Lessons From Tiger
“One of the thing that my parents have taught me is never listen to other people’s expectations. You should live your own life and live up to your own expecta
tion, and those are the only things I really care about” – Tiger Woods
Tiger Woods is a legendary golf athlete and perhaps the only athlete who could generate an income of USD 1 billion at 31 years of age. But this is not about his income we’re going to talk about. It’s about his life lessons and beliefs that led him to success. He has three simple principles; simple yet powerful that he persistently use in his way up, both in his career and his life.
Principle 1: Smile at Obstacles
You might be caught with surprise with his statement that said he smiles whenever faced with obstacles. Instead of complaining and whining, like most of people do, or avoiding, even run away from problems. He smiles because he sees an opportunity that could make him tougher if he solved it, and even though he failed, he believes he will learn something from it. Also, he smiles because he thinks that his faith is far more greater than any obstacles he faces.
Ralph Waldo Emerson’s has quoted “Whatever happened now and in the future are small compared with what resides in us“, that means a champion knows that he will always overcome challenges, because he has what it takes to do that.
The heart of champion will not fear from problems, instead challenged by them. Challenges were created for us to overcome with. It is indeed a gift from Above.
Principle 2: My Will Can Move Mountains
His enormous will has many time separate him from the typical. He believes that when he wanted something, he will get it. It is true, however that he did not necessarily won all tournaments. But he is the best from the rest, because his strong will create focus, which lead to concentration on one single purpose.
Principle 3: I Will Do It With All My Heart
His love in golf is so deep, he thinks, talks, and does, all has relation with the sport. It is almost impossible to beat someone who loves his job that much. It is nonsense for anyone who is enthusiastic in his work have to worry about his life. Every opportunities in the world are waiting for these people to have them. He spends hours everyday to work on his swings. When someone loves his job, no obstacles are big enough for them.
Image by mslikk
Take Monkeys Off Their Shoulders
One of the primary duty of leaders is to develop their people, that includes sharpen their competence in problem solving and decision making. So you have to realize that the danger from load of tasks that will occur if you take over their works. But what if you are being held on a deadline and somebody ask you to handle ‘one or more monkeys’ – problems that should be dealt by sub-ordinates, popular terminology that was introduced by William Oncken Jr. and Donald L. Wass in their article “Management Time: Who’s Got The Monkey?” from Harvard Business Review 1974.
Here are few tips that you can possibly do.
1. Let Them Work
To many people, the pathway to effective delegation starts with studying two basic assumption of their roles. First, a lot of managers believe that handling their people’s problems is a faster and more effective than teach them to handle it themselves. Second, they also believe that they know more from their people.
These assumptions, will only raise the need of managers to break the problem and make decisions, instead of delegating and empowering their men. To deal with this problem, you have to position yourself as a leader, not a manager. Managers deal with details, while leaders, on the contrary, raise sense of belonging and responsibilities in their people.
2. Ask, Don’t Tell
Professional delegator choose to ask their men, rather than dictate the solution to them.
The question “What is it that you think should be done?” stimulates people to come with solutions when they approach you. Another additional questions like “What is the effect of this action?” or “What is it that we need to pay attention to if we are to go your way?” could also reveal how far have they think about the solution to the problem.
3. Match Person With The Job
Avoid adding your current jobs with handling your people’s problem. This can only happen if managers delegate the right job to the right people, according to each competence and potential.
Steven R. Covey stressed about delegation based on interest. “Find out the best outcome and the most preferred job of your people” he said “Then combine their unique talents and interests with job needs. When people work with interest and desire, they don’t need guidance. They will eventually create creative solutions independently.”
4. Cultivate Independent Thinking
If someone manages to think independently and feel that he own his job, then he will definitely bring less problem to his boss.
Shane Pliska, Business Development Director of Planterra, a landscape interior company, uses “monkey rating”, a method extracted from Oncken and Wass’ article. “We ask the workers to self assess their problems with numbers,” she said. “One means your manager solved it for you. Two means your manager told you the solution and you follow the solution, three means you proposed a solution and seek approval from your manager, while four means you took action, solve the problem, and let you manager know afterwards.”
When people came to their boss’s chamber, managers will ask “what number is on your current problem?” To raise the sense of belonging, Planterra managers encourages their people to have number four on every problem as much as possible.
5. Connect Them With Resources
Connecting your people with resources will also help you reduce your load. Think about the term “resource” in wider perspective, like human, tools, information, and opportunities that can help your men to work independently. Being the matchmaker between your people to the resources is actually not hard at all, like “You can talk to Mr X in marketing division.”
So, take that monkey of their shoulders immediately, let them deal with their own monkeys, because you already have your own, right?
