Before starting a blog, I often find myself using the search tool on the “From the Helm” webpage. When I searched the word “attitude,” it appeared in 19 different blogs. In my opinion, attitude is one of the most important characteristics that determine your potential for success and team success. Have you checked your attitude lately? Is it what you want it to be? What is it saying about you?
Your attitude is impactful – maybe the most impactful thing in your life. Your attitude is powerful in the way that it controls you and affects you, as well as how it impacts those who live and work around you. Your attitude influences your behavior and your relationships, positively and negatively. Other people react to you based on how they perceive your attitude.
Because your attitude affects your behavior, it can also affect the way you work. But it also affects how your boss and coworkers perceive you, and in turn, how well you get along with them, and ultimately those perceptions can affect how your career progresses. And that is only the professional side! Your attitude also affects your personal relationships. Therefore, I think we can agree that attitude plays an important part in our daily lives.
Of course, you know I like to look up what I am writing about. After doing a little research, I learned that there are somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 or more different attitude types, ranging from positive to negative. If you want to know more, just type “attitude types” into your search engine and the lists will show up. I note this because I want to emphasize that a person can have more than just one attitude. Sometimes it depends on the environment we’re in or what we’re dealing with at that point in time.
We each have a choice and control over which attitude we show to others. Each of us can change our attitude. Your attitude is yours. You and you alone have the power to change it. No one else has that power over you. Your parents, spouse, partners, friends, brothers, sisters, coworkers or supervisors cannot change it for you. All those people may offer their advice about your attitude, but they can’t change it. Only you can.
If someone reaches out to you to suggest that your attitude is causing a problem in some way, it is natural to be defensive. However, it may actually be a sign that they care about you and don’t want to see you hindered. In other words, that person is reaching out to you, starting what can be a challenging conversation, to help you be more successful.
One of my favorite commercials that illustrates how an attitude change can affect relationships with others is the old-school Snickers commercials. Do you remember those commercials when someone was acting differently than normal – usually angry or with a bad attitude – because they were hungry? Eating a Snickers bar would change them back into their normal self. Their attitude changed and things improved. (If you haven’t seen one of those commercials or don’t understand the reference, look them up. They’re pretty good.)
Now let’s bring it back to work. If you are not getting promotions or the jobs you want, have you considered your attitude? Is your attitude presenting you in a way that says you’re ready for the next step? Are you working with your team to help it become more successful? Are you perceived by others, perhaps unintentionally, as complaining or negative? Is your attitude selling you out and not helping you get where you want to go? These are some simple questions that could have big ramifications on your ability to move forward in your career.
We might not always think about our attitude. It’s kind of one of those things that is just sort of there. But it might be a good exercise for all of us to periodically think about what our attitude is saying about us as well as to practice being more intentional about our attitude.
Sometimes we struggle with situations in and out of work that can affect our attitude. Thinking about those causes and getting help (like through BIW’s LIFE 365 Program or talking to a trusted co-worker) will help improve our attitude as we address the problem and the situation resolves. But even if things seem to be moving along, it is good to think about how we present ourselves to others, especially at work. We could be in a rut and not realize how it is affecting our attitude.
The best advice I can give you is to adopt the attitude that best fits you and allows you to get where you want to go in life and in your career.
See you on the deckplates!
Safely Execute High Quality Work!