The most common question I’m asked by learners, business partners, associates, and others, is the one in the title—and I always say the same thing: your attitude determines your value. It’s really as simple as that. You could be the most competent, efficient, knowledgeable, and socially gifted individual in the office, but if your attitude isn’t right, you won’t last very long. Attitude doesn’t necessarily determine the extent of your competence: you can be competent and still have a bad attitude; you can be efficient, and have a bad attitude; you can be a social butterfly, yet have a bad attitude—do you get the gist? About now, attitude—as a concept—must be turning into an enigma for you. So how can we give it form—what is attitude?
Open up pretty much any dictionary, look up the word ‘attitude’, and you’ll probably get the same information: attitude is a point of view, frame of mind, school of thought, orientation, belief, convictions, feelings, sentiments, thinking, even interpretation (or how you choose to look at the world, interpret it). In actuality, attitude is all of these things—and more—but for the sake of this article—which I’m endeavouring to keep short—we’ll limit our concept of the term ‘attitude’ to those listed here. If we select just three of the above, say, frame of mind, belief, and feelings, we can analyse and, hopefully, apply this concept.
The first time someone asked me the question in the title, I genuinely had to pause and reflect on it, because, to me, to be of value to a company, hell, to be of value to anything: a relationship, friendship, whatever: one needs to have the right attitude—that complex set of frame of mind, belief, and feelings—but, most of the time, many people don’t have the right attitude (they don’t have the right mix of components), and this has nothing to do with society, your environment, or the people in your life: it has everything—absolutely everything—to do with you, and you alone. The way you frame your thoughts is a choice you make; what you believe is a choice you make; and the feelings you have are determined by the preceding two components—which is reflected in your attitude. Do you follow me?
Why is the attitude of someone affiliated with my company so important to me? Well, the answer to that isn’t so complex—it’s simple: because the attitude of an employee, a business partner, a client, a learner, the attitude of anyone associated with my company can, potentially, be infectious. It can trickle, flow, permeate its way through the atmosphere of my company with potentially devastating—or benign—consequences. This is why I always try to see how much of a positive and progressive manner and attitude individuals have before I opt to work with them. You may not necessarily have the requisite skills, the competence, knowhow, or vision, but if you have the right attitude, you’re in with a great chance, because all that can be acquired if you have the right attitude. In the end, your attitude is everything.
Behaviour is the mirror in which everyone shows their image. –Goethe
I tweet at@iamhamidshahid, and can be reached via email at hsk@suigeneristraining.co.uk
For more information on what my company does, you may view suigeneristraining.co.uk at your leisure.