grip thew club tightly. After all this is basically holding onto a stick that you will swing through the air and hit a ball. Allowing the club to “follow-through’ – if you don’t hold on tight, the club might just go as far as the ball.

(I appreciate that many of you reading this may not have ever played golf, for you some alternatives, perhaps liken the tight grip of a golf club to:

New golfers have to learn how to ‘let go’ – to relax their grip. If a tight grip is a 10 on a scale, we want a 4 out of 10.

The same is true of leadership and the way we hold on to our people. Hold on too tight (micro manage) and people have little freedom to use their own skills and strength. Hold on too tight to the club, and it is the golfer doing all the work.

So the question is: “who should be doing the work?” The manager or leader or the member of staff? The golf club is weighted for a reason. If you allow the club to do the work, the swing and striking of the ball, becomes almost effortless. Relax your grip on your team and allow them to excel at what they do, and the work becomes almost effortless.

Once you know, as a golfer, that the club is designed to do the job of striking the ball and your job is simply to swing and allow physics do to its job, you can relax. Maintain just enough control to ensure alignment, direction and distance and the ball will fly according to the club used, and the size of the swing. If you want a long distance, you use a long club and a full swing. A short distance off the fairway onto the green requires a shorter distance club and a smaller swing. The power to achieve the distance lies in the tool being employed and the chosen swing – the rest is pure physics.

So what can we learn as a leader? Isn’t it the same. Make sure that you are using the right tool – the person needs the right skill set (and/or mindset) to do the required job. The leader’s job is to have a little control to ensure that the skills are employed in the right direction for the right distance – that’s about judging how far it is to the goal and translating that into the swing itself – in the case of people, the swing is influence and motivation… let the staff do the rest.

And just like that golf ball landing exactly where you both planned and wanted it to be for the next shot. You celebrate. Unlike golf though, praise your club and thank them for their effort. After all, they did all the work!

When we use this metaphor on our golf leadership workshops, the feedback is instant. Hold tight onto the club and the golfer has to use a great deal of effort and the ball often ends up being pulled, pushed, sliced or hooked – going two thirds of the required distance. Relax the grip maintaining directional control and the ball flies straight to the full distance of the club and swing used.

(For non-golfers… try this with a horse, hold tight, the horse will slow down even when you whip it! You dog on a short leash stays by your side whilst pulling your arm out of its socket! Your child dangles from your hand as you cross the road.)

Yet, new golfers on particular, find their grip tightening in more difficult situations. The very moment when they need to be most at ease, most truly controlling, fear envelops them, pressure builds, the grip tightens and the ball goes astray.

The same is true of business leaders under pressure. Listen to the media hype about the doom and gloom of the current economic situation and fear can easily creep in to the mind. Many leaders respond by tightening their grip on their people and their business, believing that the tighter they hold, the more control they have and the more likely they are to survive and pull through. Albeit, they expend huge amounts of effort, feel incredibly stressed, and more likely to explode a blood vessel!

Tough times in business are better served by leaders keeping a clear head, a loose grip, maintain direction and let your people do what they do best. Let’s face the truth here, even a behemoth the size of AIG can’t control the market, what makes you think that you can? My advice, ignore the noise (media doom and gloom), look for the opportunities and focus on the goal and it’s direction, choose the right club, loosen your grip and let your club do the work.

Loosen your grip and you’ll have more control.

Pop into any bookstore and in the business section you’ll find at least fifty current books promising ‘instant success’ or the ‘4 steps to achieving your dreams’ or the ‘easy guide to getting everything in life you ever wanted’. A bright, cheerful picture adorns the front cover, often the author, who tells you that this book contains the secret that you have been seeking.

Distilled from many years of real life experience, I thought it time to let you know that there is no short-cut to your success. Sorry. There are a whole lot of myths and legends but as Seth Golden points out in Permission Marketing, “There’s no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Great firm’s don’t spring up overnight. They’ve been built the same way – bit by bit, step by step, little by little.
Is there a road to success?

There are many – and you may find that one of these great delusions promises so much more than someone else.

Many people start their journey along the ‘opportunity-leverage-productivity’ route. Parents seek and strive for their children to get into the best schools, gain excellent grades and hence be assured of a place at the best universities to gain a degree which will enable you to leverage your qualifications into a decent position and a fulfilling career. All you have to do is work hard, work harder and work some more – and you will succeed.

