Attitude in Leadership

Facing Life With The Right Mind

Having the right attitude in life is important, but more so having the right attitude in leadership. Attitude is in the realm of choice, meaning that you can control it at any point in time, no matter the circumstances you are facing.

In fact, learning to adjust your attitude is the first step in self-leadership: you lead your frame of mind before anything else.

viktorfrankl

Viktor Frankl, who was a man imprisoned by the Germans during the Second World War, remarked, “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.

The last of one’s freedoms is to choose ones attitude in any given circumstance.”

During the Second World War, the German did many things to try to break the will of Viktor Frankl, but they soon found that while they could destroy his physical state, but they could never destroy his resolve or attitude.

And the one attitude he kept holding on to was that one day he will walk out of the camp and then live to tell the story. That hope, that attitude was what kept him alive where others despaired and perished.

Victor Frankl taught the world a very important lesson. Circumstances can take many things from you: your possessions, your family and loved ones. But circumstances can never take away your attitude. You alone choose your attitude.

Charles Swindoll said life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it. They didn’t have the vocabulary then, but Charles was pointing to our attitudes.

What is Attitude in Leadership?

The dictionary defines attitude as a manner, disposition, feeling, position with regard to a person or thing; a tendency or orientation of the mind.

Simply put, it’s the posture that you choose to look at life in general.

Attitude is the way you mentally look at the world around you. It is how you view your environment and your future. In other words, it is your worldview.

  • Does life suck, and then you die?
  • Is life a meaningful journey filled with hope?
  • Is life meaningless, and by extension everything you do?

How you answer this question is how you answer EVERY question. By these lenses, by these attitudes you see the world. Besides the complete worldview; we have our attitudes toward other details in life like work (Is it a chore or a joy), problems (challenge or dead-end), relationships (joy or pain) and in this case, Leadership.

How do you view Leadership and Leading People?

  • Do you view your team as people that are trying to usurp you to take your position?
  • Do you view them as hired hands to get the job done?
  • Do you view them as team-mates who are seeking the same goals in life as you?

How you answer these questions determines what kind of leader you will become.

This is how powerful your attitudes are. In fact, the success of your organization is most dependent on the leader’s attitude. If you are a leader, the good news is, you can make that choice.

You have a choice to choose a positive yet realistic attitude toward the people you’re leading. You have a choice to push away the attitudes that think the worst about people. But more than our attitudes towards people; our attitudes toward life will make all the difference as well.

William James, a philosopher of the early 20th century, said, “It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult undertaking which, more than anything else, will determine its successful outcome.”

As a leader, you’ll be facing a lot of challenges in your organization; an internal struggle like a conflict at the workplace or an external challenge that is testing the survivability of your organization.

It is ultimately your attitude that will make all the difference in whether you’re successful in tackling the challenge.

To Have Great Attitude in Leadership,
We Must:

To have a great attitude in leadership, we must constantly be aware of the things that are influencing us. Although you are constantly influencing people, you yourself are constantly influenced by your surroundings.

So then the question: What is in your surroundings? What are the books you read? People you speak to? Online content you consume?

Social media like Facebook and Twitter are generally negative. People complain, accuse, lay blame under the veil of anonymity. If you spend long enough on social media, it won’t be surprising that you become negative, angry and dissatisfied.

Similarly, if you hang out with negative people, you’re going to be influenced unconsciously. You’re going to be given a reason to be unhappy. You’re going to be given a reason the world did not treat you fairly.

Like it or not, all these things influence your thinking and your attitudes. Jim Rohn famously said that you are the product of the five closest people around you. They may be just five people, but these 5 represent your social world to you.

So be careful about what and who you allow around yourself; these things unconsciously shape your worldview and attitudes.

Leadership GeeksĀ seeks to equip you with the right attitudes by constantly sharing key leadership principles and thoughts that will help you shape your thinking and be progressive in your growth journey.

The right influence brings the right attitudes and behaviours. Stay with the right influence and you’ll begin to see yourself becoming a better, stronger and more effective leader wherever you are!

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