SHOW UP AT 10/10 WITH THE RIGHT ATTITUDE

“The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves but in our attitude towards them.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

 

We all have good days and bad days. On our best days we perform at our highest level. We do more and have a more positive impact on the people around us. Imagine how incredible you could be if your performance every day was as good as it is on your best day. Think how much you would get done. Imagine the impact you would have on those around you. If you can show up at 10/10 every day, with the right attitude, you will be unstoppable. 

Be tough and competent

On the evening of 20th July 1969, my father let me stay up to watch coverage of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I remember the following morning watching Neil Armstrong become the first man to set foot on the moon. I was just 6 years old. It is one of my earliest and strongest memories. The Apollo missions continued into the 1970’s and provided the backdrop to my early years, from the wallpaper in my bedroom to the 1:144 scale Airfix model of Apollo 11 that hung from my ceiling. Manned space flight was an amalgam of science fiction and real-life: news coverage of the Apollo missions blended with Thunderbirds and Star Trek to create an alternative reality in which I too was destined to fly in space. 

 

Fifty years on, I still consider the Apollo missions the apotheosis of human endeavour. Nothing else we have ever done has taken us quite so far or shown quite so clearly the combined power of individual passion and effective teamwork.

 

My friend and fellow Apollo aficionado Keith Haviland produced the compelling documentary film Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo. It’s the previously untold story of the men and woman, assembled from all walks of life, who together planned and directed every space flight from the early 1960’s to the present day. Whatever you are doing, if you think your team has a steep learning curve you absolutely need to watch this film. There is so much here to learn from it’s hard to pick one thread above any other; perhaps the strongest for me is the way the team rebuilt itself after the tragic deaths of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee in the Apollo 1 fire. 

 

Three days after the accident, the Flight Director, Gene Kranz, called his team together and told them: "We were too 'gung-ho' about the schedule and we blocked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: Tough and Competent. Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write Tough and Competent on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room, these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.”

 

The Apollo story is, above all, a story of remarkable things done by unremarkable people working together, guided by a common purpose and sharing common values. Their success was built on the lessons learned from every one of the many setbacks, disasters and near-disasters they experienced. Gene Kranz’s famous words were essentially an attitude adjustment for his entire organisation. He was asking every member of his team to show up at 10/10, tough and competent. No excuses, no half-measures. 

Set a high bar for your own performance

If you run a business or lead a team, then in many ways your own performance sets the upper limit for the performance of everyone around you and, by extension, for your whole business or team. If you’re showing up at 6/10, what’s the most you can expect from your team? Of course, we can’t always be at the top of our game, but we can, as they say, “get our game face on”. 

 

I was at a conference a few years ago which featured inspirational speakers sharing approaches to building successful businesses. I was sitting close to the front and had a good view of the side of the stage. As one speaker was being introduced, waiting to come onto stage, he was bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, moving his arms and body, getting pumped up, like a boxer waiting to get in the ring. When the moment came, he bounded onto the stage, full of energy and projecting confidence and excitement. He may not have been feeling 10/10 beforehand, but he got himself “in the zone” and made sure he absolutely was at 10/10 by the time he got on stage. 

 

In my coaching practice, I make it a point to be fully present for the person I’m working with and to show up at 10/10 as a coach. I may not be feeling this before our session, but I take time to empty my mind of distractions and get in the right zone for the session. To do anything less would, to me, be unacceptable. 

 

Another way of thinking about this is the relationship between your performance and your progress in working towards your vision. How much more progress do you think you will make if you show up every day at 10/10 with a great attitude compared with showing up at 5/10 with your mind somewhere else. If you follow Formula One, or any similar sport, you will know all too well the difference it makes when a driver believes in themselves and “brings their A game”. Think about what this means for you. When do you need to “get your game face on”? What does it mean for you to show up at 10/10 with the right attitude? What difference do you see between you when you’re at the top of your game, versus when you’re not firing on all cylinders? What can you do to pump yourself up when you need to show up? 

 

I remember as a teenager, every Saturday night was party night, but I wasn’t always feeling it; to get myself into a party mood I would listen to the Queen track, “Don’t Stop Me Now”. It never failed to put a smile on my face and a spring in my step. 

Watch out for the comfort trap 

The core of my coaching practice is working with people to discover the essence of how they can live their best life and be happy and fulfilled. Sometimes the catalyst is a desire to make a big change, maybe starting a new career or business. But often it’s not that obvious. It’s more a sense something’s not quite right. You’re not really enjoying what you’re doing; you’re not really performing at your best. This sense, that you could be doing so much more with your life, is a sure sign you need to be doing something different. I often ask people to assess how well they think they are doing, on a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is the highest level of performance they can imagine. 

 

This is how I interpret their answer. If you’re at 9 or ten, that’s great. You may feel you could do better or there are changes you want to make. But the chances are you’re enjoying what you’re doing and finding it fulfilling. If you’re at 6 or lower, you know you need to do better. However, if you’re at 7 or 8, you’re in the comfort trap. You’re underperforming, but the gap may not be big enough to motivate you to change. So, if you give yourself a 7 or 8, think hard about it. Don’t accept “just good enough” from yourself. Hold yourself to a higher standard and expect more of yourself. 

