Ladies European Tour [LET] Chair, PGA of Spain Member and President of the WPGA of Spain, Marta Figueras-Dotti, has been named the latest recipient of the CPG’s Christer Lindberg Bowl at the CPG Annual Awards Supported By Rolex for her services to the sport.

Joining a prestigious group including names such as Annika Sörenstam, John Paramor and Emma Villacieros, Figueras-Dotti is honoured for her work across her career in supporting and developing golf in both Spain and internationally, particularly in women and girls golf, as a coach, a player and a leader in the sport.

“These are the moments that are very special because that gives me the strength and the desire to keep working on the things that I’m doing and keep working on golf in Europe,” said Figueras-Dotti of the award.

“I think there have been some great moments in my career. Obviously some trophies won and things like that – but I have had some great experiences as a coach such as going to the Olympic Games in Rio, and as part of teams such as being involved with Solheim Cup for so many times.

“But I definitely have the ‘baby’ of mine which is bringing the Solheim Cup to Spain, which was a huge, tremendous effort. So, although I’m not planning to quit anytime soon, I would like to be remembered as somebody that has really given back to the game of golf in general, not only in Spain, but in Europe.”

Since 2018, Figueras-Dotti has led the Ladies European Tour and overseen its growth, including the joint venture partnership with the LPGA that is elevating women’s professional golf worldwide with expanded schedules and substantially larger prize funds. She has earned recognition as one of Spain’s Top-100 Women in Sports alongside LET CEO, Alexandra Armas, and a Gold Medal from the Madrid Golf Federation.

Hailing from a golfing family where her father was the President of the Real Federación Española de Golf, Figueras-Dotti became the first Spanish woman to receive a sports scholarship and studied at the University of Southern California.

As an amateur, she achieved team successes and won the 1982 Women’s British Open at Royal Birkdale, a feat not matched by another amateur since. Later that year she turned professional and then went on to win six events on the LPGA Tour, LET, and Symetra Tour, co-founded the Legends Tour in the USA, and have top-five finishes in two major championships. She has also played vital team roles, including Captain of the Junior Solheim Cup European Team five times and was Vice-Captain for the 2017 Solheim Cup alongside Annika Sörenstam.

Figueras-Dotti’s extensive experience in high-performance golf led her to coaching roles with national teams since the early 2000s. She coached the National Amateur Team and was the Women’s 2016 Olympic Coach for Spain, is the Director of Coaching at the Golf Federation of Morocco, and also founded and directs the Golf Coaching Academy in Madrid.

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For more information on the CPG Annual Congress visit https://cp.golf/2022AnnualCongress.

With thanks to the CPG Annual Awards Partners – Rolex, the Ryder Cup European Development Trust [RCEDT], Aegean Airlines and Costa Navarino.

Images courtesy of Ladies European Tour / Tristan Jones / Marta Figueras-Dotti

CONGRESS HUB PAGE

Today, Gord Percy was named the 49th president of the PGA of Canada at the association’s Annual General Meeting. The PGA of Canada, first established in 1911 is the second oldest and third largest professional golf association in the world.

Percy is an esteemed community member, golf professional, and golf industry leader. I would also say he is the best father in the world. He once said in an article about his career that his primary motivation is his children, so it feels only fitting that his daughter is the one to introduce him as the new President of the PGA of Canada.

I was lucky enough to work for my dad for many years at Carleton Golf and Yacht Club as a back shop and pro shop employee (since then, my dad has moved to become the Head Professional and General Manager at Smiths Falls Golf Club).

One of my favourite parts of working for him was our drives to and from work. Sometimes during those drives, we would listen to the news or music, but more often than not we would talk about golf – not just about how he was playing, but about growing the game, changes in the industry, and memories over his lifetime. These conversations brought up industry challenges, dreams of what golf could be in the future, and a lot of nostalgia.

My favourite stories my dad tells are often about his adventures and experiences as a young golfer in his hometown of Verona, Ontario. He was first introduced to golf, not at a course, but at home, by his babysitter while his parents were at work. He transitioned from playing golf around the house to Rivendell Golf Course (although he certainly still plays a lot of golf around the house, even today).

He still holds the course record of an 11-under par, 60 at Rivendell!

Growing up, I often heard stories about him giving golf lessons to senior members, setting course records, and making shots he sometimes still considers his best.

Although an injury changed his career trajectory, he still aspired to work in the golf industry and ended up getting a Bachelor of Arts and a Bachelor of Physical and Health Education from Queens University and a Professional Golf Management Graduate Certificate from Humber College.

His ability to change direction, persevere and still follow his passions are the same qualities he has instilled in my brother and me. He has always emphasized the importance of pursuing education, whether formal or informal, which the PGA of Canada has further supported through their Ian Webb scholarship program for members’ spouses, children, and grandchildren.

At home and at work, supporting education and professional development is a top priority for my dad.

“I think the big things for me are finding ways to get pros into jobs where they can have successful careers and can stay with it,” he says. “You used to hear stories about pros working a ton, not making a lot of money, and not having that work-life balance. I think we’re moving in the right direction but there is still some work to do. The education, continuing being innovative with it, and getting more people interested and using that platform – that is all very important to me.”

It’s clear that growing the game of golf has always been a passion for my dad. This is particularly evident when he runs junior golf camps or gives junior lessons. During these camps I got to watch so many young people become passionate about golf through his teaching. His ability to inspire and teach is a talent he’s had since the beginning of his career.

I’m so proud that to him growing the game isn’t just about getting more people to play. Rather, it is about making sure that as the game of golf grows in an inclusive way. Whether it is attending events for military veterans golfing, working with organizations to provide youth memberships, or prioritizing growing the game for women, he works to make sure golf grows inclusively.

He was instrumental in having Brooke and Brittney Henderson both join the PGA of Canada and is proud he was part of naming our Female Player of the Year award after Brooke. Having known the family since his early days of being a professional he is proud to have fit Brittney for her first set of Ping Clubs that would later become Brooke’s. Brooke went on to use an old 46 inch extra stiff driver with his name imprinted on it that she had much amateur success with. He jokes its his fault she chokes up on her clubs.

The PGA of Canada has also taken this up through their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force, which he was involved with and personally invested in. This extends his commitment to making sure that golf takes care of its professionals. He says priority for him going into his presidency is ensuring golf professionals across Canada have access to support, such as through the Members Assistance Program, the mentorship program, and the Benevolent Fund.

“Another thing that really is important to me; I’d like to find a way to help our members more – in sync with the Benevolent Fund – whether it is getting them more benefits from being a golf professional, or more value added so that we can help everybody out,” he says.

Over the last several years, it’s been so exciting to watch my dad take on his board leadership roles, first with the PGA of Ottawa, and most recently with the PGA of Canada. I’ve seen him work with people across the country and globally, making sure the golf industry is not only innovative, but fun. I most recently witnessed this during the 2021 RBC PGA Scramble, which brought professional and amateur golfers from across Canada together in Cape Breton. The event highlighted how golf experiences can change people’s lives and bring people together, something my dad truly appreciates and emphasizes in his work.

The 2021 season marked his 25th season as a PGA professional. During his career he has won numerous tournaments and has received accolades such as Ottawa Zone Teacher of the Year, Assistant of the Year, and Golf Professional of the Year. Although he has amassed many trophies and awards over the years, he always says he’s most proud of being a father. Likewise, as he becomes President of the PGA of Canada, I am still most proud along with my brother Ethan that he is our father.

Percy succeeds Teejay Alderdice as President, while Scott Kolb becomes Vice-President of the Association. In addition, Tiffany Gordon becomes the first female Secretary of the Association.

The full list of Directors of the Association includes:

For 3 years
Alberta – Mrs. Tiffany Gordon
Ontario – Mr. Simon Bevan
Québec – Mr. Rémi Bouchard

For 2 Years
Northern Ontario – Mr. Travis Spiess
Manitoba – Mr. Adam Boge
Ottawa – Mr. Gordon Percy

For 1 Year
British Columbia – Mr. Scott Kolb
Saskatchewan – Mr. Jeff Chambers
Atlantic – Mr. Gordon Smith

Inside the Ryder Cup with CPG Chief Executive, Ian Randell, and Jeremy Snape.

The CPG Business Club hosted a live forum with Founder and CEO of Sporting Edge, Jeremy Snape, interviewing Ian Randell live from Whistling Straits, host venue of the 2020 Ryder Cup. Visit the CPG Business Club and find out how you can join future events: https://cp.golf/CPG-Business-Club​

THE WINNING MINDSET

This article is available in The Insider by CPG magazine, click here to download your digital copy.

The similarities between sport and business are often discussed, but there are few people better placed to shed light on the subject than former England cricketer Jeremy Snape. Here, he tells us what the two worlds have in common and what they can learn from each other.

CPG: You were a successful sportsman and changed tack totally on retirement. Why was that? 

Jeremy Snape: I had always considered myself a journeyman pro. I had 19 years as a professional cricketer, starting at Northants with an incredibly talented team with the likes of Allan Lamb and Curtly Ambrose and a squad full of legends that did not win a huge amount but had a great time. And then I moved to Gloucestershire, who were always underdogs. Everyone fitted together into this tight unit, and we surprised so many people, and ultimately redefined one-day cricket during that period, winning five or six trophies around the turn of the century. And that gave me the springboard to go and play for England. I was man of the match on my debut, but I guess I did not always find I was naturally confident. I was hard on myself and quite analytical – I remember playing a game in front of 120,000 screaming people in India but the loudest voice was in my head, and it was the one that was saying, “Are you sure you are good enough to be here?” I let the emotions divert me from my gameplan and no one had ever coached that, and I suppose it sparked a fascination for me in psychology and mindset and how leaders create a high-performance environment. So that is what I turned to.

CPG: I guess whatever we do we can all empathise with those doubts creeping in…  

JS: Yes, absolutely, and I have spent more time trying to understand this now over the last decade or so but often the highest performers are the ones that have the most doubt and insecurity because they have built up so much and they have got so much to lose. And part of that mindset is actually continually testing the boundaries, which means you are living on the edge and you are out of your comfort zone. Elite performers can actually find comfort in that uncomfortable space and they keep going there because they know that if they can overcome those fears, then that is where their proudest moments come from, and their best achievements.

CPG: And you studied this formally?

JS: Yes. I did my Master’s degree at Loughborough University while I was still playing actually, and there was a moment of epiphany, in the final of the Twenty20 Cup in a tight game at Edgbaston, when I needed to hit a boundary to win, and I used some of these skills that I had learnt from my Master’s degree. In India I had been so focused on what the newspapers and the media might say the next day that I forgot to watch the ball in front of me. Here, I was so focused on my breathing and my routine that I played an instinctive shot, and won the game for us.

So I saw the power of these techniques personally in my own career. I wish I had learnt them earlier but that is the way it is, and that gave me the passion to become a performance coach and help people to understand how they can use their mindset to give them a competitive edge rather than be a hindrance. And that led on to coaching in the IPL with Shane Warne’s team, the Rajasthan Royals, coaching South Africa as they went from number four to number one in the world, and then joining the League Managers’ Association (LMA), supporting the leadership development for the Premier League managers and below.

CPG: And you set up Sporting Edge. What was the aim there?

JS: Sporting Edge is ultimately about going inside the mind of champions, elite performers from sport, the military, academia, best-selling authors, futurists, and trying and find out what is it about this high-performance mindset and this high-performance leadership style that can be broken down into tangible tools that business leaders around the world can use. For me the mindset of high-performance in elite sport and in business are exactly the same. We are trying to get the best out of ourselves and to overcome those doubts, we are trying to get the best out of our individuals that are around us, and we are trying to bring an organisation together and help them to navigate change. The lessons absolutely translate across perfectly and we have proven that with thousands of executives around the world, using our digital library of video insights to fast-track their success.

