I wrote about Mr. Trevino last year, and thought I’d revisit this post to talk about your team.
Do the people on your team enjoy what they’re doing? Can you see the passion in their eyes?
Last year, I watched an interview of one of the most famous golfers in the history of the game, Lee Trevino. He was a guest on the David Feherty show which airs on the Golf Channel. As I watched the interview, I could tell he loved everything about his life and career.
Lee grew up in Dallas, TX of Mexican ancestry. He never knew his Dad who left him when he was a little boy. At the age of five, he worked in the cotton fields. His focus was working from sun up to sun down, making what he could to help his family survive.
“The Merry Mex” or “Supermex,” nicknames given him early in his career, began playing as a young man when a family member gave him a few golf balls and a club. He snuck on to local courses and began to practice day in and day out. He later earned his living as a young man, as did I, caddying at the country clubs.
Lee’s swing is iconic and a bit unorthodox. It’s an outside in swing which puts the ball on a left to right trajectory called a fade. He deliberately created it to get rid of a chronic right to left ball flight which in golf they call a hook. He knew his weakness, made adjustments, and the block swing, as he described, served him well.
Since Lee didn’t have a television growing up, he never knew the marquee names in golf i.e. Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer. Well, that quickly changed. In fact, in his second year on tour, Trevino won the 1968 U.S. Open beating Jack in an 18 hole playoff. Lee won six majors in his career and Jack finished second to Lee four times. All told, Lee won 89 times on the PGA and Senior PGA tours and $3.4M in prize money.
Lee knows he didn’t have the greatest swing. In fact Bob Goalby, fellow competitor, told him he wouldn’t last very long on tour. So, what was Trevino’s magic sauce? He had passion for the game. He loved everything about it from practicing, to playing, camaraderie with players and fans, etc. Every moment was focused on his love, the game of golf.
So how about YOU? Do you love the game you’re playing? Is there a passion for what you do? Are you a business executive that’s stressed to the max? What would make your game fun again? Is your team performing at their highest level? The Team Advantage program might be just the magic sauce you’re looking for. Team Advantage is a game where I get your team to achieve an extraordinary goal in 16 weeks.
In all my years of coaching, I can instantly tell if a team is passionate about what they’re doing or simply going through the motions. If you don’t care about “the game,” your peers, management, and clients know it. People want to be around others that are excited about life and their profession. So this week, hit the pause button, and ask yourself, am I having fun? If not, Team Advantage is a process that will rejuvenate the leader and the team.