What Disc Golf Can Teach Us About Business

Introduction

I like to play disc golf. For the unfamiliar, disc golf is played outside and it’s like golf but with a basket and a frisbee looking saucer disc. You want to get as low of a score as possible. Disc golf courses are typically found in parks and will have a “par” for each hole (basket). This the number of shots, or less, you are trying to take before it goes in the basket. A course will usually have 9 or 18 baskets.

I like to play disc golf because it provides an excuse to get outside, a meetup activity for time with friends, and a game that I can get better at over time. I keep a bag of discs in my car and will check out new courses as I visit places. I am not ultra competitive or particularly talented at disc golf. Yet, I have seen my game steadily improve since I started playing over a year ago. In fact, I’ve noticed 6 simple steps I took to improve my game. These areas have impact on our business as well.

This article isn’t actually about disc golf. It’s simply an excuse to align our interests. I share some anecdotes (and some photos of local courses) on a hobby of mine while drawing a parallel to applications within business. Read along as I share my observations on lessons disc golf has taught me, and how we can apply them outside of it.

Preparation

Disc Golf: My best games have included a small practice session before playing. Taking the time to warm up with some putts and mid range shots goes along way to lower the final score. The practice helps me refine my form, locking in my muscle memory as I get a feel for accuracy and range. Preparation creates confidence which shows up during the game. Preparation has also taken the form of reviewing the last time I played.

Image: Lake Julian Asheville, NC 

Mentally recalling what went right and what did not can help ensure I am evolving from the learnings I have collected. Taking the time to prepare for a shot BEFORE taking it also leads to a better chance of success. I don’t always prepare before playing disc golf. Sometimes I simply go play without a warm up or put any thought into the game before it begins. Sometimes I rush the shot, stepping right up and throwing the disc. More often than not, the lack of preparation shows up in the final score.

Business: Preparation can help improve your business game as well. Client presentations resonate better with an audience that has been researched, where the presenter has taken the time to get familiar with the companies strengths and core values. Teams that regularly review the goals, priorities and objectives execute at a higher level than teams that assume everyone knows it. Think through what could go wrong and prepare for alternatives and audibles. Can you have success by winging it? Sure. But this is not as predictable as when good preparation has taken place. Like Abraham Lincoln once said “Give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first 4 sharpening the axe”. Preparation is a large part of reaching the end destination successfully.

Focus

Disc Golf: My personal best game I ever played (at least at the time of this writing) can be attributed to focus. I showed up the course with a simple goal to focus on.

Shoot for pars.

After reviewing my most recent game I realized that I struggled for consistency. My score varied wildly from basket to basket.

Image: Richmond Hills, Asheville, NC

In my previous games I was trying to ace an extremely challenging shot far too often. Instead of playing it safe I was taking shots that would take a miracle to go in the basket. If I missed badly, which was often the case, it would result in an additional challenging shot. I changed my focus from trying to sink these hard shots to an approach that aimed to simply get closer to the basket. I wasn’t focusing on making the basket. I was focusing on getting closer. I was focusing on putting my next shot in a better position. This realization and attention impacted my score. I was able to stay consistent and lower the total throws I needed by maintaining a focus on trying for the pars.

Business: Focus can be extremely powerful in business. If you are like me you have probably noticed that ideas are rarely in short supply. Creative and passionate people are always looking for the next idea and wanting to be sure the business is not missing out. A sea of creative ideas exist for getting more customers, brainstorming a new product, or how to better position a brand. Suggestions and solutions that begin with “we should” are common place in business. Execution, however, not as much. This paradigm is true for a majority of companies and those successful typically have a laser like focus. Knowing which ideas to say no to and which ideas support the current focus of the organization is a decisive quality in a leader. Otherwise we burn energy, dollars and resources on ideas that are not supporting the core objective anyway. Purpose, contributing to something real, is a big part of employee engagement. If you order up meaningless work due to a lack of focus, it diminishes the value of your team. What are the top 3 objectives for your business right now? What is the order of importance? If you do not know, it might be time to pull some irons out of the fire and focus.

Patience

Disc Golf: I was playing a game of disc golf recently when I overheard a group a few baskets behind me. One of the players had missed a shot badly and their friend commented,
“Whoa, you let go of that really early”.

Their response was a frustrated, “I KNOW! I SUCK SO BAD AT THIS! UGH!”

l found this funny because the frustration was something I could personally relate to.

Image: Fletcher Hall, Asheville, NC

So much anger over a game on a beautiful afternoon. Willing to bet their next few holes didn’t go much better.

Any game of skill is going to require patience and practice to get better at. Yet the misses often chew at us and we find ourselves wishing we were better. We get impatient with ourselves and don’t draw out the lessons we likely need in that moment and give up on the game. Patience teaches us a long term perspective over immediate results. Patience understands things evolve and morph and improve. With disc golf, like any hobby, improving wasn’t immediate. It took some patience.