CPG: Do business leaders need to be selfish to succeed?

JS: As a professional athlete you need to be self-focused. Not necessarily selfish but definitely self-focused, and that can lead into selfishness. The team dynamic is all about selfless performance – what can I give to my team? What does my team need of me now? And we tend to think more selflessly and longer-term in a team situation, whereas when we are under pressure we tend to think about survival in the short-term in our own career. I guess in golf that is where that incredible resilience of living in the moment and being able to build a strategy for your tournament or for the day or the round that you are playing and then be able to break it down into these tight routines. So, for example, if you are playing golf for four hours you are actually only playing golf for 23 minutes and it is the transition between the downtime when you are walking up and down the fairway, what you are thinking there, and that ability to really dial up your focus onto the next shot. You have got to be able to forget the last shot, whether it was a brilliant shot and you feel euphoric or whether it was a terrible shot and you have ended up in the woods. You have got to be able to stop that last shot from contaminating the next one, and that is one of the key mental skills that golf demands.

And it relates into business in that you might be a salesperson who has had three bad sales calls but the fourth call, you cannot afford to go into with low energy, low mood and a negative mindset, because that fourth call might be the one that actually transforms your business. It is that ability to reframe and reset yourself every so often rather than just seeing it as a whole day at work or a whole round of golf. Elite performers have that ability to break the game and the day down into focused units of performance.

CPG: The idea of an individual focus is really interesting but what about when golf becomes a team game?

JS: It is very interesting, I did an interview with Paul McGinley about his leadership at the Ryder Cup, and I think there were a few key elements there. One of the things he tried to do was build this emotional connection with the team. So, clearly all the stars are incredibly successful, they are financially secure, there is nothing that they really need but this team culture has the opportunity to be the thing that they are most proud of in their career and Paul McGinley leveraged this in a couple of ways. First of all he connected them back into the emotional history of the Ryder Cup, so all the players that had gone before them in that lineage. They used really powerful, emotive imagery of people like Seve Ballesteros and tried to bring some of that mindset, almost like the ancient wisdom of these forefathers was speaking to them, that they wanted to be part of this community. And then he, sort of, fast-forwarded it again and asked the players, you know, “Wouldn’t it be amazing if we were sitting in a pub in 15 years’ time when we were old and grey and we could look each other in the eye and say we did it, during those few days, we were the ones that absolutely sacrificed and delivered and we stayed true to the team spirit.”

McGinley was one of the first people to use data in an analytical review. For two years before the Ryder Cup he was looking at the course profile and the pairings and match-ups. He had got really strict rules around meetings only being 30 minutes, so he had to make sure that in those 30 minutes he had got their attention and their focus. And then he made sure he understood different people’s requirements so, for example, some leaders would have mandated a team meal every day at a particular time whereas McGinley had a rolling buffet because he knew that some of the Scandinavian golfers might have wanted to eat early and go to bed early whereas some of the Southern European might have stayed up later and gone to bed later. Having that ability to flex the environment for individuals to be at their very best meant that they did not feel as if they were fighting against the team, they were bringing their best as an individual into a team environment. And then because they had been supported as an individual, they could give as much as they could.

I have also interviewed a lot of Olympians who have spoken about individual performance being great but actually what really make them proud are when they have played their part in something bigger than themselves. Because that is not just a test of skill, but being part of a high-performing team is a test of character as well.

CPG: Are there attributes that these elite athletes, and by extension business leaders, share?

JS: Elite performers need certain core attributes, without a doubt. What I have learned from interviewing some of the world’s elite performers is that they have got this ability to visualise the endgame in high definition. They can imagine what it is going to feel like. And they can see themselves on the podium, they can build this incredible vision of what it is like and that is what motivates them. But they are also able to break that down into the behaviours and processes that are going to help them to do that. And then, more importantly than anything, they can set out a strategy. The discipline to be able to stick to these basics day after day after day is what sets them apart. So, we all see the Olympians on the podium, we all see the Tour de France cyclists in the yellow jersey, but what we do not see is them hacking up the mountains in the rain for four hours a day, for five years in a row.

The other thing I think is really important for entrepreneurs and elite sports stars is the ability to create a high-performance team around them. They rotate their hitting partners, physios, biomechanists, psychologists, nutritionists around them depending on what their game needs at the time. One of the challenges when you become successful is you get an echo chamber around you of people that just want to say that you are doing really well and they do not want to challenge you. What you actually want is a group of advisors who are going to support you and challenge you to be the very best you can be, to give you honest critique to keep you on track, and that could save you years of making the same mistakes.

CPG: Moving away from the absolute elite level, what would you say to the 12,500 professionals who are part of the CPG?

JS: The analogy I often use which is relevant here is that we are all the CEO of our own performance company. It is very easy when you are part of a big organisation to feel like you are another cog in the machine but actually when you run your own business it is critical, every decision that you make about how you communicate, your marketing outreach, the customer service that you offer, the risks that you take with the events that you are putting on. I think having real resilience is absolutely critical, having that optimism is absolutely critical, and we have needed both of those things over the last couple of years with COVID. But I think it is also important to have some kind of strategic roadmap of where you want to be.

One of the experts in digital strategy that we interviewed spoke about three time horizons being critical for leaders. The first time horizon is what’s your email inbox and your to-do list for the next few weeks or the next quarter. And then he spoke about horizon three being this disrupted future which is maybe five to ten years out where technology might have a different role to play. And the most important place to focus on is horizon two, which is this middle ground between our to-do list and this crazy world that may be very different in the future. Having that ability to plan some of these skill developments or entrepreneurial activities where a golf pro may be learning new skills or setting up a website or building some digital courses, they might seem like they are nice-to-haves in the future but if we are constantly just focused on navigating the short-term and surviving, we never build that business model in horizon two, which could be the thing that completely transforms our business.

CPG: Do you believe that golf is the sport of business?

JS: I do. First of all you get to meet lots of new contacts. If we get to play golf with a friend or a business partner and their colleague or client, then that sort of proximity is already a trusted relationship. And as the game unfolds you get to see what people are like under pressure, when they are losing, when they are winning. You do not often see that on a zoom meeting or sitting in a business meeting. Seeing somebody’s emotional profile as they go through pressure I think is a fascinating tell of what that person’s character is like. And again, you are spending a long period of time, maybe three or four hours, out in the fresh air, you are getting plenty of exercise. You are able to be creative because you have got the blood flow and your brain’s switching off from a lot of the analytical processes and often that is when our best ideas come.

In so many of our social interactions there is a power hierarchy, isn’t there? This person is a more senior leader than me, this person is a multi-millionaire, therefore we defer to their power. But in golf, you could have a multi-millionaire who is rubbish at golf and a young buck who is playing off scratch and those power hierarchies are inverted, and you get a pretty good sense from the way people interact with each other what they are like in business. So yes, I would say golf provides a great shared experience and is very much the sport of business.

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A lifelong entrepreneur shares his secrets to building a more productive work environment.

Cultivating a happy and healthy work environment is vital to the success of any business–and even more important is developing a sense of community. With the dawn of a new year, it’s a terrific opportunity to look at your corporate culture and see where you might be able to improve it.

Here are six ways to develop and maintain a more positive corporate culture.

1. Establish Trust

A sense of trust is vital to all personal and professional relationships. The best way to build trust is through active listening and open communication. If you are willing to let your guard down and demonstrate that you can truly listen, chances are that others will reciprocate.

“When it comes to establishing positive relationships with your coworkers, the most important thing is to get to know them first as individuals,” says Dorie Clark, author of Reinventing You. “No one likes to be treated ‘instrumentally’–as someone whose only value is in what they can do for you. Instead, ask and learn about their hobbies, families, and backgrounds.” Take the New Year as an opportunity to create deeper, more productive relationships with your work team.

2. Foster Mutual Respect

It’s important that you respect your colleagues’ input and ideas and that they respect yours. When you lose respect for your marketing director, you’ll be less likely to go to her for help, even when it’s an area in which she excels. Furthermore, she’ll be less likely to come to you when she would benefit from your expertise. As a result, less collaboration occurs, and departments become siloed.

When employees feel like you’re respectful and supportive, and that their efforts won’t be undermined by others’ jealousy or fragile egos, their interactions tend to be positive and to create a virtuous, more productive cycle.

3. Take Responsibility for Your Actions

In a work dispute, do you often feel that you’re 100 percent correct, and that the other party is 100 percent wrong? If so, it might be time to take a closer look at how you operate professionally. After all, it’s pretty difficult for one party to be entirely at fault. Even if you’re only mildly at fault and think the other person should shoulder most of the responsibility, admitting that you’re imperfect and could be partially to blame can help the other individual(s) be less defensive.

Rather than pointing a finger at a co-worker, acknowledge your part and then communicate your message in a clear, nonjudgmental way.

4. Show Appreciation

What do your boss, colleagues, and office janitor have in common? All of them want to feel appreciated. So, when someone does something well, offer a genuine compliment to show your gratitude. This not only leads to stronger relationships, but also encourages everyone to continue working productively. People are wired to respond to incentives. While financial rewards are a well-known incentive, appreciation is a rather underrated one.

5. Stomp Out Bullying

Speaking personally: I left one job because of an awful bully. Since then, I’ve had pretty consistent success in my career, which has included working for my former employer’s direct competitors. Meanwhile, my former employer went through multiple hires trying to replace me. Add up all those hiring and training costs, and you can quickly see how bullying costs companies real money. It leads to high turnover, decreased innovation–with the bully focused on bullying and the one being bullied afraid to be vocal in the organisation–and a harder time hiring highly-qualified professionals, as word gets out about your firm’s toxic culture.

Make it a point to not only avoid bullying at all costs, but call out bullying by others as unacceptable.

6. Maintain a Positive Attitude

Nobody wants to be around a Debbie Downer. Regardless of what’s going on in your personal life, it’s important to at least to try to leave it behind when you step into the office. You don’t want people to misinterpret any bad vibes you bring in from the outside, or have your co-workers think your scowl is directed at them. If you walk into the office with a happy greeting in the morning, that upbeat energy will naturally spread to those around you and create a more enjoyable work atmosphere. Try to high five someone today for a job well done; it’s contagious.

Prairie girl Amanda Minchin has always been a master of all tasks. As a youngster she excelled in a variety of sports — hockey, softball, soccer, basketball — and when she started working at Estevan Woodlawn GC in her teens after getting hooked on golf at 12, she didn’t limit herself to one gig. She toiled in the back shop, on the turf crew and in food and beverage. Need a grip changed? Check. A green cut? Check. A burger for lunch? How would you like it cooked?

Now, some three decades after starting in the junior program at the 400-member Saskatchewan club — known as TS&M Woodlawn Club since 2012 when a naming rights agreement was struck with TS&M Supply to fund a renovation after flood damages — Minchin is its general manager. Serendipitously, but also maybe predictably, she’s the boss.

“I guess I had the best education in terms of experience,” laughed Minchin, who was born and raised in Estevan.

But just like her days punching a clock, general manager isn’t Minchin’s sole title. Along with being vice-president of the PGA of Saskatchewan, she is also Woodlawn’s head professional. She’s one of 29 female head professionals in the country and one of a very few to hold both head pro and GM titles. Minchin says she enjoys a bond with other female head professionals in Saskatchewan, and across the country, citing Bobbi Brandon, the head pro at Saskatoon’s Moon Lake G&CC, as a friend and mentor specifically. However, she also says she doesn’t ever think about working in a male-dominated industry.

“It’s never been an issue, if you’re a woman or man,” she said. “To me, I wasn’t raised like that. I was just raised that you do whatever you want. The stuff that you want to do, that’s what you do. Sort of a genderless thing. And that’s how we try to approach things at our golf club.”

