"Leadership Lessons from a PGA Golf Tournament Experience"

Several weeks ago, I had the unique opportunity to compete in the PGA's Pure Insurance Championship Pro-Am at Pebble Beach with my teammate Ryan Harrington. Known for its prestige, Pebble Beach is a challenging course that offers an exhilarating experience while playing alongside top professional golfers. During the weekend, I learned or re-discovered eight valuable leadership lessons.

Leadership Principles for golf, business, and life:

1. Trusting your team and building a foundation of trust. My partner, Ryan, my caddy, Neil, and I learned to trust and rely on one another throughout the weekend. There were times when I was playing at a high level and times when I was not and had to rely on Ryan’s ability to pick me up. Ryan and Neil’s ability to challenge, encourage, and tell me what I needed to hear was invaluable. Having a group of people you can trust, rely on, and depend upon is essential to success and makes the journey even more rewarding. ?These people make us better, support us, tell us what we need to hear, and, most importantly, have your best interests at heart.
2. Adapting your strategy to the environment and shifting the approach when needed is critical in golf and leadership. Adapting to the competition, rapidly changing weather conditions and unexpected obstacles is vital in golf and leadership. Flexibility allowed me to adapt, adjust, react, and respond to pressure moments. As leaders, conditions, circumstances, and factors surrounding important decisions and strategies can shift and evolve. The ability to stay present, consider all variables, and move or adapt to new information is critically important.
3. Keeping your composure under pressure. The championship atmosphere tested my ability to hit shots, make decisions, and stay calm. Often, my heart was racing, my palms were sweaty, and I was feeling stressed because of the pressure of the tournament and the crowd. The pressure of trying to qualify for Sunday's final round by finishing at the top was significant. Still, rather than thinking about qualifying, we focused on having fun and thinking only about the next shot or hole. The ability to focus, maintain self-control, be patient, and stay calm under pressure are hallmarks of great leaders. In these moments, leaders should project confidence, keep their cool, focus on what they can control, and foster an environment of curiosity and exploration. ?
4. Openly communicating and actively listening. Communication with Ryan and Neil was critical to our performance throughout the tournament. They both provided valuable insights, suggestions, ways of approaching an opportunity, and support that helped me make better decisions and elevate my performance. As leaders, we need to recognize that we don't have all the answers and that there are multiple realities and approaches to a problem. The realization that we don't have to do everything ourselves and can solicit the input of others makes us better and helps us arrive at better outcomes.
5. When making decisions, deliberate and fully commit to your course of action. There were many difficult decisions while playing the course and our opponents. Should we be aggressive, should we play it safe, which club should we hit,?or which ones of us should go first? There were many discussions and disagreements within our team. Yet, once we decided, we fully committed and confidently implemented our plan. It's no different in business. There are many decisions to make; some are big, and others are small, but once you decide on your course of action, commit yourself fully to it and don't look back. While you can and should learn from your decisions and leverage your experience in future choices, once you elect your course of action, put all your resources, efforts, and energy behind your decision.
6. Allowing others to lead and supporting them. One of the best and most memorable experiences was playing with a 17-year-old phenom named Adrienne, our partner for one of the days. Adrienne taught us vital lessons that day that helped our team. We wouldn't have won the tournament without her. She was our leader that day. Leadership can come from many places and often from whom you least expect it. Walking with her, playing alongside her, and watching her manage the course's obstacles contributed to our success and experience. As leaders, there are times when we need to get out of our way and give others space to operate. In true leadership fashion, and to our surprise, she thanked us for making her round fun and enjoyable. She said it was the most fun golf round she had ever played and thanked us for encouraging her, supporting her, and making her laugh.
7. Resilience and optimism. There were some intense and challenging moments throughout the three-day tournament, but our ability to stay positive and encourage one another allowed us to overcome foul shots and challenging conditions. We didn't get down on ourselves, get in our heads, and let one wrong decision affect another. Our ability to pick each other up enabled us to win the championship with PGA professional Paul Broadhurst and juniors Nicole Iniakov and Daniel Ferguson. Influential and optimistic leaders persist in the face of adversity, turn obstacles into opportunities for growth, and get the best out of themselves and others. Their ability to motivate, inspire, and stay positive meaningfully contributes to their success.
8. Celebrating successes and learning from failures. One of the best parts of the weekend was the team celebration after our victory. We acknowledged each other's efforts and contributions and discussed what we learned about ourselves and our performance. As leaders, celebrating, recognizing team members, and highlighting key moments in the journey is essential in making meaning of the experience. Moreover, it motivates team members, raises engagement, promotes a winning atmosphere, and deepens connections within the team and organization.

The golf tournament experience highlighted the importance of trust, collaboration, teamwork, resilience, and effective decision-making. As leaders, we often focus too much on immediate tasks or challenges rather than the foundational principles of leadership that can guide and influence our teams toward success. In my experience, I've found that the best leaders excel at balancing both aspects, placing equal emphasis on the journey, the process, and the outcome.

I welcome your thoughts, comments, and reactions. Please contact me directly if you want to learn more about our executive coaching or organizational leadership practice.

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