What Attitude Are You Wearing Today?

Today is an important day; a job interview or your first day at work or better still your first meeting with that special someone! You get up in the morning pre- occupied with the day. You spend some extra time in front of the wardrobe giving careful thought to what you’re going to wear. You CHOOSE your clothes, you CHOOSE your hair do, and you also CHOOSE to put on that special imported cologne for the occasion. Yes, we all choose our attire for the day. But do we ever CHOOSE the attitude we’re going to wear for the day?

Simply put, attitude is ‘Mood’ for the day. Do you see yourself complaining about the breakfast or thanking for getting a hearty meal in the morning? Do you catch yourself irritable about having to get up early to get to work or do you find yourself looking forward to the endless possibilities that the day holds for you? Do you start your conversations with, “What a gloomy weather” or “What a great day for some reflection!” What do you CHOOSE to wear; a pleasant, positive and cheerful attitude; or complaining, nagging and belligerent attitude?

Do I hear you saying… “But how can I choose my attitude? Life is not all under my control! In-fact, most of my life is not under my control. My teachers don’t know what they’re teaching, my job exhausts me, my boss does not support me, and my salary is peanuts for the amount of effort I put in.” The list is unending and no argument would be able to surpass the multiple layers of events and experiences protecting and strengthening these beliefs.

Last week, while conducting a training program for a group of professionals from a large pharmaceutical company, I met a young man Suvinder Kumar. During the tea break we got talking. I noticed his smiling face and cheerful demeanor. Soon I found myself engrossed in listening to his inspiring story. Suvinder started his professional journey as an office boy at a small law firm operating out of a garage in Chandigarh. His job was dusting, attending to visitors, carrying files etc. They told him not to touch the computers, for he didn’t know anything about them. Today, after eight years of work, Suvinder is a successful professional managing warehouse and purchase function of a large company. Informally known as the IT guru. In his last company (again a large pharma compamy) he managed the IT function of the company. Some journey for an office boy with a duster in his hand!

The key question is, “how did he manage to achieve this breakthrough?” With a slight twinkle in his eye he says, “I always wanted to learn more, I took initiatives and did jobs that no body asked me to do. I started typing letters, designing documents, fixing small problems related with computers. I wanted to grow, I knew that I had started as an office boy, but that’s not where I’d stay.”

Suvinder is an example of choosing the right attitude.

It is our attitude that decides the difference between our success and failure. In management corridors the popular wisdom circulates ‘Hire for attitude, train for skill’. This wisdom is the result of learning over a period of time that if the attitude is positive, one can train the person, however if the attitude is not positive the best of training will not help. From Mahabharat, Eklavya personified ‘Positive Attitude’. Despite being spurned by Dronacharya he managed to learn and become the best archer with potential to pose a challenge to Arjuna’s supremacy in archery.

In reality, we always have a choice! One distinction that makes us human is our ability to CHOOSE. And yet when it comes to choosing our attitude, instead of exercising our choice we let the environment determine our attitude. We let our attitude be determined by the traffic, weather, boss, colleagues etc. but not ourselves.

Today when you stand infront of your wardrobe, don’t just choose the clothes for the day, choose also the ‘Attitude for the day’. So what attitude are you wearing today?

rajesh@peoplefactorindia.com
The writer is a management consultant and a leadership coach.