What Good is a Positive Attitude?

What good is a positive attitude? It makes a big difference! I’m not talking Pollyanna-type optimism, but a just positive leaning. The answer is better performance.

As the leader, your attitude is your approach to a situation. It is the way you look at your environment. If your attitude is too optimistic, you may fail to see the dangers in your path. On the other hand, if you are too pessimistic, you become a self-fulfilling, self-defeating prophecy. If you can maintain a slightly positive attitude you get the best business performance.

To soar a hang glider you need a slightly positive attitude. When you fly, your attitude, or ‘angle of attack’ is your approach, and it makes a huge difference in how high you can soar. If the nose of the glider is too high, the slightest turbulence can cause you to stall. Too low an angle will cause a dive – and you can never soar that way! The ability to soar comes from a slightly positive attitude so your wing can utilize the lift in the air.

Don’t get hung up judging things outside your control

You can’t let your opinion of flight dynamics or weather conditions influence your attitude when you fly. Those things just follow natural laws. In the workplace, you can’t get hung up judging things outside your control. Doing so will negatively impact your attitude, so it negatively impacts your performance. Like a pilot who constantly reviews and refines her attitude, you can too. Take frequent note of your general attitude, to make sure you have a slightly positive attitude: 

  • Where are you normally on the positive/negative scale?
  • Are you usually in a good mood?
  • Does a ‘Pollyanna’ attitude get you in trouble?
  • What is your perception of an 8oz glass with 4oz of water in it as half-empty or half-full?
  • Do people say you have a sunny disposition?
  • Try to differentiate between things you can control and things you can’t.

Be mindful of your attitude, because it rubs off on the people you work with. The best results will come from a slightly positive attitude. Use that to increase your skills as a leader. and your team’s results. You haven’t peaked yet!