A club that recognized and conceded her desire to keep the head pro job when she was named GM. Minchin was adamant about that.

“I got in the golf business because I love being a golf pro, I wanted to be a golf pro,” she stated. “I didn’t want to give up that side of it.”

Not necessarily a club pro, however. After getting into the game just for fun, Minchin improved dramatically around the time she turned 16. It seemed to happen overnight, she explained. It was then that she started to play competitively and discover the places the game could take her. She won multiple Saskatchewan Junior Girls titles and twice finished second in the Saskatchewan Women’s Amateur. She wound up on provincial teams and competed nationally for the first time at the 1998 Canadian Junior Girls at Toronto’s York Downs G&CC. She loved it all — the trips, the courses, the people she met. A U.S. college scholarship emerged as a possibility and she wound up a two-time tournament winner and three-time first team all-conference player at Eastern Illinois University.

Upon graduating Minchin gave tour life a shot, plying her trade on the old Canadian Women’s Tour and teeing it up in mini-tour events whenever and wherever she could. Success — and cash — didn’t come, however, so at 27, having already lent a helping hand in the TS&M Woodlawn junior program from which she graduated, she became a PGA of Canada member and joined the club as assistant professional. She became head professional in 2016 and head professional/GM in 2018. Through the years the accolades have piled up: PGA of Saskatchewan Assistant of the Year in 2012; PGA of Saskatchewan Teacher of the Year in 2015; PGA of Saskatchewan Junior Promoter of the Year in 2013 and ’16; and the PGA of Canada’s Jack McLaughlin Junior Leader of the Year in ’16 as well. She was also an assistant coach for Golf Saskatchewan’s 2017 Canada Summer Games team. It’s those junior leader awards of which she is most proud.

“I love teaching kids,” Minchin said. “As a GM/head pro I still get to do our Tiny Linkster junior lessons. I still get to be out there with the five-, six-year-olds on the weekend and teach those lessons. Might be funny to some people but I think it’s cool.”

Of course, a world with COVID-19 has changed some of that. After a long shutdown, Minchin was just getting junior camps at Woodlawn up and running again in early June, having to create regimes for physical distancing, especially at the youngest levels. But she also noted enrollment for camps is up over last year as are junior and adult memberships. The school of thought that golf might benefit from the pandemic with people unable to participate in teams sports has come to fruition at TS&M Woodlawn with members of the public struggling to get tee times as season pass holders gobble them up with the ability to book seven days in advance. That is something Minchin said she has never seen at the club. As for golf being a safe haven in these uncertain times, her sell of the game remains the same.

“I’m going to push junior golf no matter what, COVID or not,” she avowed, noting the club has produced nine juniors who played competitively last summer and had graduates playing collegiately in the U.S. before the shutdown. “I feel bad for kids. I can’t imagine not being able to play sports and do all of their activities. I mean, I grew up loving all sports. So I feel for kids. And adults. I mean, I miss sports. I miss watching hockey and whatnot. If I could say anything, it’s that we of course feel very safe here, it’s a great place for kids to meet other kids. We see it now. Kids are coming here, they are learning how to make tee times on their own, they’re booking online because kids are so good on computers obviously. But it’s not just about hitting golf balls. It’s learning how to talk to adults, play with adults because we have to fill those tee times. The life skills alone, I’ll always preach that, in a COVID world or not a COVID world.

“We want your kids — boys and girls,” she continued. “We just think kids should be introduced to golf. Whether they decide to go play competitively or whatnot, obviously as golf lovers we see the benefits of it as a lifelong game, so we’re going to be really pushing that in the next year.”

And why not? Look what joining the junior program way back when has done for Minchin.

“I’m from the junior program and here I am 30-odd years later as the GM. To me, that’s a cool story.”

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There is a well-known phrase: ‘people leave managers, not companies’. Ensuring your organisation is made up of leaders with the right characteristics, level of self-awareness, potential and ability is fundamental in fostering an environment of high engagement and high performance, both of which are key drivers of business success.

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This whitepaper aims to reflect on the relationship between leadership and engagement, covering the following themes:

• The role of leaders in driving engagement and performance through team values
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Reuben Conibear

Reuben has worked in the Marketing team at Thomas for just over 3 and half years. As Marketing Executive, Reuben’s core focus is to ensure a high quality experience for Thomas customers at all times. In his spare time, Reuben enjoys kayaking, bouldering and spending time with his friends and family.

At the global forefront of psychometric assessment innovation for over 35 years, and with a with a presence in over 60 countries, Thomas are passionate about empowering organisations throughout business, sport and education to make confident people decisions.

Their psychometric assessments are straightforward to understand, quick to use, but more importantly have scientific validity at their core and are provided in 56 languages.

Derek Redmond, Group Performance Director at Thomas International commented, “Thomas International are pleased to announce their official partnership with the Confederation of Professional Golf, to become the Official Supplier of Psychometric Assessments, where we will work closely with the Association to help support the development of their people and teams and ultimately, contribute to the continued success of the organisation.”

“We have already had the pleasure of working with Thomas International in the past couple of years as we continue to develop our own business and services,” said Confederation of Professional Golf Chief Executive, Ian Randell.

“The formalisation of our relationship with Official Supplier status will allow the great team at Thomas to take their work with not only our Association, but also our 38 PGAs, to the next level. These tools and services are going to provide the insight into what makes people successful, measuring areas such as behaviours, personality, high potential and engagement that will empower the PGAs and help them to advance their organisations and Members.”

Since its inception in 1981, Thomas has paved the way to achieving excellence with its clients to transform organisational, team and individual performance. Years of research drive powerful results to help organisations recruit, retain, develop and lead their most important assets –people.

The announcement coincides with Thomas International’s Development Consultant and Gold Medal-winning Paralympian, Naomi Riches MBE, and Global Account Manager, Jonathan Smith, hosting a workshop at the 2018 Confederation of Professional Golf Annual Congress at Costa Navarino in Greece.

The workshops saw representatives from across the 38 Member Country PGAs, along with other partners and suppliers, and various Federation and golfing organisation representatives, hear about the role that psychometric profiling played in Riches’ rowing career, helping her to understand more about herself, before delving deeper into the ways delegates can learn from this and assess its use in their own roles and organisations as a whole. .

For more information visit www.ThomasInternational.net

At present, there is a significant focus on the financial penalties that a business could incur should they have a data protection breach.

GDPR, what is it?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force on 25th May 2018. The legislation will impact on any golf and leisure business that is either based in, or do business in, the EU. Citizens will have great individual rights and controls, including rights to access, correction and deletion of personal data.

Do You Know What Personal Data your Golf Business collects?

One very early myth to bust is the belief that the GDPR does not apply to your golf club. If you collect, store and move personal information on members (including children), employees, patrons or suppliers in membership database(s), booking management systems, HR database(s) and paper; finance and accounting systems; health records (on employees and members), marketing systems (Customer Relationship Management system) and CCTV or other digital imagery, the regulation applies to you.

Who Should be Involved?

As you will have gathered already, implementing GDPR compliance cannot simply be the responsibility of IT or HR, it needs to be an organisational approach, one that has the full support of the management team, golf club committee and all levels of Directorship.

Where should I start?

A good first step is to complete the Information Commissioner’s Office online GDPR self-assessment (https://eur.pe/2r5wNXU). This will provide you a clear overview of what tasks you need to complete before 25th May 2018.

What other steps should I consider?

• Conduct a Data Protection audit to determine what personal data is held by your organisation and identify where it is located, justify your reason for holding it, how long you hold it for and how you would permanently delete the record.
• Raising awareness across the business and training your staff should be high up on your list of priorities. Consider engaging expert help and then start to develop processes and procedures which will ensure that your business is managing and protecting personal data according to the requirements of the regulation.

But should I quickly get my current customers to “opt-in” again so I’m compliant?

Stop!

There certainly is a lot of ‘hype’ surrounding GDPR and lots of advice coming from many different sources. What this appears to have created is almost a panic amongst some golf club’s – mostly surrounding their current database of customers and prospects. Group emails are flying out in an attempt to gain “consent” to communicate using this medium by asking customers to “opt-in”.

One club recently went through this very process and reduced their database by 99% – yes, only 1% of customers re-confirmed their consent to be sent emails from the club. However, it’s highly unlikely that 99% of customers were simply not interested in the club any more. It’s more likely that a high percentage just didn’t respond and that could be for any number of reasons, nothing to do with their desire to cease communications with the club via email.

Hopefully, seeking “Consent” in this way doesn’t amount to commercial suicide for some clubs – because in many cases it may not be necessary. The new legislation offers potential alternatives, including a legal basis for continuing to email customers called “Legitimate Interests”. The legislation goes further to even highlight some examples of what this may be, and Direct Marketing is listed.

If you would like to learn more about GDPR or want to train your staff on their responsibilities to the new legislation, Promote Training, in partnership with data-specialists Databasix, has launched two new courses that will help achieve this.

• GDPR in Golf
• GDPR for Staff

Promote Training are also offering ‘Confederation of Professional Golf’ readers a limited-time-only offer of 20% off these two GDPR courses. Use the coupon code “CPG1” during the online checkout. (Offer expires 31st May 2018)

Find out more www.promotetraining.co.uk/fundamental-principles-data-protection.

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As Thomas International continues to roll out the High Potential Trait Indicator (HPTI) worldwide, a vast amount of data is being collected and analysed alongside a great deal of data about workplace and leadership outcomes.

These results were presented in a symposium at the 2018 International Test Commission Conference in Montreal [read more about it here]. This represents one of the largest HPTI studies done to date, including nearly 10,000 participants.

One of the defining features of the HPTI is it’s optimal trait levels for leadership. The HPTI goes beyond identifying personality traits and provides clear guidelines for identifying high potential leaders based on their personality traits. The recent studies confirm and reinforce the importance of personality traits for leadership.

The Process

Good scientific research involves thorough testing to build on theories and collect large amounts of data. This helps to confirm findings and improve the knowledge and understanding of the topic under investigation. Thomas International have been testing and validating the HPTI with workers around the world to ensure HPTI results and reports are valid, reliable and useful in workplaces around the world.

This process ensures the HPTI is a scientifically validated tool, and allows the continuous development of additional knowledge and resources to improve the utility of the HPTI in practice.

One of the papers presented at the 2018 International Test Commission Conference in Montreal looked at the results from a study of nearly 10,000 participants. Alongside the HPTI, various workplace outcome variables were also examined. The results demonstrated that the theoretical underpinnings and psychometric properties of the HPTI are valid and useful for North American populations.

Key Findings

First, the items and personality traits tested by the HPTI can be used in workplaces in North America. This research also involves a localisation process for the HPTI, so population norms and optimal levels of traits tailored to North American workers, leaders and businesses.

Second, this is the largest study to date examining HPTI traits at different levels of leadership. The results show very significant differences in HPTI traits at the different levels of leadership. The results confirm the importance of HPTI traits for leadership, and show the importance of HPTI traits increases with leadership seniority.

The chart below show increasing levels of each personality trait in each leadership category. This is a clear pattern which shows how important optimal HPTI trait levels are in leadership, and senior leadership in particular.

The results also show a greater spread between some traits. For example, those not in leadership tend to have average Ambiguity Approach levels. Senior leaders show substantially higher Ambiguity Approach which is essential for the level of complexity and uncertainty they face in their work.

Competitiveness, on the other hand, shows a relatively narrow spread. Although Competitiveness rises slightly higher at more senior levels of leadership, the differences are relatively modest. This is consistent with previous findings that extreme levels of competitiveness can be counterproductive in leadership positions.

Overall, this clearly shows the importance of HPTI traits in leadership and highlights that the HPTI traits are even more important in senior leadership. As HPTI research is conducted around the world, the research results clearly and consistently demonstrate how important HPTI traits are for leadership potential.

