This guest post by Mark Miller was originally published on
Wednesday, May 14, 2014 at www.greatleaderserve.org.
I had the opportunity to
play in a golf event to raise money for a good cause. The course was
amazing, the weather was perfect and I was playing with my son. What could be
better? The only thing missing was a consistent golf swing.
When I was younger, I
played a lot of golf. Then, after my children were born, I played almost none –
it was too time-consuming and too expensive. Now, as I’ve gotten older, I’m
trying to play more. In part, because of my son’s desire to play. I do love the
game. I find it both maddening and sublime.
Those who don’t play have
no idea of how hard it can be. Let’s face it, it doesn’t LOOK hard – as someone
told me once, “The ball’s not even moving like most other sports…” Ugh!
As I hit one errant shot
after another recently, I was reminded how many parallels there are between
golf and leadership. The one idea that came to mind most often – leadership and
golf are both games of recovery.
What are you supposed to
do when you hit a bad shot? For those non-golfers who may be reading this: I’ll
answer the question for you, because I think the same principles apply when you
and I hit a bad shot in our role as leader.
Don’t make it worse by
doing something crazy. The only birdie I had today came after a
lousy tee shot. After my drive, I was about 240 yards from the hole on a par 5.
Rather than try a heroic shot over the creek to a heavily bunkered green, I hit
a layup shot. My third shot, with my wedge, stopped 6 inches from the hole with
the tap in remaining for a birdie. Now, what I almost did was play the 1 in a
100 shot with my 3 wood from 240 yards out. That would have been crazy. Don’t
follow a bad leadership move with another one.
Don’t beat yourself up. This
is harder than it sounds. When I missed an 18 inch putt today, hitting the ball
3 feet past the hole and then missed the putt coming back, it was hard to have
a good attitude. 3 putts from 18 inches out!!! However, if you can’t let your
mistakes live in the past, they will poison your future. Let it go.
Learn from your mistakes. In
golf, there’s an old saying that has always helped me: The flight of the ball
never lies. Translated, if you look at the flight path of the ball, you can be
assured of where the club face was at impact. This provides a huge opportunity
for learning. I never want to waste a bad shot – I try to learn something from
every one. The same goes for my leadership mistakes; I don’t want to waste an
opportunity to learn.
Focus on the next shot –
not the last one. Just recently, someone asked me if I knew the most
important shot in golf. I didn’t. They said, the next one. What’s the next
leadership move/decision you need to make? After you’ve learned from your last
leadership shank, move on to what’s next. Learn from the past – just don’t live
there.
Golf is a mental game.
Bobby Jones said,
Competitive golf is played
mainly on a course 5 ½ inches wide… the distance between your ears.”
Leadership is played on
that same course. Don’t let your thinking lose the game for you.
Mark Miller, Vice President of
Organizational Effectiveness for Chick-fil-A, believes that leadership is not something that’s exclusive;
within the grasp of an elite few, but beyond the reach of everyone else.
In the tenth anniversary edition of The Secret, Miller reminds readers of a seemingly
contradictory concept: to lead is to serve. With more than 600,000 books in
print, Mark has been surprised by the response and delighted to serve leaders
through his writing.
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