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The Dharma of Digital Leadership: What Golf Taught Me About Leading Through AI Chaos

Alok Lall, Former Executive Director, McCann Worldgroup, pens a piece on what golf taught him about leading through AI chaos with curiosity, humility, and a 'next swing' mindset

BY Alok Lall
14th August 2025
The Dharma of Digital Leadership: What Golf Taught Me About Leading Through AI Chaos

Thirty-two years building brands, leading teams, winning pitches—and here I am, an agency veteran, getting schooled by ChatGPT like a weekend hacker hitting into the water hazard for the fifth consecutive time. But sometimes the universe delivers its most profound lessons wrapped in the most humbling packages.

Yesterday, while locked in my daily combat with Claude (yes, I've personalized my AI relationships—judge me later), I had an epiphany that took me straight back to last weekend's disastrous round at the Delhi Golf Club. This isn't about to become a sports lecture, but rather the most practical leadership revelation I've uncovered in decades.

Every golfer knows the fundamental truth: It's never about the shot you just shanked—it's always about the next swing. In our AI-intoxicated landscape, this principle has become my north star for leadership: Focus on the next experiment, not the last failure.

For six months, I've been systematically challenging every AI platform I can access. Not from some twisted digital sadism, but because authentic leaders must pioneer from the rough—especially when that rough feels terrifying, ambiguous, and reduces seasoned professionals to fumbling beginners searching for their lost ball.

My discovery? Tomorrow's leadership champions won't be those with the largest AI war chests—they'll be those brave enough to play from the tips while everyone else is safely hitting from the forward tees.

Consider how Satya Nadella revolutionized Microsoft's DNA. When he assumed command, he didn't pretend he'd been playing this course his whole life. Instead, he championed what I call "beginner's mind"—like a scratch golfer willing to completely rebuild their swing. His learn-by-doing approach transformed Microsoft from a team that blamed the wind for every bad shot into players who adapted their game to any conditions. Today, their AI dominance stems not just from superior technology, but from nurturing a culture where every round is a learning opportunity.

Marc Benioff at Salesforce exemplifies this beautifully. Rather than hiding behind the clubhouse bar after a bad round, he shares his entire game openly—the eagles, the double bogeys, the miraculous recoveries. When Einstein GPT debuted, Benioff wasn't safely watching from the pro shop—he was on the first tee, playing through, acknowledging when he was out of bounds. That's championship leadership in action.

Here's what I've learned from both golf and AI: Our greatest opponent isn't the technology or the course conditions—it's the voice in our head telling us we should already know how to play this game.

I observe leaders fragmenting into predictable foursomes: The AI Rejectors ("This new equipment is just marketing hype") and the AI Posers ("I've been playing with these clubs for years"). Both reactions spring from identical roots—the paralyzing fear of looking like a beginner on the first tee.

Authentic leadership demands a revolutionary third approach: The AI Learners. Leaders who embrace their high handicap while committing to daily practice.

This transforms leadership by example from concept to competitive advantage.

When Unilever's former CEO Alan Jope began transparently documenting his AI education—including spectacular failures—he was like a club champion willing to play with beginners and teach them openly. When L'Oréal's Nicolas Hieronimus publicly committed to dedicating two morning hours daily to AI applications, he was essentially saying, "I'm hitting balls on the range every day because this game matters too much to wing it."

The best golfers understand something profound: Every shot is independent. Your drive on the 18th hole has nothing to do with the water ball you hit on the 3rd. In AI leadership, this translates to understanding that every prompt crafted, every tool explored, every setback encountered—it's all just practice swings preparing you for the shot that counts.

I've started documenting "AI Transparency Moments"—unscripted explorations where I demonstrate my latest experiments publicly. Not highlight reels, but the real round including the bad lies and tough breaks. Last month, I spent forty-five minutes failing spectacularly while attempting to generate a compelling narrative for a century-old heritage brand. Like working through a difficult bunker shot, the journey from frustration through iteration to breakthrough revealed more about AI's true potential than months of theoretical discussions.

Think about tennis for a moment. Roger Federer lost almost as many matches as he won, yet he's considered the GOAT. Why? Because he understood that greatness isn't about never missing—it's about how quickly you recover from the miss and set up for the next point.

Modern leaders must embody this athletic mindset—focused on the next play, not the last mistake.

Reed Hastings at Netflix mastered this principle. During his CEO transition, he didn't just hand over the playbook—he meticulously documented his learning process like a coach breaking down game film. His vulnerability became organizational strength because everyone could see that even champions are always studying their form.

Sundar Pichai elevates this approach. Beyond championing AI initiatives, he demonstrates real-time learning during public appearances, using AI tools live like a pro athlete trusting their training in the clutch moment. It's not showboating; it's authentic performance under pressure.

But here's the game-changer—and this is where sports psychology meets business strategy: The moment you think you've mastered AI, you're like a golfer who stops taking lessons after breaking 80. The course keeps changing. The conditions vary daily. Peak performance requires perpetual coaching, perpetual practice, perpetual willingness to rebuild your swing when it's not working.

This became my daily discipline: Every morning, I dedicate thirty minutes to breaking something with AI. I push platforms beyond their designed parameters like attempting shots I have no business trying. I pose impossible challenges. I fail magnificently. Then I share those failures openly through my professional network—because every great athlete knows that losing in practice makes you stronger in competition.

Why? Because leadership isn't about having perfect form—it's about modeling how to improve your game. It's demonstrating that failure isn't the opposite of success; it's the price of admission to excellence.

The best athletes understand: You're either getting better or getting worse—there's no standing still. Applied to AI leadership, this means understanding that every algorithm, every breakthrough, every tool represents human potential being expanded. We're not being displaced by AI; we're being given better equipment to play a higher-level game.

Genuine AI-age leadership means treating discomfort as your training partner.

When Adobe's Shantanu Narayen openly shares his daily AI experiments—including catastrophic failures—he's like a marathon runner who posts both his PR times and his DNF races. He's not undermining credibility; he's building it exponentially. He demonstrates that transformative leaders don't just adapt to new playing conditions; they change the entire game.

This is what championship leadership looks like: Playing without being paralyzed by the scorecard, leading without needing to be the star player, learning without expecting overnight mastery.

Great coaches know something we're rediscovering in the AI age: Real improvement comes not from protecting your current skill level, but from willingness to look awkward while learning new techniques. In the AI epoch, this isn't philosophical luxury—it's survival necessity. Technology cycles faster than tennis serves. Your AI skills from last quarter might already be outdated.

Here's my provocation: If you're not regularly failing with AI publicly, if you're not acknowledging your learning curve openly, if you're not modeling the messy, uncomfortable improvement process—you're not leading through AI transformation. You're sitting on the sidelines while the real players are on the field.

Tomorrow belongs to leaders who understand that the intersection of athletic mindset and digital fluency creates unstoppable momentum. Leaders who know that in the AI game, it's always the next swing that matters most.

Are you ready to step up to the tee? Or are you still in the clubhouse hoping someone else will play your round?

The course is open. The conditions are perfect. The only question is: Are you playing to win or playing not to lose?

Time to trust your training and take your shot. The game has already begun.

  • TAGS :
  • AILeadership
  • DigitalTransformation
  • LeadershipByExample
  • NextSwingMindset
  • FutureOfWork

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