Get your business get off the 1^st tee and sink more putts!

By Randy Friedman

 

Company A is doing great! They have record-breaking profits this quarter, despite the economic downturn. Their turnover rates are low and employees are motivated to succeed. Company B, on the other hand, is struggling. They have low employee morale, high turnover rates and profits are sagging. What could Company A be doing that Company B is not?

 

The people at Company A apply the skills they’ve learned on the golf course to their business. Not only is golf a great networking tool, but it also teaches many important business lessons. Fortune 500 companies like FedEx, Bank of America, Coca-Cola, Kodak and many others know the power of golf. They’ve put their money into the PGA Tour for three main reasons:

 

1. They realize the power of brand association consumers make with the winning values of golf.
2. They know the relationship potential golf has in the business world.
3. They get the experience to play with golf professionals and corporate executives in Pro/Am events.

 

So, even if you’re not a golfer, how can you take the lessons and skills learned on the course and apply them? Here are a few insider tricks and techniques to apply to your company:

 

Anyone can get off the first tee … the question is, how effectively?

Think of the first tee in golf as the start of any project, job or plan in business. It’s where everything starts. It’s the place where you feel an offensive attitude like, “give me the ball, I want to play” or a defensive one like, “don’t throw me the ball, I’m not any good.”

 

It is your business attitude that will either help you hit down the middle of the fairway or slice it out-of-bounds. Your vision can give you a head’s up on the competition. Here are some tips for creating a clear vision to get your business team off the tee more efficiently.

 

·         Create a mission/vision statement. But you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Here is an example of a Fortune 500 company that has done this well.

a. Company: AutoNation

b. Slogan/Motto: Driven to be the best

c. Mission Statement: To be America’s best run, most profitable automotive retailer.

d. Description: AutoNation is at present one of the leading car dealers in the U.S., selling new and used automobiles, car parts, vehicle insurance and warranty, as well as doing repairs and other bodywork.

 

Work with your caddy. In business, this means sharing the vision with the rest of your company. You are only as strong as the team supporting and cheering you on. Check in with your staff members regularly, and preferably on a weekly basis. Everyone should be on track to complete his or her goals.

·         Make sure your equipment fits. In golf, it’s important that clubs fit you – not the other way around. In business your processes, technology and equipment should fit your needs and be up-to-date. Do your employees feel like their time is wasted with outdated procedures and equipment?

 

How do we hit more greens in golf – and make more “green” in business?

It’s all about course management! In golf, course management is how to think your way around the course. The better players take risks when it is calculated in their favor. They get back in play when a shot goes astray, and they score when they are in position to take the shot.

 

In business, the course management is usually defined by the team leader or supervisor. Goals define your direction, and sharing your goals with others will help you hit the small targets to reach your ultimate goal. The company’s bottom line changes when the smaller targets are hit and the goals become attainable to reach.

 

Here are some tips on hitting and making “the green.”

 

·         Love every club in your bag  – and every member on your team! Each employee has specific gifts and talents to bring to the table. Did you know if there is a club in your bag that you never use because you really don’t like it, it brings your game down? It’s giving off negative energy you are probably not aware of. It’s the same with your employees. So, you have two choices:

1. 1. Take it out of your bag and replace it with something you do like

·         Remove the negative employee and replace him with someone who brings a more positive energy to the team

1. 2. Start thinking, “I love this club”

·         Change your way of thinking to focus on the positive “I may not love this person, but they bring this to the team… or they bring an element to the team that we need.”

·         Hit the shot when you are ready. Your pre-shot routine will let you know when you are ready. If you don’t have a routine you have nothing to fall back on when the pressure is on. In business, your pre-shot routine may be a short, motivational meeting before your client comes into the office, or it might be the pep talk you have with your sales representatives when you go to a client lunch. It could be a weekly meeting with your staff to check in on company goals. Whatever it is, create a routine and stick to it. You will you feel ready to accomplish anything!

·         Take enough club! Your pre-shot routine will help you make the game more routine. But if your ego gets in the way thinking, you’ll start to believe you can muscle your way around the course. Most amateur golfers think they can hit the ball farther than they do. They will come up short, finding themselves in the water or in a bunker (what many golfers call “sand traps”… FYI, animals get trapped, golfers get in and out of bunkers). In business, don’t come up short by letting ego get in your way. Think things through; let your team help you. Ask your colleagues for input, do thorough research, talk it through and get outside opinions on the topic.

