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Golf Networking

Networking Tools for Newbies: The Benefits of Golf

golf-networkingHow Golf Can Help New Business Employees Network

People new to the corporate world may not be sure how to network. They probably have some idea of what to ask, but formal events can leave them feeling intimidated and lost. Compare that image to a game of golf shared by industry professionals. The inviting greens, calm landscapes, and laid back atmosphere can pave the way for new connections and long-term friendships. Successful professionals playing golf is a stereotype for a reason. Consider these ways making friends on the greens is a hole-in-one networking tool.

Natural Connections

Relationship building takes time, and in the business world, a lot relies on a solid first impression. Broaching these barriers in the office can be tricky, and introducing yourself over a bustling morning meeting is not always ideal or practical. However, suggesting a golf game or joining in on one is an excellent opportunity to get to know and bond with coworkers. It also opens the door for more outings (and more networking) in the future.

This casual environment is also why so much business is decided on the golf course. The fresh air and positive atmosphere make negotiations and decision making more relaxed. Plus, even if it’s just a trip to the driving range, participants have at least a few hours to both socialize and get work done.

Driving From the Ladies’ Tees

While golf was once literally a boy’s club, the benefits of this sport both professionally and socially are no longer limited to men. In many cases, participating in the game of golf levels the playing field and gives women the opportunity they need to obtain better professional opportunities. Here are some of the benefits women have uncovered:

Development of relationships and network for business. While this is a benefit for both sexes, women in particular have found that playing golf opens up chances to network and communicate on an equal level outside of the workplace.

Enhanced ability to take risks. Do you play it safe and set yourself up for the next shot, or take a risk with a slice close to a water hazard? Decision making skills, confidence, and focus are critical skills for a good golfer, and they are also attributes women may feel denied in the office. This is the perfect opportunity to showcase theses fantastic qualities.

Staying in the know. Sharing a common interest is a great way to solidify connections. Golf can bridge this gap, level the playing field, and give female professionals the same opportunities for friendship and the potential for continued success.

Ample Opportunity

Book a spot on the next company golf trip. Of course, bridging the gap between experienced and novice golfers and the different levels of responsibility can be tricky. Luckily, there are events available that address these issues and give all personnel the opportunity to connect over this wonderful sport.

Learn about golf networking hands on at Course Connections.

Additional Resources:

Golf Networking

How to Make Golf a Marketing Tool

golfMarketing is competitive for all businesses, and one of the most difficult, nuanced parts of competition lies in selling yourself. Marketing yourself or your product in a traditional environment can cause pressure, but a nontraditional environment can help you relax and think positively about landing a job or sale.

One of the best nontraditional environments to sell yourself or your product is the golf course. A great number of professionals play golf – in fact, it’s assumed in some fields. If you’ve never played golf or have done so recreationally but doubt it can help with your business, allow us to teach you to use golf as a marketing tool.

Increase Your Socialization

A big reason so many professionals love golf is that it gets them out of the office and focused on something fun. Golf places business professionals outdoors in the fresh air where they’re likely to make small talk before asking interview questions or negotiating deals. Golf is competitive, but your main opponent is yourself. That is, each individual in a golf game wants to win while improving his or her individual scores. This type of competition lets potential buyers or coworkers see your potential to focus, capitalize on strengths, and learn from your mistakes.

Show Off Your Risk-Taking Skills

Golf is challenging because you must calculate every move to get the best score per hole. This is quite similar to business – to make the best deals or produce quality projects, you have to follow instructions but take risks at the same time. Knowing how to do this is valuable in any position or field, especially those involving inherent risk or meticulous attention to detail.

Learn to People-Watch

A golf course is a place where the most professional people tend to drop their masks. Watching how other people play golf can show you how they may act in the office and whether you want to work with them. For example, an interviewer might decide not to hire someone he spoke to on the golf course because that person lost his temper after losing. The head of a department might decide against putting a new employee in charge of a project because she relies on flukes or pretends to understand rules that confuse her. Use golf to observe the people around you, finding strengths to emulate and weaknesses to avoid.

If you would like to learn more about how golf can influence your marketability, join us at Course Connections this year, where we will put these principles into action.

Click here for more information about sales and business development coaching.