Business: You do not need to look too hard to find the valuable business lessons patience can teach us. Patiently developing client or partner relationships will ultimately determine the level of rapport you will one day have with them. Relationships are extremely hard to rush. Authentic ones are impossible. Patience is extremely admirable, as it gives the proper space for the people to be themselves. A culture that is patiently developing the skills of their employees is certainly creating an engaging safe space to work. Patience is needed in developing new products, where it is rare things go perfectly to plan. Patience teaches us to not rush, to ensure our strategy is sound all while encouraging a mindset of flexibility. Rome indeed was not built in one day. If it was, I doubt we would find a desire to visit.

Stamina

Disc Golf:
I often play disc golf with a friend. Early on I found that I would usually be beating him on the first 9 baskets but later he would come back surging back and win the game. I was running out of energy. My stamina was poor.

Image: Highland Brewing, Asheville, NC 

To fix it, I stopped taking extra junk shots and paid more attention to my pace. I starting packing electrolytes and fueling my body better. I became aware and reminded myself to finish strong. These slight changes made a difference and helped me maintain a lead. We see this all the time in sports. A fast start, then the other team catches up and the game comes down the wire. The one that finishes strong takes it. And to finish strong, you need stamina.

Business:
Stamina is needed in business as well. You don’t need your colleagues in peak performance condition (although the company kickball games would be fun), but you do need the stamina to finish strong. The processes we develop, they need to be able to work within the resources we have, not just one day a week. Every day. Otherwise, it’s not well developed. Or releasing a new product. That takes an incredible amount of stamina. Does your idea have the stamina to be successful? To go through the market research? To have a prototype brought to life? To have it picked apart by user groups and customer testing? To stand out against the the competition? To make it compliant in global markets? To maintain costs and hit the target margin? To have a marketing campaign built that can cut through the noise and inform prospects the unique value of your product? I mean…I am just tired typing all those questions! In business, those who finish strong are remarkable. Starting is easy in business. It may feel hard, and getting organizational buy in is indeed tough work. But not nearly as challenging as pulling it all off. Business will always need more people who can finish strong. Always.

Fun

Disc Golf: I improve at disc golf simply because I enjoy going. It’s not as hard to practice something that you want to do. How did I learn how to throw a disc further? I enjoyed showing up. I remind myself of the reasons I like to play. That I am getting the benefit of exercise while playing a game. That I am outside breathing in the fresh air. I take time to enjoy the scenery and take in a view before a shot. To be grateful I can do this activity.

Image: Fletcher Hall, Asheville, NC 

If I get frustrated due to playing poorly, I take my discs and go home because games are supposed to be fun.

Business:
I wouldn’t be surprised if there is some skepticism on how “fun” helps us improve our business. We can’t just pick up our discs and go home. True, but fun emphatically helps improve our business. I am not talking about forced trust falls and bowling. I am talking about a culture that recognizes we are all humans who greatly desire to be happy. Leadership is one imperfect human trying their best with a bunch of other imperfect humans also trying their best. As leaders we play a big part in someones life. Strike a balance between a constant get to work mindset and cracking a few jokes with the employees, or genuinely inquiring about things they care about - their life. Doing so creates the kind of culture of engagement many companies are desperately failing at. Pizza parties dont always equal fun. But properly celebrating a big team accomplishment, how the team wants to, is a good start. Plus it will improve the spirit of your team, and future projects will benefit. That is fun.

Luck

Disc Golf:
Sometimes the disc bounces off a tree the right way. Sometimes it goes in the lake.

Image: Lake Julian, Asheville, NC 

Sometimes the disc will roll 20 extra feet the right direction. Sometimes it will roll 40 feet the wrong direction and get lost forever. I’ve found the biggest factor with luck is what happens on the next shot. Perhaps a bit of good fortune gives enough of a reason to take a bigger risk on the next attempt. When luck doesn’t go my way how am I responding? I can’t afford to lose focus or get impatient. I’ll invite the luck to double down and become even worse. I need to ensure this was some bad luck on one shot and not carry that over into the rest of the game.

Business: Like in a game, luck exists in business as well. We are often faced with factors outside our control. We may have clear strategy and objectives but luck doesn’t pay them any attention. The current economic or political climate can feel like luck. The entry of a new product into the market can be good or bad timing luck. External events like changes to regulation or natural disasters can be impossible to predict yet have large impacts on our business. Again, the importance is in how we respond to these good and bad breaks. Is our business set up well with cash flow reserves to handle some bad luck, should it unfortunately appear? Are we taking advantage of good luck and fortunes by quickly pivoting attention and resources to sudden areas of opportunity? Luck has a way of opening and closing doors. Our business must have the self awareness to realize when a new opportunity should be explored or when it is time to move on.

Summary

I hope this article proves helpful. Thank you for letting me share my observations and thoughts on an activity I like to do, and how it related to your business. Leave a comment if you have any questions or observations to share. If you like this type of content then please subscribe to my newsletter, where I periodically summarize my learnings. If you would like to talk more about your business (or play a game of disc golf) then please drop me a note.