I believed it all too – then the company went bust, I was out of work and, at the time, no-one was hiring.

Attend a few events and be inspired with the latest ’secret of success’ seminar. Now all that is needed is the luck to meet exactly the right person at exactly the right time and get that deserved break…

It’s easy to let yourself drop back to ‘impossible’ and start to criticize anyone and everyone who appears to be succeeding in the very space you should be, because you really are far more deserving than they are…

I just haven’t met the right people yet. So sign-up for another networking group, exchange business cards, remember the adage ‘givers gain’, meet lots of new people. One of them, surely is the right person and I will be there at the right time. All I need is to be recognised for the brilliant, hard-working individual that I am and I will have my reward…

There are six main ‘styles’ of playing and leading – the 6Cs of Golf and Leadership Style. By ‘style’, I do not mean to refer to an individual’s personality or their innate character as though this were true. I am, instead, referring to the way in which you perform at your best and most naturally – which may represent your true personality – best to ask your spouse or a close friend who knows you in many other situations as well.
We’ll consider each of the styles in turn, alluding to the dominant characteristics displayed and consider a few well known players and business leaders who fit each style. Your job is to identify your own style amongst these six – finding the one which most accurately matches your approach to the game of golf, and your approach to leadership. This isn’t about choosing the style you think that you ‘should’ have, or would like to have. This is about understanding where you are now, and knowing that if you play in this style, or lead with this style, it will be the most comfortable. Later you can consider how to compensate for the weaknesses in your own game.

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.

Jurong Country Club: Effective Change Leadership

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

Many people who play golf have never taken a lesson!
They get introduced to the game by a friend or family member and learn to play by going along to the golf course and playing.
When you learn this way, by instinct as it were, you develop a muscle memory of your technique and a discovery process of what works and what doesn’t, hopefully repeating the positive patterns that achieve roughly what you want to achieve. Someone who finds that their ‘natural” swing slices the ball, will compensate by aiming to the left of the ball so that it will slice back onto the fairway.

The hardest thing in golf is not hitting the ball, it is consistently hitting the ball straight – or at least in the direction intended. You’ll hear many a golfer say something along the lines of “I was hitting the ball really well today, but my score doesn’t reflect it”. The reason for most is that they aren’t aligning their body and their swing with the target.

Thinking back to the blog on Goals and Vision for a moment. If you can clearly see your goal, both in your mind?s eye and in reality – it would be strange if you faced your club at a 90 degree angle to it? How about 5 degrees? How about 1 degree? Perhaps if you are compensating for your very “natural” slicing habit but let?s take a quick trigonometry reminder. You see, those maths classes were going to prove useful!

Let’s assume, for a moment that you have a clean fairway shot to the green 135 yards straight ahead and plan to use your trusty 7-iron in that straight line, oh, and you would strike the ball clean and straight. Aligning yourself and your club just 5 degrees away from the straight line will put your ball about 6 yards away from your target – assuming that you still hit the ball the full yardage. You don’t need me to tell you that 6 yards from the hole is usually the rough, or a bunker, or a pond. And this is when everything else is working very very well indeed. The added complication with alignment in golf is the club face alignment. 5 degrees off centre alignment with an open or closed face, will reduce the yardage of the ball because the ball will not loft as high – it’ll hit the ground sooner which robs the ball of some momentum depending on the friction between the ball and the ground. You don’t need me to tell you that a ball landing on the fairway rolls further than a ball rolling in the rough. Oh well, I told you anyway.

So how do you ensure alignment with your target. In the words of Harvey Pennick, “Take Dead Aim”. Well that’s pretty simple and something you can easily practice on the range. Many practice ranges have sticks or plastic arrows – you align one with your feet and another with your tee or ball, directing them both in parallel to your target. Swing, thwack and low and behold, on the practice range, the ball flies straight to the target. You do it again, and again, and again – eventually removing the visual markers and “imagining” them. Settling yourself calmly and your G.A.S.P. (grip, address, stance, posture) and “thwack” off the ball flies straight to target. If it were that easy, we’d all be able to do it. The physics is unarguable, the theory straightforward, the requirements from you are not overly demanding – yet, somehow, the swing just doesn?t align to the target. You spend a small fortune on your highly-engineered custom clubs to eradicate the anomaly, and still you miss the target.

