Golf clubs as a coaching metaphor
Photo by sydney Rae [Unsplash]

I’m putting away my golf clubs for the season. As I do that, I can’t help but reflect on what a great metaphor golf is for leaders and leadership.

In my role as Executive Coach I have engaged this metaphor with clients who are also golfers with some surprising results.Like the complex and changing corporate environment, there are constant unknowns in the game.

There are hazards everywhere and when we find ourselves in one of them, it requires some thought, a reframe, refocus, a decision and action. And after all of that, and you take the next stroke, there is the knowledge that there is no guarantee that the outcome will be what is intended.

Moving out of a trouble spot requires another look at what club the golfer (and for the Executive, what tools or skills) might be used to move forward…toward the goal that isn’t always visible and is often surrounded by several more hazards!

I also realized halfway through this golf season, that asking for help to enhance my skills (which at times are highly developed already! Well, sometimes!!!). Even the greats have Coaches and must practice to enhance their game.

One of the things that has had a great impact on me this year was to recognize the benefit of quieting, calming and centering. In the Spacious Complexity process we engage quieting and reflective learning as one of the most fundamental, effective development techniques that leaders can use. And in using the golf metaphor, the quieting and reflection is similar to when the ball lands in a water hazard where it stirs up the silt making it impossible to see the lost ball.

When we too quickly attempt to retrieve that ball, we stir up even more murkiness, similar to when we may too quickly react in the organizational environment. Yet if we simply wait, often for only a short moment, the silt settles, the water becomes clearer and we can see so much more clearly…to retrieve or recover. It is the next shot that makes the difference!

What is your next shot?

What tools are in your leadership toolbox?

Who is your silent partner?

What are your resources to bring you to the top of your game?


 

Ever wonder why we have different strengths? Why no one person can ever master all the attributes they need to be good at all the qualities required from a leader? I was on a boat ride, enjoying the scenery, and it struck me. We are designed for community. We aren’t meant to be masters of everything. We aren’t meant to be completely independent – we are meant to be in relationship (or team).


We are designed for interdependence.

Pause… Really pause and ponder how this is true in your life. Reflect on your proudest moments, your greatest accomplishments… None of us accomplishes anything entirely on our own. Everything we do. Everything we think. It all has the mark of others. It was not achieved by ourselves alone.

I come from a long line of very capable, pioneering people with a strong value placed on independence. I vividly remember my negative reaction, in grade 12, when my mother warned me against the perils of over-valuing independence.

It was only many years later that I began to understand the wisdom in her words.

Behavioural profiles clearly show us how any team lacking the full range of behavioural profiles leaves itself vulnerable. Why? Each profile has valuable strengths. The very wiring that makes us strong in some areas makes it hard for us to develop in others. Initiators struggle with the final stages of implementation and even more with in-depth research and ongoing maintenance. Good business needs both a readiness to act and the ability to slow down and dig deeper. The creative tension between the two strengths makes for a stronger outcome.

In Chinese philosophy, the yin-yang describes how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected, and interdependent in the natural world, and how they give rise to each other as they interrelate to one another.

Like the yin-yang we have some of the ‘other’ in us, which we can further develop, but will never be masters of it. A wise leader learns how to build teams of ‘opposites’, recognises the strength of interdependence and structures discussion and distribution of work so that no-one’s value to the organisation is wasted.


How well does your organisation recognise the limitations inherent in overvaluing independence?
What is the hidden cost of ignoring the hardwiring of interdependence? Where can you see that in your organisation, your team, your own life?

Our reflection, on our own lives and the lives of leaders in organisations regardless of country, size and industry has helped us isolate 7 elements to pay attention to that will revolutionise how you lead.

“According to PriceWaterhouseCooper’s report, ‘The Future of HR’, managing complexity, ambiguity and technology are the biggest trends for HR as we head toward the year 2022.” (p36 People Talk V22-N2-Summer 2015)  Anyone in business knows this to be true beyond HR.  It is equally true for the organisations and people within the organisations that HR serves.

A question much asked in the last 10-15 year is “How can leaders make sound decisions with complexity and the pace of change increasing as they are?” (Both only adding, of course, to the ambiguity!)   I believe the answer lies in choosing our modus operandi based on the context.  To do this, a brief history lesson….

Ancient Hebrews and Ancient Greeks offered us two very distinct ways thinking.  Two very different methods of understanding our worlds.  The Western education system is based on the Greek methodology. The Hebrews used stories – using rich, multi-layered pictures that allow both our conscious minds and our intuition access to the truths within them.  This method gives us understanding that is akin to a knowing that cannot always be explained by logic and yet somehow transcends it.

The Greeks gave us an equally valuable methodology that breaks the whole into parts or steps and in the breaking down into its components, we gain understanding.  An understanding that appeals to our minds, but limits our understanding to that which we can ‘logically prove’.  This  methodology is what most of us, in the Western world, rely on.

Each methodology has its limitations.  Each suits some situations better than others.

My years of observing human dynamics, including human dynamics within the workplace, have me convinced that in order to lead well we need to reduce our dependence on a Greek way of thinking and learn to trust the Hebrew ‘knowing’.  This is easier said than done for those who have not yet learned to trust the Hebrew story methodology for generating understanding.  Growing up ‘figuring things out’ makes it hard to trust understanding gained simply by ‘observing’ or ‘noticing’.

In situations that don’t involve human dynamics (such as the workings of a gear box) it is good to ‘figure it out’, to break it down into logical elements.  However, logic alone fails us when we introduce ambiguity or high levels of complexity – here we need to step back and observe…  The story based way of analysing allows us to understand and respond to the key factors without having to break it down.  It draws on our sub-conscious mind, or intuition.  A powerful part of our intelligence that some in Western leadership have learned to rely on.

I’d love to hear your stories of where you, or leaders you know, relied on a Hebrew way of thinking because Greek logic wasn’t right for the context.

There is no such thing as someone not impacting. By our presence alone we change the environment and impact the system we have entered. An example of this happened when I was a young teenager…one with an attitude and what I now realize were friends of questionable character. I certainly didn’t see them that way then!

My mother had questioned my choices multiple times but I saw none of her concerns. One Friday night there was a community dance that I was enthusiastically a part of and my mother was to be arriving a little later in the evening after work as a chaperone. Before she arrived I was completely engaged and saw my group of friends as fun and really quite acceptable even in the high standards of my parents.

But…the instant my mother walked through the doors, I looked around the room and saw everything alarmingly differently.

I saw through her eyes the activities and characters that were part of my world and I was immediately slammed into another reality.

And yes, without a word spoken I saw the questionable character of the friends that were of a strong and negative influence. It was a pivotal and defining moment that changed the trajectory of my life. My mother’s presence alone changed my interpretation of the environment I was in and the living system that I was a part of.

We have spoken of that moment since, and she had a different experience. She felt that it was not as bad as she had previously thought, and had felt that she had been much too judgmental and harsh on those she did not really yet know.

Since that time there have been many times, though more subtle, that I have had experiences of shifts in perspective and I have been very much more aware of them since that day so long ago.

I’m curious…what impact might you unknowingly have?

How have others influenced you and your environment simply with their presence?

Learn more about the impact we’ve had on our clients