A Used 7-Iron and the Discipline of Leadership

Golf and leadership: A question of balance?

After a 15-year absence from the links, I decided recently to purchase a used 7-iron to see if my arthritic 67-year old body was up for a return to the game. Why my renewed interest in spoiling a good walk? Because so many of my friends are having so much fun with it! And golf courses are beautiful places! I had been reminded of that a few Friday evenings earlier when my wife accompanied me to hear our friend play in a band on the patio of a clubhouse surrounded by picturesque fairways and greens.

I started reading just a little bit on how to get back into the game. I thought the more I practiced the mechanics of the golf swing, the better I’d get. Here's how it actually played out over the first four days of my golf experiment.

• Wednesday was my very first time with a golf club in my hands, in ages! I hit that 7 iron pretty good. Good loft and direction; fair distance.

• Thursday, not quite as good.

• Friday, I did not get to the range.

• Saturday was terrible!

But I didn't lose patience with myself. I remained calm and asked questions – that's better than muttering expletives!  In search of answers, I took to the Internet and my favorite AI tool to find what leading experts on the topic had to say. They were in undeniable agreement: given my arthritis and how long I've been away from golf, I had overdone it. Pushed myself to accomplish too much, too fast.

The experts think my body was doing things during my swing that I was not conscious of, in order to protect itself from injury. That made sense, because I woke up Sunday morning stiff and sore. The experts I read said it's really important for me to stretch my core every day. And I hadn't stretched in a few days. (My AI tool’s version of empathy: “As you are human, it is understandable that you abandoned your stretching routine out of excitement for trying so soon to replicate your initial success on Wednesday. This is typical; do not worry.”)

The experts said the stretching and resting in between golf practice were not luxuries - they are foundational activities for me.

One of the things I read about coming back to golf after a long hiatus said, "Initial success means you haven't forgotten how, and it means you're still athletic enough. More recent failure likely means you're not paying enough attention to self care and recovery between outings."

That made me think of one of my leadership coaching clients. He’s aware that his mood sometimes affects the way he shows up to his team, and he wants to become more consistent in how he treats people. I almost said "Aha!" out loud as he spoke, and I realized that practicing excellent leadership on a consistent basis requires disciplines that are similar to disciplines I must follow when there’s not a golf club in my hand, if I want to have a consistent golf swing.

Golf and Leadership: a Question of Balance?

I’ve observed that for many of us, leading people well and doing it consistently can be mentally taxing in ways we might not fully appreciate while we're with the team. Striving to be our best selves through every leadership challenge can wear us down and mentally fatigue us in ways that we may not be conscious of. That can cause our approach to people to change without our even being aware of it. Just like my body was unconsciously altering my golf swing because it was trying to protect me from injury!

Perhaps leadership as well as golf require a certain discipline that may not come to all of us performance-driven hard chargers easily. How do we re-charge our ‘leadership batteries?’

What activities serve to recover us so we’re able to build consistency into our golf swings? Into the way we approach our leadership responsibilities?

What if we identified those recharging activities are and made sure to reserve time for them on a regular basis? What if we consistently gave the parts of our brain that we use in our professional lives, the stimulation and rest needed to recover and re-charge? Just as I need to give my arthritic hips and low back that same opportunity between golf days.

It got me thinking: What disciplines do I have to build into my life away from golf? And, what does work-life balance have to do with our ability to lead?

For me and my desire to play golf, it’s stretching, good sleep, constant hydration. It might involve ibuprofen! And resting in between. For you and your desire to lead well, it’s what? Great time with loved ones? A good movie? Travel? Laughter? Some sort of hobby or volunteer service?

Could it be that “work/life balance,” ignored by some of us who are convinced that the way to succeed is to drive ourselves hard, is actually an essential leadership discipline?

The biblical account of creation tells us that even God rested on the seventh day!

Hey, you leader/managers out there. Here’s to whatever activities make you feel like new.

May you love yourself and your people enough to make time for them.

Please take care of yourself!

Now excuse me while I go and do some stretching!