I had a chance to play a round of golf last Friday with a couple of friends. But there was another person to join the round of golf — a caddie. Caddies are not a usual component of my golf game. My skills certainly don’t warrant the use of a caddie. Nevertheless, I had the chance to play 18 holes with the use of a skilled and knowledgeable caddie.

Our caddie’s name was Doug. He didn’t look like a caddie. But, then again, I don’t look like a golfer. But he knew the course as well as Jack Nicklaus himself, the designer of the course. He knew every fairway, water hazard, and bunker. He told us where to aim and what areas to avoid. And he could read the greens with absolute precision. He used his knowledge and did everything that he could to set us up for success. All we had to do was to execute the shot. Simple. Not necessarily easy. But, simple to see once he showed us the way.

My friend that was hosting us on that day was a member of the club and knew the course very well having played it hundreds of times. But even he listened to Doug and followed Doug’s advice when it came to reading the greens and putting. I figured that if my friend was listening to the caddie’s advice, I should probably do the same.

The Leadership Lesson

Is there a leadership lesson in there somewhere? Yes. There are several. And here they are. But before we reveal them, it is important to note that you don’t have to be a great golfer to be a great caddie.

I have become a huge baseball fan over the past few years. I won’t go into why or how I became a baseball fan so late in life. But, trust me. It’s a good story.

I saw this quote one night a few years ago while skimming the sports news. Apparently, Yadier Molina, the catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals was thrown out for arguing balls and strikes with the home plate umpire Paul Schreiber on that particular night. Now according to the rules of baseball (both the written AND the unwritten ones) you can maybe mutter something under your breath to the umpire. But everyone knows you are going to get tossed out of the game if you argue balls and strikes. And both Molina and his manager Tony La Russa got tossed out of the game that night for doing just that.

But that is not the point of this post. What really struck me was the comments by his manager, Tony La Russa. La Russa knows Yadier Molina well and Molina has a reputation for being competitive, but good to work with from the home plate umpire’s perspective. Here is what La Russa said to the media following the game.

“You try to coach emotion in players, and that’s what competition is about,” La Russa said. “That’s not his style, so evidently he was sincere. And if he’s sincere, what can you say about it?”

Well, I can say a whole lot about it Mr. La Russa!

But what is the Leadership Lesson?