Implications for Business

HPTI personality traits are incredibly useful in assessing high potential at work for three reasons (discussed in more detail in High Potential: How to spot, manage and develop talented people at work).

1. Personality is stable

Personality traits are relatively stable from early adulthood into later life. It is a consistent pattern of thinking, feeling and behaving. This means personality is a very useful early indicator of potential at work.

2. Personality is rooted in the brain and biology

Personality comes from neurological processes and structures. That means personality is essentially hardwired in the brain, and very difficult to change except in cases of extreme psychological intervention. Unlike factors such as motivation which can change day-to-day or year-to-year, personality is a useful long-term predictor of both performance and potential.

3. Personality traits interact

Personality traits do not exist in isolation. The traits interact to form a whole, overall personality structure. Having high or low levels of one particular trait will influence how all other traits are experienced and expressed. This means it is important to look at all the HPTI personality traits in combination. The research described earlier in this article reinforces how important all of the HPTI traits are for overall leadership potential.

Getting a full picture of a person’s personality traits provides important information about making decisions related to identifying, managing and developing high potential at work.

Read more about each of the 6 traits of high potential in leadership and how the HPTI can support you in recruiting and developing your (future) leaders.

To find out more about the real-life applications of the HPTI, please get in contact on info@thomas.co.uk or call us on +44(0)1628 475 366.

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Ian MacRae

Ian has been an organisational psychology consultant for over a decade and is the director and co-founder of High Potential Psychology Ltd. He is the co-author of High Potential: How to Spot Manage and Develop Talented People at Work and the High Potential Trait Indicator (HPTI), a measure of leadership potential, which is available to Thomas clients.

When team members work well together, there is little they cannot accomplish. Looking at the bigger picture when it comes to your teams, such as their behavioural and emotional preferences and the impact they have on each other, can greatly increase your chances of developing a high performing team.

Patrick Wright from the Rugby Business Network (RBN) uses Thomas assessments to do just that. Thomas tools allow them to gain a deeper understanding of an individual’s preferences, something the RBN have used to develop athlete performance, enhance transition programmes and ultimately deliver results.

Developing self-awareness in the USA 7’s Rugby team

Mike Friday, Head Coach of the USA 7’s Rugby team, has been working with Patrick at the RBN to embed Thomas assessments into the team’s training programme in the lead up to the Rio Olympic Games, in order to improve consistency in performance through greater self-awareness amongst team members.

As a high performance sporting team where effective communication is crucial to successful performance, the team needed to develop their understanding of each other. As a result, they implemented Thomas’ Personal Profile Analysis (PPA) to identify their strengths, limitations, motivators and communication preferences; helping team members and coaches to tailor communications to individuals, so as not to misinterpret them and stifle learning.

The PPA compatibility report was also used between players, coaching staff and the management team. The reports uncovered a number of potential challenges to effective team relationships, which allowed them to put timely strategies and development plans in place to help individuals to modify their behaviour to the preferences of others.

The players also noticed an immediate impact after implementing Thomas assessments. Madison Hughes, player and captain of the USA 7’s Rugby team comments, “The Thomas PPA helped the team take a different perspective on communication with each other. In particular, it helped us realise the different ways people see things and therefore that with each individual, different approaches are necessary.

Mike concludes, “it has been very insightful working with Thomas International. It has encouraged open communication within the squad and has created a foundation for us to create winning performances on the pitch and to be a more united squad off the pitch. I would highly recommend teams looking to find the edge in high performance to explore this approach.”

For more information, visit ThomasInternational.net.

Photos provided by Mike Lee/KLCFotos

The PGA of Great Britain & Ireland Professional is an established part of the coaching tour de force from the Peter Cowen Golf Academy, having worked with, and influenced, over 40 European Tour players across the last decade.

Much like many coaches, Walker started his golf career on the playing side but, having left the game, it was only when he actively sought out his old coach, Peter Cowen, to help him out of his then office job in London that he got fully into golf coaching.

“When I look back now to my younger years, possibly to my detriment, I was almost more interested in coaching and practicing than playing because I used to get very nervous,” says Walker.

“I was bored in an office job in London and I contacted Pete who was my coach before I gave up golf and it was he who said well you could teach, in his words, standing on your head. I was just really interested in coaching, and I couldn’t wait to get to work every day.”

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“I think it’s a shame that a lot of coaches keep their cards to their chest because I’ve found that just by having conversations you learn different things from everybody…”

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Walker was placed as the Padawan Apprentice to a Jedi Master in Cowen, whose coaching pedigree speaks for itself when you see the list of players he has worked with. His exposure to Cowen’s working environment enabled him to absorb much of his knowledge whilst also being given the freedom to establish his own philosophy and opinions.

“I am extremely privileged with the fact that I have had ‘on-tap’ access to one of the best coaches in the world. All the questions that would make you scratch your head; you could get answers or Pete’s opinion of that answer.

“I think it’s a shame in the golf industry that a lot of coaches keep their cards to their chest because I’ve found that, whether it’s Pete or other coaches, just by having conversations with them you learn different things from everybody.”

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“I wouldn’t be doing what I did last year if it wasn’t for Pete – it’s that simple. I owe him a lot.”

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Clearly even a slight dipping of the toe into the mind of Walker shows how much Cowen, and other coaches, have influenced him:

“Without Pete then I wouldn’t have received any awards if it wasn’t for him – I wouldn’t be doing what I did last year if it wasn’t for him – it’s that simple. So I owe him a lot.

“What I most enjoy is talking technique and hitting balls with Pete and comparing ideas, what some players do that he’s worked with, what other players do that I’ve worked with – it’s just constantly stimulating your interest so it’s a fortunate position to be in.

“Other coaches that you travel with – for example Phil Kenyon, the putting coach – I talk to him a lot about coaching because it transcends into other areas, not just technique. Managing people, looking at statistics or score reports – it’s a myriad of things that you’re actually doing. I wish people would have more open conversations or forums because I think it helps everybody ultimately.”

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“What I’ve found is that if you’ve got a pupil you were on the same wave-length as then it’s gratifying whether they’re just starting or whether they’re playing for a living…”

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The professionals covered by the Cowen/Walker partnership reads more like a football squad than a roster of individuals, and the multinational, multi-tour group mean that it can be non-stop for Walker throughout the season, travelling to various tour events and making sure he is available to his students.

“Coaching tour players around the world is a bit of a double-edged sword – I don’t like the travel, and I don’t know many people who do, but the places that you go the other side are more than worth it…you get unbelievable experiences.

“Being on tour might test you a little more, but it’s all contextual and rolls along the way. I would have been just as nervous doing my first lesson to a group as teaching on a large stage like the Ryder Cup or something like that because it’s new at the end of the day. I guess the more you do it the less nervous you get.

“What I’ve found is that at any level, if you’ve got a pupil that you were on the same wave-length as and you get on with then it’s really gratifying whether they’re just starting or whether they’re playing for a living. It can be gratifying coaching at whatever level – a beginner to a 12 handicap just as much as coaching somebody to win his or her first tournament.

“It’s especially gratifying with someone like Matt Fitzpatrick who you’ve coached from being a kid. When he won the US Amateur that personally was one of the most satisfying moments because you’d seen him as a 13 year old kid coming to the driving range and then you’ve taken him all the way up to walking on the first tee at the Ryder Cup with him.”

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“The fundamentally important thing is to know your topic absolutely inside-out whatever level you’re at…”

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Much of Walker’s success is attributed to the help of his fellow coaches. This culture of sharing and advice is evident in his own views on how PGA Professionals can advance themselves as

coaches and it doesn’t take much to get him enthused and impassioned about his area of expertise.

“Some people are extremely good at coaching juniors, others at coaching your bog-standard player, and other people would be more interested in elite coaching…I think you need to identify what you prefer early on.

“But irrespective of any of those avenues, you need to know your subject inside out because all of the best people I’ve come across – not just in golf but in different industries – they make complex subjects appear simple, and to be able to make it simple you need to know as much as possible.

“The fundamentally important thing is to know your topic absolutely inside-out whatever level you’re at – then pick your route and try as hard as you can.”

Earlier this year Walker was awarded the John Jacobs Award for Teaching & Coaching at the Confederation of Professional Golf’s Annual Congress Gala Awards in recognition of his position as a leading light in the profession.

“I felt very humbled and very proud – especially with John Jacobs linked to my roots at Hallamshire and Lindrick Golf Clubs at different stages. Matt Fitzpatrick, originates from Hallamshire, and my first proper golf lesson was at Lindrick with Pete so it seems quite fitting.

“I am extremely honoured to be associated with such a household name, especially with his recent passing. I know it’s a cliché but everybody values being acknowledged by their peers…if things like this happen then it gives you a boost of confidence and it’s really satisfying.”

@bizzwriter

Focus on a few core components of leadership and you can take your company to new heights.

Company leaders always want to motivate, inspire, and support their people to the absolute fullest.  But most go to bed at night suspecting that they’re coming up a little short.  Maybe more than a little.  Take heart: You can become a truly great leader.  All it takes is:

Perspiration

Great leadership requires effort – lots of effort. And much of that effort revolves around learning: about your people, your operations, your industry, and yourself.  Be relentless in your pursuit of knowledge about everything – and everyone – In your business ecosystem.

Vision

Develop a clear vision for what your business is all about, and don’t lose faith in it.  Know in your heart that you and your team can accomplish anything you set out to accomplish if you work together and believe in one another.  You will undoubtedly encounter setbacks, but don’t be deterred.  Learn from failure and remain confident.

Communication

Great leaders communicate sincerely, often, and in many different ways to everyone in their organisations.  They inform, provide feedback, and motivate – Intelligently and honestly.  Connect with all your people and cultivate multiple channels for two-way.  When you hear your own words and messages repeated back to you from your employees, or when your employees talk among themselves using your words to describe your vision and goals, then you know you’re making an impact.

Collaboration

Form teams and groups that are constituted for maximum effectiveness.  Recognise that in order to do their very best work most employees need consistent support and input from co-workers, peers, and managers.  When you create this kind of environment, you’ll see an immediate impact on productivity and effectiveness – as well as morale.

Decisiveness

Highly effective leaders are decisive when called upon to make tough calls quickly and confidently.  Take a moment to assess a difficult situation and then calmly and rationally consider your options.  As soon as you have the information you need to make an informed decision, make it.  Don’t let fear of being wrong prevent you from making what you know is the right call.

Integrity

Study after study finds that the No. 1 quality that employees want leaders to possess is integrity.  Always be candid, forthright, honest, and fair.  Treat your people as you want to be treated.  Your employees will respect you and respond in kind.

Inspiration

When times are tough, be the person that people look to for inspiration.  Don’t just talk, act.  Reassure your employees and help them overcome their own doubts and anxieties.  Model the kind of positive behaviour you want to see in them.

What this example demonstrates is the power – and danger – of negative thinking. Research into negative thoughts has shown how they lead us to dissociate from the outside world and turn our focus to one thing only: the thing that is making us feel angry, scared or bad about ourselves. As a result, we stagnate.

Positive thoughts have the opposite effect, opening our minds to see a whole range of possibilities and therefore welcoming new ideas and perceptions. Barbara Fredrickson, a professor at the University of North Carolina and researcher of positive emotions, believes thinking positively can even have long-term benefits. In her ‘broaden and build’ theory she describes how the broadening of our sense of what is possible generated by positive thoughts can lead us to develop new skills and so progress in life.

For some of us, looking at things from the bright side is something that comes easily; others find it harder. That doesn’t mean all hope is lost, though: thinking positively is something that you can train yourself to do.

First of all, you’ll need to start making a conscious effort to not give in to negative thoughts. Recognise when you start dwelling on the bleaker side of things and put a stop to it by asking yourself what you could do to make the situation better. Then start setting actionable goals for yourself – reaching them will empower you.

