How important is attitude ?

by Asha Nathan, Business Development Manager, Nathan& Nathan Human Resources 

www.nathanhr.com 

In a bygone era , post university learning was restricted to a" Library", people knew the effort it took to manage events of their lives on a daily basis , so as to allow them those few hours a day, to visit their own "study" at home or a public library to read more on a given topic . It took a determined mind and a disciplined body to achieve that goal.

Today with the Internet , personal development and learning is acquired alongside surfing the net and chatting with friends or replying on messenger or checking your emails, catching up on Facebook etc is all done while on the Internet and through an Online learning course. The application of memory to things learnt is changing , today accessing online books or , setting bookmarks in pages that you are currently reading , takes you to the exact page you need to go to, in less than a second. Learning is not as rigorous a task, as it was in the years prior to the Internet.

So here we are at an era where knowledge on any subject does not look daunting to an employee, either he reads up online , or uses an application or consults with direct peers or through chat rooms, or watches you-tube, and can get the job done. So much so that even organizations are realizing that years of experience on a job is no more the single criterea they should use to recruit a person. Focus on the person with the right "attitude" to learning is becoming increasingly important.

The trend of young CEO's in successful start up companies, or even the brilliant organizations that have grown in the International arena with dropouts from school, are all testimony that the old school , conventional route that a person took to gaining success, has changed. It is the Opportunity at hand that matters the most.

This brings us to two key elements to take note of 'Opportunity " and " Attitude ". Every successful start up has employed these two elements to the maximum. I would like to quote from the book by John Maxwell " How High will you climb ", the description of 'Attitude " . Many a time we think that extreme optimism alone is good attitude , but to understand it at a deeper level read the quote below.

WHAT IS AN ATTITUDE ?

1] It is the "advance man " of our true selves.

2] Its roots are inward but its fruit is outward.

3] It is our best friend and our worst enemy.

4] It is more honest and more consistent than our words.

5] It is an outward look based on past experiences.

6] It is a thing that draws people to us or repels them.

7] It is never content until it is expressed.

8] It is the Librarian of the past.

9] It is the speaker of our present.

10] It is the prophet of our future.

In conclusion if we understand that opportunity knocks but once , then we should employ the right "attitude " for a game changer experience. Not sticking by the guns of our conventional methodology of gaining wisdom, and not berating Internet Learning , and making an effort to understand the millennial generation , can help bridge the gap in organizations. This does not mean that we discount a well earned college degree, not at all , but knowing that skills are transferable , knowing that competencies acquired on one job can be used on multiple jobs, and that sufficient information is available on the Internet , for an employee to save the day in any organization, if only he had the "Right Attitude" would be the way forward.

View Article HERE