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How do you influence yourself?

John Kenworthy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:39:31 GMT

When I ask this question in our workshops, I am usually met with blank stares at first. I call them 'blank stares' because to be looked at as if you are completely off your trolley isn't something I choose to reinforce. The response from that first brave soul suggests that there is no need to influence oneself. Basically, it runs like this:

I decide to do something, I tell myself to do it, and I do it. No influence is required. I don't have to ask myself nicely, or threaten myself with unpleasant consequences, or persuade myself that it will be worthwhile.

Really? If we could slow down the thought processes going on, you might think differently. Let's take a slightly different approach. I suspect that you have, inside you, at least two 'voices' - the pro voice and the con voice. The optimist and the pessimist. The good and the bad. You may have more, you may not consider them as 'voices' - that's OK, I hope that you can work with me on the concept for a little while. Let's say that this is two radio stations, 55.5 and 66.6. The first station on 55.5 is supportive - bolstering your ego, always proud of you and your achievements. The second, on 66.6 is the doubter, always casting doubts in your mind, running you down, always suggesting that others are trying to get you, that you should not listen to 55.5, it always lets you down - you never realise the dreams that 55.5 suggests. 66.6 reminds you of the difficulties you had the last time you tried to do this or that. How nothing ever works for you, that it's all about luck and fate and chance and that you just are not a lucky person. If you buy a lottery ticket, you will always miss by one number at best. That nobody else deserves to win anything either. Basically, this is a bad voice. I can see some of you nodding your heads as you read this. Don't worry, you're not schizophrenic - this is normal, everyone has this going on. Some days it's like a continuous debate, others, one or both are quiet with little to say. You know you have a problem when you cannot distinguish between the voices and which of you is real. So, which station do you tune into? Here's the two stations output for a few common golfing scenarios... 66.6 Approaching the first Tee on competition day:

'Well, it's a lovely morning with plenty of gusty breezes to knock your ball off centre, and a touch of rain in the air, but very unpredictable whether it'll rain now or later. You did some good practice yesterday but you know it'll all go to pieces today don't you? You know that you always screw up on the first drive and there's no mulligans today. See your competition today, wow, that first group were good weren't they. No chance you'll keep up with them is there. Still, perhaps you can just enjoy the game for a change and not worry about winning or losing - after all you know you'll lose, so why get your hopes up? Ridiculous game, I don't know why you bother, should have stayed home and cut the grass. be more useful than out here, being mocked by your friends... oh no, talking of which, there they are, why do they have to come and watch my first drive. They'll cough or chatter just as I'm lining up, I know they will. Oh well, my turn now, what a disaster, prepare for the worst and don't get angry...

First Tee shot:

So nicely lined up, but then anyone can put a ball on a tee can't they. Now settle down, breath, how's the grip - that instructor why did he have to change my grip, it won't work. Right align my feet, look up, look down, those people down there, are in my line, why do they have to stand there, don't they know they could be hit... calm yourself, that's right, may as well get calm now, because once you hit it there won';t be any calm left, And if you screw up this drive, it'll all be downhill for the whole day. never recover, so get this right. Wiggle the bum, yes nice, settle, legs bent just right, what if my weight shifts before I strike then hit those people standing there. i wouldn't mind hitting that smug bastard - he's such a flash git. Custom clubs, custom balls, bet he cheats, never puts a foot wrong, wipe that smug grin off his face, I'll show 'im. Back swing, nice, but is it right, no of course not, arm down, elbow's bent at the wrong time, as usual, THWACK..... follow-through may as well let go of the club, it'll go further anyway.

In spite of this, by some divine intervention, the ball soars through the air and lands smack down the middle of the fairway, 220 yards at least beautifully set up for a second onto the green and a possible birdie: Whoa - didn't know you had it in you. Nice shot, so lucky, you'd never do that again, not in a month of Sundays. Still, plenty of time to screw up yet... ENOUGH! Sorry, I just can't write anymore of this - it's just too depressing. Is this you? And, were you the one who said that they didn't influence themselves? 55.5 on the same situation...