The physical process is important, don’t let anyone persuade you different. A good golf coach will see if there is anything to correct in your swing that may be causing the problem, but only if the problem is physical. 95% plus of the problem is not physical, it’s mental. It comes back to your unconscious giving your body instructions. When you?re on the range, you?re hitting ball after ball after ball. Concentrating on your technique and getting into a rhythm.

Out on the course, your hitting a ball, club back in bag, pick up bag, walk, walk, walk, chatter, talk, “oh that’s interesting?”, thinking, “I wonder if my better half is still angry with me?”, “I must finish that report”. “oh and that email I received.” “so and so was a bit odd today.” walk walk walk, and then getting closer to your ball. “ah there it is, a bit of long grass around it, but otherwise, a pretty nice lie, hey and not bad – a couple of feet further to the side than I wanted, but I’m getting better. I wonder if I’m going to get this right, now which club, hmm” and on and on. How much of your game is hitting balls, and how much is not hitting balls? 
See, if you play a game like squash, say. You don’t have  much time after hitting the ball, before it’s your turn to hit it again – and that short time is spent focussing on where the ball is, your opponent is and so on – a few seconds at most. Now the brain works very very quickly, but essentially you don?t have much time to drift into other matters – it’s all about the ball.
How much time do you spend aligning yourself – and by now I think you realise that I mean mentally and physically, before each shot.

Alignment is not just a physical process – that funny little waggle that golfers do. It’s about training your mind to align as well. Taking each goal for each and every shot, envisioning how it is going to be successful. Settling the body and focussing your mind – trusting your technique to deliver what it delivers. What you focus on, you will get more of?

In training your mind to give you an advantage, there is an important element. Do NOT reinforce the bad. Now if you’ve stayed with me so far, you know that the unconscious cannot process negatives, and I just gave you a negative. But that’s to get it out of the way so we can now focus on the positive. Reinforce the good.

Many golfers take up the game, in part, because it is known as the sport of business people – it is an especially good means of networking and developing relationships, so is there a commonality between the way people play the game and the way they behave at work – our research and observation shows that there is:

There are six main ’styles’ of playing golf with a corresponding leadership style – the 6Cs of Golf and Leadership Style.
By ’style’, I do not mean to refer to an individual’s personality or their innate character as though this were true. I am, instead, referring to the way in which you perform at your best and most naturally – which may represent your true personality – best to ask your spouse or a close friend who knows you in many other situations as well.

We’ll consider each of the styles in turn, pointing out the dominant characteristics displayed and consider a few well known players and business leaders who fit each style. Your job is to identify your own style amongst these six – finding the one which most accurately matches your approach to the game of golf, and your approach to leadership. This isn’t about choosing the style you think that you ’should’ have, or would like to have. This is about understanding where you are now, and knowing that if you play in this style, or lead with this style, it will be the most comfortable. Later you can consider how to compensate for the weaknesses in your own game.

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 Sneed
Famous 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 Micelson

Conjuror 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 III

Gordone 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 Rodriguez

Cavalier 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 Montgomerie
Leaders: 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.

/* The design of this CSS style declaration is copyright David Petherick, Digital Biographer, 2007, but is free to copy as long as this copyright notice remains intact. You should also inform David Petherick with a brief message showing where you are using it – email david@also.cc – Ecademy ID:101560. Also, whisper the words “Ecademy helped me make this make sense…“. You can thank David with payments at – http://www.buy-me-a-pint.com */ .subtitle { font-family: Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 100%; line-height: 110%; font-weight: bold;margin: 20px 200px 6px 0px; color: #1D183D;}.nifty { color: #3D3D3D; font-family:Verdana, Tahoma, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:80%; margin: 20px 120px 0px 0px; line-height:110%;}.boxC { background-image: url(http://gainmoregolf.com/media/gmg.gif);background-position: top right;background-repeat: no-repeat;background-color: #ffffff; border: 1px solid #000033; padding-left: 40px; margin-bottom: 18px; background-color: #FFFFFF;}

