16 Feb Why your attitude is everything

How high is your level of attitude awareness?  I ask this question as people generally don’t have a good handle on their attitude. 

Learning to monitor your attitude and its impact on your work, performance, relationships and everyone around you is an important step towards achieving your true potential in life.  Attitude is everything.  It governs the way you perceive the world and the way the world perceives you.  In the workplace, the big difference between the winners and losers is often attitude.

If I am running a workshop or attending meetings I can generally work out what attitude people are bringing into the session.  What gives it away?  Their demeanour and posture are the initial visual signs.  Then their outlook, points of view and behaviour start to provide a good idea of what attitude is present.  Circumstances have a great impact on the attitude you display.  For example, with companies downsizing, merging or being acquired, people feel vulnerable.  Some will become unemployed, and those who remain will wonder when their turn will come.  These are the type of circumstances that can defeat a person if they let it dictate their life and that’s what happens to a lot of people.  For others, the circumstance becomes an opportunity for getting where they want to be.

One of the challenges facing management and co-workers is dealing with difficult people – those who have negative attitudes.  It is important to be aware that a person with a negative attitude has the same power to influence others as a person with a positive attitude.  The difference appears in the results.
Everyone needs skills, but those can be learnt.  A positive attitude will make it much more likely that you will learn the skills necessary to succeed.  If you take two people with the same skill set the person with the better attitude will win. Positive attitudes in the workplace have many benefits including:

• Improved communication
• Better teamwork
• Increased morale
• Higher productivity

The opposite is true for negative attitudes.  They dismantle teamwork, increase stress and compromise productivity.

Unfortunately, it is not always easy to stay positive and keep a good attitude.  As things go wrong throughout your day, it is easy to let negative thoughts start to take over.  However, there are a number of things you can do to help maintain a positive attitude.  They can be done on a daily, weekly or monthly basis to make sure you keep your positive focus.

Plan your week and day

Having a clear plan to your day and week can go a long way to maintaining a positive attitude.  Knowing what you want to accomplish will help you focus on your important life priorities.

Understand that things won’t always go as planned.

If you plan and expect everything in life will go as you planned, you will quickly be disappointed.  One of the keys to maintaining a positive attitude is to understand that things can go wrong.  So have a plan and understand that things won’t always go to plan.  However, the plan allows you to adapt to what went wrong a move back to what is important.

Surround yourself with positive people

The people around you have a big impact on you.  They impact who you are and what you value.  They also impact how you think.  If you surround yourself with negative people their negativity will start to rub off on you.

Lead by example

If you are in a leadership or management position act as a role model and exhibit a positive image.  Engage with your team, sponsor development, build self-awareness and help the team succeed.

Tip – Keep a positive focus