Dr. Richard Coop is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of North Carolina. He is also a consultant in the areas of mental skills training and performance to all various types of athletic organizations. Dr. Coop seems to specialize with professional golfers as the following are just a few of his previous clients:
- Payne Stewart
- Corey Pavin
- Ben Crenshaw
- Mark O’Meara
- Scott Simpson
- Nick Faldo
- And many, many more.
Dr. Coop’s clients have won six British Opens, four U.S. Opens, four PGA Championships and seven Master’s. He is also the author of Mind Over Golf: How to Use Your Head to Lower Your Score: How to Use Your Head to Lower Your Score.
The Frequency Of Leadership Challenges
Dr. Coop makes an interesting observation in the book One Heartbeat: The Road To The National Championship regarding the relationship between happiness and the challenges a person faces in life. He said, “If you wait until everything in your life going perfectly in order to be happy, you won’t be happy very often. Learning to accept the fact that you will have challenges, almost daily is a very important aspect of having a satisfying and fulfilling life.”
There are several realities we glean from his comment:
- Perfect circumstances are a myth and an illusion.
- Leaders accept challenges as a fact.
- Successful leaders accept challenges as a daily fact.
- Successful leaders who accept challenges as a daily fact are the ones most likely to have a satisfying and fulfilling life.
The Amount Of Daily Leadership Challenges
As you read above, Dr. Coop teaches us that successful leaders will have daily challenges. But then he goes a step further to explain how many challenges a leader will face on a daily basis.
He said, “I tell golfers I work with to be prepared to handle at least three challenges each round. If there are more challenges one day, then borrow from tomorrow.”
Dr. Coop teaches a leader will face a minimum of three challenges per day, perhaps more.
Think about what he is saying. Leadership is synonymous with daily issues that need to be addressed. This is why the best leaders are associated with solutions. One of the fundamental roles of a leader is to solve problems. This is one of the reasons why you are in a leadership position.
The challenges needing solutions leaders can provide could be any of the following:
- Culture issues
- Problems at home with a spouse, child, aging parent, sibling or other family member.
- Marketplace issues
- Employee issues
- Cash flow problems
- Technology issues
- Health concerns
- Vendor problems
- Customer service issues
- Regulatory concerns
- Properly handling success or failure
- And many, many more.
As a leader, you must take time every day to anticipate problems and proactively address them. So be prepared. If you fail to do so, you will learn the hard way that a leader who is often blindsided is a leader who is rarely trusted.
One Final Thought On Daily Leadership Challenges
Leaders often default to motivational speeches when faced with challenges. This approach could be viewed as inauthentic and manipulative. Dr. Coop said, “Motivational techniques that are not consistent with how the leader lives his or her life will not work. They become gimmicks, because they are perceived as phony by the team, whether it is a football team or a business team or children in a family reacting to a parent.”
So leaders, prepare for challenges and be ready to offer solutions. Because you have at least three coming today!
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