Attitude Affects Altitude

#LeadandLift | Episode 55

Attitude is the extra plus in leadership. It is an inward feeling expressed by behavior, you can see it without a word being spoken.

Having a positive attitude creates a positive environment for the team wherever everyone is open to listen, open to working together, and most importantly, values each other. It fosters growth and with the growth comes progress.

"Attitude, not aptitude, determines altitude" is a famous quote by Zig Ziglar.

Talent alone will not help you. You need a mix of talent and attitude to create that winning formula that each of us want in our teams.

That’s why, in this episode of Lead and Lift, I will share with you why attitude is important, how to spot it in our teams and how we could develop a positive attitude.

Why attitude is important

Attitude can either boost your success or hinder it. John Maxwell says that attitude is the primary force that will determine whether we succeed or fail.

You can choose to start a task with an attitude of grumbling and negativity, of seeing all the ways that things could go wrong or you could go in with full confidence, a can-do and proactive attitude with a belief that you and your team can succeed.

Just as it could propel your team toward success, attitude also has the power to completely derail your team’s progress. Even just one person with a negative attitude in a team can change the dynamic. Negativity spreads quickly and it makes problems worse - or often, creates problems where there are none and refuses to visualize solutions.

How to spot bad attitude in your team

As a leader, it’s important for you to spot the attitude of your team members and identify who’s propagating negativity in the group. It’s important that your team is completely built up of people with a positive attitude who bounce creativity and proactiveness off each other.

Here are some warning signs of bad attitude:

• Overly critical. Spotting problems, whether present or potential, is an important part of completing a project successfully. If a criticism is not contributing towards generating a solution, then it’s not good criticism. Exaggerated or excessive criticism are toxic and can infect the group, making them unable to create solutions.
• Petty jealousy. Celebrating wins within the team is a good practice. Finding a way to celebrate people and appreciate them for what they did to contribute to the team’s success creates an environment of joy and excitement. However, seeing the success of others affect different people in different ways - some respond with jealousy. Stay away from the negative energy of petty jealousy, don’t be caught up in another person’s bubble of self-pity and grudge against another person.
• Pride. Being unable to admit when you’re wrong is a bad attitude. It doesn’t only affect the people around the person, but affects the person itself when they are being prideful. Pride is one of the greatest hindrances towards growth. A person who thinks that they’re always right can never grow and can never be better.

We all have an inherent personality, but our attitude is shaped by environmental experiences that impact our belief system. People have a lot of influences as they grow and attitude is formed out of how we were influenced in the past.

The good news is that - no matter where you are in life, attitude is always under construction. Your attitude is not set in stone, you can form it however you want to. You have the power to change your attitude for the better.

How do you change your attitude?

There’s a couple of tips I’d like to share with you that you could implement in your life in order to change your attitude for the better.

Change starts with self-awareness

What attitudes you hold are not serving you well? Which attitudes would you like to change? Bring these things into awareness. You can do that by assessing your daily life through constant journaling. Look at your day-to-day and see what behavior you display on a consistent basis, determine if these behaviors are generative or destructive and make a decision to change that.

Think about three words that define the better you, the you that you’re trying to become. Write those words down and keep it somewhere that you could always see so that you’ll always be reminded of who you want to be

Change your vocabulary

Words have tremendous power, they can either lift you up or bring you down - motivate you, or demotivate you. We all have had words said to us that were hurtful, perhaps some of it we still remember now. Recognize how remembering these makes you feel or how they affect how you see yourself. The same goes with positive words, they gave us life, made us feel good about ourselves, motivated, and energized.

We have the ability to change the things that we tell ourselves. Here are some words you could replace:

Change your thinking

Our thoughts affect the way that we feel. In order to replace old, negative ideas, we must bring in updated and fresh ideas that will bring a brand new perspective into our minds. A great way to do this is to get some personal development books. Read and find new ideas you can implement in your life. It’s also a good idea to start making friends who have a positive attitude that you’d like to adopt.

Develop good habits

Attitude is a behavior and behaviors repeated over time creates a habit, whether it’s a good habit or a bad one. Once you have become aware of the attitude that you want to change, you can begin replacing them with good ones. Make it a habit to practice applying a positive attitude. Treat testing circumstances as an opportunity to try out your shiny new good habit, instead of your usual reaction.

Adopt a teachable attitude

Develop a desire to listen and act upon those learnings. Always recognize that you are never done learning, have the mindset of a lifelong learner so that you can keep growing and developing new ideas and new thoughts.

The number one hindrance to teachability is believing that you know that already. Pride hinders us from learning. Keep an open mind so that you can learn and be teachable. If you’re struggling to change your attitude on your own, with finding joy, or with finding abundance in your life, then maybe it’s time to get a coach.

Attitude is the extra plus in leadership and a good attitude will take you to where talent alone cannot.

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Links mentioned in this episode:

• Chabidaye Facebook
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• Chabidaye LinkedIn
• Chabidaye Website