Choose your Attitude

The mindset you have, the mindset you project determines so much of what is to follow. I read recently about a management coach who studied the difference in attitude that ensued following these two questions:

What is the thing you like best about your job?
What is the thing you like least about your job?

As you can imagine, the conversation that ensued after the first question was upbeat and the body language and attitude of the interviewee reflected that. Likewise, when starting the interview with the second question, the interviewee was much more negative in their ensuing responses.

How we project ourselves matters, and as leaders, we have to understand that our language, what we say, how we say it, our attitudes and our body language all project.

And while daily we face many uncontrollables and many variables, we completely control how we approach them and how we subsequently project ourselves to others.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances...”

― Viktor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning