Have you checked your Attitude Lately? by Lyndal Hughes

Australian Olympic swimming champion, Ian Thorpe, when asked about being placed in lane five at a swimming final responded with:

“There is water in every lane, so it is OK.”

This was not only a factual comment and a reasonable one, but most of all, it demonstrated a positive attitude. In fact, we have come to expect positive comments from elite athletes. It seems to go hand-in-hand with success.

What is so important about positive attitude?

A positive attitude helps to make the hardships of life and work less debilitating. When looking at people who have been through events of extreme adversity such as Hanoi Hilton and 9/11, the key differentiator between those people who have gone on to have ‘normal’ successful lives and those who have been unable to ‘move forward’, is that the former group possess a positive attitude.

The simple key is not what they did, but how they did it.

Rationally, they experienced a horrendous situation, yet, those who could frame it more positively were able to emerge out of it, able to go ahead and thrive. One recorded example is Dr Frankl, a survivor of Auschwitz, who helped his fellow prisoners to find joy in a bowl of dirty water with a fish head masquerading as soup. The experience was the same for all, but the attitude and emotion towards it was different.

I truly hope that no ‘down’ in your life will be this extreme. However, we can learn a lot from it. No matter how large or small the negatives are within your business, focus on thinking and feeling more positively about them.

What can you do to help yourself be more positive?

If you simply don’t feel positive and your head is shouting “I’m tired, I’m fed up, I’m overworked and I can’t do one more thing”, then here is the other great piece of information:

Don’t do anything new. Just do what you are doing but with a smile.

Conventional thinking says that attitude comes before behaviour, meaning that we need to feel positive before we act positively. But this is only half the picture. In fact, our behaviours shape our attitudes. The old saying ‘fake it until you make it’ works for attitudes too.

For example, in Australia, it was exactly 30 years ago this year that a law came into place to enforce the wearing of seat belts in cars. Prior to this, no amount of marketing, campaigning nor ‘scaring’ worked to create a positive attitude towards seat belt wearing, and as you can guess, seat belts were not used by the vast majority of the population. Attitude was resistant to change. However, after the introduction of the law, people’s behaviour changed to be compliant and interestingly, researchers also found that after a period of time attitudes also changed to match the new behaviour.

So, if you behave as though you have a positive attitude towards business, your attitude will actually catch up.

What You Can Do

How you act as a business leader sets the tone for all those around you. Despite what your reality maybe, behave as though you have a positive attitude towards your business, you tasks, your role, and others. If stuck, conjure up images from a recent positive event, such as a day at the beach or a meeting with a client that exceeded your expectation. My guess is that as a consequence you will smile, share humour, relax and engage more with those around you. Bingo! You are on the way to building your own resilience, as well as showing others how to do it themselves.

Some other specific things you can do include:

1. Keep a sense of humour – in the words of the Australian magazine queen, Ita Buttrose (2011), “never lose your curiosity, never lose your optimism and never lose your sense of humour”.

2. Add fun – positive experience adds to feeling positive. A great example given to me by a sergeant in the Australian police service is that during break time in night shift, she ran music trivia at the police station. What a great way to keep the atmosphere positive in the depths of the night. Consider what you can add to your daily routine. Actually stop for a moment and ask yourself when was the last time you have fun within your work day? If you can't remember, then today might be the day for you to have some fun!

3. Smile and listen – be open and engaging with those who you come in contact with - it may be your employees, your virtual contractors or your customers. Take time to actually stop!
Not only are these ideas great for attitude and resilience building, but they also hit at the heart of being an excellent business leader. What do you do within your day to stay positive - share it with us here..
Lyndal Hughes is a highly accomplished consultant who has implemented leadership change initiatives in blue-chip companies and government agencies in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the USA.

Her clients are typically senior managers and C-level executives in the private and public sectors. She has worked in a wide range of industries, including infrastructure, manufacturing, professional services, telecommunications, scientific research, and state and federal government agencies.

With 20 years’ experience in enhancing leadership performance and resilience, and more tha
12 years’ experience in executive coaching in Australia and the UK, Lyndal brings rigour and insight to all the projects that she undertakes. For more information about Lyndal or with you would like to use this article, visit her website at www.stillerhughes.com.au