I was talking to someone who said something really insightful to me. She said “he’s got a great short game, but no long game.”  Wow. I understood exactly what she meant.

So, from an extreme amateur golfer’s view…you tee off on the teeing ground.  The goal is to sink the ball using the fewest number of strokes. Your short game: it’s when you need to sink the ball….it’s incredibly challenging.  But before you get to the putting green, you’re hundreds of yards away from the hole. That’s when you are going for distance..your drive shot.

So how does this translate to work?

When you think about any assignment at work, it’s about making as much progress as you can in the beginning, so as you come up to the due date, you have time/strokes to sink the putt. Like having a great drive that gets you on the putting green. You’re not wasting strokes.

If you have a short game, but don’t have a long game…you’re not able to get to the green fast enough. You’ll be great at crisis, troubleshooting, firefighting…because those are all short game plays.  It’s about reacting, not planning.

If you have a long game, but no short game, you can’t hit the target. You are great at execution when there’s less pressure, but you are challenged when there is pressure and things go wrong….you take too long to adapt and react.

I think people have propensities, but you need both. I would say my propensity is a long game player: I like to plan, organize, communicate, drive. I like to have as much time at the back end so I tend to try and cover as much ground as I can in the beginning of the project. But I definitely need to understand how to get the ball in the hole….otherwise the project comes in late, over budget, and not as expected. It doesn’t matter that I hit a great drive….I blew it at the end.

A consultant said to me “projects go wrong in the beginning and the end.” Absolutely right.

PS. I really love driving off the tee, and I really hate working on putting.