Links to other parts of the miniseries:
7 Axioms to understand the impact of attitude
8 Choices to change an attitude – Part 1
8 Choices to change an attitude – Part 2

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 19 seconds.

TODAY’S IDEA: 5 truths about attitudes

— From Attitude 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by John C. Maxwell

“Good attitudes among [team] players do not guarantee a team’s success, but bad attitudes guarantee its failure,” says leadership guru John C. Maxwell in his great little book Attitude 101. That is why the Harvard Business Review published an article entitled Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill a few years back, as this has become quite a prevalent philosophy among leaders who are putting teams together where sufficient knowledge and skills can be acquired on the job for optimal performance.

Maxwell continues, “As an individual, your attitude has a profound impact on your life. As a leader, you cannot ignore the attitudes of the people you lead and expect to achieve success—whether you’re leading a business, a family, a sports team, or a group of volunteers. A person’s attitude colors their view of failure and defines their approach to success.”

In short, “Attitude can make or break you.”

To this effect, Maxwell shares five truths about attitudes to illustrate how they affect a team:

1. Attitudes have the power to lift up or tear down a team. Maxwell cites Denis Waitley’s book The Winner’s Edge: “The winner’s edge is not in a gifted birth, in a high IQ, or in talent. The winner’s edge is in attitude, not aptitude.” Nowadays, says Maxwell, talent alone (or talent with experience) is not enough.” If you’re looking for outstanding results the formula is: Great Talent + Good Attitudes = Great Team.

2. An attitude compounds when exposed to others. While talent, experience, and willingness to practice are unique to each individual, attitude is contagious. “People have a tendency to adopt the attitudes of those they spend time with—to pick up on their mindsets, beliefs and approaches to challenges.”

3. Bad attitudes compound faster than better ones. “There’s only one thing more contagious than a good attitude—a bad attitude.” Need we say more?

4. Attitudes are subjective, so identifying a wrong one can be difficult. “People always project on the outside how they feel on the inside. Attitude is really how a person is.” Maxwell shares a few of the most common rotten attitudes so that we can recognize them and nip them in the bud when we see them:

• An inability to admit wrongdoing.
• Failing to forgive.
• Petty jealousy.
• The disease of “me” (overpowering belief in their own importance).
• A critical spirit.
• A desire to hog all the credit.

5. Rotten attitudes left alone, ruin everything. “Bad attitudes must be addressed. You can be sure that they will always cause dissension, resentment, combativeness, and division on a team. And they will never go away on their own… [but] because people with bad attitudes are so difficult to deal with and because attitudes seem so subjective, you may doubt your gut reaction when you encounter [them]. After all, if it’s only your opinion that he has a rotten attitude, then you have no right to address it, right? Not if you care about the team. Rotten attitudes ruin a team.”

Abounding on this last point, dealing with a person that has a negative attitude can be tricky. It’s important to learn first the way in which attitudes affect an individual. And that is the subject of tomorrow’s idea. Stay tuned!

ACTION

TODAY: We all have had the experience of dealing with the proverbial bad apple. How has this person’s attitude affected you and your team? What have you learned from that attitude? Conversely, think of a person whose attitude brightens up a room and changes the mood from black and white into bright, vivid color. How has this person’s attitude affected you and your team? What have you learned from that attitude?

FUTURE: Resolve to have a positive attitude always, especially when things go wrong. Remember President Jefferson’s quote: “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

Please share this post with someone who has a bright and wonderful attitude, they’ll be grateful! Email, Facebook, Twitter.