What a beautiful day, a few gusts, possible rain in the air. Be a good idea to look at the trees as we walk down the course, see where the gusts are going. if it rains, we'll change clubs and, quick, borrow an umbrella from Jim there, he can pop back and get another from his car. So nice that my friends are here to cheer me on. Great guys. Now I'm going to show them a great drive. I can see it now, smack down the middle of the fairway, perfect for a chip up to the green and a birdie. I can't wait to pick up that trophy at the end of the day. Good to have some strong competition - nothing better than a real challenge. First Tee shot: Breath nice and deep, slow my heartbeat and see that drive. A little gusty from left to right over those trees, just align a fraction to the left because this ball's going to soar above that line. Glove, into the zone. Complete focus, nice alignment, well done, now a beauty practice swing, nice and loose in the shoulders. Firm stance, good lad, check alignment, now trust your swing. THWACK.

In spite of this, by some divine intervention, the ball soars through the air and too far to the left, way over to the left and lands smack down into the rough by the trees, maybe even really in the trees: Beautiful drive, well done, aligned just a little too far left, so we'll make sure to fix that. I think maybe the wind dropped as well. Nice lay-up for the second shot - I can use that chip techniques I learned from watching Seve on TV, good for a par if I'm really in the rough, and good for a birdie if it's not too long. Good, well done. Now, which station do you want to listen to? The one that derides you no matter how great you are, or the one that supports you and encourages you no matter how poor the shot? "I don't care" says someone, so long as I hit great shots I'll put up with either. Fair enough. Which one do you think will help you enjoy your game? Which one will help you towards a stroke lying ill in bed feeling miserable and no-one coming to visit because you don't even like yourself, let alone anyone else? Extreme? Sadly no. Go find the most miserable-faced player in your local club and ask them which station they tune into...

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

Leadership profiling help

John Kenworthy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 16:35:58 GMT

If you would like a free leadership development profile, I am currently alpha testing our new system for the GAINMORE Advantage Potential to Performance System (GAPPS). If you can spare 15-20 minutes of your time to help, it would be greatly appreicated. www.celsim.com/gapps/GAPPS.htm Thanks John

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

Golf doesn\'t build character, it reveals it.

John Kenworthy — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 23:03:55 GMT

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)

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

Playing Styles and Leadership Styles

John Kenworthy — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:40:52 GMT

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.

Dr. John Kenworthy, Learning Innovator, GAINMORE Leadership, GAINMORE Golf

Gainmore Golf Community | My Bar | Golf Blog

Motivation Direction

John Kenworthy — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 06:26:09 GMT

