A Golf Instructor For Your Business

Posted on Jun 21, 2010 | 0 comments

Who has time to fit a 4-1/2 hour round of golf into the middle of their workday? I would argue anyone and everyone if their business were properly systematized. Yet recently I began to think about the similarities of honing in one’s golf game with that of building a profitable and sustainable business. This thought came to me recently when I found myself in the middle of one of my most horrible rounds of golf in some time.

Thinking way back, I started golfing when I was young. Around five or six years old my Dad introduced me to the game and my love for golf grew throughout my childhood. I golfed for 35 years without ever taking a lesson. Hovering around a 10-12 handicap and playing only a handful of rounds per year did not seem to justify the expense of a lesson.

However, after our move to Florida I made the decision to take advantage of our new residency beginning last fall. The first lesson was filled with foundational work. The instructor cleaned up minor flaws that I had in my grip, stance, and posture. These are the building blocks of a solid and efficient swing.

After mastering those changes, I returned for my next lesson. This second lesson involved the start of major swing reconstruction. What the instructor asked me to do made sense but didn’t (and still doesn’t) feel natural. At times my new swing even feels awkward. I’ve learned that swing changes take patience, practice, and a high level of trust in the instructor.

A few days ago I found myself in the middle of a round of golf. Unfortunately, my swing is not yet comfortable and the results were not nearly what I had come to expect. With each swing, I was unsure of the direction in which my golf ball was headed. However, I kept reminding myself that uneasiness and the lack of comfort was part of the process of building a better golf swing.

The process of building a better golf swing is very much akin to building better business systems. It is similar in that one must see the entire business system just as a golf instructor can visualize the final, mechanically sound golf swing. In golf, it is impossible to transform the swing of an average player to that of a pro player in a single lesson or in one round of golf. Instead there is a process of change that begins with solidifying the fundamentals and then crafting the final swing piece by piece.

This is no different than your business systems. Gaining a new found level of business systematization is accomplished in a step-by-step manner. What is often difficult is to step back from your business and see the bigger picture in the same way that it is difficult to analyze your own golf swing. You may feel that you do not need a lesson but there are times in which a “golf instructor” for your business can bring the vision for crafting profitable and sustainable systems.