The next step is to foster positive thoughts. Easier said than done? Not necessarily. While positive thinking creates positive emotions, this process also works the other way around. This means that doing things you love, that bring you joy, can help you to think more positively. Think, for example, of a time where you engaged with something you are passionate about: perhaps you went to a concert or saw a film you really loved. Did you feel inspired afterwards? Perhaps it even led you to actively pursue a goal related to that passion?

Or you can try something new. Meditation has been proven to help cultivate positive thoughts, while a study published in the Journal of Research in Personality showed that writing about positive experiences can have the same effect.

Thinking positively means getting out of your head and looking for solutions. It’s something you may have to practise to get better at, but ultimately it can open doors that you may otherwise have walked right past.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: Huffington Post; National Centre for Biotechnical Information

Composite Graphic Credit: iconicbestiary / Freepik

Evans’ vast experience of working in some of the world’s best golf facilities, including creating the hugely successful Centurion Club, make him a worthy winner of the award that acknowledges those who show the highest standards and achievements in the areas of expertise and activity they have been involved with.

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“I am very honoured to receive this award – to be accepted and recognised by your peers and colleagues is everything you work towards,” said Evans in his acceptance speech video shown to guests of the 2017 Annual Congress Gala Awards Dinner supported by Rolex at Costa Navarino in Greece.

“Receiving the award means so much to my family and I – there’s a lot of people to thank from throughout my career, young and old, past and present, who have been a huge help and support – I really accept this on their behalf as much as my own. It’s a tough business we’re in and I just wanted to be tougher than the rest…it comes from Scottish grit, determination and doing the best job that I can.”

Described as a great example for those working in golf management and a consummate professional, Evans joins the outstanding roll of honour that reflects the extreme merits, diversity and international nature of Confederation of Professional Golf 5-Star Professional Winners, which include Ryder Cup Captains and Open Champions since the award began in 1992.

Evans began his career training as a Civil Engineer and carried out his PGA training under the guidance of the much respected former PGA of Great Britain & Ireland Captain, Bill Watson, at Whitecraigs Golf Club until 1990.

He then moved on to work in the USA at the prestigious Tom Weiskopf-designed Troon Golf and Country Club in Scottsdale, Arizona, working alongside Weiskopf himself and also the creator of Troon Golf, Dana Garmany; a move that would prove to be the catalyst for his career in club management.

Evans worked in Arizona for two years, and by 1995 had also worked through the opening stages of Dubai Creek Golf & Yacht Club with Peter Downie, and Loch Lomond Golf Club with Paul Dellanzo.

In 1996 and at the age of 28 he moved onto Bearwood Lakes Golf Club in the UK where he was responsible for taking the project from the latter stages of construction through to the finished product. It was here he spent 10 years working under Ray Wilson of Southern Golf fame and seeing first hand the construction of some of Europe’s finest golf courses.

Adding another big name club to his CV, Evans moved on to the London Club as General Manager in 2005 where he was instrumental in turning around the fortunes of the club and creating an agreement with the European Tour that ultimately led to its hosting of two London Senior Masters, two European Opens and a World Matchplay Championship.

Moving back to Troon Golf in 2007, he then worked on many new European projects whilst becoming Managing Director of the La Quinta Resort in Marbella, overseeing its renovation whilst introducing the European Seniors Tour Benahavis Senior Masters.

In 2010, Evans continued his journey to where he is now with the development of the Centurion Club just outside London, where he recently received the award from Confederation of Professional Golf Chief Executive, Ian Randell [pictured above, right] and Confederation of Professional Golf Honorary President, George O’Grady CBE [pictured above, left].

Finding a piece of land just 30 minutes from central London was just the first step in a journey that, along with his Dutch business partners Bert Pronk and Andre Hendriks, has led to the creation of a club that is now famed for its forward-thinking approach, including an acclaimed golf course, a unique membership structure and, a modern club culture and facilities – such as a restaurant operated by the Michelin-starred chefs, the Galvin brothers – that are relaxing, comfortable and high quality in equal measure.

The club has also gained international recognition for becoming the venue of the innovative European Tour GolfSixes event that began earlier this year.  Centurion has been instrumental in the success of the revolutionary format of two-man teams from 16 different countries that brought over 9,000 spectators through the club’s gates, and also gave it huge exposure to millions of people around the world with its extensive TV coverage.

The development of the club is a great example of the dedication, drive and expertise that Evans has, having overcome many challenges, including the development of a successful and sustainable facility during one of the worst economic periods in our lifetime.

With this exceptional list of facilities and clubs that Evans has poured heart and soul into, he is more than worthy of being named a 5-Star Professional.

For More Information On All of 2017’s Award Winners Visit http://eur.pe/2017AnnualCongress

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For more information on the 2017 Annual Award Winners visit Annual Congress Hub Page (http://eur.pe/2017AnnualCongress), follow @PGAsofEurope on Twitter and search the hashtag ‘#AnnualCongress’ or like the Confederation of Professional Golf Facebook Page.

The Annual Congress Gala Awards are partnered by Rolex, Costa Navarino, the Ryder Cup European Development Trust, BMW and Aegean Airlines, and are supported by The Botanist, The Blue Beetle, Bulldog, G’Vine gins, Marendry apperitivo, and Fever-Tree Premium Natural Mixers.

On the one hand this pertains to language, i.e. whether or not you speak a second or maybe even a third language. More importantly though, it’s about understanding and accepting that customs, standards, and values differ between cultures, and being willing to learn and adapt to them.

Research undertaken by the British Council showed that employers value intercultural skills just as much as they do formal qualifications. The Council surveyed employers from nine different countries operating within the public, private and non-profit sectors. When asked about their reasons for valuing intercultural skills, they stated that employees who successfully display these skills were more likely to secure new projects, worked better within diverse teams and were more successful in representing the company brand and reputation.

In fact, a lack of intercultural skills was perceived as a risk to the company, possessing the potential to seriously damage client relations, team productivity and ultimately the company’s reputation.

While there might not be a straightforward way for employers to test your intercultural skills in an interview, they might ask you questions like: have you ever worked abroad? Do you have experience working in a diverse team? Do you speak any foreign languages?

They can also learn a great deal from how you communicate throughout the application process and during the interview: are you easy to talk to? Are you able to see things from someone else’s perspective? Are you willing to learn from them?

Ultimately, intercultural skills are something you show. Simply listing it on your CV won’t do; you’ll have to convince people you possess the eagerness to learn and the ability to adapt. So start doing: read, travel, learn a new language, talk to different people and, most importantly, be curious.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: British Council; Skills You Need

Here are some good examples of where you could make more of an investment career-wise:

1. Build relationships. Create your own circle of influence; find a mentor. Make time to make connections, pay attention to and nurture meaningful relationships.
2. Do the career management thing: make a plan, devise some goals. Take time to review your objectives and challenge your own commitment levels daily.
3. Recognise what you are good at and get better at it. Spend time observing yourself and your colleagues in meetings or just day to day and notice what you uniquely bring. Then invest some time and money getting better at it.
4. Be prepared to take a step backwards. It may be that to move forward long term you need to forego some short term gratification. A lower salary now could mean great things in the future.
5. Get a qualification/attend a course/learn something new.
6. Build your online brand. Create a webpage to showcase your work or simply keep your social networking profiles updated and constantly be on the lookout for anything that could be perceived as negative.
7. Raise your professional profile. Spend time on a committee or board or take on a challenging new project. Find ways to gain valuable, marketable experience.
8. Ask for feedback. And learn from it.
9. Take a risk. If you don’t really have to think about risk it probably isn’t the life changing or breakout move you were looking for.
10. Make time for that which balances you: your family, your friends, your hobbies. They will offer you perspective, different experiences and a much needed escape from the world of work.

If you think about it you probably invest more time and money in your choice of holiday than you do in your career. Given that you spend two-thirds of your waking life at work and your career goes a long way to determining your quality of life, it may be worth reassessing your investment portfolio.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: Forbes; HBR; LinkedIn; Investopedia

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Read the entire story behind this here from James Clear.

Will’s first suggestion – The Ivy Lee Method

1. At the end of each work day, write down the six most important things you need to accomplish tomorrow. Do not write down more than six tasks.
2. Prioritize those six items in order of their true importance.
3. When you arrive tomorrow, concentrate only on the first task. Work until the first task is finished before moving on to the second task.
4. Approach the rest of your list in the same fashion. At the end of the day, move any unfinished items to a new list of six tasks for the following day.
5. Repeat this process every working day.

Read the entire story behind this here from James Clear.

The biggest killer of everyone’s day is opening up emails first things in the morning.

Everyone is always asking “how” questions. What really matters is the “why”.

Take some time to improve your business / sales skills if it’s something you struggle with and go outside of the typical education / certifications. Give yourself permission to try some new ideas out with the framing of an experiment or challenge.

3 Morning Questions:

• What happened yesterday?
• How do I feel about that?
• What am I working on today

Will’s past episodes on coaching programs:

Group Coaching Q&A part 1
Group Coaching Q&A part 2
Working with Groups

Links / Resources

Charles M. Schwab productivity story – Ivy Lee Method
2017 Coaching Workshop in Orlando
Will’s Consulting Company RGX
BJ Fogg – Tiny Habits

@MindaZetlin

You know that job applicant has the right skills to fill your open position. But what about the right personality? Ignore cultural fit at your peril, for your new hire likely won’t last long.

I’ll always remember one of my co-workers at my first company. Although she did excellent work, she seemed to zig while the rest of us zagged. In a group of frumpy, often pudgy writers, she was an accomplished martial artist. Where many of us were just getting our feet wet in the business world, she had been around for a while and worked in some legendary places. Where we tended toward the silly-a plastic-encased slice of prosciutto once spent a week tacked to our department’s bulletin board-she was deadly serious. Not surprisingly, she soon moved on to a job at a prestigious non-profit that was working hard to change the world.

Hiring someone who doesn’t fit your company’s personality can be a very costly mistake. To avoid making that mistake, make sure to interview job candidates for cultural fit, as well as job qualifications. That advice comes from Tara Kelly, CEO of customer experience software provider SPLICE Software.

Kelly makes sure to include a culture interview in the hiring process, and she says it’s made a big difference. “It is important to understand employee values, motivators and interests,” she explains. “Understanding what keeps employees fulfilled is a key element to build a truly successful team. Whereas regular job interviews focus on verifying qualifications, culture fit interviews focus on ensuring potential candidates fit the corporate culture and core values of the organization.”

Given that every new hire is a big investment, it’s worth taking the time and effort to interview for cultural fit as well as skills and experience. Here’s how Kelly does it:

1. Define your company’s culture.

You may not need to do this, and Kelly doesn’t mention it, but if yours is a small or start-up companies, your culture may not be something you’ve given a lot of thought to. You should, though, because you definitely have one and a bad cultural hire will hurt you.

Your mission or vision statement is a good place to start-it won’t define your culture, but it should identify the values that drive you and your employees to show up and work hard every day. Beyond that, take a look around and consider how your company compares to others in your industry. Ask your employees or colleagues for input, until you can come up with a sentence or two that captures your company’s personality. Consider this example from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: “Our culture is friendly and intense, but if push comes to shove we’ll settle for intense.”

2. Write job ads with culture in mind.

“Culture fit should be integrated into every aspect of recruitment,” Kelly notes. That begins with your job ads, which should reflect both your company’s brand and its culture. If yours is an informal, family friendly workplace, with child care on site, and where pets are welcomed, say so. If yours is an elegant workplace with a prestigious history, say that.

3. Include culture questions in regular interviews.

From your first conversations with a candidate, interviewers should be thinking about cultural fit, Kelly says. “Once applications are assessed, pre-screening interviews should occur over the phone to see what first impressions candidates make and gauge personality for a possible fit.”

