Dr. Gio Valiante in his excellent book entitled Fearless Golf (which is as much about managing our fears in life as it is about the golf course) quotes Tiger Woods as saying that he does not compete against other golfers in a tournament.  Rather, he competes against the course.  Consequently, even when he loses a tournament, he can celebrate if he bettered the best score he had ever achieved on that course.

Dr. Valiante calls golfers who have made this discovery Mastery Golfers.

Consequently, I was not surprised when I came across the quote on this poster from the master of the ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov, that he too has come to the conclusion to not compete against other dancers in his pursuit of excellence.  Rather he seeks to constantly achieve his own personal best.

A leader with any level of maturity has decided that comparison to others is fraught with counter-productive perils that will eventually negatively impact the effectiveness of his/her leadership:

• Possibly it will cause the leader to become discouraged if compared to someone with greater capacity or giftedness; and/or
• It might cause the leader to become complacent if compared with someone who has less capacity or giftedness than the leader.

In either case, the wise leader understands that s/he doesn’t have enough information about anyone else to ensure that s/he is making an apples to apples comparison.  Explore the poster entitled Social Masks for even more on this important subject.

Categories: Competitive Style, Concentration, Ego, Emotional Composure, Self Responsibility, Sociability