Attitude Is Everything (High Performance Leadership ) By Sameeksha Rane

Concept of Attitudes Attitudes are feelings and beliefs that largely determine how employees will perceive their environment, commit themselves to intended actions and ultimately behave. Attitudes are like windows through which we look at the world. It express an individual’s positive and negative feeling about some objects.

Importance of attitudes Employees attitudes are reasonably good predictors of employee behaviour Employees having positive job attitudes are likely to engage constructive behaviours. A satisfied employee may engage in work behaviour beyond the call of duty and go out of his way to provide service. Dissatisfied employee on the other hand try to withdraw from the job psychologically and physically.

Formation of attitude Direct and personal experience Association Family and peers Neighborhood Economic status and occupation

The variables of job satisfaction and dissatisfaction

The environment Other people’s behaviour Negative work environment Changing environment Negative world view Past Experinces You

Negative work environment Dog eat dog-everyone fighting to go ahead No one appreciates your contribution Too much work … not enough help Deadlines are unrealistic Longer hours ….additional work Budget constraints Competition is eating us alive Poor management Job insecurity

To avoid all this change three things Behaviour Thinking Attitude

Influence your environment Add Posi+ive behaviour Replace the bad habits Spread a smile around Sprinkle some positive over negative Focus on the good of each day Say “please and thank you” Evaluate your behaviour Never miss an opportunity to complement

What is Optimism? It is not just a rediscovery of “The Power of Positive Thinking” Not affirmations It is your interpretation of failures and successes

Optimistic Explanatory Style When a bad event happens to a person he believes that the bad event was temporary and that has no influence on future event Eg- I am not good in drawing horse but I am good in drawing people (optimistic) This results in feeling hope and you are able to influence the event.

Why is optimism important? Optimists experience less distress than pessimists when dealing with difficulties in life, they are much less likely to suffer from depression and anxiety Optimists adapt better to negative events

Optimism predicts psychological and physical well-being among university students Optimists don’t use denial when faced with problems e.g. attend to health warnings Optimists report more health promoting behaviors and enjoy better physical health than pessimists

What about relationships? Optimism linked with better quality relationships over time Optimism protects from depression development because of a/ better quality relationships b/ more adaptive/flexible coping (reframing) (Brisette)

Optimism predicts better performance at University and predicts it more accurately than SATs ( Peterson & Barett, 1987) Optimism predicts better performance at individual and team sports (Seligman et al, 1988)

Do not encourage optimsim when the cost of failure is high

The Titanic1912

Credit crunch Some say the economic crisis is a direct result of optimism. (Shefrin, 2008)

Pessimistic explanations for failure/setbacks

Me Setbacks are my fault

Permanent Will last a long time

Optimistic explanations for setbacks

Other factors were involved Not me

Temporary Bad events don’t last

Specific Specific: isolated to particular circumstance s

Pessimistic (Tendency to stress negative explanations for success

Not me It wasn’t me. This was coincedence or luck. Fluke

Temporary This won’t last. I’ll pay for it.

Specific I am still awful at maths

Optimistic explanations for success

Me The success was down to my hard work and effort

Persistent Success can be sustained

Example one Today I had the worst day of my life.My professor yelled at me for nothing and he was really mean. I felt like I wanted to disappear under the desk. Everyone will think I am stupid and I never want to go back to that class again. I hate him and I hate my college.

The ABCs Adversity-My teacher yelled at me. Belief-I am stupid and he hates me Consequences- I fell upset and embarrassed Disputation-well I suppose I was acting silly and he is often mean like that to everyone. But he has also been nice to me sometimes. Energized: I feel a bit better now and I will have to go to college tomorrow.

Example two I have been waiting hours for him/her to ring and he/she has not called yet. I am a good friend to him/her but he/she always does this to me and lets me down.I had something really important to talk about. If he/she wants to be like that then I will get rid of him/her as a friend.

The ABCs Adversity-My friend did not call me Belief-I am not good enough to be his friend.Nobody likes me Consequences-I feel lousy and upset Disputation- Well I suppose he/she is a bit busy tonight. He usually rings when I ask him too. He has been a good friend to me.I did not tell him that I had something special to talk about. Energized-I feel a bit better now. Maybe I will call him/her

Martin Seligman

Brain teaser Home Assignment Hand written assignment Create 5 situations and apply The ABCs method. Do not use the same examples as mentioned Be honest when you solve this because it will help you develop a positive approach