'The Tiger Woods Effect'

This weekend has seen the 2007 British Open Championship played at Carnoustie, Scotland. It ended in great drama with a play off between Padraig Harrington and Spain's Sergio Garcia. In the end, it was to be the first Irish win in the competition for sixty years. However, the pre-tournament favourite and and going for a three in a row was Tiger Woods, and this has given me the chance to talk a little about the most famous golfer of the moment.

There are a few definitions out there of what exactly the 'Tiger Woods Effect' is. I like to think of it in the following way. When Tiger Woods started off the only coach he had was his father. As he has got more and more successful he has had even more challenges to deal with in life. It was very recently, June 18th this year, that Tiger became a father for the first time and before this year's U.S. Open he expressed his desire to work hard at balancing life on and off the golf course.

When asked about how he planned to do just that he answered "Well, you just do. It's just time management and understanding where your priorities are, and our priorities are Sam. That's the one priority." "My mom and dad were always there for me, and I know I can't physically be there all the time," he says. "That's something that's going to be frustrating because you want to be there, and unfortunately I can't be there physically all the time, but I'll try and be there as much as I possibly can."

Though he has been the most successful golfer of recent years with 54 PGA tour wins to date, Tiger is still quite a way off the figures of legends such as Sam Snead (82) and Jack Nicklaus (73). Nicklaus also still holds the record of major tournament wins with 18 while Tiger stands at 12 and as we saw in this year's U.S. Open he has yet to come from behind on the final day to win a major. It would seem then that there are still quite a few professional goals for Tiger to meet.

It would appear that the higher up the ladder we go, the more support we need and this is what I want to refer to as the 'Tiger Woods Effect'. The better Tiger gets, the more he needs to improve until he becomes the best.

This is true in all contexts. An effective organisation will want to see its top people working in a way that inspires people around. Good managers and leaders want to become great managers and leaders. But, it can be lonely at the top. This is where a coach can be an effective and creative partner to maximise potential. Coaching is all about the client going from where they are now to where they ideally want to be. Coaches see their clients as having all the resources they need to achieve their success. Sometimes though, we aren't as focused on where we want to be with our personal and/or professional lives as we would want. Sometimes we get in the way of ourselves. A coach works in conjunction with the client to expand horizons, highlight possibilities, open up choices, develop strategies etc.

Coaching supports people to develop in ways that they may never have been able to otherwise. It moves people from good to great, from great to legendary.

One of Tiger's better moments!!

• Sports & NLP

For those of you interested in more on how you can apply NLP in a sports context, check out 'Optmising Sports Performance Using NLP' by Ted Garratt.

It's a really practical book with lots of very useful ideas for professionals and serious athletes as well as being a useful tool for the occasional player and complete beginner.

There is a variety of activities to help with warming up, practising, rehearsal, psyching up, becoming more relaxed and focusing attention. You can order the book from Amazon in the US or UK by clicking on the links below.

'Optimising Sports Performance Using NLP' - Amazon UK

'Optimising Sports Performance Using NLP' - Amazon US

Make it a great week, it's your choice.

My best

Séamus