Tiger Woods broke out on the PGA Tour by being the only amateur to make the cut in the 1995 Master’s Tournament, placing 41st. Two years later, he won the Master’s by 12 strokes in one of the most exciting golf events in history. Young, intense, and focused like a laser, Woods proceeded to capture the sports world like only a few before him.
Between 1996 and August 2002, Tiger Woods won an astounding 34 PGA Tournaments and 8 Majors. The was the Michael Jordan of professional golf and inspired millions to learn how to play one of the toughest games. I’ve never been a good golf player and God knows I couldn’t watch it on TV, but being a (former) resident of Lemont, IL, home of the Western Open, I was part of the insane crowd following Tiger up the 18th green on his way to winning that tournament. It was electrifying and something I will never forget.
As I look back on his career, I marvel at his 82 wins and 15 majors.
But in the most dominant period (1996 to 2002) of his career where he won half of his career majors (8) and 35 (out of 82) PGA tournaments, Tiger Woods had a coach: Butch Harmon
Crazy as it sounds, even one of the most legendary professional golfers has a coach! But why? What makes a good coach?
Upon researching the things that make a good golf coach, here is a list I found interesting:
Are they an attentive listener/good observer?
Do they give you homework to practice with?
Do they understand the your bio-mechanics?
Are they a good psychiatrist?
Are they a good teacher?
Do they provide motivation?
As it turns out, a Top Performing golf coach shares many of the attributes that a Top Performing executive coach demonstrate!
Setting expectations for roles and building the agenda for topics discussed before the session begins is key. This takes pressure off the client and allows them to open their mind and really focus instead of scrambling around for things to talk about. Establishing key points gives us direction, so we can roll up our sleeves and achieve the desired goals.
An important rule of being an effective executive coach include establishing trust with the client. The Coach/Client relationship is very deep and requires focus, vulnerability, trust and confidentiality. As a coach, I establish what we call “The Three P’s.”
Potency. The coach must suspend their positional authority,
Protection. The coach must provide protection against judgement during the session,
Permission. The coach must give permission to the client to speak freely and confidentially.
The coach must have their ‘coach hat’ on, not any of the others! They need to get their need to be liked, feel valuable or important elsewhere and keep the focus on their client. With a mutually agreed upon agenda, the coach’s role is not to ‘fix’ the problem, but rather ask questions and help the client discover the solution to it. When a coach starts telling the client what to do, the client will shirk responsibility for changing the behavior that drove the result they are struggling with.
In the end, coaching your team to become Top Performers is a process that required investment in time, energy and intellect. Successful coaching requires good listening observational and listening skills, ability to dissect problems and identify the root belief that is driving the current result, and be able to guide a client to behavior modifications to achieve the desired result….all the same requirements of a good golf coach.
In other words, if Tiger Woods has a coach, why the heck doesn’t you and your team?
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