The longer I live, the more I realize the tremendous impact of attitude in a work environment. As a means of emphasizing this, I have used the following little formula with my teams. I’m not sure where this came from originally, but my thanks—many times over—to its author.
We have all been to those meetings at work where someone wants you to produce at least 100%. Here’s a little math that might prove helpful in the future.
What makes the 100%?
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26
then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K (8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11) = ONLY 98%
and,
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E (11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5) = ONLY 96%.
But,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E (1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5) = 100%.
It stands to reason that HARD WORK and KNOWLEDGE will get you close, but a positive ATTITUDE will get you to the top.
Attitude is said to be more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.
It will make or break an organization, a child care center, a home.
The remarkable thing is that we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace—just for that day! We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we CAN do is play the one card we have—and that is our attitude.
Some say that life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. So, I offer the following invitation to you:
Join me, especially now in this uncertain time, in working on our collective attitude—wherever you find yourself, in whatever work situation, in whatever position you hold. It begins with one! And, it is contagious.
Your thoughts?