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 GAINMORETM 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 GAINMORETM 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:
Location
Program
Time
Meeting Room
Workshop
Welcome and Introductions
Weather Forecast
Change is…
Convincing others to change
Goals and Vision
Building Character – Changing Habits
Leading Strategically
Motivational Leadership
Briefing for Swing by the Range
45 Minutes
Practice Range
Swing by the Range
Golf practice drills
Briefing for the Change Leadership Golfing Challenge
The search for talent is ongoing. Individuals seek to develop their talents, companies seek to identify talent and retain it, succession planning requires it, politicians plan for it, and the world wants to find it. But what is it?
I was having dinner at a friend’s home and the subject came up because their 11 year old son had recently brought home his school report card which stated from his art teacher: “[His] talent is yet to be fully developed.” His mother, always one for a quick tongue responded “His only talent is making excuses for not doing his homework.”
The young boy sat at the table grimacing. He’d heard this story a few times already and whilst his mum meant it in jest, there was an element of truth in it. I said “I see a glittering future as a political spin-doctor.” The boy’s eyes lit up. This so-called talent had a purpose.
The word “talent” is bandied around for so many things and we don’t always truly understand what is meant by “talent”. So to the trusty dictionary…
Talent: innate mental or artistic aptitude (as opposed to acquired ability); less than genius.
So what is innate?
Innate: existing in one from birth; inborn; native: innate musical talent.
Now, my core business is experiential training and a behaviouralist, so if talent cannot be acquired… Better find a better definition…
Talent: natural ability to do something well.
‘That nasty word ‘natural’
Natural: based on the state of things in nature; constituted by nature: Growth is a natural process.
The Thesaurus, always illuminating, and find ‘talent’ associated with words like ‘ability’, ‘ ‘adeptness’, ‘adroitness’, ‘charisma’, ‘facility’, ‘gift’, ‘knack’, ‘wisdom’, ‘gumption’, ‘capacity’, ‘brilliance’ and ‘genius’
Is it seems that you are either born with a talent or not. No acquiring a talent, developing it certainly, but if the foundation is not there…
When companies and politicians tell us that “we want to identify the talent” exactly what do they mean?
Is it: “I want to identify your talent whatever it is“? or “I want to identify specific or particular talent“?
I suspect the latter. Companies seek ‘talent’ for succession planning, as do politicians. It is most often associated with leadership or management ‘talent’.
Companies are also hooked on retaining talent. And surely that’s right, once you have talent in your organisation, you really don’t want to lose it. Many, inspired by a Mckinnsey article in 1997 “The War for Talent” took this to extreme, indulging ‘talent’ and doing everything they could to keep them engaged, satisfied, even delighted. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point, wrote an article in the New Yorker magazine in 2002 entitled “The Talent Myth”. By then the whole ‘War for talent’ was under a dark, ominous cloud called Enron. The McKinssey article had, after all, been largely based on what Enron was doing at the time and how everybody should emulate it.
The trouble is that ‘talent’ is most often ascribed to the very brightest, highly motivated individuals who are very driven. And being bright (intelligent) does not, necessarily, mean talent. Being ‘driven’ is not the only criteria for success.
I have met and worked with many talented individuals. In fact, I believe that every single person has talent. What that talent is and how it can be used by companies is another matter.
If we accept that talent is something that you are born with, surely we need to know how do we identify talent, and how do we leverage that talent?
Identifying talent
In my meetings with clients to discuss their talent identification it usually starts with an attempt to define what is the talent we are seeking to identify. Most often, this is stated as being ‘leadership talent’, those individuals who are ‘bright’, ‘motivated’, ‘good leaders’, ‘inspires others’, ‘charismatic’ and so on – words that we’ve seen in the thesaurus.
This is good, we can test these. Find out who has them and crack on.
