The Open Line

Honest conversations. Real presence. Leadership people want to follow.

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The ping

Friday I played golf with my dad.

He's in his late 70s and still hits it better than most people half his age. We've been playing together for years and don’t always get together as much as we’d like, but when we do the energy is just awesome, so positive, so fun, so us.

There's a moment we both live for. You probably know it even if you've never played.

It's the ping.

That split second when the clubface meets the ball just right and your whole body knows — before you even look up — that something good is about to happen. You don't have to chase it. You don't have to hope. You just know.

The funny thing about the ping? You can't force it. The harder you try to make it happen, the more it escapes you. Every golfer learns this eventually. Grip it too tight and you're dead. Overthink the swing and you're in the trees. The ping happens when you stop trying to control the outcome and trust what you've already put in.

I've been watching a lot of extraordinary people lately.

Rory McIlroy navigating a Masters week that's about more than golf. Four astronauts hurtling around the moon further from Earth than any humans in over 50 years. And Dr. Kelsey Young — lunar scientist, mission liaison — fielding questions at a press conference about why crater science matters.

And for all these big moments this week, that last one has really stood out.

Someone asked her, reasonably enough, why it's so important to study craters in such detail. She smiled. Actually chuckled, dare I say, swooned a little. And then she took us on a 90-second journey from a dent in the moon to a better life on Earth. No jargon overload. No defensive justification. Just genuine excitement connecting to something that mattered to the person asking.

She didn't sell me on crater science. She loved crater science in front of me. And I caught it like a cold. I was ready to research those lunar craters, pore over the high res photos, to find the striations and fault line. How did she do that?

She led with her humanness before her data. Connection first. Proof second.

Rory does the same thing. When he talks about golf — about what it means to him, what this week means to him — you don't need to know his world ranking to care whether he wins (and as of this writing he's tied for the lead as the last round begins). He brings you inside the feeling first. The credentials follow.

The people I work with are some of the smartest, most prepared people I know.

And so many of them have the sequence backwards.

They lead with data hoping it will create connection then influence. They walk into the room gripping it tight—every slide, every statistic, every anticipated objection—trying to force the ping.

But connection doesn't follow data. Data follows connection.

One person I know recently got feedback that took the wind out of her sails. Her boss called her a used car salesman. She'd been working so hard to be seen as a strategic partner—preparing exhaustively, anticipating every question, bringing all the evidence—but the harder she worked to prove she belonged at the table, the less they could see her there.

She was gripping it too tight.

What she needed wasn't better data. She needed to trust her swing. To lead with what she actually cares about — what THEY actually care about — before reaching for the proof.

Connection first. Data second.

That's the ping.

If you recognize yourself in any of this, if you're tired of over-explaining and still not landing, I'm running a 90-minute workshop on April 30th called When They Still Don't Get It.

We'll work through a real situation you're actually navigating. This won’t be empty frameworks, this will be your actual thing.

I'd love to have you there.

And if you want to reply and just tell me about your own version of the ping — in golf, in work, in life — I'd genuinely love to hear it.

Truly,
Jackie

P.S. Dad, if you're reading this: I’m hoping you’ll spot me a few more strokes in the next round!

Quiet Signals

What to notice this week:

• Think of someone you know who makes you care about what they care about. What are they doing that the data-first people around them aren't?
• When did you last let someone see your version of the ping before you got to the point?

Signal Boost

If you want to explore these ideas more:

Hi there! I'm Jackie. I help thoughtful people influence outcomes without having to become someone they’re not. ​LinkedIn Website​