Attitude; All The Difference in The World!

Attitude is an important factor in making life run smoothly, it is also key for business success.

When you call for a taxi cab and the person taking the call answers with a gruff, could not care less, voice “yes, what d’ya want?” As a customer you may not like the manners, or lack thereof but you need to get a ride to your destination right now. When the taxi driver arrives, this is what makes all the difference. When they display the same ‘couldn’t care less’ attitude what is the chance you will ever use the same company again? On the other-hand when they have a caring and considerate attitude then this can make all the difference to using their service again.

Image by kevindooley via Flickr

It is all too easy for us to get wrapped up in our own problems. Take for example the plumber who spends the whole time while he is fixing the leak in your home complaining about everything and everyone around. He may have done a professional job in fixing the leak, but you may not be inclined to call his company again, because of his attitude.

Attitude affects every aspect of our lives from the social through to business dealings. Yet people frequently fail to realise that what they may do in one area of their lives impacts other things they are involved in. Sure we all get angry from time to time, but most of us learn to bit our tongue before responding. The father who punched the football coach was a local business owner and although he did not go to jail for assault his sales did plummet and his previously trusted and successful was forced to close within three years because of one incident. Fortunately the repercussions of most attitudinal problems do not go this far, but job-loss because of a bad attitude to work is not uncommon.

Customer service impacts every job performed in a business no matter how big or small. Much is taught about managing customer relationships in large corporations yet it is key if any business, large or small, is going to survive for a long time that all customer interactions are handled with care.

Very little is taught about adopting the right mental attitude and how people portray themselves. Much conflict can be avoided by thinking about what you say before saying it and ensuring that the message is clearly understood. We all make mistakes from time-to-time, it is a part of being human, yet we should not compound that error by the subsequent actions we take; particularly when those actions impact others and their livelihood.

Think also about the parent who insists that his child is the next football superstar, but the coach will not play the youngster because he is only interested in his own personal glory, not in making the team succeed. The coach is focused on the good of the team, but both the father and the child both have attitudinal issues. But this comes to a head soon after one game finished, after a loss for the team, with the father calling the coach a wide variety of names, culminating in the father punching the coach. It is rare that anger resolves any situation. Aggression becomes the normal response to aggression and usually makes matters worse and is certainly not conducive to building any business relationship.

We live in an increasingly commercial world, and many times the lines between business and leisure are being blurred – the local builder seen smacking his kids at the local swimming pool may not be the right person to build that extension next spring. It is a fact that people do remember unacceptable behaviour, which can lead to the loss of business earnings.

Attitude has a great deal to do with success in modern business. Develop a helpful attitude and things move more easily. As a hiring manager recruiting someone with a ‘can do’ attitude has always been of more importance than the university they graduated from. The same is true in a wide variety of activities, plenty of winning sports teams prefer attitude to stardom: of course they prefer a star with the can-do attitude because that brings in the crowds.

Peter B. Giblett writes on Corporate Strategy at Perspectives and Strategy.