Why Moodset?

More importantly, I am a husband and father of three children, a role that raises the stakes of servant leadership to a whole new level!

Attending boarding school at a young age, I was immediately interested in social dynamics and team interaction even though I did not consciously deliberate on it at the time. What interested me most was the idea of camaraderie, respect, fairness, and collective will.

I noticed and experienced poor leadership which often enabled or even endorsed various forms of bullying. This triggered an internal determination to make a positive difference to any culture I had an opportunity to join. It ignited a fire inside me to learn and lead an approach that accepts the possibility of failure in the pursuit of growth, allows authentic expression in a safe environment, and encourages vulnerability in order to be real about the challenges we all face.

When I was given the responsibility to be Head of House at secondary school. I intuitively sensed the delicate balancing act required to maintain order and morale, to inspire performance but also to ensure protection, to allow traditional seniority but nurture future leaders.

A leader in the same role many years before me had maintained a daily journal to capture leadership observations. I resumed the practice as it was clear to me that each year-group would face similar challenges and we could build on previous growth to improve community and camaraderie in our boarding house.

Creating an atmosphere which inspires individual flair and collective flow became my mission, and that focus has remained with me to this day.

There were a couple of incidents at school where I made decisions with the intent to reduce interference from disruptive elements in order to maintain the conditions for overall optimal flow. I learned valuable lessons from the ripple-effect of those decisions. I also realised how delicate any collaboration climate can be.

Much like climate-control in a car, climate control in a group requires constant attention.

Sport has always played a significant part in my life. Running, rugby, and latterly CrossFit are the sports I am most passionate about. Sport was given equal importance to academics at Falcon College. It was a critical crucible for the formation of character, collaboration, and courage. I was part of my age-group rugby squad all the way through school and was a team captain in my final year. I learned massive lessons about moodset during that time. It was my job to ensure the team ran onto each field with clear eyes and a full heart. If necessary I had to help the team find another gear when the chips were down. My behaviour and my body language was reflected by the team. In return, when I made mistakes, my team mates were there to clean up the mess.

Something that still gives me goose bumps is the school war cry. Not just my old school but all schools in Southern Africa, especially before and after a match. There was one school called Plumtree in Zimbabwe. Their war cry was the chorus from the warrior song Impi by Johnny Clegg. When we played against Plumtree, the hair went up on the back of our necks and our senses were heightened to fever pitch. Inspiration was off the charts and moodset was in overdrive. Anyone who wants to trace the source of the rugby pool of excellence in places like South Africa and New Zealand simply needs to watch a school match on YouTube to experience climate, commitment and culture at the next level.

Anyone who wants to trace the source of rugby excellence in places like South Africa and New Zealand simply needs to watch a school match on YouTube to experience commitment and culture at the next level.

After school I applied to become an officer in the Royal Marines. I was fortunate to get through the selection process and to complete Young-Officer training. I served for eight years and gained many reference points for excellence in adversity. Perhaps more-so than any other environment, the marines explicitly train a commando mindset and a commando method, this method includes discipline and teamwork. Commando moodset however, is learned through ‘felt’ experience.

The feeling of ‘belonging’, forged through the commando crucible, became a valuable reference point as I progressed through professional life.

As a commando leader on operations, I was privileged to learn from NCOs who had seen a lot more action than I ever would, about how to maintain morale – a key principle of war. Cheerfulness and unselfishness are expectations of any marine. This means that no matter the discomfort, team members stay positive. I saw this in Northern Ireland and Sierra Leone in the 90s. When the risks were real, the laughter remained loud! This sets the mood to ‘hopeful and happy’ no matter the surrounding difficulty.

Cheerfulness and unselfishness are expectations of any marine.

My military time has allowed me to put anything and everything that goes “wrong” into perspective. A fellow Bootneck once said to me; “Take your job seriously but not yourself!” When faced with the trivialities that account for 99% of our daily anxiety, I remind myself to stay positive and ask; “Is someone likely to die?” If the answer is “no”, I try to take a deep breath and “crack on”. Another marine euphemism for “keep going”.

Moodset is very closely linked to our surroundings, our environment, and our felt experience. To this end, I enrolled in a full time MBA as a transitionary year at the end of my 8-year commission in the Royal Marines. One of the reasons I targeted this experience was that I knew it would be uncomfortable but I would be surrounded by motivated young professionals striving for accelerated progress. My mood would be energised by my peers.