Candidates who pass this screening should be invited to an in-person interview with their potential department head. “The department head should also screen the applicant for culture by introducing a few less technical questions,” she adds.

4. Know which questions to ask, and which not to.

“Ask questions that speak to the core values and culture of the organization, without directly asking about each value,” Kelly advises. “For example, ask ‘what is something you have accomplished this summer that you are really proud of?'” This type of question helps SPLICE find candidates who like to learn new things or improve their skills. “At SPLICE, we really value a love of learning and improving things,” Kelly explains. “Our fundamental core value is, ‘We believe it can be better.’ So we like to see that not only in someone’s work life but their personal life too.”

It should go without saying that there’s a difference between culture and bias, and you should be clear about that difference, especially when it comes to questions that could land your company in legal trouble. To say that your culture is fun-loving and risk-taking is fine; to say that all employees should participate in extreme sports means your workplace discriminates against disabled or older workers.

In Amazon’s we’ll-settle-for-intense culture, an employee who’d just had a miscarriage was told by her supervisor that the company was likely the wrong place for a woman looking to start a family. Not surprisingly, many labor lawyers have been contacted by current or past employees seeking to sue the company for attitudes like these. Someday, one of these suits will get filed.

5. Train employees to conduct culture interviews.

“Once it is verified that a candidate has all the necessary qualifications and has passed all the preliminary culture fit screenings, a culture fit interview should be introduced as the last phase of the process,” Kelly says.

But you’re not the one to conduct the culture fit interview-the candidate’s potential co-workers are. That means they’ll need some training about what to ask and what to listen for. “It’s crucial to ensure the team is prepped on the purpose of a culture fit interview prior to participating,” Kelly says.

In general, she says, you should select four to six employees from around your company to talk informally with the job candidate about hobbies and interest and how these things tie in with your company’s personality. “Employees should be encouraged to ask questions that tie in to the organization’s value system.”

6. Gather feedback.

Employees who conduct a culture interview should fill out assessment afterwards that scores applicants on numerical scales of good-fit-to-bad-fit, and also ask for written comments. After you review those assessments, call the employees together for a quick debrief to make sure you understand their feedback and get a better sense of how the candidate might or might not fit with your company and its values. All of this input, together with the candidate’s performance on your skills assessment, will put you in the best position to make the right choice.

This article originally appeared on Inc.com – to view the original article visit http://eur.pe/1kkmevy.

Kelly Global Workforce Index – August 2014 (230,000 people across 31 countries participated)

• 57% people agree that career development discussions are beneficial in terms of the opportunity to acquire new skills
• Only 38% had these discussions with their employer in the past year
• Only 29% are satisfied with the career development resources provided by their employer

With global employment trends changing all the time, the need to keep and develop staff should be at the top of an organisations agenda.

Whether the organisation is a school, SME, Not for Profit or Corporate, many seem frightened to invest in the career management of their staff, they think staff will be unsettled, leave, or want more than they can offer. Some work very well with their staff, helping them manage their careers and reap the reward. The reality is that staff who feel valued and invested in are more likely to stay with an organisation and be motivated to work harder.


“Managing human capital is a misnomer. Humans are ‘beings’. We want to be known and valued for who we are, and our aspirations and ambitions recognised and seen as important. It’s a missed opportunity for an employer not to attend to these needs and thereby reap the productivity gains that accrue from more motivated, loyal employees”

The value an organisation can reap when investing in their staff:

Staff are more settled and less distracted as they have plans for their future

• Organisations can plan their future if they know what their staff want and plan to do
• Demographics
• Succession planning
• Recruitment
• In house development of staff
• An organisation planning what will happen with regards to its staff must be more cost effective
• Fewer surprises
• Less need for interim, agency or contract staff
• Better ongoing communication between staff and employer
• Staff more likely to say if they are looking for a new role
• Organisation able to deliver a more structured handover if they know a member of staff 
is/wants to leave
• Employers who cannot afford financial rewards/bonuses, can support the development and 
career management of staff, which can be a cost-effective reward process.

The ability to manage your career and future is a life skill, if organisations don’t invest in their staff to give them these skills, how can they then pass on these skills to the people who work for them and to the next generation who they might educate and/or influence.

There are many processes for managing careers and these can be integrated into a workplace environment, below is a cycle often used to develop process that works within different organisations, depending on what is needed and required by the organisation and their staff.

Often employees find it easier to have these conversations with someone external first.

“My volunteers felt better placed to plan an effective conversation with their manager once they’d been coached, which is a win-win for the organisation”

“Internally focused workplace development opportunities are likely to ensure that a particular employer realises investment in development for the organisation. Yet, the worker might not have the skills transferable to other organisations. This is in contrast with the premise of the type of ‘deal’ where enhancement of employability is the key value derived from the employment relationship by the worker. Instead, they may be receiving only the development that is relevant to their current employer, without the promise of job security.”

Coming up for two years in his job as director of golf for the world-renowned Perthshire resort, Silcock, 47, is able to reflect on a career which has already surpassed anything many of his contemporaries might achieve.

He is also in the enviable position of having two Ryder Cup venues on that aforementioned CV, though he wasn’t at either venue when they hosted the event.

Having qualified as a PGA pro in 1996 he secured his first position at the Home of Golf, St Andrews, working at the Old Course Hotel, Golf Resort & Spa, as a pro at the Duke’s Course. But he was always ambitious and, within a year, his head was turned by the offer of a head professional role in Portugal, at Parque da Floresta, where he was also golf operations manager.

He gained enormous experience during his five years on the Algarve, from designing and building a new golf academy to project managing the redevelopment of the golf course. That success made him a wanted man, particularly coveted by developers, and his next stop was India, at the Aamby Valley City gated resort, where he oversaw the pre-opening and then managed the floodlit course and PGA-branded academy.

His next port of call was a little closer to home, in Ireland, where, once again, he pre-opened a course: this time the PGA National Ireland at Palmerstown House. While undertaking a complete branding and development of the golf course and clubhouse, he also took on the responsibility of managing the sister property, the 36-hole Citywest Hotel, in Dublin.

In February 2006, he returned to the UK, as director of golf at four-time Ryder Cup venue The Belfry, where he stayed for almost seven years, before being lured to the sunshine at La Manga Club. There, as at The Belfry and in Ireland previously, he was responsible for three golf courses – plus two clubhouses and a Leadbetter Golf Academy.

Finally, he returned ‘home’ in March 2015 to the Gleneagles Hotel – again as director of golf, but this time in a position he readily admits is his ‘dream job’.

He explained: “When I went to The Belfry a lot of the reps, the people that I would chat with, they would ask me about my future; what did I want to do ultimately.

“And I would always say that my dream job was Gleneagles, so I’ve realised my dream. And Gleneagles is so big that I can still grow within it.”

For some, missing out on the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles might be a regret, but Silcock is phlegmatic about the timing of his appointment – and of that at The Belfry, where he was in a not dissimilar situation.

He smiled: “I’ve missed both of them – at Gleneagles and The Belfry. The Ryder Cup was held four times at The Belfry, and what we did there was we managed to keep that legacy going for a long time.

“The Belfry is very much a tour venue as well, as is Gleneagles. It’s very much up there and it needs to stay there.”

As if to reinforce that point, Silcock points towards the hosting of the inaugural European Golf Championships in 2018, an event which is backed by both the European Tour and the Ladies European Tour which will be played over the PGA Centenary Course.

“You’ve got the two man team, you’ve got the two lady team and then you’ve got the male and female four-person team. And then, obviously, we have the 2019 Solheim Cup.”

After 20 years in golf, Silcock remains as enthusiastic and hands-on as ever, busying himself in the day-to-day minutiae that less-committed managers might simply overlook.

He continued: “I am the director of golf, so I’m involved in every facet of golf, including having an input in the food and beverage operation.

“As with sales and marketing, I’m not managing it, I’m not controlling it, but I am an influence in that decision process. Although I have the title director of golf it’s more general management.”

And management, and in-particular the business of golf is on the increase since hosting the Ryder Cup, with both turnover and revenue on the up.

“Since I’ve been here, our membership has grown ten per cent last year, and about seven per cent this year.

“We’ve done that in a different way to everyone else, in as much as we haven’t increased our prices – we’ve invested in the project and made it better. We’ve made it better value and we’ve also created a lifestyle, so here you’ve got really nice members, not customers.”

Gleneagles’ PGA Academy and its three golf courses have seen enormous investment over the last few years – most recently the King’s course which underwent a maintenance programme last winter, including a project to line the bunkers and return the course to Braid’s original design vision.

“We’ve invested not only in the courses and the clubhouse, but in the golf team itself, and we have an ever-expanding team, including a new golf operations manager,” said Silcock.

The investment in golf facilities is just one element of an ongoing multi-million pound investment programme at the five-star hotel. In 2015, Ennismore – a London-based developer of unique properties and experiences – purchased Gleneagles from Diageo plc, and since then, it has been making substantial investment across the estate to enhance the guest experience.

“We’ve already established a world-class reputation for our golf facilities, but what actually sets us apart as a golfing venue is everything else,” said Silcock.

“It’s the culinary offering, the five-star hospitality, the luxury spa and accommodation, and the ‘glorious playground’ of leisure activities and country pursuits we have on the estate – like shooting, off-roading, archery, falconry, fishing – that our golfing visitors are awestruck by when they come.”

After leaving La Manga in 2014, an opportunity to return to his homeland presented itself, and having travelled to Portugal, Spain and India, one might imagine, for all that Gleneagles is his dream job, he might pine for the sunshine. But Silcock’s having none of it.

He smiled: “I actually love the weather here – it showcases golf in the way it was designed to be played – so it’s good to be home.”

With such an impressive CV, Silcock’s name has appeared on many a recruitment consultants short-list when fresh opportunities present themselves.

Yet, despite his considerable experience and knowledge, Silcock has always remained fairly grounded and respectful to each role he has held.

“When I worked at The Belfry, I was very fortunate. Every single top job that came up in the country I was interviewed for, and I went through the whole interview process with a lot of them.

“It was Gleneagles, though, that I always had on my radar; the career move I had always been waiting for.

“I still enjoy playing golf, so it’s my leisure activity and it’s my work; that means on Saturday and Sunday I will come up here with my son, but I’m at work – ultimately, I am a golf pro.

“I still tutor in business management with the PGA which I have done for the past 11 years, and I really enjoy passing on my knowledge and experience.”

Gleneagles may well be his dream job, but with the possibility of another 20 years employment ahead of him, it’s quite feasible to imagine a few more golfer’s bucket-list venues being added to Silcock’s golfing CV.

Being mentally strong is one of those personal attributes that everyone could benefit from. Since we all encounter personal challenges and difficulties in our life, the ability to stay psychologically strong is invaluable. But is mental strength something we are just born with? Or can it be developed? Luckily, there are ways to enhance and amplify mental toughness. Here are six of the best.

1. Stay on target.

A major component of mental strength is the capacity to focus in on the pursuit of long-term goals. People who are mentally weak allow the minor hindrances of life to distract them from their objectives, which inevitably leads to underachievement. Surviving the inevitable setbacks and disappointments of life requires focusing on larger goals and plans.

2. Look at adversity as an opportunity.

Tough times aren’t necessarily a bad thing–in fact, they can often be a positive. That’s because you only really learn and grow through overcoming difficulties. The simple act of embracing a challenge can be a massive psychological step forward. Such a change in attitude can alter your whole outlook on life, helping to increase your mental fortitude.

3. Focus only on what you can control (my favorite).

Worry and fear are the enemies of mental stability and strength. While fear and worry may be impossible to totally avoid, many people bring trouble upon themselves by obsessing over things they cannot really control. For example, worrying about how a project will be received once it is submitted is pointless and accomplishes nothing. Focusing on whatever task is at hand–and letting the rest take care of itself–is simply smarter.

