From the Golf Course to the Workplace: How Athletic Skills Prepare You for Business Success

Published by Lauren Brychell

Did your parents ever push you to be a high-performing athlete growing up in hopes that it would set you apart from your peers? If you’re like me and they did, you may not have realized their efforts to build your extracurricular resume likely helped mold you into a values-driven person with a go-getter attitude.

By participating in athletic sports, individuals are often put in a competitive setting that helps them develop the invaluable soft skills needed to succeed in their careers—traits employers desire.

Positive Thinking, Strong Mindset

First up—mindset. In order to play a great game, you’ve got to be in a winning, positive-thinking headspace.

Speaking from experience as a college golfer, maintaining a positive mindset was essential to performing well because golf is such a mental game. If you go out onto the first tee in a bad mood—say after a bad session on the range—there’s a good chance that you’ll have trouble focusing. You would likely be distracted by the negative cloud in your head, thinking about the “shanks” you had an hour ago.

The key to improving your efforts is flipping that negativity around by giving yourself positive words of affirmation. If you tell yourself that you are going to hit the shot straight down the fairway, there’s a good chance you’ll achieve it as you’ve pinpointed your focus on the present moment situation.

See It, Believe It, Achieve It

The next important skill athletes learn is visualization—an important key that will change the way that you execute.

If there’s a big lake on the right side of the fairway, many coaches will often tell you to avoid looking at the water. Why? Because once it’s on your mind, you’re more likely to hit the ball there. The solution—ignore it completely and focus on what you need to do. Close your eyes and visualize where you want to hit the ball before you take your shot.

Visualization trains your mind to shut out distractions and get laser-focused on the task at hand. Whether it be a big project at work, or your putt for birdie, looking into the future and picturing the outcome has a huge impact on what the outcome will be.

Team Players Create Empowered Leaders

Being a part of a team can be challenging, therefore, learning how to lead and work with your team is arguably one of the most important skills for anyone to learn.

In the professional world, as we all know too well, you can’t pick your teammates. Knowing how to navigate difficult personalities and respect differences of opinions are essential skills in learning to work with others.

In addition, being a good leader and role model to your teammates helps build respect, foster productivity and establish comradery that makes it much easier—and more fun—to work with each other. For example, having served as team captain, I quickly elevated my leadership skills because the role required increased professionalism, communication and integrity.

Rising to the Challenge

Lastly, having the ability to work under pressure is a vital step to successfully playing your sport, and succeeding in business.

Learning to work well under pressure is a skill that is priceless when it comes to business. During my golfing career, the moment that helped me build this skill was being scouted by college coaches. Although it was an extremely nerve-wracking moment, the skills I’ve discussed throughout this blog not only strengthened my mentality but also improved my performance.

Putting yourself in a positive mindset and visualizing the outcome you’d like to achieve play a big role in intense moments of pressure. If you tell yourself “there’s no way I’m good enough” or doubt yourself in any way, you’re just unnecessarily squashing any opportunity you might’ve had.

Success takes tenacity and confidence. Whether in golf or business, you’re always going to have to put in the work, and then believe in yourself. And with these skills, you can achieve anything you set your mind to.