Why a Business Golfer Can Open More Doors

Have you even wonder why there are more business deals started on the Golf course than anywhere else?  I am sure you see business men and women who just seem to always be in the right place at the right time when it comes to advancement at work or making the big sale.  And of course when you find out that the person who just won the contract or partnership in a company is a golfer the emotions start running high and you start thinking negatively about golf and people who play golf.

Have you every stopped to ask…

Why do golfers always get the edge on business?

The fact is golfers don’t get the top positions or win the sales because they play golf.  That is unless they are hired by the company to play golf with clients and customers..which, by the way, is growing in popularity.

No, it is not the golf that is played that advances businesses.  It is the person who plays golf and how they play golf that catches the eye of business leaders.

If you take a closer look at the person who plays golf and gets ahead in business you will see they all have one trait that is the same.  They all have a high level of confidence in themselves.  In the cases I have studied I can validate that GOLF played a big part in developing their confidence.

Storytime….

A few years ago I had a young man come to me for help in understanding why he is always being passed over at work for promotion.  He was a very qualified and business savvy person who had all it took to really be a winner for a business.  However, his weakness was he appeared to be constantly nervous or uncertain in his decisions.  That came out in the way he carried himself around the office.

Naturally I invited him to meet me at the club to play a round of golf and afterwards talk.  During the round his nervousness was overly pronounced due to his level of golf skill.  He loved to play golf and was very enthusiastic towards golf and its long history of tradition.  He was also very knowledgeable of the rules, etiquettes and course management.  To top it off, his mechanics of his swing were good but just did not produce the shot he was wanting to hit.

As we sat down after the round to talk I kept the focus on his golf by asking where he learned to play.  His reply was typical to most who I ask that question.  He told me he had taken a lesson ‘here and there’ but really never took the time to do anything coincident in taking lessons due to the time the lessons took away from other things.

I then moved the discussion into asking questions about his concerns in business. I asked what he saw in the people who got the positions wanted at work and what kind of personalities did the people have that were chosen for the positions.  I continued by asking if he knew if they all had the same qualification.  He said he knew that all of them played golf since he plays with them and has even played with them with the executives of the company who promoted them.  Golf in his business was like most businesses around the world..a must activity.  He added that most of the people who got ‘The Tap’ over him for new executive positions in the company all had the same exact credentials as his.

As I continued my gathering of an understanding of what my new friend was seeing in the people being advanced over him I noticed that the common denominator of the people the company was placing in executive positions were people who remained very calm in the way went about business and not really boisterous in the personalities.

After a lengthy discussion on what he felt he needed to do to be ready for the next chance he felt he needed to be more like who the company is looking for…someone who handles pressure and puts on a good poker face when things get tough. 

As the conversation wound down to us agreeing to meet again to discuss solutions I asked the young man if he would be interested in attending a golf school to work on his game.  He reluctantly agreed sighting again the time it took to go but did see that taking some time off to get away and work on his game would be fun to do.  I assured him that the time would be well spent.

A few weeks later we traveled out to one of my golf playgrounds to go to a three day golf school.  Having been to many of them previously I picked the one I knew had the instructors who carried themselves like the people this young man said where bumping him out of positions at work.  I had called out to the schools in advance to let them know the situation and what I was looking for them to do with my friend, which was work on his confidence as a person as well as a golfer.  So when we arrived my client was not aware of my advance contact.

Over the three half days of instructions and three rounds of golf afterwards my friend was treated to a few holes with the head instructor of the school who I knew well.  Since I was not there with them I am not sure what took place, but it must of been revolutionary.  My friend at the end of the golf school was playing much more consistently and the quality of golf was much more relaxed.

After we got back home I asked the young man if he felt he had learned anything and his remark was…

You know..I feel better about my game and myself…

We went our own ways for a few months and kept in touch by phone and emails for awhile but soon drifted apart in our business relationships.  A couple of months ago I ran into the now more mature looking young man on the golf course and noticed a marked difference in his mannerisms which I remarked to him about.

His response was he now has proven to himself that he is ready for anything now and felt that it was the golf school that we attended that help him realize he was just like the guys who were getting picked ahead of him for advancement.  He said he just needed to be more himself and not what he was thinking the company was looking for.

During our brief chat I learned that he had left the company he was working so hard to get promotion and took a position at another firm in the position he was wanting at the previous company.  When I asked how he snagged that job he was very quick to tell me..

From playing golf with a few people I met on the golf course.  They connected me to their boss and I played golf with him and the next thing I knew I was getting a call asking if I would consider a position.

Here is a case of a person who was do something they were not comfortable doing.  After changing his focus to relaxing and showing his confidence in himself in the way he did things on and off the golf source he was able to make a difference in his life.   No matter what caused the change to be more himself it was for sure developed from playing golf with others and learning more about how to play better golf. 

Will this help you? 

Only you know for sure and not giving it a try you will never know, but the fact remains that developing confidence in something you enjoy doing carries on into doing the things you do not enjoy doing.

Playing golf can change a person.  Golf, if learned correctly, can develop a person’s behaviors and improve on self confidence.  That is why it is the ONLY sport that helps kids get a better understanding of themselves.  In business, golfers usually develop into good leaders. Plus, there is so much more to what golf is than can be explained in words.  I suggest you out a dedicated attempt to learning to play golf before you deny its worthiness.

Golf..it is one hell-of-a powerful business tool.

Opportunity:

If you are interested in improving your golf game while improving your business you should attend the ClamBake Cafe ‘Stairway to Golf Heaven’ Golf School on Jun 4th – 6st or Jun 11th – 13th in Sedona, AZ.  It is the only place where you can go to learn new business methods and new golf skills in the same place.  For more information, or to receive register, for the ClamBake Cafe go to www.ClamBakeCafe.com and click on the ‘Stairway to Golf Heaven’ tab at the top of he page.