4. Develop resiliency.

No matter how much the perfectionists among us might wish otherwise, no individual can completely avoid setbacks and failure. In fact, what’s far more important than avoiding error is developing the mental strength required to bounce back quickly from a mistake. Learning how to get back on your feet, without spending any time malingering or feeling sorry for yourself, is essential. This is the entrepreneur’s armor.

5. Don’t spend too much time thinking about what other people think.

While everyone should be able to accept constructive criticism and other kinds of helpful input, there’s a definite limit to how much attention should be paid to the opinions of others. Ultimately, other people are responsible for their opinions, not you–and there is no point in dwelling on something that isn’t your responsibility.

6.Strive to be emotionally even-keeled.

Getting either too high or too low emotionally is almost always a barrier to true mental strength, something I’m especially guilty of. However, being out of control emotionally makes it impossible to proceed forward in a rational, constructive way. Those who experience excessive emotional turbulence have a hard time dealing with life’s problems. That’s why the ability to keep control of powerful, disruptive feelings is such a crucial aspect of mental discipline.

Whether it’s in sports, career, or another of life’s competitive arenas, mental strength is often more important to success than natural ability. Fortunately, psychological strength is not an innate talent but rather a trait that can be acquired. With the recommendations above, almost everyone should be able to enhance their mental strength.

Tom Popomaronis is a serial entrepreneur, an e-commerce expert, and a proud Baltimore native. He has been recognized for technology and startup leadership by Fast Company, Entrepreneur, The Washington Post, and Forbes. Tom was also named “40 under 40” by the Baltimore Business Journal in 2014.

@tpopomaronis

The trick is to establish a strong sense of what you have to offer without being boastful and making grand, empty claims. The way to achieve your goal of impressing employers and making them want to meet you is to back up your claims with hard evidence. Don’t just say you are good at something; provide examples to show you are.

Therefore, the most effective CVs are those that have a strong Skills evidence. Past experience and application of skills is a good indicator for employers of your potential abilities and actions. This focuses attention on what you can do, have done and are likely to do.

It is a good idea to back up your claim that you possess excellent skills in, for example, communication by giving specific examples of the particular form of communication you have used, where (context) and why (for what purpose and for whom). Try to start each bulleted point with a verb to emphasise real life experience. Follow with an example from work, study or extra-curricular activities. For example:

Skills

Communication

• Presented reports to tutorial group of 20 about research findings in Economics
• Wrote articles for university magazine about mountain-walking club activities
• Liaised with customers of various backgrounds at Tesco’s Supermarket as part-time cashier for 3 years

Teamwork

• Co-operatively planned work schedules with four staff at JJB Sports
• Negotiated with colleagues regarding task allocation for major projects at university
• Played an active role in attaining customer service goals at Tesco’s

What skills do you have?

If you are really not sure, as opposed to being modest, perhaps you could ask friends, family and colleagues or speak to a careers coach . A personal skills audit might suggest the following. Note sub-sections of the major skill areas and use them as a guide to the bullet points you could include.

Communication

• Presenting information and ideas in written form
• Editing
• Giving and receiving feedback
• Explaining
• Active listening and asking clarifying questions
• Expressing ideas, feelings and opinions
• Speaking fluently and accurately
• Foreign language competence
• Persuading and influencing
• Negotiating
• Non-verbal communication

Flexibility

• Attitude to new tasks
• Readiness to change
• Enthusiasm
• Ability to transfer skills
• Commitment to ongoing improvement
• Desire to learn new skills
• Acceptance of constructive criticism

Teamwork

• Ability to work co-operatively
• Delegating skills
• Constructive confrontation and resolution
• Empathising
• Recognising and valuing difference

Resilience

• Coping with uncertainty
• Dealing with difficult people
• Ability to work under pressure
• Ability to set and achieve goals

Assertiveness

• Decision making Problem solving
• Independence
• Leadership
• Level of ambition
• Inclination to initiate ideas and plans

Entrepreneurship

• Self-promotion
• Ability to create opportunities
• Networking skills
• Customer focus Business acumen

Some of these sub-headings could be major skills themselves, such as Negotiating and Leadership. Some elements may fit under more than one skill. You will have to make choices about how best to use your material. Be guided by the Key Selection Criteria for specific jobs as your aim is to show how your skills fit with the employer’s needs.

When describing your skills, it is possible to ‘value-add’ by making reference to aspects of your experience and your personal qualities, interests and values. This can provide a lot of information about you in a very brief and concise way. For example, ‘Wrote articles for magazines about mountain-walking club activities’ informs readers about your interest, skill and success in writing as well as your active, healthy and sociable lifestyle. These are highly valued traits in the workplace and they have been communicated efficiently and effectively.

@Sales_Source

Coaching is more than just giving advice. Use this process to help your team members hone their own behaviour.

Coaching is the process of preparing your employees to succeed.  Good coaches can create the mental resources, emotional resilience, business skills, and career development that employees need to achieve their goals.

Unfortunately, while coaching is a well-established part of the sports world, it’s a neglected art in the world of business. Much of the time, coaching is relegated to a five-minute conversation at the end of a yearly performance review.

There’s a better way to handle business coaching. Try this five-step process, based on a conversation with Linda Richardson, founder of the huge sales training firm Richardson:

1. Ask for a self-assessment.

Ask the employee’s opinion of a recent event (e.g. meeting, interaction, project) in which the employee was involved.  Don’t accept a pat response like, “Uh, it went fine.”  Instead, ask additional questions that help lead employee to discover both the strengths and weaknesses of the employee’s performance. If the employee says something like “You’re the manager, what do you think?” respond with, “I want you think this through, then I’ll give my ideas.”

2. Give balanced feedback.

Start with honest praise for the employee’s strengths and your perspective on how those strengths were an asset during the event in question. Then identify one or two key areas where you feel improvement would have helped the employee’s performance. You’re not providing advice, just identifying areas. It’s important to limit the discussion to one or two areas, by the way – more than that and you’ll be “flooding the engine.”

3. Check for agreement.

Resolve any differences between your understanding of the event and the employee’s perception of the event.  Gain agreement on the area where there was a gap between the employee’s performance and how the employee would have liked to have handled the event.  It’s crucial to come to agreement at this point, because otherwise the subsequent steps will be off-kilter.

4. Identify the obstacle.

Ask the employee to identify the obstacle that he or she feels is keeping him or her from better performance.  Ask what he or she suggests to remove the obstacle, and what might be done to address that aspect.  Then provide your perspective on the obstacle and your ideas to address that obstacle. Decide together what needs to be done in order to improve the performance.

5. Set the next step.

For each obstacle that’s identified, establish an action step with a time frame for follow-

up.  Provide positive input and express confidence in the employee’s ability to succeed.  Then revisit the issue at the agreed-upon time.

According to Linda, this coaching method works for several reasons:

• It reduces the amount of time that the manager must spend coaching.  Because the coaching process addresses only one or two of the most important skill areas, a typical coaching session need take no more than 15 minutes.
• It encourages the employee to become more independent, because the employee gradually learns the self-assessment technique and is more likely to buy into the solution.
• It puts the action items in the hands of the employee, leading your worker to become more independent and more likely to internalize the training into daily habits.
• It strengthens the relationship between the manager and the employee through mutual success, and builds rapport throughout the entire process.
• It provides a structure that’s easily followed and can apply to virtually any business situation or problem.
• It is not confrontational, thereby making it much easier for the manager and employee to participate in the process.

@EntryLevelRebel

A new study finds that great coaches don’t focus on finding and fixing their team’s weaknesses. They do this instead.

Sure, running a business is about maximizing the bottom line, but few entrepreneurs care only about the dollars and cents.  For most, going into work every day is also about making the world a slightly better place and helping your team get better at what they do.

In other words, most business owners aspire to be not just managers but coaches.

How do you learn to be a great coach?

Thinking back to your Little League days or star turn on the girls’ volleyball team in high school may give you some inspiration.  Didn’t the coach point out your weaknesses and provide guidance on how to get better?  Your memory doesn’t fail you–traditionally, coaching has largely been about identifying areas in need of improvement and supporting folks as they work towards better performance.  But according to the latest science, there’s actually a better approach.

Positive vs. Negative

A new study, published in Social Neuroscience, used brain sans to test two different approaches to coaching on a group of undergraduates.  The first approach mirrored traditional coaching, asking students to identify areas in which they might be struggling at school and think about ways to improve.  Coaches asked questions such as: “What challenges have you encountered or do you expect to encounter in your experience here?” and “How are you doing with your courses?”

In contrast to this negative approach, the second group of coaches focused on possibilities and positives, asking the students about their aspirations and urging them to visualize their future goals.  They asked questions such as, “If everything worked out ideally in your life, what would you be doing in 10 years?”  The student volunteers were then run through a functional MRI to examine how their brains responded to the two techniques.

The different types of coaching lit up different areas of the brain, the scientists found, with the positive approach stimulating areas involved in:

• Visual processing, which come online when we imagine future events
• Global processing, or the ability to see the big picture
• Feelings of empathy and emotional safety
• The motivation to proactively pursue big goals rather than simply react to loss or fear

The Takeaway

If you want people to dream big and actually have a shot at reaching their lofty ambitions, the list above would be a pretty good place to start, right?  The researchers thought so too.

“These differences in brain activity led the researchers to conclude that positive coaching effectively activates important neural circuits and stress-reduction systems in the body by encouraging mentees to envision a desired future for themselves,” UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center reports in their write up of the research.

More research needs to be done, and the encouraging effects of a positive coaching style doesn’t necessarily mean there’s no place for the more traditional find-the-problem-and-fix-it approach, but the results should give business owners a nudge towards a positive coaching style.  Why not try spurring your team to dream big, set ambitious goals, and nurture their strengths?

How do you approach coaching your team?

Image designed by Freepik

@WillYakowicz

Studies show that strategic thinking is the most important element of leadership. But how do you instill the trait in others at your company?

What leadership skill do your employees, colleagues, and peers view as the most important for you to have? According Robert Kabacoff, the vice president of research at Management Research Group, a company that creates business assessment tools, it’s the ability to plan strategically.

He has research to back it up: In the Harvard Business Review, he cites a 2013 study by his company in which 97 percent of a group of 10,000 senior executives said strategic thinking is the most critical leadership skill for an organization’s success. In another study, he writes, 60,000 managers and executives in more than 140 countries rated a strategic approach to leadership as more effective than other attributes including innovation, persuasion, communication, and results orientation.

But what’s so great about strategic thinking? Kabacoff says that as a skill, it’s all about being able to see, predict, and plan ahead: “Strategic leaders take a broad, long-range approach to problem-solving and decision-making that involves objective analysis, thinking ahead, and planning.

That means being able to think in multiple time frames, identifying what they are trying to accomplish over time and what has to happen now, in six months, in a year, in three years, to get there,” he writes. “It also means thinking systemically. That is, identifying the impact of their decisions on various segments of the organization–including internal departments, personnel, suppliers, and customers.”

As a leader, you also need to pass strategic thinking to your employees, Kabacoff says. He suggests instilling the skill in your best managers first, and they will help pass it along to other natural leaders within your company’s ranks. Below, read his five tips for how to carry out this process.

Dish Out Information

Kabacoff says that you need to encourage managers to set aside time to thinking strategically until it becomes part of their job. He suggests you provide them with information on your company’s market, industry, customers, competitors, and emerging technologies. “One of the key prerequisites of strategic leadership is having relevant and broad business information that helps leaders elevate their thinking beyond the day-to-day,” he writes.