 

I had a partner earlier in my career who raced AC Cobras and took his motor-racing very seriously. He had a very simple philosophy: there’s no point doing something unless you intend to do it well. One of my school friends, Andy Green, was equally driven. He got top grades in his A levels, was awarded a scholarship to study mathematics at Oxford, flew for the University Air Squadron, won the aerobatics and spot-landing competitions, rowed for the college and the university, got a top first-class degree, went on to fly fast-jets for the RAF and famously broke the land speed record driving Thrust SSC in the Black Rock Desert, Nevada. 

 

The watch word here is quality. Whatever your vision, know what constitutes quality. A new coffee shop opened recently in my home town of Chester. There is no shortage of similar establishments in this town, but these guys quickly made their mark by focusing on the quality of the coffee they serve. They organised professionally run coffee tasting (aka cupping) evenings and approached the art of coffee making in much the same way a wine-bar might approach the selection and presentation of fine wines. Their passion and commitment to serving the very best coffee is palpable. If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, why are you doing it? If you don’t intend to be the best, or at least as good as you can be, then what do you intend?

Do the right thing in a way that makes you happy

I meet so many people who are stressed and frustrated with their work, even though, on the surface, it seems they have their perfect job. The reality is, even though they’re doing the right thing, they’re not doing it the right way. For example, I’ve worked with a few people running small businesses who were better suited to being sole-traders. They’d built their client base, taken on staff, leased premises, hired salespeople, done all the things they thought they should to build their business, but struggled; then they scaled it back and returned to being successful sole-traders. 

 

The acid test here is to ask yourself, before you go to bed: “am I looking forward to tomorrow?” If the answer is anything other than a resounding yes, then you’re either doing the wrong thing or doing it the wrong way. Sometimes all it takes is a small change: your own space, a comfy chair, a better view. Other times it’s a bigger change: collaborating with someone, moving closer to your clients, increasing your prices to reflect your true value, being more selective in the work you take on, working for yourself rather than someone else, reducing the time you spend away from home, spending more time with people you like. 

 

As with everything else in life, don’t be afraid to try new things. The challenge is to work out what’s missing, or what’s not working, and fix it. Don’t be afraid to experiment and, above all, don’t settle for anything less than a resounding yes when you ask yourself that question at the end of the day: am I looking forward to tomorrow?

Make sure you’re in the right place

A sense of place is very important to us as human beings. Whether it’s the place we call home, or our place of work, or the place we go to find clients; it has to be the right place for everything to really come together. If we feel we’re in the wrong place, it’s hard for us to feel at ease or to perform at our best. My wife organises luxury bespoke travel experiences in Italy. She’s been running her own travel businesses for more than 30 years. Over this time, she’s been based in a variety of places, some of which have worked better than others. But none worked as well as when she lived briefly in Venice; her work-rate and performance there reached an all-time high. It’s important to be in the right place. 

 

Many years ago, I developed a business idea to combine an art-gallery with an event space and upscale coffee shop here in Chester. I invested some time scouting venues but had to accept Chester just wasn’t the right place: my idea would need a more cosmopolitan environment. In contrast, my son, William, runs his business monitoring plant growth in greenhouses, in the Netherlands, which has more acreage under glass than anywhere else in the world and has a well-earned national reputation for innovation. It's the perfect location. 

 

If you’re not performing at your best, take a look around and ask yourself if you’re in the right place. Is your location right for you? Is it right for your vision? Is there a support network of family and friends? Are the resources you need readily available? Is it the right market for whatever you want to do? Is there somewhere else you’d rather be? While it might not be practical to simply up-sticks and move, it’s at least worth understanding the relationship between your performance and the place you’re in, and if you’re not in the right place to achieve your vision, something needs to change. 

Harness risk and tension 

Do you sometimes think you might be hiding out, doing what’s comfortable, to avoid the risk of failing at the thing you really care about? If so, you’re not alone. It takes courage to step into the unknown. To tell ourselves we can handle whatever comes our way. Our natural sense of caution can be very quick to step in to prevent us from taking too many risks. Sometimes, this caution is a good thing. If you have a mortgage to pay, you probably shouldn’t chuck in your job to follow your dream. This is where the idea of the side-hustle comes in; don’t let go of one rope until you’ve got a firm grip on the other! But how do you know when to take the leap and when to stay put? 

 

A great way to visualise this is to imagine an elastic band stretching between the place you are now and the place you want to be. There has to be enough tension in that elastic to pull you across. If you step out of your comfort zone, things may get rough. Friends may be concerned for you; some may try to stop you; others may feel threatened by what you’re doing. You may make mistakes and the risk of failure may loom large. But you need to see all this friction as energy being stored in that elastic band. You need this energy to pull you towards your destination. 

 

Remember, if you’re not making waves, you’re not really moving. One of my favourite quotes is from the racing driver Mario Andretti: “If you don’t come walking back to the pits, every once in a while, holding a steering wheel in your hands, you’re not trying hard enough.”

Questions to think about:

1. What does it mean for you to show up at 10/10 with the right attitude?
2. How do you pump yourself up when you need to “bring your A game”?
3. Are you committed to achieving the highest possible quality? 
4. Are you enjoying what you’re doing and looking forward to tomorrow?
5. How do you harness tension to improve your performance?