Attitude in Leadership
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The good thing about an attitude is that it is your choice how you wish to look at life. It is within your control at any moment in your life.
Viktor Frankl, who was a man imprisoned by the Germans during the Second World War, remarked that, “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 this Viktor Frankl, but they soon found that while they could destroy his physical state, but they could never destroy his resolve or attitude.
Now that’s amazing, isn’t it?
No matter how much has been taken from you, one thing that cannot be taken from you is your attitude.
Life can throw you many circumstances, but how you react to it is still your choice.
Now then…
What Is Attitude
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.
A saying goes,” Attitude is the way you mentally look at the world around you. It is how you view your environment and your future. It is the focus you develop toward life itself.”
• Is life a bed of roses?
• Is it a hopeless life that we’re just waiting to die?
• Is it a blessed time of loving and building meaningful relationships?
All these questions pertain to our attitude to life.
Besides our attitude to life, we have our attitudes toward other things in life. What is your attitude toward:
• Work
• Challenges/Problems
• Relationships
And so on…
Your attitude in all these areas matter because they will alter your behaviour and feelings toward these things in life. And this attitude in leadership matters a lot because leadership is influence.
When you view life as a time to get everything you can out of it before you perish, guess what? Your followers who interact with you on a daily basis will come to believe the same thing.
And you’ll be grooming a group of selfish, ambitious, pleasure-seeking individuals in your team unconsciously. And it’s all because of your attitude.
This is how powerful your attitudes really are. The success of your organization is really very much dependent on your attitude.
But the good news is, it’s a choice that you make.
Today, you can choose to be a person with a great attitude towards life in general. And with that attitude alone, you can do so much.
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; be it a strain in working relationships, an external challenge that is testing the survivability of your organization and what not.
And as what William James said, it is your attitude that will make all the difference in whether you’re successful in tackling the challenge.
To Have A 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. As a leader, you’ll be constantly influencing people, but as a person, you yourself will be constantly influenced by your surroundings.
What are the:
• Books you read,
• Words you speak,
• People you mix with,
• Thoughts you think,
on a daily basis?
All these things influence your thinking and your attitudes.
If you’re constantly mixing with people who talk about how lousy life is; you’ll be unconsciously thinking the same because these people form your reality.
They may be 5 people around you, but to you, they might represent the ‘people of the world.’
So be careful about what you allow in your head; these things unconsciously shape your worldview and eventually your attitudes toward life.
Leadership With You seeks to equip you with the right attitudes by constantly sharing important leadership principles and thoughts that will help you shape your thinking.
So do come back often and absorb the principles I am sharing here. 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!
Return from Attitude in Leadership to Inner Leadership
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Articles on Inner Leadership
The most important ingredient in leadership: integrity
Integrity is the most important ingredient in leadership. Having it is the make-or-break for any leader. Understand the importance of integrity and also how you can develop yourself to be a man of integrity.
Looking on the bright side on life:Optimism
As a leader, you should be an optimistic person. An optimistic person will naturally seek to see the good in the future, and bring the team to create positive change together.
Have a great attitude!
Attitude is everything. The saying goes that your attitude determines your altitude. How you perceive and interpret events in your life will determine how far in life you will go.
Vision: Having a direction in your life
Having a personal vision in your life means everything in leadership. As a leader, you must not only consider the organizational vision, but also the vision of each and every member of your team.
Articulating your vision: Pointing the way for your team
I have shared in other sections about the importance of having a vision, but it’s really one thing to have a vision, but another thing to articulate it well. Understand how you can articulate a vision in this section effectively, so that your team will catch it and run with the vision.
Learning to put first things first
Learning to prioritize your life will aid you a lot in your leadership journey where you decide what activities add value to your organization and what does not.
