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Golf and Leadership
Development!
Is it possible to learn about leadership on the golf course –
or is it just an excuse to have a fun day off from work?
Yes, yes, yes – very much so!
One of the prerequisites for winning a
golf tournament is of course being able to hit the ball, but
this is not the crucial requirement. What seperates the
winner from the loser is the ability to make and carry out
optimal discisions while under pressure. The same applies to
the manager and anyone else who finds themselvs in
competititive situations.
We call the tool that is used to develop
this ability the Mental Scorecard. It was first developed
and used by the Danish Golf Union for training Danish golf
talents. Since then the method has been developed for
business’ coaching and management development programs. When
Ulrik Wilbek heard of the method, we developed the Handball
Players Mental Scorecard, which Ulrik now uses when he
coaches the Danish national men’s team.
It is based on these experiences that we
have created this program for Golf and Leadership
Development. The training and development of the ability to
make and carry out optimal decisions happens on the golf
course. As part of the program we have integrated
experiences from the athlete's world and the business world.
When it works on the golf course, it is due to the
personality that sets the standards for making the decisions
along with the ability to carry them out, no matter whether
it is a golfer, manager or top athlete.
The advantage of learning on the golf
course is that the worst consequences of a bad decision is a
lost ball in a water hazard, while if it happens in a
company it can mean a lost order or pour service and
unmotivated employees. Another considerable advantage is
that it is a quite inspiring, entertaining and physical
method of learning.
Without going into details we begin by
making the Leader’s profile, in other words we map what the
leader - due to his personality - has most focus on when he
or she makes and carries out decisions. With this as
starting point the participants split up into teams and are
sent out on the golf course with their instructions. During
the game, each take turns on managing the team. Managing the
team will be based on the instructions given for goals,
resources and strategies.
The team division and instructions are
prepared for each participant based on the Focus Model which
talks about four different types of leadership behaviors;
Baser, Results, Integrator and Developer. See model. These 4
different types of styles/roles are to some extent opposites.
One does not exclude the other however the more one
emphasizes the qualities described by the keywords in one
corner, the less energy and focus one will tend to have on
the qualities described in the opposite corner. If the
personality is mostly towards Development Leadership then by
nature that person will tend not to seek towards the grey
area and practice Baser Leadership. And the other way around,
if a person is more into Baser Leadership then he or she
will seek control and be systematic thereby seeking away
from what is experimenting and boundary-exceeding. The same
applies to Results and Integration Leadership. The more one
focuses on results, the less one focuses on Integrator
Leadership and the more one focuses on harmony, togetherness
and consensus the less one focuses on Results Leadership.
The model merely shows what we already
know, which is that a concequense of being stronger in 1 or
2 of the fields often mean that we are weaker in 1 or 2 of
the other fields. However, by using the activities on the
golf course the participants learn to maintain their
stronger sides while strengthening their weaker sides. The
golf course really is a fantastic place to learn about ones
own and others' personality. By wathcing the other players
and the descisions they make and how they carry them out,
one learns a great deal about what role the personality
plays for ones succes. A teaching you profit from when it is
your turn to take the managing role for the team.
Playing the game and the competition of
leading one’s team to victory, sheds light on questions such
as: What are the strengths and weaknesses of my personal
style? What do I typically have focus on when I make my
decisions? What alternatives do I tend to overlook? How good
am I at encouraging others optimally in critical situations?
This naturally brings about the next question and insight to
how one can become better.
After the introduction there is an "After
Golf" session where the participants get a more specific
learning. So in the next round they are ready to put this
learning into practice and to a greater extent make their
decisions based on the situation as opposed to their
personalities. The advantage is better decisions, greater
motivation and better utilization of recourses.
On the second day the participants will
get to work more intensely with their own and their fellow
players' development. This development will be in the
perspective of an organization in development.
Many books have been written about organizational
development, change and turnaround. Some of these are more
comprehensible than others. However, when we raise the model
to the organizational level, we can actually describe the
changes in an organization as change from one field to
another. This way the complexity is reduced and we get some
easily understood strategies and input to use in the course
of change. The simplicity is as follows.
Every organization has its culture and will over time appeal
to employees that are attracted to this culture. In this
manner the organization enhances its culture by employing
people who have the personality and focus that matches the
organization’s culture. When changes are to be implemented
it is necessary to shift the culture and strategy from on of
the 4 fields in the model to another. This is quite a task
as you are actually "shifting" people.
From this comes the logical conclusion that when an
organization’s focus is to be moved from an area to another,
then the employees' focus must be moved in the same
direction. This is quite a leadership task. This entails
moving people from a place where they normally feel safe and
secure to an area they associate with insecurity and
uncertainty. When the participants as team
managers on the golf course during the next round are to
change strategy and objective, thus moving their players
from one area to another - from a style which is the players'
natural approach to life and the game to another area - the
task of "implementing organizational changes" will clearly
be illustrated. Of course the advantage of doing this
exercise on the golf course is that we can laugh at it
afterwards - as well as learn from it.
With this introduction we bid you all welcome to some
educational days about Leadership on the golf course.
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