 

How to sink more putts… or in business terms, how to close the deal!

 

In golf, you have 18 chances to make a mark, sink the putt and get ahead of the rest of the field. In business, it’s essential to take the shot when you are in the right position. Here are some ways to sink more putts:

 

·         Get off the driving range hitting just your driver, and focus your time and energy on the practice green. Did you know 50 - 60 percent of the game takes place in the short game? Putting is the one part of the game that requires brains over brawn. Similarly, in business, much of your success is about making sure the little things get done. Your business goals are made up of smaller goals or targets. If you’re not hitting the smaller targets first, then you can’t make the bigger goals happen – then, you’re defeating the team.

 

·         Love your putter. If you say you hate your putter, there is no way it will work for you at optimum performance. The moment you love the tool you are using it becomes even better in your hands. Love elevates your emotions and feelings unlike any other thought. Similarly, you must love your product, service and company. Even if you’ve had a bad day at the office, think positive thoughts about your situation and elevate your actions with the power of your mind.

 

·         Visualize yourself making the putt, making the sale or seeing your client happy with your product or service. Acting as if you’ve already seen the outcome is a powerful tool top athletes use in every sport. Tiger Woods, the ultimate visualizing machine, is a perfect example. Why? He’s been doing it the longest. Tiger worked with a sports hypnotist as a teenager to see himself holing every putt he looked at. Can you tell by his unwavering confidence?

 

·         Believe you are the best putter or salesman in the world! It is this inner belief in yourself that brings you success in all you do. Your inner attitude will help you sink the putt, close the sale or make the deal that drives you toward success.

 

Getting off the first tee, hitting more greens and sinking more putts begins with an inner belief that says, “I can do this.” The most successful companies in the world know this… just ask Nike!

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Randy Friedman is a corporate golf professional, speaker and founder of Golf Mind Power. She helps others by applying the visualization techniques of golf to business and life. Her new book, “Your Inner Swing,” shows how self-limiting beliefs can affect performance at work, in sports and even in one’s personal life. Through mental exercises and sports hypnosis, Randy shows how to achieve the mental edge to elevate oneself to the next level. For more information or to hire Randy, contact randy@golfmindpower.com

 

Are you aware that nearly 90% of

Fortune 500 CEO’s, play golf?

It is the international sport of business. In certain industries, clients and prospects play golf as a way of doing business. If your clients and prospects play, then you need to be out on the course with them. It is important to understand how the game of golf can help you develop your business, as well as benefit you personally.

Have you ever been the one stuck in the office, while others are out playing golf? Doesn’t that just make you wonder what all the fuss is? You get the invitation, but you turn it down saying, “no I just can’t”. To be perfectly honest, you can! Saying You Can’t has two meanings:

1. You either don’t know how to, or
2. You don’t want to.

The questions I have for you here are … where is your career heading and where do you want it to go? Golf is the only game you can play and develop a conversation at the same time. Not only that, you gain an understanding of the persons personality you are either doing business with or about to do business with. The game of golf is more popular than ever. Understand the importance of golf in business, so you aren’t left out of the business meetings held on the golf course.

Let’s look at these four important points:

1. Discover the professional and personal benefits of golf.
2. Learn another language of business—“the game of golf”.
3. Learn how playing business golf can save you time.
4. What you can learn about your playing partners.

 

1. Discover the professional and personal benefits of golf.

Golf is one of the only sports you can play and do business with at the same time. Think about it. It takes you 30-60 seconds to assess the situation (the distance, carry, lie, and wind), take a club out of the bag, take a practice swing, setup and hit the ball. The rest of the 4-5 hours you’re walking or riding in a golf cart with the undivided attention of your client. Need I say more!

Personally, golf is an exceptional sport for many reasons. Since you don’t need anyone to hit the ball back to you, and it’s just you and the golf course, you are not competing against anyone. That being said it physically makes for an inviting sport for spouses, siblings and families to play.

2. Learn another language of business—the game of golf.

Have you ever found yourself at work listening to your co-workers having a conversation that you could not be a part of? If you don’t play golf, you are likely to come across one of those talks. Golf talk happens everyday in offices around the water cooler and world. Just pay attention after a Major, like The Masters, US or British Open. I guarantee golf talk is occurring around the water cooler. You need to be a part of that conversation! The game of golf contends with the game of business! Learn the language and you will be invited to the next company outing.