I’ve seen this in many organisations. The brightest and best are identified as part of the talent pool – there’s some fanfare, a suite of training programs, perhaps MBAs are taken and the talent are promoted. Meanwhile, the non-talent morale has sunk, many have quit or actively seeking new positions, commitment has dropped and performance suffered. The talent, being highly driven, take this upon themselves and make up for the loss, working extra hard and many burning out. There follows a new initiative to regain the work-life balance and a big drive to retain talent.
An alternative
We can talk to the existing talent – the best leaders, managers, the best individual contributors – not just from your own organisation but others too, and uncover their foundational talents that enable them to be all that they are. It really can be quite surprising:
The CEO of a major diversified MNC, very successful, renowned and personal admired by other leaders and staff. Talent: A throat singer!
The Sales head of a global telecomms company, highest sales, driven, emulated by staff. Talent: Running!
The CFO of a globally renowned auditing firm, admired by staff, relied on by the entire organisation, inspirational and respected. Talent: Artist!
Executive Head Chef, world famous, near-worshipped by other chefs. Talent: Calculus!
The COO of an International Bank, greatly respected, charismatic and exceptional innovative customer service. Talent: Acting!
Innovative Entrepreneur, adored by staff, gregarious, fun and incredibly creative. Talent: Comedian!
There are many other examples, some obvious, many not. What is common to most of the people we have interviewed is that their talent itself is not what enables them to do what they do, it is how they do the talent.
I suggest that we do something a little different. Why not find what the underlying and true individual’s talents are and then leverage them towards the leadership or management attributes you need? Or perhaps, we can identify their talent and find out where they best fit in your organisation and for some, outside it.
Leveraging Talent
Taking someone’s talent and leveraging it into the workplace requires a little creative thinking. Fortunately, creative thinking is something that we can develop. It’s part de Bono’s lateral thinking and part conceptual mapping. Some connections make absolute and logical sense, others require us to dig into the talent and how that talent is done by the individual.
Using the examples cited above, I shall briefly outline the main connections that the individual leveraged – either on their own ‘naturally’ or through coaching.
Throat singing is a rather rare and peculiar talent. For this CEO it was his party trick, something he found he was able to do when very young. Encouraged by his parents to demonstrate in front of friends and neighbours, people enjoyed his performance and found it fascinating. As a young man, he was unafraid to stand in front of an audience and give speeches. He joined the university debating society where his commanding voice quieted everyone present. “I like to entertain people, and I like to make them think” he says.
“Running was all I ever wanted to do. I’d get up early every morning and race the postman on his bike. For me, it was freedom. Now, I run with my team, we race the competition and we enjoy the freedom we gain from our bonuses and commission.”
“As a kid, I was always drawing. I loved to draw. Cartoons especially, and comics. When I was at primary school I drew my first comic which turned into a series and a long story – intricately entwined with sub-plots and different characters. By the time I went to university, I’d all but stopped drawing, taking accountancy because that’s where the jobs were. Today, I guess I’m still drawing comics in a way. I look for the sub-plots in the accounts, what’s the other story behind the main one and that’s how I teach my staff. Look for the sub-plots – it makes auditing a whole lot more fun.”
“Calculus was easy. Everyone else thought it was really difficult and stupid, but I found it easy. I’d get a thrill from finding the right answer. It’s obvious to me now, my recipes are just a form of calculus, you take ingredients A and B and turn them into X. I don’t ‘think I’ll tell my chefs that, they might think I’m a nerd and not the great artiste.”
“I first acted in a play at kindergarten. I was a tree. But I was the best tree ever. My parents adored my acting, always encouraging me, in fact they wanted me to continue through drama school and everything. I think they thought I would be a movie star. I did try for a while when I went to university but I never had any money. After uni, I joined a local drama club, met my wife and we soon had our first child. So I left the acting world and joined a local bank – great prospects, regular wages and, a subsidised mortgage. I suppose that a COO is rather like a director in a play, making sure that the right people are in the right place at the right time with the right script. Brilliant!”