That is how it played out and my MBA year was transformational on many levels. Most interesting in hindsight, is the fact that I had two very different experiences with the two different syndicate groups I joined at different stages of the year. Building on that, I returned as a Facilitator exactly 10 years later, to introduce and run an annual breakaway for MBA students such that the ice-breaking and forming/storming process (Tuckman, 1965) could be accelerated, and a moodset for excellence could be established within the syndicates before commencing with the challenging assignments that come thick and fast after the induction week. This proved to be a gamechanger for faculty and students who often spent the entire first semester dealing with unnecessary friction and frustration due to ego and emotion.

My time at the Graduate School of Business helped me to transition from a military background into the commercial world, and I realised my passion lay in helping professional teams with their leadership, teamwork, and discipline. These were elements which I had been privileged to learn both at Falcon College and in the Royal Marines, so I set about building a brand to support professional teams.

My first experiment was Gameplans, or Plan your Game, which aspired to help sports teams unlock potential through mental toughness and mental skills. I was helping teams to work on their mindset for performance, and I was blessed to be able to spend some time with many future Springbok stars who went on to win the Rugby World Cup in France 2007. I had seen interventions by the Royal Marines with England Rugby so I adapted and transferred that good practice.

A key realisation (which should be common sense) for me, was that practical leadership tasks – whether navigating a route over a mountain, or solving a riddle – build trust, camaraderie, and mutual respect way quicker than sitting in a classroom. And these challenges can strengthen mindset as well as building a moodset of hope and inspiration based on reference points for team members who have witnessed resilience and collaboration in a variety of uncomfortable scenarios. What we feel tends to stay with us way longer than what we hear.

What we feel tends to stay with us far longer than what we hear.

Working with provincial and national rugby squads in South Africa was an immense privilege and a time when I learned a huge amount about inspiring a mood for momentum. In fact as a passionate life-long Springbok and Blitzbok supporter, I have seen and felt the hope, inspiration and celebration of a nation obsessed with its sporting (rugby) heroes. My TEDx Talk on Moodset references the 1995 RWC when Mandela weaved his magic into the mix, and then in 2019, Siya Kolisi made history when he led the Springboks to victory in that unforgettable final. The documentary Chasing the Sun about the 2019 Boks is one of the most inspiring TV series I have ever watched. I recommend it to anyone who wants to believe in the power of hope, the power of sport, and the power of purpose.

As a side note, I was lucky enough to attend the 2007 RWC Final in Paris when the Springboks beat England. That set a positive mood and a strong period for the Boks.

Through my personal family network, I was introduced to an entrepreneur in 2003. He offered to acquire Gameplans and we agreed a mutually fair growth plan while teambuilding with groups in the corporate world.

This was a challenging time for me personally and professionally. As such it was a period when I grew a huge amount as a Facilitator of different groups. Three significant memories from that time positively affect my mood. One is meeting the woman who would become my wife, the second is that I learned about the power of movie-making which was a signature event we offered corporate groups, the third is that I decided to enrol in a series of coaching courses to qualify myself as a professional integral coach. Through the investment I made in upskilling myself as a coach, I serendipitously met the founder of Exceed who happened to be in Cape Town. That meeting in 2006 began my journey with Exceed, now 16 years long. The lesson? Invest in your personal passion and professional purpose and the universe conspires to help you succeed!

My wife (then partner) and I decided to set up the Cape Leadership Centre in Cape Town in 2005. This included an outdoor leadership course where we ran breakaways for executive groups as well as fitness classes for enthusiasts in the Cape. I remember painting a large sign, “Field of Dreams” to set the mood for all groups who came along.

Moodset is performance climate, which is driven by environmental cues such as what we see, hear, smell, taste, touch. In other words moodset is what we sense when we arrive at any place, especially for the first time. Environmental cues are critical for inspiration and hope. Moodset is mood sense! I still like to recce and set up any conference room where I will facilitate, well in advance. I strongly believe that the Facilitator’s mood sets the group mood, which in turn sets the tone for the session. Delegates sense preparation and organisation. They step into the moodset, the performance climate, the prevailing energy, which interweaves leadership and teamwork, fire and flow.

Moodset is what we sense when we arrive at any place, especially for the first time.

Delegates sense preparation and organisation. They step into the moodset, the performance climate which interweaves leadership and teamwork, fire and flow.

Between 2007 and 2010 I experienced highs and lows akin to the Himalayas! I got married, which was a huge high, but then experienced the struggle of starting a family. That was a 3-year low and setting a positive mood despite the constant setbacks, was a massive challenge.

