This weekend, I took my wife and son golfing. At one point in time a few years back,theyhad bothreceived lessons and played quite frequently. However,after a few years off of the fairway, they had forgotten a few fundamentals about the golf swing. Many of us, no matter how amateur or expert we may be, know that the golf swingis not an easy thing to conquer. Out on the course, I tried to keep it simple and continued to remind them about two of the most important things every time you hit the ball:keep your head down and come around. While I could probably write a pieceon about how to perfect the golf swing, I promise this blog is not just about coaching my family’s golf games, but rather, how these two golfing fundamentals reminded me of my Service Management work and how I often need to remind myself of the same things professionally. Please allow me to explain…

KEEP YOUR HEAD DOWN

I think about the many distractions that take our eyes off the mission. Maybe that mission is a Service Management Transformation or even an improvement effort within your organization. None the less, we as professionals are always challenged with distractions and it is very important to remain focused on the mission. The analogy in golf is that you should always keep your head down and your eyes on the ball rather than lifting your head during your swing and looking where you think the ball should go. Stay focused on the mission and yield cautiously when distractions arrive. We all know they will arrive. If you aim in the right direction and keep your head down and eyes on the ball, you have a better chance of hitting your target.

COME AROUND

This fundamental reminds me to follow through. We all have the ability to become good communicators. Communication, I have learned over many years, is the one of the primary keys to success. It’s not easy with all of the distractions and demands coming our way. However, if you apply better communications to your efforts, you will have accountability in yourself and other stakeholders on your efforts to actually follow through on the details. The golf analogy on follow through refers to making a good swing at the ball and not chopping at the ball. If you chop at the ball, you tend to lose distance, speed, and accuracy. Does this sound familiar with our Service Management efforts? Don’t take short cuts and expect a good result. Be diligent, follow through and communicate, and your chances of achieving your desired results have a winning chance of hitting the target. I’ll keep working on family’s golf swing,and certainly on my own professional fundamentals, and hope this has encouraged you to do the same.Stay tuned for my next piecewhere I will provide you a real world exampleof where we corrected a situation by following these two steps…