Sanders Says - Attitude is important, so pick a good one.

April 14, 2009

Attitude is important, so pick a good one.

I once heard a small business owner tell his employees: "Your attitude is important; so pick a good one!" Wise words, indeed.

Three key findings come from it:

1. You have an attitude. It is unique to everyone else around you, although attitude is known to be highly contagious.

2. Your attitude likely determines your performance, acceptance and overall effectiveness.

3. You have the power to select an attitude. If you don't choose one, your environment will choose one for you.

A few weeks ago I had a consulting gig with a consumer products company. I hadn't slept well the night before, the day was gloomy and I was almost rear-ended in bumper to bumper traffic in LA. The three hour meeting was packed with action items, many of them requiring my analysis and comments. Driving home later that afternoon, I recounted the day's performance. It wasn't the 9 or 10 that I commit myself to. We came up with some great marketing solutions, but I wasn't happy with my motivational contribution to the meeting -- there was a lack of excitement in the room.

When I recollected the meeting's events, I realized that I had the wrong attitude for the meeting. By not consciously choosing one, I let a bad night's sleep and bad LA traffic choose it for me. I vowed to be more emotionally intelligent in the future by selecting one of several attitudes prior to any client engagements: Grateful, Inquisitive, Excited, Committed, etc.

Last week, I gave a pro bono consultation to a non-profit. My flight the night before got in very late and LA traffic was its typical congested self. I listened to great music as I drove, contemplated which positive attitude I would choose and even had a short attitude-check in the car prior to walking into the client's office. It worked! The meeting was highly successful, addressing the agreed on issues plus leading to two breakthrough ideas for revenue generation. Everyone walked out of the conference on air.

Driving home I realized that there is an added benefit to having a great attitude, a positive feedback loop. When you have a performance at work that exceeds expectations and generates human enthusiasm, your chemical flow follows, generating DHEA and endorphins. You feel great, like you do when you have runner's high. As I've always told people: "If you are having a bad day, get in the car and go see a Customer -- and have a rocking good meeting! That will solve the problem every time."

Posted at 10:23 AM in Business Effectiveness | Permalink | Comments (22) | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Attitude is one of the first things that stick in the minds of your customers in your local business. When you show good attitude, you'll have a good rep. Show the bad, then you'll have a bad rep. Picking the right attitude can help in an effective marketing strategy, in my opinion. The people would choose the good guy, right?

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Posted by: Staci Burruel | March 14, 2011 at 11:11 PM

You really have to pick the right attitude. Let's say that you own a business. First thing that comes to mind would be advertising, right? You're not supposed to do it forcefully. You just have to be yourself and say that your company can do this and that. I've been working on a little bit of advertising for my friends' business here in Calgary. Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, and the like are one of the great ways of getting customers. You'd ask "How is this related to attitude?" Well, you should be more like "Try our product now, and we'll guarantee you good results" rather than "Hey you! Try this!" I know the latter can be effective, but what if it isn't appropriate?

Same thing goes for your own website. You wouldn't go around swearing in your site content, wouldn't you? It's unlikely that you can gain customers with that kind of attitude shown in your content. In my friends' website for their business in Calgary, web designers told them that the content should match the design.

Posted by: Dominic Mccory | February 13, 2011 at 07:01 PM

Those "keys" are really important! They help to make a good relations with customers and clients in every kind of business. So thank you for this article. I think it would be better to include it in your book!

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Tim's comments on using music to create a mood are dead on. Everyone should have some rev up music on their ipod or other device so that they can couple to something that changes or enhances their emotions. How can you be in a bad mood listening to 38 special "hold on loosely", just try it........

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