Faith, friends and family played a big part in maintaining morale during that period. A key learning on reflection is the importance of resilience. We did not give up hope and we persevered with IVF until in 2010 we were blessed with our first child – a beautiful daughter. I realise now that mindset, method and moodset were all crucial in the manifestation of this miracle. From doubt to determination, from dabbling to data and detail, and from depressed to delighted, the transformation of our family is a superb case study for a breakthrough of any kind.

On the work front, 2007 through 2012 was an incredibly steep learning curve. I committed to performance consulting within the energy sector and perhaps because of my parallel journeys as a student of coaching and a student of family, I was able to weave personal insight into professional inspiration. For a diamond-dredging campaign offshore Namibia, I applied 6 Sigma principles and collaboration techniques to optimise the onshore performance climate for a client in Windhoek. The “mood” room I established on the HR floor was a safe space for anyone to visit when looking to be inspired. It included quotes and artefacts to boost team members and allow them to distil ideas to help the team breakthrough barriers. We called it Breakthrough Performance (BTP) coaching and the breakaways that we facilitated were a big part of the breakthroughs.

I have rarely if ever encountered a group that has not enjoyed or benefitted from a breakaway from the normal work environment (be that home or a worksite). The simple ingredients of an offsite gettogether with an agenda that includes indoor and outdoor interaction, along with a meal involving good food and wine, always serves to set a positive mood and a sense of belonging and benefit. If leaders influence the set up, and are then influential by truly “showing” up, a team breakaway can be a catalyst for accelerated transformation.

If leaders influence the set up, and are then influential by truly “showing” up, a team breakaway can be a catalyst for accelerated transformation.

After my experience supporting the diamond industry, I was offered the opportunity to transfer to Oil and Gas. I seized the chance to ply my trade on offshore floaters and in hindsight I am really glad that I sensed when a career-changing opportunity was being presented such that I could throw myself into it with 100% commitment.

My 18 months on the GSF Explorer for BP Angola, followed by 18 months on the Eirik Raude for Tullow Ghana were formative experiences. I had zero previous experience in the O&G Industry which was a handicap as well as a massive advantage. The obvious handicap was a lack of technical knowledge, the benefit was objective perspective unencumbered by past experience. I was able to guide an agreed methodology around planning and learning without doubting the value of the activities. I also recorded everything because it was new to me. I asked the stupid questions, and I questioned what else could be done. Performance improvement methodology was enhanced, but performance moodset was also exposed as a critical factor on these campaigns. Leaders play a major role in moodset as we know, and I saw both extremes between those two campaigns.

Performance moodset was also exposed as a critical factor on these campaigns.

Leaders are often unaware of their impact on the mood of those around them. Truth be told, when I reflected on my experiences of this recently for my 2021 TEDx Talk, I started to think about my own impact on my team and my family. I realised that we teach what we need to learn. I am often a little sullen and aloof at home so I want to raise the topic of moodset because I am as vulnerable as the next leader to lapses in awareness, and to spreading a bad mood to my own team if I’m not self-aware. Unfortunately mood is contagious and a bad mood spreads faster than a good one. I realised that even using “moodset” as a trigger word, helped me to reboot after a busy day, and to put a smile on my face and a skip in my step to bring happiness to the atmosphere at home. It is a never ending challenge but through repeated focus, like anything, it can be improved!

I realised that even using “moodset” as a trigger word, helped me to reboot after a busy day, and to put a smile on my face and a skip in my step to bring happiness to the atmosphere at home.

By 2012, I was kick starting all performance improvement campaigns for Exceed clients as a project manager. In this capacity, I conducted many culture and climate assessment visits and interviews. I count myself as very lucky to have completed these visits in Africa, Europe, the Middle East and the Far East. Societal culture in these places is varied, plus each team has its own climate or moodset. This is affected by the diversity of its members, its location, the workscope, and most importantly, the leaders involved.

A great leader can greatly improve a weak team, but a great team will weaken under a weak leader.

My family and I moved from South Africa to the UK in 2012 in order to help grow Exceed. In the 10 years between 2012 and 2022, there is a decade of memories and milestones. As my younger daughter is fond of saying when she prays before a meal; “Sometimes we have some ups, and sometimes we have some downs”!

“Sometimes we have some ups, and sometimes we have some downs!”

When we arrived in Aberdeen, we were a family of four plus a dog. We are now a family of five plus a very similar-looking but different dog. When we arrived, the kids were the ages of two and zero, now they are 12, 10, and nearly 8! There have been many different moods in our house during that time but we have become better at maintaining a happy mood. The COVID-19 pandemic tested this to the extreme and we have emerged stronger for it.

