Ever heard the saying, ‘Your attitude is your altitude?’ Your attitude determines your ability to succeed. It determines how you respond to challenges, change and deal with difficulties. Are you a ‘glass half full’ or a ‘glass half empty’ person?
Attitude is something everyone can see in you. It’s visible through your actions and your language, which of course is directly influenced by your mindset. Some people believe they can disguise a bad attitude but I have never experienced this to be true. Perhaps you can for a short period of time but people’s true colours will generally shine through, especially when challenged.
Attitude – How you choose to show up every day. What impact do you want to have on others and what do you want people to say about you?
Attitude is the second important component of The Leadership Template. When I’m helping clients set business goals, I also ensure they set a goal for their attitude – as this is critical to their success. How you decide to show up every day will have a direct influence on your ability to lead, how you impact people around you and how you handle what is thrown at you. There is no point setting challenging goals that will stretch and test you if your attitude is one of ‘this is too hard and unachievable’.
Your attitude determines how resilient you are. This is an important attribute to have to be able to roll with the punches in the rapidly changing business landscape we are experiencing.
When recruiting talent I have always been a big believer that you can teach skills but you can’t teach attitude. So if a person has a strong attitude and a skill gap I would hire them over the highly skilled person with a poor attitude.
Attitude is a choice.
So ask yourself:
- How are you choosing to show up every day?
- What is your attitude to leadership? Is it a privilege or a chore?
- What is your attitude to your team?
- How would your team or people around you describe you right now?
- Do you have a negative or positive disposition?
Turia Pitt was competing in an ultra marathon in 2011 through the Kimberley region of Western Australia when she was caught in a bushfire. Turia suffered burns to over 60% of her body and had 4 fingers and her thumb amputated from her right hand.
Turia’s journey to recovery is beyond inspirational. What she went through to be where she is today is testament to her determination, and mental and physical strength. It could be justified for Turia to be consumed with anger, hatred and resentment, given what happened. However, she chose to make it her mission to use her experiences to positive effect. She uses her story to motivate others, to raise funds for reconstructive surgery charity Interplast and creating her goal-setting initiative School of Champions. Turia has also written a book ‘Everything to live for’. She also uses her situation to push herself to new levels of physical and mental strength. She has a strong belief that experiences can destroy you or mould you and she chooses to let them mould her. Turia believes we all have a choice in how we respond to what happens to us. This attitude allowed her to move forward to become an influential leader.
There is a lesson in this for us all.
As you can see through Turia’s decision on how to live her life despite enormous challenge, attitude is a choice.