Attitude

“Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thoughts, and habits can be acquired. An action repeated becomes an attitude realized.” ~~Paul Myer~~

I observed a phenomenal training session* yesterday where participants were asked to examine not only how they speak, but also how they listen to information. There was a fascinating exercise where after learning about two basic patterns of reasoning the participants needed to identify not only which pattern they thought they responded best to, but which pattern they thought their team members would respond best to. As an observer, (and the HR Consultant for the organization receiving the training) I noticed a very real phenomenon. Each person’s attitude towards another team member significantly affected how they assumed that person wanted to hear/receive information. This may seem obvious, but think about the implications… If you dislike someone, or if you think they’re a pessimist, or a bully… this significantly sways how you deliver information to them, and could very well create a self-fulfilling prophecy. You could in effect be hurting yourself, or preventing yourself from getting what you need from the person with whom you are communicating…

What if, on the contrary, you went into every conversation, every interaction, with a positive attitude? How much more effective do you think you could be?


*A very heartfelt “thank you” to Tori Aiello and The Speech Improvement Company, Inc. for their generosity, time and commitment to excellence.