How is your attitude?

I promise this isn't a motivational speech, about how "...the winds of change are stirring in your soul--you simply need to release them--blah, blah, blah..." However, a little diagnostic test on each of our attitudes is in order from time to time.

I believe that often times our attitude is our greatest "leadership lid", keeping us from realizing our full potential both at work and at home. Negative people are typically poor leaders both in their home and in their jobs (if that felt personal it probably was?!). Check out this quote from John Maxwell and see how it resonates with you:

"Leadership has less to do with position than it does with disposition. The disposition of a leader is important because it will influence the way the followers think and feel. Great leaders (which I'm assuming most of you want to be!!) understand that the right attitude will set the right atomsphere, which enables the right response from others."

If you are generally negative, always have a problem that needs to be addressed, always feel like someone else has it better than you, or feel like people are always out to get you...chances are good that no-one really likes being around you, let alone being led by you! On the other hand consider the leaders you love being around--I'd be willing to bet that they are positive, and encouraging about life's possibilities. Positive people are better leaders!

So here are a few tips/ keys---things I'm attempting to keep front and center, to keep my attitude moving in the right direction. Maybe they will be useful for you in your context:

1. Think about the future more than the past. [reflection and evaluation are important, but visit there instead of living there!]
2. Think about solutions more than problems [any one can see the problem, leaders emerge as the ones with solutions]
3. Choose to be around postive/optimistic people [check out this bulls eye quote from a leadership coach named Thomas Young: "I have found that there are basically two types of people--those who take responsibility for their own lives and those who blame others."]
4. Choose to work on it [Attitudes don't run on automatic, it is a choice. People with great attitudes typically work on it. Check out this final quote by Paul Boier "Attitudes are nothing more than habits of thought, and habits can be acquired--An action repeated becomes an attitude realized]

If you are really interested in being a great leader, ask and answer these questions honestly, and begin moving in the right directions with your attitude:

• How is my attitude affecting my team/co-workers?
• How is my attitude affecting my employees/volunteers?
• How is my attitude affecting my job performance?
• How is my attitude affecting my marriage/family?