The A-Z of Leadership: Attitude

A is for Attitude; given the choice between talent and attitude, I’ll pick attitude every time.

Inspiration

Someone who has a positive attitude is infectious – in a good way – it inspires a «can do» spirit in the whole team. The opposite is, of course, also true; you will often find that if one member of your team is constantly bitching about anything & everything, this will have a negative influence on team morale. So if you’re looking for a new member for your team or deciding which person you can (and should) let go, bare this in mind: Even the highest performing primadonna is not worth the individual success they may bring to the party, if their negative impact on team culture, morale and overall performance outweighs the positives. 

Keep in Mind:

Attitudes are habits of thought and habits can be changed; we can conciously change our own response to emotions and we can learn and practice a growth mindset.

I just re-watched an old interview with Sir Michael Caine in which he explained his philosophy of life which is to «use the difficulty», i.e. to turn challenges into opportunities. If you can look at challenges and set-backs as opportunities and if you can recruit people with a such a growth mindeset to your team, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful leader.

Cheers, Nick