By Peter Jeff
The Leadership Mints Guy

Here’s an idea on getting in touch with your humanity. Reading time: 6:11

You may know Jack Nicklaus – the famed Golden Bear– as the greatest professional golfer of all time.

But I got to know a very personal side of Jack Nicklaus -light years away from the golf course.

And in the process he taught me a lesson in personal leadership that I never forgot: Get in touch with your feelings -especially off the job- so that you can better focus your performance on the job.

It was 1973 and at 33 Jack Nicklaus was at the top of his game.

The Golden Bear so dominated the professional golf world that three weeks later he would break Bobby Jones’ 43-year record for winning the most major golf championships. That’s a record Nicklaus still holds today 40 years later, a record that Tiger Woods still needs five majors to break.

Back then, I was a newspaper reporter for The Miami Herald in Florida. I worked out of the newspaper’s West Palm Beach, just 9 miles from Jack Nicklaus’ home in North Palm Beach.

I Balked

On Tuesday afternoon, July 24, 1973 The Miami Herald got a news tip from Good Samaritan Medical Center in West Palm Beach that Jack Nicklaus would be visiting the nursery ward to see his fifth born child (Michael) for the first time.

My editor assigned me to interview Jack Nicklaus at the hospital. I balked. Continue reading →