Nick Faldo spent a couple of years restructuring his swing with his coach David Leadbetter. He struggled with the changes, but had accepted that things were allowed to get worse before they got better. By the time he entered the British Open at Muirfield in 1987, things hadn’t been seen to be much improved.
The evening before the tournament began, Nick walked to the 18th green at 10 in the evening – still with daylight on this warm Scottish summer evening. He stood there staring at the large yellow scoreboard. He imagined that it was late Sunday afternoon and the stands were filled with spectators. He saw the name Faldo on top of the leader board. He stared at it and smiled and knew he was home. Nick spent several minutes seeing himself the winner, sensing deeply the thrill of winning the British Open.
Faldo won the tournament. This is what vision is all about, not just seeing the end, but seeing the end at the end, with your own eyes, with your own ears, feelings, smells, tastes. You see the target, now step into the future having achieved your goal.

When I begin discussing goals in our Mind Advantage workouts , most of the participants start with a belief that the goal in Golf is obvious. For some people this is true, though are the goals really that obvious? So I ask everyone to write down their top three golfing goals and back come a range of responses.

Most people also add a qualifying statement – such as “it depends on who I’m playing with”, or “it depends on the course” and so on. After a few moments discussing the many and various goals that people have in regard to their golf – it quickly becomes apparent that the goals are not so obvious after all.

Achieving our goals is a very fulfilling and satisfying achievement. Once achieved, a goal provides us with a sense of accomplishment and our confidence in ourselves grows.

It’s not just in golf either. Having clearly defined goals for yourself places you in the top 5% of the population in terms of having the highest probability of getting what you want from life.

A study in a US College several years ago aimed at finding out how many students had written goals and if this had had any direct influence on what they accomplished in their lives. The researchers asked students of a graduating class about their written goals and then followed up later in life to find out what had happened.

The study showed that a mere 3% of the graduating class had clearly defined and written goals. This is quite surprising but when the researchers followed up later in life they discovered something really quite astounding: Those who had written clearly defined goals were worth, in financial terms, as much as the remaining 97% combined! Let me just paraphrase that to make sure you understand. Those individuals who, at college graduation, had written their own clearly defined goals were 33 times financially better off than their peers who had not written their goals!

If this doesn’t fire you up I don’t know what will.

There are many other studies that causally link goal setting with successful achievement – from goal setting in the classroom to success in academic grades, from goal setting in career aspirations to successful achievement, from goal setting in business to success in business.

So what do you want in your golf? What do you want to achieve in your career? life?

If you have never established clearly defined goals for yourself, and written them down, you are not alone. What we will be doing in this session, is helping you translate your desires, your wants and wishes into written form and design an action plan to achieve them. Best of all – your goals are going to be fulfilled!

So why don’t most people achieve their goals. Well, not setting any to start with is a pretty sure fire route to not achieving them. Yet many people once set goals for themselves – many were encouraged at school, and thankfully, many more continue to do so now than before.

Essentially, like everything else we will be discussing here, it’s all in the mind. Frequently, when I ask participants on our programmes why they stopped setting goals, they reply that they ‘tried it’ but they didn’t succeed. And when hey continued with the activity and continued not to achieve the goals, after a while they ‘just sort of gave up’. You’ll realise of course, that if you do something repeatedly, and repeatedly get no success – your desire to continue with the activity diminishes rapidly. So, your mind does you a favour by not setting any more goals. That way, you won’t be disappointed and you can avoid the discomfort of not achieving them.

“I don’t like to get my hopes dashed.” “I can’t have my dreams shattered.” “I don’t want to be seen as a goal seeker.” “It’s too painful to not achieve them.” These are just some examples of ‘reasons’ we hear. So the safest, kindest thing to do to ourselves is stop setting goals. So we do. No goals=no pain.

“Goals don’t achieve anything!” Several participants have told me. And they are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT! Goals and the setting of goals does NOTHING!
ACTING ON THEM does!

Why oh why don’t we act on our goals? Don’t fret, you are not alone if you haven’t acted on achieving your goals. So, what we need is a goal setting process that includes the action plan – this we will discuss in detail in the session on Outcome-based coaching. Before that, in the session on Motivation, we’ll add that essential ingredient to achievement as well.