Successful Leadership, It's All About Attitude

Attitude is power. It can empower and encourage you or it can drag you down. Byrd Baggett said, “Your attitude determines your altitude. If you want to fly look up at the stars not down at the mud.”

Charles Swindoll said, “I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.”

Each of us is in charge of our attitudes. They are not genetic…we are not born with them. Attitudes are acquired from parents, teachers and other influential people in our lives. They are learned from experiences.

Too often attitude development is oriented around failure and negativity instead of success or achievement. To keep children safe, parents say what not to do. “Don’t talk to strangers” is drummed into children. Later in life no one says, “Okay, you’re almost an adult now. You know who to trust! You can talk to most strangers…and by the way, it will be good for your career if you learn how to do it.”

An attitude is a pattern of thought that drives behavior. It is your advance person…it precedes you into a room. The expressions on your face, the clothes you wear are often accurate reflections of your attitude. An attitude is a tendency to look at persons, ideas, events, situations or objects in certain habitual ways. If you believe people who drive luxury cars are snobs…would you be successful selling luxury cars? Probably not! Your negative attitude will prevent you from connecting with the people who buys those cars and from presenting your product in the most favorable light.

There are other ways that attitudes, negative or positive, impact workplace performance? Some attitudes are helpful because they save us time and energy. Others are barriers to exploring new possibilities.

Questioning your own competence…is called “negative self-talk.” It causes people to back away from challenges. It can be an obstacle to implementing or searching for new solutions to ongoing operational problems that are washing away organizational resources.

Approaching challenges in life with fear and anxiety rarely puts our best foot forward. When stepping “Outside the box” triggers feelings of self-doubt and causes anxiety, worry and fear it results in shying away from opportunities. Yet those ideas could bring value to the organization.

Attitudes impact interpersonal relationships:

• Viewing subordinate staff as lazy, poorly motivated and without potential or energy; not worthy of dignity, respect and fair treatment.

• Viewing superiors as exploitive people who are only interested in dollars and likely to take advantage of us instead of viewing superiors as partners with normal human emotions who are willing to collaborate, and cooperate.

• Viewing organizational peers as competitors and putting focus on appearing to be perfect instead of establishing positive relationships with peers and a cooperative work environment.

It makes a difference!

How does one develop positive attitudes? Most attitudes survive because they feel comfortable. But they can interfere in meeting personal or vocational goals. Change is hard because attitudes are deeply set beliefs that have been around for years. But it is possible. The trick is to add new attitudes.

Building new attitudes takes time and involves four steps:

• Learning that existing attitudes give us a degree of internal satisfaction.

• Analyzing and understanding that internal satisfaction and what role that ‘feeling’ has played in driving our behavior

• Starting a new attitude, or new thought process that is even more satisfying.

• Beginning new behavior and starting a new habit consistent with the new attitude.

Finally once the new, more positive attitude is developed, how is it maintained? Here are four tips to build and maintain more positive attitudes. They will enhance your career and personal life. Like the eagle who learns to fly by stepping off a cliff it can take you to new heights:

• Use personal affirmations…write them down and read them three or four times each day.

• Read inspirational literature, like The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale.

• Spend time with positive people…people who share your interest in personal growth.

• Don’t sit still…take action…get exercise…keep moving.

You deserve the personal satisfaction that will come through new, more positive, “breakthrough” attitudes. You can do it!

Larry Wenger is the President and Founder of the Workforce Performance Group. located in Newtown, Pa. He is a graduate of the University of Kansas School of Social Work and has led human service organizations of various types for over 40 years.

Larry Wenger is a leadership development expert. For more information on implementing your personal or business goals or to learn more about other leadership topics, visit http://www.workforceperformancegroup.com

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