Many successful players are motivated by their own dissatisfaction with their performance. It can be a very powerful motivator. You would expect someone who is thus motivated to improve their game to be similarly motivated in other aspects of their life. Do you see a golf course as a series of obstacles to be avoided, or do you see the fairways and greens as the thing to hit. There are a few people who actually aim for the obstacles because they excel at the tricky shots - something discussed in the session on character and nature. For most people, the self-directed anger resulting from dissatisfaction is not a positive state to be in. If you condemn yourself for playing poorly and use self-talk phrase such as "I should have...", or yelling (at yourself or outwardly) your self-disgust such as "useless idiot" and perhaps more colourful phrasing - you are doomed to repeat it. Not only will you repeat the 'error', you are physically hurting yourself - self-condemnation causes self-directed anger causes stress causes physical distress causes physical sickness and, for many, heart failure. It's a little as if your heart decides that's it's had enough of your inward abuse and is desperately trying to communicate your need to stop doing it. If you've had a heart attack or stroke you've probably completely reassessed how you live your life - and sought more tranquility, less stressful behaviours - in some cases avoiding the major contributors to your previously high stress levels - work and/or golf. Some people don't realise that this is what they are like. The way you drive your car is often a good indicator of your style. How angry do you get when someone cuts in to the queue in front of you? When you pull up to the red traffic light, do you swerve over to the other lane to be at the front of the queue? When motoring along are you more concerned about getting somewhere quickly, or more concerned with the traffic around you? Back to golf. When you stand at the tee, what do you focus your attention on? Your target? Avoiding the trees/bunkers/water/rough? I hope the former by now if you've been with me all this time. What you focus on is what you'll get. Motivation is a multi-faceted phenomenon. In large part, motivation is about the satisfaction of values held. It is the result of using particular personal resources towards a specific goal that satisfies a value or value held by that individual. Connecting any of these three in any order, resources, values and outcome creates the feeling of motivation. In smaller part, though often the critical component, is encouragement to achieve a goal. It is worth spending some time here on what we mean by encouragement. The word has 'courage' at it's root. Thus, to encourage is to develop, enhance or build courage. Courage, you'll remember, is not the absence of fear but the continuation to do something of which you are fearful. It follows therefore, that if we 'encourage' ourselves - we are building the strength to overcome our fears and commit to an action. Encouragement itself, is often mistaken for motivation - or exchanged for it. In order to get someone to accomplish something - they will need to be motivated and/or encouraged to do so. it is possible to get someone - or even yourself - to do something which does not satisfy a value - but such actions are not repeated if no personal value is realised. For example, many beginner golfers give up playing after being encouraged (usually by a relative or close friend) to take up the game. They continue to 'try' to play until they find that they do not realise something of value for themselves. Yes, there are people who don't like or enjoy golf. Shocking but true. Encouragement is good, but it is not a substitute for genuine motivation. There are some fundamental needs that we as human beings find motivational. There's plenty of books and papers on the subject for the interested individual and I don't intend to argue every combination here. However, there are some generally accepted 'big' motivators that the academics agree on - even if they want to put different labels to each term and put them in a different order.

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

The hardest thing in golf is not hitting the ball...

John Kenworthy — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:02:23 GMT

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 there ?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. 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 focusing 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 focusing 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. Dr. John Kenworthy CCO GAINMORE Leadership GAINMORE Golf

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

Can you buy a better game?

John Kenworthy — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:11:45 GMT

There's a great article in Sptember 2007 Todays Golfer (www.todaysgolfer.com) issue comparing five routes of game performance improvement.

Unsurprisingly for me, the psychology route (mental game) proved the most effective, with custom clubs coming second. Consdiering custom clubs cost £1500plus, and the GAINMORE Golf Mind Advantage Clinic is just 10% of that price, why is that so many golfers choose the custom club route? Perhaps this is a sign... when a golfer opts first for custom clubs, are they effectively saying 'It's not me, it's my tools!' - bad workman and all that? Not taking responsibility for self? Then it is a sure sign that this golfer should invest in some mental training.

On the other hand, custom clubs look good, suggest that the golfer is deadly serious about his or her game and thus, might intimidate opponents. Improvements in your menatl game are less visible to your competition. They might notice that you are holding your head higher, not swearing so much, and not damaging those clubs, but essentially, you'll just have this serene glow about you, an air of confidence if you will and not many others will actually notice it... untill the 19th where they get the round in and reluctantly hand over the small wager.

So a dilemma, custom clubs for £1500+, or a clinic to improve your mental AND technical game for £150. Have a read of the article (I think it's only in hard copy) then you can make a more informed choice. Oh and they're slightly less opinionated than I am, but heck, I've a business to run here :-)

Dr John Kenworthy

CCO GAINMORE™ Golf

GAINMORE™ Leadership

Why use golf to develop leadership?