Additional Resources:

Public Speaking

Public Speaking and The Fear Factor: Just Do It!

iStock_000001957113-microphoneJerry Seinfeld said it best:

“According to most studies people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number 2 is death. Death is number 2. Does that sound right? This means to the average person if you go to a funeral you’re better off in the casket than doing the eulogy.”

When people come to me for help with their presentation skills, the first thing they ask is: how do I overcome my fear? My response is simple: MEET fear; she’s your new best friend. Then go ahead and embrace fear and let her propel you onward to a great presentation! Put another way, like the NIKE adage: JUST DO IT!

That’s not to say you should get up in front of an audience without preparing. Being prepared is numero uno! But after preparing and knowing your material, get up, stand up and speak up, just as if you were telling me a story.

When I coach my clients, I ask them to think of all the times they have every single day to practice their presentation skills: with their co-workers, their friends, their spouses, or even with their children. Work on making clear concise statements in small ways and your confidence will grow.Then when you get your first big break, you will be ready.

And finally, remember, there are plenty of scary things we do everyday, without giving them a second thought: like driving a car, riding an elevator up 35 flights, and getting on airplanes.

So next time you have to present, let fear propel you and JUST DO IT!

Leadership

Good Advice for Any Leader

Great article from Mr. Porter, the global online retail destination for men’s style which you can READ HERE. Yes, many of those who know me , know I AM a fashionista at heart and am interested in style trends for both women AND men. And yes, I believe that looking good counts.

In Mr. Porter’s latest journal, he showcases a few young male execs, all well-dressed and all successful and all passionate about their work. One of these young men, btw, Michael Conti, is the son of one of my oldest friends. (You’ll excuse the word oldest because Michael’s Mom, Elaine, is younger than I).

I loved all of the quotes from each individual, but because of my work, the advice of Bryan Bui, Senior Analyst at Cien Ventures, a healthcare consulting firm, resonated deeply with me.

Here is the best career advice he was ever given:

1) “Never take down a gate unless you can figure out why it was put there in the first place.”
2) “If the General gets too far in front of the army, sometimes they mistake him for the enemy.”
3) “Never complain about the bottom rungs of the ladder – they get you higher.”
4) “If you want to see a rainbow, get ready to weather a storm.”

Good advice for any leader.

Leadership

Executive Presence aka The Seven Ups

Over and over again, the people I coach ask me “what is it?” and “do I need it?” It is not unusual for an individual entering into coaching to identify one of her goals as wanting to develop executive presence. So I decided to simplify the term, and I named it The Seven Ups, an easy way to define executive presence, and the buzz word that encompassed what people were seeing as a polished, knowledgeable and successful executive: someone who inspires, who listens, and who is confident. More importantly, someone who you want to follow.

Because most of what I heard when I asked what people meant by executive presence was something to the effect of, “You know it when you see it,” I did some research to try to succinctly and simply identify the characteristics and behaviors that make up executive presence.

Her are my “seven ups”:

Dress Up – Do you look your best for the audience of the day?
Show Up – Are you on time and prepared?
Stand Up – Can you inspire? Are you confident?
Speak Up – Do you ennunciate? Ask? Make your point and be heard?
Listen Up – Are you open to what those around you have to say?
Lighten Up – Do you take EVERYTHING too seriously? SMILE.
Follow Up – Do you keep to the 24-hour rule?

Take a look at yourself. Are you practicing the seven ups? I guarantee if you do, you will stand out from the competition. Yes, it takes time, discipline, and PRACTICE. If you are already on the path to executive presence: KUDOS! If you need help figuring it out, find yourself a coach who can help. It just may be the thing that changes the path you are on and allows you to stand out from the crowd.

Career

Onward

Oprah announced this past Tuesday that she is moving her Harpo (Oprah spelled backwards) Studios in the West Loop of Chicago to her OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) studios in West Hollywood, California. Her good friend and CBS news anchor, Gayle King, commented by saying that when she told Oprah it was “so sad”, Oprah’s response was simply: “ONWARD.”

So when you leave your job, voluntarily or not, ONWARD. Take it as the silver lining in the cloud. The old “one door closes and another one opens”.

When American Express parts ways with Costco, it’s not the demise of either firm, it’s just a new beginning and a business decision for both.

When the client you have done business with for the last ten years is sold, well, it happens. Go on and find a new one. Or two. ONWARD.