This reminds me of the helicopter view of a Security Force (SF) base or an Oil Rig as we lift off after an intense deployment, or a four-week hitch offshore. For the time that we are deployed, our world consists entirely of what is happening in our immediate vicinity. We live and breathe the immediate eco-system. It is all consuming. It takes all of our energy and all of our focus for the duration of our time there. Then as we lift off the heli-pad or the heli-deck, we gain perspective; the base or rig appears smaller and smaller until very quickly we realise that the place that contained us for weeks is now a speck on the horizon as we fly away. We are provided with a sense of perspective and we have a chance to reflect and realise that our time is fleeting, our contribution is our choice, and applying bigger-picture perspective to specific problems is vital.

Whether an SF base, an offshore rig, or a family home, it can be like a bee hive or an anthill: Non-stop activity. And we each have a role to play. We can contribute to creating a better place or we can cause more problems. Our contribution is within our control.

My focus from a work perspective has been to contribute to creating the best possible performance-improvement approach in order to add significant value to upstream frontline teams in the energy sector. This requires an ongoing quest to evolve our service, an ongoing awareness campaign to help organisations understand what is possible, and an ongoing search for the right coaches to lead positive change. Selecting and training potential coaches has seen our evolution of a one-week induction “sheep-dip”. This course allows us to really get to know potential joiners while allowing them to decide if our culture aligns to their aspirations and purpose.

Setting the right mood for this PCCP (Performance Coach Competency Programme), is something I have had the privilege to master over the last 8 years and 10 courses. The first thing that we do on the course is deliberately enable and enhance the three core components of the culture code (Coyle, 2018). We establish purpose, we get vulnerable, we help the group feel psychologically safe. I have found that as course leader, if I go first with the introductions, and I am truly honest about my highs and lows, as well as my fears and failures, it allows everyone else to do the same, and I can see everyone visibly relax.

We establish purpose, we get vulnerable, we help the group feel psychologically safe.

The PCCP is an incubator for potential. The moodset is protected and controlled throughout the week to allow candidates to express themselves and be themselves. As a result the feedback we get is that whether or not candidates end up working with Exceed, they experience personal growth and a breakthrough in personal confidence. The formula of breaking the ice, breaking down our approach, and then breaking through with a formal presentation and a simulated ‘worst-possible’ day on task, transforms the candidate from novice to aspirant apprentice in one week.

The formula of breaking the ice, breaking down our approach, and then breaking through with a simulated test, transforms the candidate from novice to aspirant apprentice in one week.

During the recent pandemic, managing our own mood and that of our teams was an immense challenge. However, “The sharpest steel is forged in the hottest fire!” At Exceed we set about surviving the situation to position ourselves for future success. Our founder is an exceptional leader, especially when the going gets tough. As he navigated a safe course through the crisis, we pivoted to offer virtual support to our clients. An interesting challenge in this context was how to engage and inspire when not physically together in one room. Virtual agendas were curated to enhance the audience experience. These included virtual ice breakers such as laughter therapy, and motivational Q&As with celebrities from international sport and former military. Moodset can be inspired by an injection of ‘wow-factor’ in the same way that a game can turn on the introduction of a superstar with x-factor.

Moodset can be inspired by an injection of ‘wow-factor’ in the same way that a game can turn on the introduction of a superstar with x-factor.

During the last winter season, I seized an opportunity to coach my son’s P5 rugby team at Aberdeen Wanderers. The season culminates with four tournaments in a row. Setting the mood for a group of young players at the threshold of their school sporting careers is a privilege that I do not take lightly. I learned a vital lesson from them about moodset and morale; show you are there and show you really care. Do this by calling their names when they do something right rather than when they do something wrong and momentum can shift in a momentous way.

Do this by calling their names when they do something right rather than when they do something wrong and momentum can shift in a momentous way.

During lockdown I had the honour of being a guest on Crux Cast which is hosted by a friend. He asked for an example of moodset and I told a story to illustrate. In a few different places around the world, I have been asked to visit multiple rigs for the same Operator. Once I flew onto a rig in West Africa in the morning and then a different rig in the afternoon. On the first, crew members had their heads down, there were no greetings, doors were closed, and supervisors were sullen. On the second, it was the opposite, personnel were happy and smiling, doors were open, leaders were welcoming. Same organisation, so in theory same culture, yet the climates on these rigs were at opposite ends of the spectrum. The atmosphere gave away the prevailing mood. One was a place you would not want to be while the other was inspired. Setting the mood is a leadership responsibility, we all lead our own mood, we own how we behave.

If I was to define moodset in a simple way, I would say this:

Mood is our inner music, moodset is the playlist that we create and choose!