What is your attitude at work?
What about your co-workers or employees? Whether you are mowing lawns for a living or the CEO of your company, attitude is everything. Even more importantly, attitude is everything in life. Do you believe you attract certain people into your life? I believe that with every fiber of my being.
Complaining Can Be Habitual
Have you ever noticed that complaining is a habit and complainers love to hang out with other complainers. You may see it at work around the water cooler, or you may see it in your business. When one person complains they tend to attract 5 or 6 more people who want to bitch too. I am not pointing the finger here. I consider myself a very positive person, but I have to admit I fall for the trap sometimes too.
“Are You Happy For No Reason?”
I’ve been Reading “Happy for No Reason.” by Marci Shimoff. I realize that even as a self proclaimed positive person, that I struggle with thoughts of negativity. Certain thoughts and attitudes can either expand our energy or contract it. I had an experience today that taught me something. Typically I don’t like being around negative people at all. Sometimes people look at me like I have 3 heads if I don’t join in with them on their complaining rants. Today I came across someone with a serious case of “The Neggies.” Typically I respond with being upset. I can see that this person is really getting themselves extremely upset over something that is out of their control. Today I responded a little differently.
Instead of explaining to that person why they shouldn’t be upset, I empathized briefly…”That Sucks.” And then I removed myself from the scene. I went away. I usually almost take it personally. How cool is that! I realized some people are infectious and others are contagious. Infectious attitudes bring everyone else into their negativity. Contagious attitudes brighten up the room with a smile and an ever expanding energy. It catches on. I’ve been experimenting with this lately.
I travel frequently, and yesterday I ran into a TSA agent who had a really bad attitude. He was scowling, motioning impatiently for passengers to step up, and he just seemed really angry. Normally this type of attitude gets me really ticked off. I am a paying customer. I don’t deserve to be treated like that. This time, I consciously sent some good thoughts in his direction. I realized it had nothing to do with me. I gave him a big smile and said, “GOOD MORNING!” He responded with a grunt. As I went on through I said, “Thanks, have a good day.” You could see his energy instantly change.
I learned something about myself. Normally I get upset and avoid negative people. I knew I was going to have a GREAT day, so why not be contagious.
Is your attitude at work, in your business, in your life, contagious or infectious? Attitude is everything.
I’m looking forward to your comments and thoughts. HAVE A WONDERFUL AND CONTAGIOUS DAY 
7 Comments and Trackbacks
awesome value creating that
Hey Nick. I think everybody who works for someone else has people at their workplace that annoy the heck outta them. The truth is they often are small minded individuals that are trying to drag others down to their level.
Be waterproof.
Absolutely Jeff. It’s easy to get dragged into negativity. But we know better right?
Hey Nick. I’m Martin. Somehow after being busy for some time now searching the net about blogging I came upon your blog. First of all, I would like to say that you have an awesome blog. The contents that you are sharing are valuable and will literally help many people who are just starting out in online marketing like me. I truly appreciate your dedication and effort to share what you know and offer valuable contents for FREE.
I have subscribe to your newsletter and this is the first article I received. I want to share my thoughts on this. Currently I am working as a nurse in our beautiful country, the Philippines. As a healthcare provider, we get to meet different people with different needs and personalities everyday. Most are nice but there are still some people that can practically ruin our day. Some people have the worst attitude a person can ever imagine!
They would constantly complain almost every minute why their procedures are not yet done, they would complain of how inefficient the staff are even though we are already providing them the best quality service in the land(I work with a very prestigious hospital and has a very good reputation abroad). Some would even go to the extent of threatening us, report us to top management, or would boast of having connections to famous people and politicians. Every time these “unfortunate” events happen, the whole mood of our team tends to change for the worst. And it would practically continue till the afternoon and would really ruin our day. I easily get irritated by these type of people and sometimes I just wish that I have an automatic machine gun in my hand and blast these people to pieces!
Until I was able to read a book by Stephen R. Covey did I realize that I have the wrong approach and attitudes towards the everyday problems that I encounter. As humans, we tend to only think of our OWN welfare during times of trouble.Its basic human nature. What we often forget is that other people have their own problems too. Sometimes its even worst than ours. They might have just lost their wallet,their job,or worst loved ones. This events can be very stressful and truly affect their mood. With this, I am now trying to change my attitude in problem solving.
Nowadays, I believe I have better control of my attitudes because I now consider other peoples problem first. Instead of “reacting” negatively to a complaining customer, I now tend to listen first on what he has to say and try to calm him down by just listening to what he has to say, empathize, and respond in the most appropriate possible way I can. Men did it change a lot! Most irate customers that I handle nowadays either end up in a happy mood and better, recommend us for our excellent service! Just imagine how a simple change in your approach can have a big impact to many people.
Let us be considerate of other’s people feelings before we complain.
Hey Martin. Thanks so much for stopping by and putting so much passion in response to this blog post. Put away the machine gun…
I’m glad you found Covey and I’m extra grateful you found my blog. See you back here often…
Til next time
Hi Nick,
I found this article whilst looking for an article on bio/geo value tribes at work (which I still can’t find!). I’m speaking at a conference tomorrow on Customer Service in Healthcare and found this so interesting – I loved the infectious/contagious analogy and if it’s ok with you I’d like to use this – I will of course give you the credit for the term!
Will catch up with the rest of your blogs now I’ve found you.
Of course Jill. Another great resource is The Zappos story “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose”
They have a very successful model as you probably know. Be happy to help in any way I can. Please let me know how the conference goes. Facebook is a great place to chat…
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009 at 10:20 am and is filed under Attitude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.