Keeping you in the game with a weekly heads up, the LPGA FORE Friday’s newsletter is chocked full of helpful golf tips for improving your skills. This week’s roundup features a prominent Chicago business achiever and golfer.
Meet Randelle Lenoir, a Vice President, Branch Leader for a financial services company in the Chicago area. A Michigan State graduate, Lenoir hails from a family of avid golfers residing in Lansing, but she admitted to her peers at the KPMG PGA Women’s Clinic at Westmoreland Country Club on Monday that she’s been reluctant to dive in – largely due to her ongoing struggles with perfectionism.
Lenoir served as the Clinic’s Leading Edge speaker during the lunch break and served up an inspiring, enlightening and motivational message around three powerful words and the novice mindset: a leadership strategy stemming from the eagerness and openness to trying something new.
“One of the things I’m working on personally is perfectionism,” shared Lenoir, who has tried to play golf a few times with her relatives, but typically gives up, thoroughly frustrated after the first couple of holes. “I don’t mean perfectionism like when you have an interview and they ask ‘What’s your greatest weakness?’ and you say, ‘Oh, you know, I’m a perfectionist,’” quipped Lenoir, and that got a big laugh. “Not like that,” smiled Lenoir. “I mean it in terms of how it holds you back from so much in life.”
Lenoir offered a simple mantra to the room that has helped curb her perfectionism, not only in life, but on the golf course with her team that very morning. Relax, relate, release.
Relax
Lenoir revealed a guilty pleasure: she watches Married at First Sight, a hit series on Lifetime that features couples getting married the first moment they meet. She described one couple on the show having a date that involved painting a sunset together. The husband was trying to have fun and the wife was picking out everything wrong with the painting.
“It made me think about how many times I am so focused on making something perfect and hitting the nail on the head that I don’t really allow myself to be present in a situation and have fun,” said Lenoir. “And now I think about this morning and being with my team, going through the stations – hitting an iron, putting and chipping – and just allowing myself to laugh at myself that I’m not hitting it perfectly, the way that I want to hit it, but then being in awe of myself when I do hit it. So, this teaches me so much about how I can carry this behavior into the rest of my life. How many times has perfectionism prevented me from enjoying the moment?”
This article originally appeared in LPGA Fore Friday‘s. Each week shares a few highlights in golf and let you know what’s coming up next so you can start (or stay in) conversations around the game. Each episode include tips for your personal game improvement and recognizes women who play (and lead) in business to inspire your own success.
