THE EXTRA PLUS IN LEADERSHIP: ATTITUDE

Chuck Swindoll said, “The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, or home. The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. Nor can we change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We also cannot change the inevitable. The only thing that we can do is play on the one string we have, and the is out attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you we are in charge of our attitudes.”

1. “Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition.”
2. Our attitudes are our most important assets.
3. It is improbable that a person with a bad attitude can continuously be a success

a. We cannot continue to function in a manner in which we do not truly believe in ourselves.

b. A leader’s attitude is caught by his or her followers more quickly than his or her actions.

We are responsible for our attitudes: “I have to keep working on my thought life. I am responsible to have a great attitude and maintaining it. My attitude does not run automatically.” That’s a lesson for all of us. We choose what attitudes we have right now. And it’s a continuing choice. I am amazed at the large number of adults who fail to take responsibility for their attitudes. If they’re grumpy and someone asks why, they’ll say, “I got up on the wrong side of the bed.” When failure begins to plague their lives, they’ll say, “ I was born on the wrong side of the tracks.” When life beings flatten out and others in the family are still climbing, they’ll say, “Well, I was in the wrong birth order in my family.” When their marriages fail, they believe they married the wrong person. When someone else gets a promotion they wanted, it’s because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Do we notice something? They are blaming everyone else for their problems. The greatest day in our life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That’s the day we truly grow up.

• We cannot choose how many years we will live, but we can choose how much life those years will have
• We cannot control the beauty of our face, but we can control the expression on it.
• We cannot control life’s difficult moments, but we can choose to make life less difficult
• We cannot control the negative atmosphere of the world, but we can control the atmosphere of our minds
• Too often, we try to choose and control things we cannot.
• Too seldom, we choose to control what we can …… our attitude.

It’s not what happens to me that matters but what happens in me

The leader’s attitude helps determine the attitudes of the followers.

HOW TO CHANGE YOUR ATTITUDE:

1. Review: One day, while I was standing in our backyard, I began to realize that we had spent no time or money making the back look good. Why? Because it couldn’t be seen by others as they passed our house. We were careless about the area that was hidden. That is exactly what people do in their personal lives. Their appearances, which can be seen outwardly, are spared no expense or energy. Yet their attitudes are neglected and underdeveloped.

The Six Stages of Attitude Change

1. Identify Problem Feelings: This is the earliest stage of awareness and the easiest to declare
2. Identify Problem Behavior: Now we go beneath the surface. What triggers wrong feelings? Write down actions that result in negative feelings.
3. Identify Problem Thinking: That which holds our attention determines our action
4. Identify Right Thinking: Write on paper the thinking that is right and what you desire. Because your feelings come from your thoughts, you can control your feelings by changing one thing in your thoughts!
5. Make A Public Commitment To Right Thinking: Public commitment becomes a powerful commitment.
6. Develop A Plan For Right Thinking: The plan should include:

• A Written definition of desired right thinking
• A Way to Measure Progress
• A daily measuring of progress
• A person to whom you are accountable
• A daily diet of self-help materials
• Associating with right-thinking people

2. Resolve: Whenever a leader needs to ask others to make a commitment of time, two questions must always be answered: “Can they?” and “Will they?”. The more important question of the two is “Will they?” Two other questions usually answer the “Will they?” issue. The first is, “Is the timing, right?” In other words, are the conditions right to enable positive change? The second question is, “Is their temperature hot?” Are the right conditions accompanied by a red-hot desire to pay the price necessary for needed change? When both questions can be answered with a resounding Yes! then the resolve is strong and success is possible.

3. Reframe: Dennis Waitley says that the winners in life think constantly in terms of I can, I will and I am. Losers, on the other hand, concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done or what they didn’t do. If we don’t like our performances, then we must first change the picture.

“I may not be able to change the world I see around me, but I can change the way I see the world within me.”

4. Re-enter: As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behaviour. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on the behaviour you admire by making it your behaviour. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.

5. Repeat:

• Say the right words
• Read the right books
• Listen to the right tapes
• Be with the right people
• Do the right thing
• Pray the right prayer

6. Renewal: Fortunately, over a period of time a positive attitude can replace a negative one. Again, let me emphasize that the battle is never over, but it is well worth our efforts. The more negative thoughts are weeded out and replaced by positive ones, the more personal renewal will be experienced.