Last time we looked at the importance of attitude and its effects to organization, we have seen that bad character affects organization negatively because a person with bad character can never serve as a receptionist or any post that has to do with direct service to people. No matter how good or bad a persons attitude has been, there must be factors behind it.
Let me ask you, Are we born with attitudes or do we develop them as we mature? What are the factors that form our attitudes? If you have a negative outlook on life because of your environment, can you change your attitude? Most of our attitudes were shaped during our formative years. While we were born with tendencies towards temperaments, there are three factors that largely determine our attitude formation. These are the triple E's of Attitude.
- Environment
- Experience
- Education
Lets evaluate each of these factors individually.
Environment
Environment consists of the following:
★. Home: Positive or Negative influences
★. School: Peer pressure
★. Work: Supportive or over critical supervisor
★. Media: Television, Newspapers, Magazines, Radio and Movies.
★. Cultural background
★. Religious background
★. Traditions and beliefs
★. Social environment
★. Political environment
All these environments create a culture. Every place, be it a home, organization, or a country, has a culture. For example, you've probably been to a store where you found managers to sales clerks alike to be polite, helpful, friendly and cheerful. Yet another shop you find the staff rude and discourteous. You go to a home and find the parents and children well behaved, courteous and considerate. You go to another home where everyone is fighting like cats and dogs.
In countries where the government and political environment is honest, generally you will find that the people are honest, law abiding and helpful. And the reverse is true too. In a corrupt environment, an honest person has a hard time Where as in an honest environment, a corrupt person has a tough time. "In a positive environment , a marginal performer's output goes up. In a negative environment, a good performer's output goes down".
Culture in any place always goes from the top down, never from the bottom up. We need to step back and look what kind if environment we have created for ourselves and those around us. It is tough to expect positive behaviour in a negative environment. In societies where lawlessness becomes the law, honest citizens become cheats, crooks and dacoits.
Take some time to evaluate how the environment that you are in affects you, and the one you create affects others.
Experience
Our behaviour changes according to our experiences with various people. If we have a positive experience with a person, our attitude towards him is likely to be positive and conversely negative experiences tend to make us cautious. Experience and events become reference points in our lives, we draw conclusions which serve as guidelines for the future.
Education
Education refers to both formal and informal education. We are drowning in information but starving for knowledge and wisdom. Strategically applied, knowledge translates into wisdom which in turn translates into Success. The role of the educator is vital. A teacher affects eternity. The ripple effect is immeasurable. Education ought to teach not only how to make a living but also how to live.
How Do You Recognize People With A Positive Attitude
You know just as the absence of ill health does not equal good health, in the same way the absence of negativity does not make a person positive. People with positive attitudes have certain personality traits that are easy to recognize. They are caring, confident, patient and humble. They have high expectations of themselves and others. They anticipate positive outcomes. A person with a positive attitude is like a fruit of all seasons. He is always welcome.
The Benefits of A Positive Attitude
There are many advantages to having a positive attitude. The advantages are easy to see, but what is easy to see is also easy to miss.
A Positive Attitude
★. Makes for a pleasing personality
★. Is energizing
★. Increases your enjoyment of life
★. Inspires other around you
★. Helps you become a contributing member of society and an asset to your country.
The Consequences Of A Negative Attitude
Life is an obstacle course and we become our biggest obstacle by having a negative attitude. People with negative attitudes have a hard time keeping friendships, jobs,marriages and relationships.
Negative attitudes leads to:
★. Bitterness
★. Resentment
★. A purposeless life
★. Ill health
★. High stress levels for themselves and others
Negative attitudes create an unpleasant environment at home, at work and become a liability to society. They pass on their negative behaviour to others around them and to the future generations.
When We Become Aware Of Our Negative Attitude, Why Don't We Change?
Human nature generally resists change. Change is uncomfortable regardless of its positive or negative effect, change can often be stressful. Sometimes we get so comfortable with our negativity that even when the change is for the better, we don't want to accept it, we stay with the negative.
Charles Dickens wrote about a prisoner who was locked up for many in a dungeon. After serving his sentence, he got his freedom. He was brought out from his cell into the bright daylight of the open world, this man looked all around and after a few moments was so uncomfortable with his newly acquired freedom that he asked to be taken back to the confines of his cell.
To him, the dungeon, the chains and the darkness were more familiar, secure and comfortable than accepting the change of freedom and an open world.
Many modern day prisoners do the same thing. The stresses of having to cope in an unfamiliar world are so great that they may purposefully commit another crime in order to be sent back to prison; where, though their freedom is restricted, they have fewer decisions to make.
If your attitude is negative, your life restricted, tour success at work will be limited, you will have fewer friends, your enjoyment of life will be less.
Thanks for your time hope this helps someone.
In my next post, I'll share with you my thoughts on how you can build a positive attitude. Believe me, working to build a positive attitude will be worth enduring the temporary stress and uncertainty of change.
