As many of us prepare to watch The Open Championship, one of
the leading contenders will be the US Open Champion Rory McIlroy. McIlroy conquered the rest of the field in
historic fashion just a few weeks ago at Congressional Country Club outside
Washington D.C. His 8 shot victory was the largest at the US Open since Tiger
Woods back in 2000. He also became the youngest winner of that event at 22
years old since Bobby Jones in 1923. We believe there are some critical
leadership lessons we can learn from Rory.
What makes this victory even more impressive was that when
we had last seen Rory McIlroy in a major before the US Open, he self-destructed
during the final round of The Masters in Augusta, GA back in April. He started
the final Sunday with a 4 shot lead and had one arm in the winner’s green
jacket. However, some 5 hours later he carded a final round 80 and finished in
a tie for 15th place.
Following the Masters many people in the media wondered if
McIlroy would ever get his confidence back to compete at golf’s most elite
level. Most people thought it would certainly take longer than the 2 months
between the Masters and the US Open. However,
McIlroy used the Masters as a learning experience and was able to achieve even
higher performance at the US Open.
“Going back to Augusta this year, I felt like that was a
great opportunity to get my first major. It didn’t quite work out,” McIlroy
said. “But to come back straightaway at the U.S. Open and win, that is nice.
You can always call yourself a major champion, and hopefully after this, I can
call myself a multiple major champion.”
So what does this mean for us as leaders? McIlroy’s meltdown,
unfortunately for him, happened to take place in front of millions of people on
worldwide television. However, the need
to learn from mistakes and setbacks is no different for a professional athlete
than it is for a business leader who mangles a presentation at a board meeting
or mishandles a client relationship.
Thankfully our mistakes don’t get broadcast worldwide! But we’ve all been there, particularly
earlier in our careers, and well, later too.
Rory is an inspiring example we can learn from.
The key leadership
lesson that comes across observing his progress is that a leader has to be able
to think strategically about the future and build on the past.
The past,
for many of us as senior leaders, is filled with success stories but also
lessons learned. It has been said that the “people who don’t learn from history
are bound to repeat it”. Leaders who don’t learn from their mistakes are
certainly asking to make those same mistakes again.
The higher performing leaders are the ones who are able to
apply the following simple process to both positive and negative events in
their career development:
1. What went well
about the event? For McIlroy, he was able to have the experience of leading
a major championship for three rounds even though he was not able to close it
out. Every successful leader can look back on achievements that you would
definitely want to have again, and the key is not to forget those successes
even when debriefing a negative event. If you can cement those factors that
went well, you will know what to do again.
2. What can we
improve upon? At the Masters, McIlroy definitely would say that he could
improve upon how he played the final round. ”Going back to Augusta, the first
three days I played aggressively. I played smartly but I played aggressively to
my targets” said McIlroy. “And then on Sunday, I started to play defensively,
and that’s when things can go wrong.” As a leader you should always take the
time after a setback or frustration to reflect individually, have a discussion
with those people involved and also talk to an individual or group of people
you trust about what you could have done differently. Taking the time to
reflect upon negative experiences while they are fresh in your mind is a
valuable experience to go through in order to crystallise the necessary
improvements.
3. What will you do
differently next time? For McIlroy, he needed to convince himself to stay
in the moment and maintain his strategy during the final round of a major if it
was working for the first three rounds. As he learned the hard way, the mistake
he made at the Masters was to shift his strategy so that he was playing not to
lose, rather than playing to win. As leaders, you need to prepare for the next
time you are going to be in a similar situation and know how you will improve
upon your performance when given the opportunity. While this process is
certainly not rocket science, it offers a very helpful way to go for leaders to
learn and debrief experiences, either positive or negative. Sports coaches will
often say that it is easier to learn from a win, but that the learning is
always more deeply felt after a loss. Therefore when we make mistakes – as we
all do, especially if we are filling a new leadership role or trying to be
innovative – then we need to learn from these mishaps so that don’t happen
again.
Golf and life in general offer an endless supply of
leadership lessons that we can learn from and apply to our business careers.
For Rory McIlroy, he was able to build on his successful achievements,
including leading the Masters for 63 holes out of the total 72, rather than
getting pulled down by his one bad round. When he was faced with a similar
situation two months later at the US Open, he led for the entire championship
and closed the tournament strongly. Now heading into this week’s Open
Championship, he is hoping to continue that streak for another 72 holes and
claim the Claret Jug.
Part of today’s personal leadership is about
resiliency. The ability to bounce back
after setbacks is more needed today than perhaps any time in our lifetimes.
