I was driving my 14 year old daughter to school this morning and we were discussing two tests she had to write today. She was not looking forward to them! Grade 9 is proving to be stressful and a stretch as the homework time expected has increased wildly.
But I told her, "You worked hard on your stuff. Do the best you can and we will be happy with that."
Then I said, "Did I ever tell you my wrestling story?"
And she said the magic words, "No."
When I was in high school I was not a gifted athlete. Okay, I was not an athlete of any kind. But we still all had to do Gym classes and of course you got marked on what and how you did. At one point, we were doing wrestling. Our school even had a wrestling team!
On the wrestling exam day in gym, we were allowed to pick our opponent and then do our best wrestle for marks. So I picked Dan. Dan was a friend of mine but physically we were somewhat different. I was a typical lumpy awkward nerd. Dan was on the wrestling team. He outweighed me by maybe 80 lbs. Dan was almost as wide as he was tall. And he never lost a wrestling match.
But when given the choice of opponents, I said, "I pick Dan."
A few eyebrows went up, the teacher paused, probably wondering if he should veto this choice and Dan said, "Are you sure?"
My response, "Sure!" As if I was confident and ready for him in this moment. Like I'd been secretly practicing wrestling and was looking forward to this day. I think one kid slipped out to quietly get the nurse. Wish I'd thought of that.
So, Dan and I face each other across the mat. And the teacher somehow maintaining a straight face and but also not covering his eyes, says "Wrestle!"
I throw myself at Dan with nerdish glee, struggle as hard as I could valiantly for several minutes, okay a few seconds, and then Dan pins me. Ef-fort-less-ly.
I got an A!
So my point to this story for my daughter, because Dad's stories usually have a point, is that my teacher appreciated the effort, the creativity and the attitude that I delivered.
"So kid, get in there and do your best!" (powerful dad moment, cue upsurge of Rocky or Star Trek theme music, coz I'm still a nerd)
And, after she was gone, it made me think. Do I approach my tasks with great effort, creativity and a good attitude? Of course, I want to create excellent results. But what about the how?
I have to ask myself and you can ask yourself, "Are my attitude, effort and creativity impactful?"
Do clients see this? If they do, they will appreciate it and will come back again and again.