Create a Mentor Program

Every manager in your company should have a mentor. “One of the most effective ways to develop your strategic skills is to be mentored by someone who is highly strategic,” Kabacoff says. “The ideal mentor is someone who is widely known for his/her ability to keep people focused on strategic objectives and the impact of their actions.”

Create a Philosophy

As the leader, you need to communicate a well-articulated philosophy, a mission statement, and achievable goals throughout your company. “Individuals and groups need to understand the broader organisational strategy in order to stay focused and incorporate it into their own plans and strategies,” Kabacoff writes.

Reward Thinking, Not Reaction

Whenever possible, try to promote foresight and long-term thinking. Kabacoff says you should reward your managers for the “evidence of thinking, not just reacting,” and for “being able to quickly generate several solutions to a given problem and identifying the solution with the greatest long-term benefit for the organisation.”

Ask “Why” and “When”

Kabacoff says you need to promote a “future perspective” in your company. If a manager suggests a course of action, you need to him or her ask two questions: First, what underlying strategic goal does this action serve, and why? And second, what kind of impact will this have on internal and external stakeholders? “Consistently asking these two questions whenever action is considered will go a long way towards developing strategic leaders,” he writes.

It’s a small world, or is it? For all the talk of globalisation and the homogenisation of cultures, we still have our own, unique ways of working and conversing with each other.

Language barriers aside, communication styles and social hierarchies can differ greatly between cultures and regions. As organisations expand and remote working becomes common practice, these are just some of the many challenges facing managers overseeing teams comprising multiple nationalities and backgrounds.

While a certain degree of inter-cultural understanding comes down to the life experience of the individual themselves, multicultural leadership is a skill that can be learnt and honed like any other. Here’s how to begin:

1. Know your own style…

As the manager you are the cultural bridge between all those working under you, so you need to have a clear understanding of your own leadership style before you can attempt to synthesise those of others. Are you someone who prefers a direct or indirect form of communication? Do you believe in strict hierarchies or a flat structure? These are all things you first need to have clear in your own mind.

2. …then learn those of others

The next step is to invest time in understanding the different cultural sensitivities and expectations of your team. Don’t rely on pre-conceptions. While it’s easy to assume there will be a strict Western, non-Western demarcation between employees in terms of cultural practices, often the differences are far more nuanced and will depend on the individuals themselves.

3. Find common ground…

While a ‘one size fits all’ approach is unlikely to suit all contexts, it may be useful to establish a common set of standards for communication and working together, which can help to avoid confusion and mixed messaging. This should be drawn from each of the different nationalities and cultures represented in the team so as not to alienate any one individual or group.

4. …but be willing to adapt

Flexibility will still be key, however; you can’t expect to fully homogenise a wide range of different working styles and traditions within a short space of time. Employees will need to be willing to compromise and adapt to others; while encouraging a flexible, fluid work environment will make it easier to deal with issues and challenges as they arise.

Fostering cross-cultural working is one of the more challenging demands placed on modern day managers. However, with some careful planning and forethought multicultural working needn’t be a significant barrier to success.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: Harvard Business Review; LinkedIn; Internations

Sometimes it’s easier to commit to something if you understand the way it can evolve. The initial stages of team development may feel like something of a white-knuckle ride of ups and downs, but recognising those stages may help you to feel more relaxed about the more challenging times, particularly when you’re the newbie.

So here are the four stages of team development according to educational psychologist professor, Bruce Tuckman:

1. Forming

The initial “Forming” stage is when you first meet each other and you’re all rather polite, but positive, maybe excited and a little anxious about the task ahead.

2 Storming and 3. Norming

Then reality sets in and you may start to argue, with some people trying to assert their authority. This is called “Storming”. Everything may stabilise again as a hierarchy is established and accepted; the team starts socialising more and gets to know each other better. This is called “Norming.”

Just as you think you’re all settled and loving your new team some of you might start to feel stressed and overwhelmed by how much there is to do or feel uncomfortable with the approach being used so the team lapses back into a period of “Storming” again.

Gradually, though, working practices are established and through mutual respect, people being happy to ask for help and more constructive criticism being given, you all begin to develop a comfort with your tasks and a stronger commitment towards the goal. And you’re back… in the “Norming” stage.

“Storming” shakes things up a bit and prevents the complacency often associated with “Norming”, but too much “Storming” may indicate irreconcilable differences.

In most cases, however, this pattern of “Storming” instability and then “Norming” stability repeats several times as new tasks come up or new people join the team, and eventually the cycle dies out.

4. Performing

The final “Performing” stage comes when your team is supported by the structures and processes that have been set up, individuals can join or leave the team without affecting the “Performing” culture and your team’s hard work leads directly towards the shared vision of your goal.

So remember that when you hit a bumpy patch with your new team, there’s no need to worry – you’re probably just “Storming” in order to become a team that “Performs” effortlessly as a unit.

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This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: Bruce Tuckman; Abintegro.com

If you are heading to an assessment centre, doing a presentation may be one of the tasks on the table, or if you’re about to start a new job – congratulations by the way – presenting is a key skill that you will probably be required to use in some capacity throughout your career. So it’s worth focussing on this rarely considered aspect of presentation skills.

The three things you should consider when thinking about the way you speak are:

• Volume
• Speed
• Pitch and tone

1. Your volume

You need to make sure you’re speaking loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear. There’s nothing more irritating for an audience than a mumbler. A microphone may do this job for you, but if you don’t have one simply ask: “can everyone hear me ok?” Look around the room and make eye contact with as many people as you can as you ask.

Do this confidently and with a smile to boost your own confidence and engage with your audience. It’s important to get the volume right at the beginning so you won’t get distracted or interrupted once your presentation is flowing and it gives you a chance to hear your own voice before you really get going.

When you want to add emphasis to a given point it’s a good idea to increase your volume slightly, while making eye contact with various people around the room.

2. Your speed

Never speak too quickly. It shows you are nervous; it will mean you are more likely to make mistakes and it is less likely the audience will understand what you are saying.

It’s always faster to other people’s ears than it is in your head – so think ‘slow’. Pause just before you’re about to make an important or complicated point and just after to give your audience time to engage with and digest what you’re saying.

3. Your pitch and tone

Avoid a monotone voice at all costs. People lose interest very quickly without a song in their ears. Varying the pitch and tone keeps people’s brains engaged.

Reading from a script increases your chances of presenting in a monotone. So try to do your presentation from notes, rather than a script. If you have to read it, practice varying your pitch in an exaggerated way as if you’re reading a scary or exciting child’s story. Don’t deliver your presentation like that, however, just get used to hearing that range in your voice.

Using either genuine or rhetorical questions will help keep the flow of your speech varied, which will keep the audience engaged.

Enunciate clearly and don’t mumble into your notes.

Regardless of how nervous or self-conscious you may feel speaking in public if you can think ‘confident’ and match your body language and voice accordingly no one will ever know, and you will have an engaged and attentive audience.

Never forget how important your voice is – practice out loud, playing with volume, pitch, speed and tone, and record yourself to look for the areas in which you can improve.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: Abintegro.com

Nevertheless, there’s a growing belief that having charisma means possessing a healthy balance of external qualities – including showing an interest in other people – to complement positive internal traits, such as self-confidence. While people might disagree on the exact ingredients needed for a charismatic persona, a fairly tasty recipe might look like this:

Ingredients:

C – Confidence

This is clearly one of the most important ingredients in charisma. You need to be confident enough to communicate with people in a variety of situations and social settings. However, there’s an important difference between confidence and boastfulness or arrogance.

H – Happiness

Happiness, as we know, is contagious. Research suggests that oxytocin (also known as the love hormone) goes hand in hand with charisma: the happier you feel, the more people are likely to gravitate towards you and take on board your views.

A – Assertiveness

A close friend of confidence, being assertive means being able to influence and encourage those in the same room, subtly bringing them round to your way of thinking in a way that’s non-confrontational.

R – Regard (for others)

Charismatic people are genuinely interested in what others have to say, not just the sound of their own voice. This means using your ‘active listening’ skills to really engage with your conversation partner and take on board what they’re saying.

M – (e)Motion

A high level of emotional intelligence goes hand-in-hand with charisma. You need to be aware of your own emotions (including knowing those you should be displaying and those you shouldn’t) as well as being aware of, and empathetic to those of others.

Method:

Putting all these qualities into the mixing bowl at the same time may be harder than it looks, however: too much of one ingredient and the balance tips too much towards either internal or external character traits. Like most things in life, it all comes down to self-awareness, experience…and practice. Perhaps it’s worth giving that charm school a call, after all.

This content appears courtesy of Abintegro, experts in career management, transition technology & e-learning for today’s modern, mobile and technology-savvy workforce – Find out more at www.abintegro.com

Credit: The Telegraph; Mind Tools; Skills You Need

If a presentation is a merely a mechanism to pass information from speaker to listener, it must be one of the most expensive, inefficient and unreliable ways of doing so as the above equation for its cost illustrates.

A is the number of people in the audience, L is the length of time the presentation takes, V is the cost of the venue and E is any equipment needed. P is the amount of work it takes to prepare the presentation in the first place and W refers to the work that the entire audience aren’t doing while they listen to it.

If we accept this equation, a presentation has to be so much more than a transfer mechanism to justify such a cost; it has to be outstanding and too few are.

A Rock and a Hard Place

Standing up and speaking is something we all find normal when done with family or friends, at home or in a social setting. When done from a podium in front of an audience of tens, hundreds or even thousands, it feels completely different, yet the physical mechanics and intellectual thought processes required are just the same.

As presenters, we are caught between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the unavoidable truth that an audience requires us to match, if not exceed, their expectations. The hard place is Abraham Maslow’s assertion that our safety is more important than any sense of achievement. It can often feel like a vice-like grip, and to not just survive, but thrive in it is to dance in the line of fire.

A presentation must first be created and then rehearsed before it can be delivered, and quite often people avoid or omit the rehearsal stage preferring to rewrite and edit their presentation right up until the last minute.

For this reason most finished presentations are in fact first or second readings, which look, feel and are quite different to a polished performance. In this respect, presenting and playing golf are exactly alike; the amateur practices until they get it right, and the professional practices until they cannot get it wrong.

Effective presenters don’t merely speak; they engage

To present is to stand in front of people and speak. By definition it is an unnatural place to be, it feels awkward and lends credibility to this quote by George Jessel; “The human brain starts working from the moment you are born and never stops working until you stand up and speak in public.”

The easiest and most natural way to resolve this dilemma is to remember to do something, and the key to discovering what to do is to remember that what you do and how you do it are not the same. Good nurses don’t simply nurse; they care, support and reassure. Great golfers don’t just hit a ball; they align their body and swing with the intended direction, ensure the ball impacts the ‘sweet spot’ of the club face and drive the club with precision and consistency.

Effective presenters don’t merely speak; they engage, they inspire and they persuade. In all these three examples, the technical skills are so practiced, refined and honed as to be automatic, leaving the conscious mind as free as possible to react fully to all the vagaries of the present moment like a blood clot, sudden crosswind or interruption.

“To engage and hold an audience is also a physical activity…”

Presenting is not just an intellectual pursuit. To engage and hold an audience is also a physical activity and the purpose is to invite them on an emotional journey towards your objective. Not for nothing do politicians speak of winning hearts and minds, and all three must be present and congruent to deliver a great performance.

Because the external architecture of presenting so closely resembles the activity of one person talking to another, it is hard to articulate the merits of one presentation over another, and this leaves the critical appraisal of what makes a poor performance almost purely subjective. This is so because all the essential ingredients of an outstanding presentation such as authenticity, passion, relationship and purpose are far easier to judge by their absence rather than their presence.

In conclusion, I would suggest that two undeniable truths of presenting are that it is a choice and a commitment rather than a skill, and like every great golfer, you won’t become a champion unless you practise.