Leadership, Delegation, and Sports Psychology
Leadership Newsletter #3
Leadership, Delegation, and Sports Psychology
As a manager of a law firm in Washington, DC, for over twenty years and as a PGA Golf Professional, I see leadership lessons in every endeavor I undertake. I had to learn how to delegate and thought I understood it until I decided to teach a class on “How to Delegate Successfully” at the graduate school of business of the University of Colorado Denver’s Global Energy Management Program. This was part of my class called “Strategic Management” which was the Capstone Course for the Executive MBA. I also taught a class titled “The Future of Energy” with a one week “field trip” to interview world energy leaders in London and a class titled “The Future of Energy Policy and Regulation” with a one week “field trip” to Washington, DC to meet government and energy industry leaders.
Delegation is actually complicated. To do it right, it takes 26 steps. Please see and download my article “Delegation: How Many Steps Does It Take.”
Try to cut corners and things can go very wrong in delegation. In addition, there are ethics issues in delegation, and it is clearly unethical to delegate a task to someone who cannot perform the task, who is not given sufficient resources, time, and training to perform the task, or to delegate a task and then not use the work product of the person who put in so much time and energy to deliver exactly the work product you requested. Certainly, situations come up, and projects must be abandoned, but every leader and every manager must live by one rule,
“Don’t waste the time of people you manage.”
When it comes to the field of sports psychology, I had the chance to be in a meeting with Dr. Bob Rotella, author of a dozen books in this field. I wrote up what I learned from his presentation and he has approved my write up for distribution. You can find this article here.
Sports psychology is about helping people improve their performance, and its key principles are applicable to playing a musical instrument, giving a speech or presentation, or any “performance” type of activity. Sports psychology helps people lead themselves and the team where they coach or play as a member. One key principle of sports psychology is how to deal with “pressure.” The word “pressure” is known to most people who perform in front of others or in competitive situations, but maybe it is not the best word. Pressure means so many things, including nervousness, anxiety, shortness of breath, higher heart rate, tension, fear, concern, doubt, second-guessing, focusing on judgment and evaluation instead of simply performing the act, and being so worried about the possible results of one’s performance that it is a total distraction from the focus one needs to “stay on task” and perform up to one’s ability.
I passed the rigorous PGA “Players Abililty Test” where one had to play 36 holes in one day (now it can be divided over two days which is a lot easier and a better skills test) and shoot no more than 15 over par (the course “rating”). The course I played Cherry Valley near Princeton, New Jersey in 96 degree heat had a course rating of 71.5, so the qualifying score was 158. I needed a birdie on the 18th hole, the 36th hole I played that day. The 18th hole was one of the toughest holes on the course and I had a 50 footer for birdie. All I was thinking after I lined up the putt was “hit a good put.” I felt no pressure, and I made the putt at the age of 65 to pass the test and I am now a Class A PGA professional at the age of 70, having passed all of the courses required to become a full Class A member.
I hope you find these articles useful. Delegation is leading others, and sports psychology can be leading yourself as well as leading others. I look forward to your comments on this newsletter, and you can email me anytime at herb@herbrubenstein.com.