MASTERING MOODSET FOR EXCELLENCE IN A CHANGING WORLD

In my final year at school I was the anchor for our house cross-country relay team. I was also ranked as one of the best runners at the school.

When I received the baton, I felt the overwhelming weight of responsibility to take the lead and finish strong, instead I mistimed my charge to the front of the field and ultimately failed in my mission, I crawled across the finish line, then collapsed unconscious.

I woke up with a drip in each arm and the suggestion that I should not participate in the individual event the following week. My dream of winning the senior cross-country title looked set to remain just a dream. Thanks to the Sanitorium support, I rehydrated sufficiently for a return to sports in a few days but was initially despondent about my chances in the individual event given my recent collapse.

I felt progressively stronger and more confident as it neared time for the individual run. My mood improved dramatically. On the day of the race I got the strategy spot on and found myself in front with 1 mile to go. It was then a case of hanging on to the lead, crossing the finish line, and enjoying the fulfilment of a dream.

When I look back at that small achievement from my school years, I realise it is a big reference point for how to overcome adversity, find the upside in a downturn, and simply help oneself believe that success can follow disappointment.

Fast forward ten years and I was a commando captain helping to restore peace in the West African country of Sierra Leone. There a rebel army was advancing on Freetown, murdering and maiming hundreds of innocent civilians along the way.

My role was to fly onshore from the commando carrier, HMS Ocean, liaise with the spearhead battalion on the ground, and then lead my Mortar Troop of 60 marines as we adjusted a number of targets to ensure indirect fire capability when the rebels approached Freetown.

During that 6-week campaign in West Africa there were many threats and risks outside our control. But what we could rely on was our training and our trust; trust in each other, trust in the system, and trust in the motivation of the marines on the ground. In other words, we focused on what we could control to lead a successful defence of the capital.

When I reflect on that situation, I realise how critical it was to sustain the right climate for the troop to deliver excellence in a dangerous place. To manage the mood or moodset for motivation and morale.

Mood is the background music, the ambiance, the feeling we have about an environment. Does it make us feel productive and energetic, or does it make us feel ignored and lethargic? In any team environment, one gets a sense of how people behave, how people are treated, and what is the state of morale. This all ties into the team mood, and this is fundamental to the acceleration of team performance from average to excellent.

People often ask me about the best initial indicators of a team performance culture based on first impression: I always answer that it is about the simple basics; good or bad, these indicators are typically representative of the overall performance picture.

The first indicator is whether members of the organisation are audibly bad-mouthing management or each other. It is amazing how prevalent this is, and therefore the absence of negative talk is notable.

The second indicator is whether meetings happen as advertised and on time. Unfortunately, many organisations struggle to start meetings on time and to keep meetings effective. Consistently punctual and valuable meetings are therefore significant.

The third indicator is whether people do what they say they’ll do when they say they’ll do it. All too often, incongruence is the norm: someone promises to get something done but then needs constant reminding. Early delivery on small promises is a massive positive.

Performance culture has much more complexity, but these initial indicators have served me well for many years.

Here are some of the subtle behavioural indicators of a true team in any setting, of a team much more likely to achieve a high-performance culture, based on my observations and experience.

The first element is basic courtesy. This is such a fundamental one. It manifests in various daily interfaces, such as greeting colleagues when you see them and responding to communications in a timely fashion. It needs to be a two-way street; if it feels like one party is constantly having to initiate the courtesy, there is no true team.

The second element is basic trust. This builds on courtesy. A true team has formed and stormed to the extent that trust has been earned. It allows for personal growth and for individual expression to benefit the collective. If concerns about trust are regularly voiced, or micromanagement is in evidence, there is no true team.

The third element is basic empathy. This builds on courtesy and trust. It means that team members are interested in the challenges of colleagues and that they seek to understand different points of view. If there is no sense that team mates genuinely care or can step into the shoes of others, there is no true team.

The fourth element is basic energy. This is an essential ingredient in any successful team. Energy can be seen and sensed, as can lethargy—an opposite element synonymous with poor performance and disjointed teams. If there is a lack of energy, there is no true team, or at least not one that is likely to achieve high performance!

Bringing it all together; in my experience, true teams consist of courteous individuals with high levels of trust, genuine empathy, and high energy. These elements can be detected in a relatively short space of time. Deficiencies in any of these areas will detract from team togetherness and prevent high performance. Get the basic elements in place and build a true team.

The language that we use as leaders also influences the team dynamic and human behaviour; workers and followers conform to the subtle cues of their management. Our words play a major role in team health and team well-being.

Two words that can have a disproportionately negative impact on morale and performance are I and they. Thankfully, a word that can undo that damage, if adopted as a better replacement, is we.

