What I learned Golfing

I picked up golfing just under ten years ago. I gave up boating due to I no longer could just leave for the weekends with kids at home and with the price of gas it was becoming problematic filling the boat up. So I did what every good sales person does, pick up golf. Sure it would be good socializing and meeting new people (Sometimes after saying “Fore!”). I never expected to learn good business lessons.

Over the last decade I shaved some 20 strokes off my game. Not to worry, par is still not in jeopardy. In the beginning it was all about striking the ball consistently, square and with the right club. Over the last few years that became less of a worry. I had mastered the “basics” now what I was finding was that my game was inconsistent at best. I would have a round in the low 80’s then the next round on the same course was nearing 100! What was going on?

It is all mental. I would get bad shots in my head then proceed to repeating that bad shot because that is what I was thinking about when hitting the ball. I did a little reading on golf and decided what most professionals have is a process they go through.

First is consistent setup. How you approach the ball, looking to where you are going to hit the ball and what club to choose. Next and most importantly for me is visualizing the shot. How it was going to come off the club to where it was going to land and how it was going to bounce. These are the images I have before my best shots. Not to worry, I still get the bad ones in my brain and follow with another bad shot.

I think in business we do the same things. Sometimes we focus on the negatives. From the bad culture, to bad decisions and finally to not holding ourselves or people around accountable simply not being authentic with our communication. What we need to spend more time on as leaders is visualizing the future, paint a verbal picture of exactly what it looks like and giving that image to all the people involved so they know what to do on a daily basis to align with that vision.

Don’t under estimate the impact that vision can have on both your golf game or your business.

Caden is about to turn 14. While many kids that age have vision of driving real soon and so does he, he also has another vision. That is to own his own business. Really he already does. He talked about it visualized it so well it has just happened. While a 14 year old may not understand all the items needed for a successful business, he could teach us all a lesson (Which his mom is constantly trying to take back) and that is to fake it till you make it, push yourself daily and don’t be afraid to fail.