Would you agree with Charles Schwab, the former president of US Steel, who once said “I will pay more for the ability to get along with others than any other skill? “ If so, how does attitude weigh in at your organization? For example, do managers know how to determine an applicant’s attitude track record through the interview process? Or, is the development of positive attitudes part of your organization’s business plan? Perhaps it should be. Business consultant and author David Maister has found that companies that enhance employee satisfaction by just 20% improve their financial performance by a whopping 42%! The link between satisfaction and attitudes (particularly the attitudes of your supervisory and management staff) shows up in research and surveys regularly.
Think of it, everyday organizations all over this planet are being impacted by the attitudes of the people in them. Not to pick exclusively on leaders, but, leadership seems to set the tone for the attitudes found in your company. For example, an often-quoted outcome of the Gallup organization’s massive survey work is that employees do not quit companies; they quit their immediate supervisor. How do you suppose attitudes factor into this equation? I can suggest the attitudes that are likely absent in the employee-manager relationship: the attitudes of listening, understanding, patience, humility, confidence and belief may all be factors in this problem. According to the Center for Creative Leadership the key cause of executives failing in their roles was attributed to low levels of "emotional competence." Another study conducted by Walter Clarke and Associates found a link between how top managers handled emotions and how much their coworkers preferred to deal with them.
Still not convinced that paying attention to attitudes is worth the time or effort? After all, doesn’t this attitude stuff fall into what they call “soft-skills? “ Let’s bring it back to dollars and cents. Psychologist, Ed Diener, Ph.D. has discovered that cheerful people earn as much as $14,000 per year more than their unhappy counterparts! If these individuals are earning more, wouldn’t it suggest that their companies are also earning more? Not only is having a great attitude a win-win, it can provide some of the personal motivation needed to launch someone toward the work needed to change life long counter productive patterns of behavior- never an easy process.
Surely, personal motivation to work at this will be a key ingredient in achieving success. The most amazing (and challenging) thing about attitudes is that they are always a personal choice. Unfortunately, you cannot mandate having a good attitude (well you could, but it wouldn’t work except to provide some comic relief at your company).
The person most responsible for the idea of attitudes being a personal choice was the late Victor Frankl. A world-renowned psychologist, Frankl, was imprisoned in a Nazi war camp but chose to find reasons to live by using simple daily happenings to affirm his belief that he would live to see freedom. What’s interesting about this is that it was his perception of events that was the key to his success. Think about how this translates to the work place. Someone says something in a meeting and two employees leave the meeting having two entirely different responses. One goes back to work to get started and the other broods with anger- this kind of thing is a daily occurrence.
Fankl saw the same daily events as his fellow prisoners, but his interpretation of these events saved his life! Simple things such as a fellow prisoner’s smile or the sun coming out would fuel his anticipation of his future freedom. His book about these experiences “Man’s Search for Meaning” was named one of the top ten most influential books written in the 20th century.
Think of the impact of having a leadership team who actually believes in the employees in your organization. Imagine what might result if your leaders came to work everyday believing that everyone in your organization really wants to do the best job that they are able, and that their role is really about removing the barriers that keep this from happening. Imagine a workplace where employees anticipated the customer (both internal and external) saying yes, and wanting to partner? As you visualize these powerful attitudes at work in your organization, you can probable see the relationship between attitudes and the bottom line. Never has a performance strategy (or business strategy) been so personally enriching for those involved as the consistent steady progress toward the management of one’s thoughts and attitudes. It can change lives (and fortunes).
