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The Culture+ Blog

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Stop using the driver for everything and just use a wedge

It’s summer in the US. I live on the tee box of a local golf course. It’s been busy.

The tee box for any hole is where golfers start. The goal, for the unfamiliar, is to get the ball from the tee box to the hole with the fewest possible hits.

For any golfer who has played the game for a minute, it matters if you can hit the ball far, but it matters more if you can hit the ball straight. Hitting the ball a mile is great, but if it’s a mile with a slice, it’s lost forever.

Since we live on the tee box, and because of the quality of the course, and because it’s summer, we are outside most days witnessing really bad golfers. Here’s how it goes for most: swing, contact, (ball hits tree, ball sails over houses, ball dribbles forward), expletive. Every. Time. All. Day.

These golfers always have the driver in their hands. Always. The thing is, if they used their pitching wedge they would likely be in the middle of the fairway with a chance at par or better.

I think many of us do the same thing in our leadership roles. We are always setting up for the long, straight drive when we could just use a pitching wedge and be way more consistent and productive.

Try this mantra for the week: How can I pitching wedge this? It might feel weak, but you will get better results over time.

by Jonathan

Jonathan Wilson is the CEO of Sandcastle, a leadership training and development consultancy. He frequently speaks and writes about building high performance teams. Jonathan regularly presents his latest findings and insights to business and government leaders at local, state, and national association events (both in-person and virtual). His first book, Future Leader: Rebooting Leadership to Win the Millennial and Tech Future is available now.

Tagged: Leadership

Published on: August 5, 2019

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