“Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home.” ~ Chuck Swindoll

This article is the first of an 8 part series of how to bring the “right” attitude to work every day.  Heck, if you really embrace my advice, you’ll be able to see positive results in your personal relationships well!

Would you like to find more value and acceptance in, “Who your boss IS” instead of focusing on who he isn’t?

Would you like to find more value and acceptance in, “Your daily work expectations” instead of focusing on what isn’t your responsibility?

Would you like to find more value and acceptance in, “Who your co-workers ARE” instead of focusing on who they aren’t??

If you answered YES! to any of the following questions, proceed to the next section of learning more about how attitude is everything in the workplace.

1. Pick one of the 3 relationships – Boss, Work Expectations, or Co-Workers to focus on.
2. When you think of the relationship, do you feel a level of frustration or anxiety? (psst! – This is the emotion that is driving your non-useful behavior!)
3. Ask yourself, “What am I demanding about the relationship?”  (When we feel a steady stream of frustration or anxiety, we’ve slipped into being very demanding about people and life…and we’re on the losing end of having emotionally connected relationships.  We’ve become very judgmental!)
4. Ask yourself, “Can I always get what I want?”  “How is what I am about to say or do going to impact the situation?”

Let’s explore the 1^st attitude

That will help you get out of your judgment of frustration or anxiety and put your focus back on your work relationship needs!

Inquiry/Awareness – This attitude is also known at curiosity…children have this in abundance!  They are a blank slate that we write on every day.  We teach them through cultural/generational norms and values what is supposed to be “right” and “wrong”.  As we get older though, our past experiences shape our way of thinking…past story lines creep back into our memory and we become stead-fast in what we think is universally right and wrong.  We become narrow-minded.

Practice!

Now that we’ve gone through the first attitude, go back to the questions earlier and utlize the inquire/awareness attitude. Curiosity always informs us with new information.  Gaining awareness broadens the mind to help us make more conscious and intentional decisions.  You don’t wake up and choose to be frustrated or anxious, do you?  Asking questions, otherwise known as inquiring, allows us not to assume (and you know how that breaks down into 3 syllables!)  Be child-like; not childish.  Be curious and focus on meeting the expectations of the work relationship.  Got questions?  Write a response and let me point you in the right direction!  Curiosity might have killed the cat…but it won’t kill the work relationship!