3. Learn how playing business golf can save you time.

A day of golf with three clients in one place will get a lot more done than you think. Not only will you be with them on the course for an extended period of time, but there is likely breakfast or lunch before the round and lunch or drinks after the round. Now you’ve created a new relationship and the phone call tomorrow has a different tone! It’s a beautiful thing.

4. What you can learn about your playing partners.

Here is where everything happens or not. You can learn so much from your playing partner by the actions he or she carries out on the golf course.

Some things to observe are:

1. Cheating
2. Misrepresenting their score (ahem, cheating)
3. Shouting absentees
4. Throwing clubs
5. Stomping feet
6. Mistreating the caddy
7. Neatness in appearance

You can learn a lot by observing what they do and don’t do. Many top executives will not do business with someone until they play golf with them. Now you understand why.

How you can get started in golf:

1. Take lessons with a professional golf instructor
2. Understand the important rules and etiquette of golf.
3. Play with friends until you feel comfortable enough to entertain on your own.
4. Join the EWGA (an executive women’s golf league). It forces you to get out there and play
5. Subscribe to a golf magazine (Golf for Women, Golf Digest, Golf Magazine)

 

The Bottom Line
Learn to play golf and you will learn to play better business!

 

“In body, mind power and spirit”
Randy

 

The word “mind”, is any thought conscious or subconscious.

“Power” means strength or having strength.

So Mind Power is having a strong thought. For our purpose in golf (and life for that matter) I am talking about your strong subconscious thoughts.

 

When most students came to me to take a golf lesson they already had a preconceived notion of what they wanted to learn. We would spend the first ten minutes (five if I cut them off) of the lesson discussing what they thought I should teach them. I often thought to myself, “Why do they think they need me if they already know all the answers?” Of course in reality they usually weren’t close to knowing what the needed to improve their golf. I guess that’s human nature to want to assist the learning process.

 

Over-instructed and over-technical!

Many students of the game have either taken too many lessons (from different instructors), watched the golf channel to learn and apply literally everything they could, or read too many golf instruction (swing) articles. Then they bring the new knowledge to the course the next day to “try” to implement it. It may work for a day, but won’t work for good unless it is ingrained for 21 days or more.

 

Golfers need less technical instruction on the range, more mind power programming, and to just play! I gave most of my students lessons on the golf course. That is where the game is played. Of course beginners need the fundamentals, and instruction needs to given on the range and especially short game area, but please get out and play! I heard a Ben Hogan quote years ago that always stuck with me. When he was asked what was his secret to success? His comment was, “You’ve got to dig it out of the ground”. Meaning, get out there and figure it out. I am not saying to spend every waking hour trying to find your game on your own. I believe what Hogan was saying, was what Mind Power really comes down to. Get the information, apply it, work at it so you own it, then believe it and just do it! Your conscious thought (the analyzer) MUST quiet down at some point in order to play “in the zone”. Playing in the zone or on automatic pilot is when your subconscious mind takes over and frees you to get out of your own way!

 

When you own a thought, it’s yours (good or bad)! You can always change your mind later. When it comes to playing golf, in that moment of impact, you better believe “you can” or you wont! The minute you change your mind, you change your actions. The Law of Attraction states, “what you think about, you bring about”.

Have you ever hit a 75 yard shot over water that somehow found the water instead of the green? “Now how did that happen?”, you said after the fact. What do you think your thought was? If it was anything but “hit the target”, you were doomed.

 

The subconscious mind does not judge your thoughts.

Whatever your thought was before you hit the shot you tend to believe. If the last time you missed a two foot putt you told yourself your an idiot, the next time you have a two-footer, your subconscious mind will remind you that your an idiot… kind of like an obnoxious parrot! “You’re and idiot, you’re an idiot, raahh… you missed this putt last time, you’ll miss it again, raahh!”

 

 

Be your own best cheerleader!
What would you tell your buddy if he or she missed a two foot putt? “That’s okay, you put a good roll on it” or “Wow, I thought you had that one!” Guess what? That’s the voice you need to give yourself when you miss a shot. Remember, your subconscious will respond accordingly to what you say and think. “Yeh, I did put a good roll on that”, or “hmmm, that felt like a great putt… oh well”. And next time you have that same putt, you now have a chance to make it!

Learn more about how to control your own golf mind power, by controlling your thoughts, feelings and emotions on the inside!

“In body, mind power and spirit”
Randy