If Bubba Were a CEO...
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So I am watching TV, I think it was ESPN, and they have hauled out an old 2010 interview with Bubba Watson, the improbable and irrepressible winner of this year's utterly unpredictable Masters Tournament. Bubba is smiling, hitting shots off the staged practice area, and telling a story about how he once demo'd a new golf club by playing an entire round with only that club. He shot a 77. "I figured after that it was worth putting in my bag," he joked. After all, for Bubba, golf is all about having fun.

The sound you heard post-Augusta was the groaning of golf pros everywhere who anticipated their lesson schedules would be a lot lighter. If if Bubba Watson can play like that, NEVER HAVING TAKEN A GOLF LESSON IN HIS LIFE, then why shouldn't the rest of us save a few bucks and just get out there, have fun and PLAY?

Nothing seems to faze the guy. On Sunday he was so deep in the woods he couldn't see, and he went ahead and hit a gap wedge shot on the 10th hole that somehow hooked and landed on the green, setting up a simple par that helped him win the tournament. In pre-final round coverage Sunday morning, not a single TV sports anchor or pro-turned-announcer had uttered Bubba's name in the same sentence with the word contender. It didn't occur to anyone, including Bubba, that he could be bear-hugging his proud mom on the 18th moments after the major of majors. And the round of his life. "I never really had a dream that went this far," he mused after the most misty-eyed green jacket ceremony in the history of the game...So I can't really say it is a dream come true."

All this got me thinking. If Bubba were a CEO, what would he do? "I attack, I always attack," he told reporters at the post tournament news conference. "I want to hit the incredible shot. Who doesn't?" he asked. "That's why we play the game of golf, to pull off the amazing shot."

Think about it. If Bubba were CEO, he would be taking shots! And those flying balls of courage would not only have a good chance of going in the hole, they would thrill a crowd of employees who cheer for a leader who actually, genuinely, truly just loves to GO for it.

The 'splainin' about Bubba's success seems to get boiled down to a consensus that he is a "natural." Personally I don't believe in the concept of a natural...in golf or in business. What I do believe is that when you go to work every day remembering to find the fun and be YOU, you put yourself and everybody around you at ease and invite success to your game. When you are having fun and relying on your wits, you eventually fall naturally into your swing. If you worry about nothing but winning and that makes you lose sight of the purpose of it all, it feels, well, mechanical.

Taking nothing but safe shots? What fun is that? Eventually the stress of trying to do everything by the golf lesson textbook makes you an early candidate for heart disease. "I don't play the sport for fame," explains Bubba.. "It's just me. I'm Bubba. I just want to be me and play golf."

I don't mean to be cavalier here about the responsiblity on your shoulders, whether for a team, a division, a business, a function or a company... but come on people, what in the heck are we doing, if we aren't having fun? And being ourselves? I am giving myself the same lecture I am giving you. At the beginning of the year when the president of our company and I sat down to review his goals I made him put "fun" on his list. Two months later when I was stressing out about something I can't even remember, he came back and told me I needed to put fun on my list, too. Right he was.

The part about just getting out there and playing? I guess Bubba's dad taught him the basic grip and swing when he was ten, and he took it from there. And so it is with successful leaders in general. They just get on with it. A lot of the ones I have known and admired over the years have these Bubba-esque qualities. If they hit a bad shot? So what? Get back in the game. Land in the trap? No worries. You'll learn how to get yourself out of a bind. It will build your confidence. Don't sweat it. I dont know about you but I am going to go to work today ... and channel a little inner Bubba. Hubba Hubba!!