11 Reasons Why Attitude Is Everything

Leaders must make difficult decisions about hiring, performance appraisal and promotions. Consider 11 reasons why attitude trumps all in the workplace.

1.  Attitudes are force multipliers.  A great attitude picks up everyone in the room.  One negative attitude drains the life out of an entire team.

2.  Negative attitudes cost you money.  If you employ someone with a negative attitude, you are not only paying them their salary (wasted money) but you are paying extra to fix the damage they cause (more wasted money).  Eventually this will cause you to lose current and potential business. So to summarize:  Negative attitude employee = Expenses Up and Income down.

3.  Attitude is like the accelerator on a race car.  You might drive a Ferrari, but you will still lose every race if your accelerator is stuck at 10 mph.  Likewise, employing a genius doesn’t do you much good if the person doesn’t care enough to give their best.  Education and skills are vital, but they are governed by attitude.

4.  A person with a great attitude inspires everyone else to raise their game.

5.  People with negative attitudes don’t give any discretionary effort.  They embrace a line of performance that allows them to do just enough to keep out of trouble.

6.  People with great attitudes attract the right customers and other high performing employees.

7.  High performing employees will leave if they consistently have to put with negative coworkers. Allow that for long enough and you will be left with an army of complainers, gossipers and clock-watchers.

8.  Those with great attitudes have big ideas with a broad scope. Those with negative attitudes don’t see beyond punching out at night.

9.  Hiring or promoting someone that has a negative attitude sends a not-so-subtle message that bad attitudes are not only tolerated, they are valued.

10.  Skills can be taught.  It is next to impossible to train someone into the right attitude.

11.  Teammates with great attitudes will turn the impossible into the possible.  Those with negative attitudes will do the exact opposite.