“I was always the joker of the family. No matter what happened I had to make a joke out of it. My brother bore the brunt of most of my wilder practical jokes – and some of them weren’t really funny at all. Still, it was fun. It got me in a lot of trouble at school. In the end I quit school and worked on a market stall. I worked for this really sour faced bloke selling vegetables – blimey he was miserable. He hated my joking with the customers, but they loved it and kept coming back, so he didn’t ‘stop me. I’m still a joker, I like a laugh and I like to keep the guys happy. I suppose being the centre of attention does something for me. That’s why I set this up (the company), being the centre of everyones’ attention and we make money. I always say, if you can’t have a laugh while your living life then life will laugh at you.”
Golf is a wonderful teacher, but what you learn from it depends on your nature and character. Golf is about you against the course. Unlike other sports, with the possible exception of downhill ski-ing, your competitors actions, successful or not, do not change your game. You can allow other people to affect your playing, but that, as we shall discuss, is very much your own choice. Golf strips away your ego, pumping it and stroking it one moment only to relentlessly batter it a moment later.
Golf provides you a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand your own nature to an extent that few other activities in life allow you to do.
It’s no real surprise that so much business is done on the golf course. What better way is there to observe and assess a person’s nature before considering doing a business deal with them? Watching how someone else experiences the game provides so many insights into their character that you’ll quickly establish whether this is someone you could work with or not. If, for example, your potential business associate berates himself or herself, throws down their clubs, shouts at the caddie, whines or whinges about making a poor shot – it’s not a big leap of imagination to know how they behave in a working situation. Someone who blames everything except themselves on the golf course will be the same in business. When they sneer at your good shots, and cheer at your mistakes – guess what they be like in business – looking after your interests? I think not. Someone who focuses on the target, learns from mistakes and keeps moving forward in good humour… you want that in business don’t you?
This is one of the reasons that golf is such a great way to develop your leadership as well. Conquer those demons on the golf course, and you’ll conquer them at work too. Golf is a mirror, and the golf ball is perfect feedback. You may not like what you see in the mirror at first, and only you can do something about it. No-one else will do it for you – in fact they can’t. You can though, guide others. Not only so, but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4 – NIV)
Pop into any bookstore and int he self-help section you’ll find books and more books on the secret to achieving your own goals… but what if you haven’t taken the time out to actually set some?
Ridiculous, of course I have set my goals!
Sure?
Realistically, when you have a goal, these are generally longer term – “I want to reduce my handicap to 4 by the end of the year” is a SMART goal. Obviously, you know that such a goal is unlikely to be immediate, there are steps along the way, milestones if you prefer, we call these steps ‘Outcomes’.
After years of coaching, training and teaching, I have come to the profound conclusion that most people can only work on one thing at a time. Especially men! My research has shown that when we identify a very specific outcome and run a plan of actions to achieve it, if it fits within a greater plan, then we are more likely to see ultimate success. Any project leader knows this, and establishes a series of specific outcomes from tasks – down to the minute detail – and the greater the overall goal, the more detailed the planning, the tasks, the outcomes from each task, the resources required and so on.
To know, by and large, we;ve talked about generalities, ideas and concepts. This is the part where you do the actual work. This is how you change yourself. So, firstly, I’d like to introduce a process to ensure that you:
Know your outcome
Act to achieve your outcome
This template process is a truly effective outcome setting process. It works at the unconscious level and provides an action plan – or at least the first steps of an action plan for longer term goals, and links your own personal desire to achieve the goal. This is important, because most goals (if not all) require that you do something to achieve them. i.e. you have to do some work – even when such work is considered ‘play’ it will still require some degree of effort on your part.
The goal setting process is SWING – should be easy to remember right?
S – Specific goal stated in the positive and measurable – a goal to move towards not something to move away from W – What do I Win? What are the pay-offs? What do I lose? What will I see when I have it? What will I hear when I have it? What will I feel when I have it? What will I smell/taste when I have it? I – I control everything that I need to control to achieve this. Is anyone else involved? Where and when will you do it? N – As if Now – Step into the future and see, hear. feel and act as if you have achieved your goal now. G – Guarantee
What will happen if I get my goal?
