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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
broke the hickory shaft of his club. Willie began wailing. Tom Penick, head
caddy and Harvey’s older brother, charged up to him and let him have it, then
gave him two rules. First, life isn’t always “fair”; second, if you want “to
change your life you have to change the way you think.” The words quieted
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Willie for the moment, but they stuck with Harvey for a lifetime.
As a golf coach and club pro, Harvey came to understand that some of his
players had an inordinate amount of talent, others only a moderate amount.
Talent, however, was only the starting point; what was more important was
attitude—how you approach practice and how long you practice translate into
how well you play the game. That insight is fundamental to coaching—getting
the individual to understand that his or her ultimate success or failure will
begin with an attitude of how. To put it another way, coaching begins with
preparation, preparing to improve one step at a time.

It was always Harvey Penick’s philosophy that if a player was prepared for the
little things, that player would be prepared to handle the major challenges that
he or she would encounter while playing in tight games, where one decision or
one movement could determine a championship. More important, Penick, like
all good coaches, was a teacher, and he was preparing his players for the larger
arena: life after college, after sports—in the “real world.”
Preparation is one of the greatest lessons any coach can teach his or her
players. Preparation is really another word for investment, and that is essen-
tially what coaching, or teaching, is all about: It is an investment of time and
care in the life of another individual that prepares that individual for the chal-
lenges that lie ahead. The challenge may be a project that needs completing, a
new job that needs tackling, or the selection of a new career path. Coaching is
the investment in human capital that opens the door for individual and organi-
zational performance improvement.
Leadership communication leads to a personal connection between leader
and follower. This connection can form the foundation of a coaching relation-
ship that enables the leader to challenge the individual to achieve while pro-
viding support built upon trust.
Coaching is also a key leadership behavior. Effective leadership, after all,
is an investment in the good of others for the good of the whole group. Lead-
ers who succeed are those who incorporate the agendas of others into their
own agendas. Leaders who coach are essential to the health of every organi-
zation. Good leaders are natural coaches in their own right. Some business
leaders serve as cheerleaders for the achievements of their teams; they want
the teams to win and succeed. Other leaders work one-on-one, or behind the