John Kenworthy — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 03:40:56 GMT

The connection between golf and leadership

There's a surprising similarity between playing the game of golf and leadership. Once the analogies are made clear to you, you'll wonder perhaps why you didn't see it before. By the time you've finished reading this, you'll know the major connections and feel compelled to find out more. 35% of registered golfers in the UK are senior managers, professionals or executives , according to Mintel. This rises to 43.3% of London Golfers. And 12.8% of all golfers in the UK are senior managers, executives or professionals - that's about 1.8 million golfers are senior managers, executives and professionals in the UK alone! (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) 44% of senior managers executives and professionals in the UK have played, do play or would like to play golf. (Source: BMRB/Mintel) Add another 1.4 million managers (Source: GB TGI, BMRB Quarter 4 2006/Mintel) and you realise just how big a sport golf has become - and it id predominantly ABC1 who play the game, and still predominantly male - 83%! In part, business leaders, particularly those with some marketing or sales role - deliberately play golf to network with prospects and clients. In part there's certainly some social status about being a golf club member, and for sure, in part there the 'coincidence' of playing golf and being a business leader. What Mintel's research doesn't highlight though is that there's more to it than that. The characteristics of those who play golf and those who are business leaders shows considerable similarities. Let's take, for example, the desire to score well (even win) a round of golf. To be concerned about one's personal performance and strive to improve it relates to a strong personal 'Achievement Orientation'. I want to do well because I want to do well. There are differences too, and important ones. On the golf course, the golfer is playing against the course. It is one of very few sports where the play of others has no effect on the golfer's performance at all... unless he (and it is predominantly still 'he') allows it (the closest similar sport is downhill skiing). This is not the case for the majority of business leaders who'd personal performance can be impacted by the performance of others. So the golf course is the place where a player can assuredly adopt the attitude, it's MY performance and only MY performance that matters and only their actions change the result. This suggests the desire for control - or Directiveness. Some of the reasons golfers choose to play the game shows that 76% of them play for social reasons (Source: GMI/Mintel) - this demonstrates a desire, if not ability, in the competencies of influence and communication.

So why use golf to develop leadership?

It seems that the game of golf attracts business leaders more than other groups - & perhaps the conclusions above suggest why. So it became increasingly obvious to our team that golf could be both an attractive idea for development within this group, and that the game of golf itself could be deliberately used to develop the competencies and behaviours associated with great leadership. Indeed, many of our clients confirm the attraction of golf for our senior management training programmes by requesting training to take place at golf clubs, so the team can play golf after the training course. Albeit, not everyone on the programmes did play golf, the senior managers and board members invariably did. Our research into using simulations has shown that given a truly safe environment to practice the tools and techniques of leadership and management, participants not only learn more (23% greater learning) than using more traditional methods like case studies, they enjoy it more (17% greater) and demonstrate greater transfer of new behaviours to the workplace (26% greater transfer). Not only this, but studies in societies where females are considered disadvantaged in management showed a greater improvement in demonstrated management and leadership competencies after a simulation based programme than a traditional programme over their male counterparts - 16% greater improvement in demonstrated competencies. The key to the success of using simulations is that they provide a realistic, safe environment to practice the tools, techniques and behaviours of great leadership (Source: Kenworthy 2005)

Is golf a safe, realistic environment?

The great thing about golf is that it is one of the very few activities that provides a genuinely level-playing field - through the well-established handicapping system. It may not be perfect, but it's very close. This means that a scratch golfer competes fairly with a complete beginner. There are also rules within which the game must be played - these represent the constraints of doing business. There are established game rules that encourage pairs or foursomes to work together, and there are rules to foster individual competition - sometimes in business we want our leaders to be entrepreneurial and 'go-getters' - leading by example, at other times, we want them to be team leaders, or team players. Caddies, provide a perfect metaphor for coaches and mentors. The course itself provides a varied environment, shifting according to things beyond the control of the player, but observable by them. The hole provides a target, the course provides for a strategic plan to achieve the real goal. The points scored can directly relate to revenue or profit. The clubs and balls are resources - even the golf pro can be a consultant resource. The game of golf provides a fantastic platform to learn leadership - its safe and fair, it's as realistic as you need it to be and it's fun!