What won’t happen if I get my goal?
What will happen if I don’t get my goal?
What won’t happen if I don’t get my goal? Specific Win I Now Guarantee
Let me start with the end – Guarantee. This may look strange, it may be strange for many of you. And when you are asked these four questions (about anything), it is very likely that you will struggle to answer some of these questions. The point here is to think quickly about the answer and whatever answer comes up – that is the answer. Often the responses make little or no conscious sense. We discussed earlier how the unconscious mind cannot process negatives – and these questions are designed carefully for the unconscious mind – not for the conscious mind. It’s actually Cartesian logic and is at the heart of quantum linguistics and helps us establish the ‘non-mirror image reverse’ and creates a whole range of possible options and our action plan to achieve what we want to achieve.
Meantime, because we have gone through the whole SWING process, we have created personal motivation. Powerful stuff huh? Be patient with yourself, allow your thoughts to come to consciousness and note the responses. Again, don’t worry if no obvious thoughts come out – your unconscious mind is doing the work for you. It is easiest that you work through this with a coach – someone else (your spouse, best friend) – to ask you the questions. If you don’t want to, or you have no friends and don’t want to spend money on a coach, you can do this yourself so long as you are prepared to push yourself hard for the answers. Write down your own responses, whatever words you use (don’t justify yourself … yet). The specific words that you use are very important.
Now, let me take you though an example. I had a goal to break 72 this year. So this is how it looks going through the SWING process (I’ll put the SWING steps in brackets):
(S)I want to shoot 71 and better this year.(W) I will win two more competitions than last year and see the trophies in my cabinet, feeling great satisfaction from hearing the crowd and my peers cheer as I collect the trophies and taste the beer that I bought for my fellow competitors with the cash winnings. I control my practice and can visualise my goal and align myself to breaking 72 consistently and accurately card my scores. (I) I control my technique and can simulate the different environments in which I will potentially find myself during competition. (N) Now, as I see myself collecting the trophies I feel great satisfaction and confirms the commitment I made to practice and know that I can extend my own achievements and break personal barriers to achieve anything i want to.
(G) If I do break 72 consistently I will be satisfied
If I do break 72 consistently I won’t feel an idiot
I will continue to work on my weaknesses if I don’t get my goal
I’ll give up.
You may find it helpful, as I do, to tape or MP3 record yourself responding to the questions – it’s interesting what the unconscious says. When you type it, or write it down, you will censor yourself, and consciously interrupt your thoughts flow. Record it – or better still, get someone to help you and coach you through it. In our sessions we provide everyone with access to our downloadable MP3s with the coaching on audio to continue supporting you.
The goal is specific – I can measure it in achievement and time. It is positive.
I know what I will win and how this will look, feel, what I will hear and taste. It is sensory.
I am sure that I control everything that needs to be controlled to achieve it.
I visualise myself having achieved my goal and know how good I will feel
I have guaranteed the achievement to myself by knowing that achieving it will make me feel satisfied (personal satisfaction, by the way, is very important for me – you’ll have your own values), that if I don’t achieve it I won’t give up (last question) and I will continue to work on it. In other words, I know that I am motivated to do it.
The action plan (in my example) is within the control section and, you’ll notice, in the third guarantee question – work on my weaknesses. No, it’s not explicit in here, but I know my weak areas in the game, just as you know yours. Now all we need is an actual plan of what, where, when. Again, for me, I use a computer scheduling system – well I’ve got to fit my practice and game around writing, training, being trained, selling, marketing, speaking and so on. So, like you, I schedule my practice and write a note for myself on what I’m going to work on that day.
Now, take some time and do this for yourself. Take one outcome and go through the SWING process. More than one outcome? Of course you have, you’ll have many in golf and many many more in life. Just do the SWING again.
It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that SWING
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.
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