All too often, I have experienced the disappointment of hearing “I will decide” when it should be a team decision, or “they messed up” when in fact we were all involved somehow.

Incredibly, very little is lost, but a huge amount is gained if instead the message is, “We messed up, and we will decide how to improve together.”

I have been on so many projects where the ubiquitous “they” are to blame that I wonder whether “they” have ever done anything right!

How about a switch to a world where the only time we use I or they is to say, “I made a mistake,” or, “They did an excellent job.” Otherwise, use we to include team and togetherness.

Based on the we-cultures I’ve been privileged to serve; you’ll be amazed at the positive impact on morale and performance, that this subtle shift can have.

Sir John Whitmore, author of the book Coaching for Performance, references a superb formula, P = p – i (Performance equals potential minus interference). I love the word interference in this context because it perfectly describes many of the real and imagined obstacles that we allow to detract from our own, and our teams’ true potential.

Bruce Tuckman devised the forming – storming – norming – performing model for team progress. Natural progress to performance can be accelerated with deliberate effort. The difference between the two curves is “tolerated interference”.

If we can remove this interference, we can certainly enhance moodset, our own and others. Interference that I have encountered with frontline teams includes unnecessary meetings, irritating micromanagement, and overwhelming bureaucracy, as well as, nowadays, unlimited social media. Ask anyone affected by these issues about their mood, and you can expect them to give a less than positive response.

Netflix recently released a fascinating series called The Playbook. I watched every episode in one go. It was like intravenous inspiration for me. The insights from Jose Mourinho and Patrick Mouratoglou were especially intriguing because their guidance influenced some of the most talented and egotistical athletes on the planet. All five of the episodes provided principles for performance from proven practitioners. I was then able to analyse these phenomenal pointers and identify trends while also reflecting on my own playbook for “moodset” mastery.

Some say that a corporate team is different to a rig team which is different from a sports team. A factory floor is different to a shop floor which is different from a football pitch or a tennis court. But there is a common denominator – people. And to get the best out of people is a craft which requires relentless curiosity and infinite service.

I am an avid reader, drawn to authors like Simon Sinek, Malcolm Gladwell, and Matthew Syed. These authors are some of the most respected voices when it comes to what it takes to unlock “Great”. I learn from them and many others. Their findings often reveal further fascinating ideas about how sustainable progress has been made, and what we can learn from societies, communities, and outliers.

Mastering moodset is particularly important at this present time when many are working in isolation. As with locker-room inspiration for athletic excellence, the subtle cues for optimal productivity wherever we work, are worthy of deliberate focus in order to achieve measurable progress, and of course in order to celebrate every small success!

I analysed the Netflix series for consistency and created a top five informed by the list of 27 ideas. I got to this set of guidelines; five golden rules for accelerated excellence.

1. Start with the Truth.
2. Always be the Underdog.
3. Seize our Opportunities.
4. Together as a Trusting Team.
5. Forward to the Finish.

The best quote of the series for me was this one from Patrick Mouratoglou who coaches tennis superstars like Serena Williams…

“Your body language is telling me everything I need to know.” Body language truly is the language of our moodset.

In his book, The Infinite Game, Simon Sinek’s chapter on Trusting Teams should be required reading for literally every leader in every workplace in my view. He uses excellent examples to make exceptional points. One of my favourites is his reference to the US Navy Seals.

The Navy Seals have a great measure to determine the kind of person who belongs in the Seals. Performance on the vertical axis, versus trust on the horizontal. Performance is about technical competence; trust is about character. One Seal apparently described it thus: “I may trust you with my life, but do I trust you with my money or my wife?” It is the distinction between battle-physical safety and overall-psychological safety. One of the highest performing organisations on the planet prefers individuals in the bottom right quartile than in the top left because the latter are typically narcissistic and toxic. The Seals select for character first. Trust helps build an elite team, whereas high performing individuals, only looking out for themselves, endanger a team.

Sinek notes that culture equals values plus behaviour, these are the metrics for trust and performance. How people feel affects how they do their work. Strong cultures have safety in relationships. High performing teams start with trust, but this moodset needs to endure over time and that takes awareness and focus.

As a father of three young children, working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, while my wife home-schooled the kids and we strove to create the conditions for harmony, I’ve probably learned more about community-moodset than ever before. But the points made above were reinforced: Purpose and belief have been key, the indicators and elements of a strong team have applied, “we” language has been a focus, minimising interference has been critical, and the significance of truth and trust within the golden rules for accelerated excellence, have been relevant and clear.

Sustaining excellence in the face of constant challenge and change is a truly fascinating pursuit. It can be done if we understand how to enable the right moodset in each setting.