And when your firstborn goes off to college. ONWARD. For her AND for you. Think of all the things you never had time to do for yourself and embrace the possibilities.

There are so many changes still to come for all of us. How we view change is a choice. Is it an opportunity for renewal or a roadblock? Is it an opportunity for success or failure?

Or do we get a little inspiration from the woman who spent twenty-five years building one iconic studio, only to close it and move ONWARD in another? No wonder Oprah’s life is a testament to success, change and renewal. She is always moving ONWARD. So should we!

Career

Touchpoints

Wikipedia defines touch points as business jargon for any encounter where customers and business engage to exchange information, provide service, or handle transactions.

Me? I define a touchpoint as that unique, special moment in time when you have the opportunity to make a super, uber, meaningful connection with another human being, be they friend, family, client or customer.

Let me give you a few examples.

You are a partner in an accounting firm smack in the middle of signing off on a financial statement which is due by 5 pm today. In walks one of your Senior Managers, asking if you have five minutes so he can (as he is jumping for joy) tell you about the new client he is about to sign on. Do you tell your employee you are too busy? Working on a deadline? Or do you stop what you are doing for a few minutes to congratulate him, tell him how excited you are, and that you want to sit down with him as soon as you finish your project? If it is the latter response, you have just experienced a touchpoint with your employee. Taking that extra minute or two for the “attaboy (or girl)” pays dividends in employee loyalty and engagement, over the long haul.

These potential opportunities occur in every day life as well. Recently I was on a flight to Denver when I recognized the flight attendant in my cabin. Darnelle! I exclaimed. Is that you? She couldn’t believe I remembered her from a previous trip. Next thing I knew, she was offering me complimentary drinks and food, and I was signing my newest book, my gift to her for her thoughtfulness. Just like the partner in the accounting firm and his manager, I had experienced a touchpoint with Darnelle.

The moral of the story? Touchpoints are the fleeting moments which become opportunities to show someone that they are important; they are the emotional moments we are presented with, to comfort or compliment someone who has just experienced pain or joy in their life; and they are the meaningful, small ways in which we demonstrate how we understand our customers and clients, how we value our family and friends, and how we touch others and let them know that they are special.

Next time you are presented with a touchpoint, take an extra minute or two to recognize it. You might be just be surprised at the connection you can make, and the outcome you derive.

Tell me about the last touchpoint you experienced, and how it made YOU feel!

Career

50 Shades of Truth in Lying

There they go again: A-Rod and Lance, two of the dopiest athletes on the planet. Lying. Changing their stories. Lying some more. Changing the “facts” (and I use the term “facts” loosely). Lance having to pay up for his perjury. And A-Rod writing his handwritten note of apology. (Another joke. If that is his actual handwriting, he may have a career in calligraphy in the offing if all else fails). Fifty shades of lying.

I could barely make it through Fifty Shades of Grey, the first book,let alone the second or third. Unless someone strong arms me (you’ll excuse the pun) I probably won’t see the movie. Point is, Christian Grey can have his fifty shades of whatever. As a former boss of mine once said when I told I him I loved cold calling (and everyone else hated it): “one man’s (or woman’s) pleasure is another man’s (or woman’s pain). And therein lies the truth.

Christian Grey is a fictional character, but Lance and A-Rod, once real life icons, not so much.

In his latest lie, Lance Armstrong has pleaded guilty to careless driving for hitting two parked cars with his SUV in Aspen. His girlfriend, also a liar, said she was driving when she was not, in order to take the fall for him. This fact courtesy of a St. Regis hotel doorman who saw him driving the car. Liar, liar, pants on fire. And your nose is looking a little longer too.

A-Rod’s and Lance’s actions and words were nothing more than was straight up lies. In the end, there is no such thing as fifty shades of truth. You see, when it comes to telling the truth, there are no shades of gray. You either doped or you didn’t. If you did, tell the truth. If you didn’t, tell the truth. Either you were behind the wheel, or your dopey girlfriend Anna Hansen was. Tell the truth.

The truth may hurt,(okay, allow me just one more pun) but it’s still the truth. And honesty, as the saying goes, is still the best policy.

Christian may be able to live in world of fifty shades of gray, but for the rest of us, A-Rod and Lance included, life is just a little more black and white, especially when it comes to telling the truth.