Why Attitude Matters
It’s accepted wisdom that Why is a powerful driving force. We’d rather do things for a reason and not because we are told to do them.
Simon Sinek has earned a good living telling us to start with the Why. It’s the Why that gets us up in the morning. Why does an organisation exist? Why explains purpose. In old-school business-speak, Why in essence means mission.
But is Sinek totally right and does Why explain the whole piece? Or is Why too cognitive…too aware…too rational? It might appeal to emotion but it’s not the same thing as emotion.
But let me start with a true story:
Mario Capecchi was born to an unmarried, single mother in Italy in 1937 — on the eve of the Second World War. His mother was a poet who became known for her anti-fascist views and writings.
In the spring of 1941 she was arrested by the Gestapo and shipped off to Dachau concentration camp. Soon, Mario, aged four, was left to roam the streets of northern Italy and fend for himself. He was shot in the leg by a warplane, strafing peasants in a field for no good reason. For over four years he survived by begging and stealing.
Mario, suffering from malnutrition and lying in a hospital bed, was miraculously reunited with his mother on his ninth birthday. They moved to the US where he became fascinated by mathematics, physics and chemistry.
He did well at school and earned a Ph.D. in biophysics at Harvard in 1967. Dr Mario R. Capecchi won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 2007.
There is perhaps one thing that is more important than Why for achieving our goals; it is attitude. Attitude is the invisible driving force behind the way we live our lives.
Attitude lies behind our thought patterns. It determines how we view our world, what we think, what we do, what do not do, what we pay attention to and what we choose to ignore.
Attitude determines whether our purpose is forward-looking, positive and growth oriented or backward-looking, defensive, suspicious and negative. Our attitude leaks out in subtle ways through our words, voice tonality, physiology and general mood.
Our attitude determines how other people respond to us and whether we are happy or unhappy, successful or unsuccessful. As our mind and bodies form a single neurological system, our attitude will even determine our state of mental and physical health.
Attitude is a direction in which we lean. An attitude is similar to a belief but it is at a higher level of abstraction. Our attitude provides a template for our behaviour and our beliefs; it provides us with our values and a moral compass.
An attitude will override a belief; an attitude is more of an emotion or feeling, whereas a belief is more cognitive. An attitude determines general direction whereas a belief is more specific.
If the attitude of a person is that all change is a bad thing, then all change will be a bad thing, and the person will never be able to believe in any kind of change, regardless of how noble the purpose may be.
Attitude tells us that a situation or a person or our self is OK or not OK. We do not always choose the situations in which we find ourselves, but we can choose our attitude towards these situations.
We do not make ourselves; our parents, caretakers, genes and early environment do; we cannot change our history, but we can decide to change our attitude to it.
Does a tough upbringing make us tough, or does it make us defeatist? Do poor experiences with change make us more determined to be successful next time around and provide a learning experience, or do they make us give up?
Of his early years Dr Capecci says “It is not clear whether those early childhood experiences contributed to whatever successes I have enjoyed or whether those achievements were attained in spite of those experiences.”[i]
Do you see problems in every opportunity or opportunity in every problem? Do you see adversity in challenge or challenge in adversity? Do you accept that change is part of the human condition and strive to embrace it, or resist it and hang onto the status quo? Life and business is all about change and the sooner we accept that fact the easier change becomes.
In the same sense that our bodies become what we put into them as nourishment, our attitude becomes what we put into it as encouragement.
Our attitude reflects its inputs just as our bodies reflect their inputs. Managing our inputs is therefore as important for a healthy attitude as the food that you eat is for a healthy body.
Our attitude is fed by our thoughts and our thoughts are fed by our attitude — so we have a spiral that we influence positively or negatively.
It can help to consistently and positively turn the dial of your attitude towards the attitude you want to have. This means catching yourself in the act of doing good and congratulating and encouraging yourself to keep it up.
When you catch yourself with the right attitude, turn up the volume, go over the top in enjoying the moment, use hyperbole to tell yourself how great your attitude is — the subconscious has the communicative ability of a seven-year old, so enthuse your communication with positive words.
Is the moment good or is it great? Is it fantastic or absolutely stupendous? Do you feel comfortable with it or enormously thrilled? Are you involved or totally committed? Are you having an OK day, or is it amazing or good and getting better? Or living the dream?
We don’t have to lie about how we’re feeling, but we can turn up the emotional volume and thereby program ourselves, and others, with the right (or better) attitude.
In organizations, the right attitude is to have a healthy respect for all the elements of the business — people, profits, customers, suppliers, society and the environment — and to maintain a balance in all these things.
If we want an organization that is a great place to work, we must hire people with the right attitude and invite people with the wrong attitude to change, or talk to HR about an alternative career path outside the organization. This may sound harsh, but people with the wrong attitude can negatively affect those around them — colleagues, suppliers, partners and, most importantly, customers.
The great thing about the right attitude is that it is contagious. The energetic business leader will energise people. The passionate teacher will impassion students to learn and achieve. The enthusiastic salesperson will win enthusiastic customers.
That’s what I think…what do you think?
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[i] Based on The Kyoto Prize Lecture given by Dr M. Capecchi in 1996. Quote used by kind permission of Dr Capecchi.
