Calibrate your golf shot, business and life!
Recently, I’ve been taking some golf lessons. One reason is because I need them, and another is because my kids are older and going off to college. I have more free time without as many practices, games or other family activities going on. I’ve spent some of my free time working on my golf game.
Fortunately, the course I play has a great golf coach. I’ve been working with him, trying to turn my cut into more of a draw, NOT a hook. As I’ve been working on the changes, I’m getting it to turn over in the direction I want, but it started going too far left. It wasn’t the big draw I wanted; it was more of a hook.
While working together, he told me to set up and try to hit a cut, meaning hit it to the right trying to hit a slice. I did that and hit a really good one straight. He talked about how the pros work to recalibrate their shots. They’re very seldom straight. Sometimes they’re left and need to recalibrate. Then sometimes they’re too left and need to recalibrate back to the right. Getting it straight into the fairway where you want it is a continuous process.
It was profound to think about golf this way, and it got me thinking about my personal and professional life and how very seldom it is straight down the road. If I look back on my life, personally and professionally, there are a lot of recalibrations. You start good, then start to drift. At first, you drift a little bit, then more and more. It starts small and may get wider. You drift in many different areas; nutrition, exercise, reading, devotions, etc.
The same is true for organizations. You can be overstaffed, understaffed, focused on one area of the business and not enough on others. At Service Express, we have four core objectives we always try to achieve:
- Excellent Customer Service
- Employee Engagement
- Margin Retention
- Revenue Growth
We try to apply these objectives to every decision we make, but sometimes we go too far down one road, and it starts to affect another objective. Then we have to recalibrate.
You’re always recalibrating in business and your personal life. Think about where you are right now or where your organization is. Especially if you’re on a leadership journey, assess your leadership skills level. Are you heading straight down the road? Are you drifting, over-calibrating or under-calibrating in some areas? If so, get back on the path. Life is a series of adjustments, and those who do it well, ultimately find more fairways.