So what about the non-golfers?

So what about the non-golfers? Why would they participate - and let's face it, in an organisation you don't want to alienate the non-golfers by forcing them to participate in something they wouldn't normally... or would you? For our Leadership Golf Challenge programmes we always offer golfers and non-golfers technical lessons before the event. We arrange with our certified golf pro's to put a special series of lessons for the new players - most often they perform better than those who've been playing for years because they don't bring along so many bad habits. We've even designed a special programme exclusively for non-golfers - called 'Hackers Days' - which combine technical golf instruction with the Leadership Golf Challenge.

Can you just play golf to develop leadership?

There's certainly something about the game of golf that shares characteristics of great leadership, but whether it's the playing golf that develops the person as a leader or that the leadership capability makes for a golfer is an unanswered question. Like any powerful training programme, leadership development needs a supporting, robust model of development. Unfortunately it's not much use telling someone to BE Jack Welch, or even to tell someone what it is that Jack Welch does - that doesn't make you a leader. Nor, can we simply seek to develop the 10 principles, 7 habits, 12 big things etc. of the best leaders in the world - leadership is personal - the first step in becoming a leader is to take charge of yourself and align your personal values to achieving what you want to achieve. If it were that simple then there wouldn't be a leadership issue anywhere in the world today.

Solid Foundations

Effective leadership development (indeed for adults to learn anything effectively) needs the learner to go through three learning processes according to Bloom - cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning. That we need to develop knowledge about leadership, associate a feeling or emotion with the desire to learn the knowledge and physically put that knowledge into practice. Most business leaders have some knowledge about what constitutes 'good' leadership - though few practice it all the time. They may have seen 'good' leadership exemplified by others in their past or present. They may have read a book on leadership - such as the 7 Habits. Where these most often fail to become new behaviours is twofold - Firstly, most examples of 'good' leadership are often carried out 'naturally' by the person demonstrating them - we often refer to them as 'born leaders'. They are 'good' leaders, but they don't consciously know what it is that they do - and therefore they are unable to share with others what they should or could do. Most books, on the other hand, tend to focus on one of two aspects - how to be a leader - here is Mr Great CEO and this is what he did, you must do the same. or they distil 'best' behaviours and provide a checklist for you to do 'good' leadership. In the former situation, the 'born leader' is unable (or unwilling) to give you the requisite knowledge to learn. In the latter (books), they often fail to make an emotional connection to implement the knowledge (other than you've bought the book therefore you must want to learn), or they provide simplistic implementation checklists, do this, then this then this at work. If the new 'habit' doesn't work first time, the book provides little or no guidance as to what you should do now. GAINMORE� Advantage changes all that. The GAINMORE� Model provides a synthesis of the tools, techniques, attitudes and attributes of 'good' leadership within a structured model supported with templates that enable you to physically learn the behaviours. We are using the game of golf as a metaphor and as an emotional learning hook, and golf provides a means for you to put your behaviours into physical practice for yourself first - i.e. self-leadership, then you can use the templates at work. All practised within a safe and realistic environment that is fun. The GAINMORE� Model is developed from three major areas of thought leadership in the fields of management learning, psychology and leadership. It is a personal development model that provides the solid foundations on which the Leadership Golf Challenge is built. Build on this foundation the safe and realistic learning environment of a business simulation on the golf course and you have a leadership development programme that actually does what it says on the box. If you would like to know more about the GAINMORE� Leadership Golf Challenge and how we can help you transform your leaders - whether your business issues are Strategy, Business Planning, Teamwork, Change, Marketing, Operations, Finance - we will work with you to design a solution that will address your ongoing needs. Call us on +44 (0)207 1935218 or visit the website at www.gainmoreleadership.co.uk We look forward to hearing from you soon. For full references, please contact the author