Careers-Employment

To Get Hired or Get Promoted, Attitude Is The Key By Bonnie Lowe

When you're looking to get hired or get promoted, what do you think is your most important asset? Your experience? Knowledge? Skill? Talent?

While all of those are advantages that will help you achieve your goals, there's one thing that's more important than all of them combined.

Your attitude!

I attended a board meeting recently. It should've been spelled "bored." Just about everyone's eyes were glazed over or nearly closed with fatigue as one dull presentation after another was foisted upon the board members, staff and audience.

Then something changed.

Someone who had never spoken at a board meeting before got up, went to the lectern, fired up her PowerPoint presentation, and totally blew everyone away! People perked up in their seats and listened attentively to her every word. When she was done, people clapped! (If you've ever attended a public agency board meeting before, you'll know how remarkable that is!) The board president said, "I've seen hundreds of presentations. This is the first time I've ever seen one that elicited applause!"

Was this presenter more experienced, more knowledgeable, more skilled or more talented than all the others? Absolutely not. As a fairly new employee, she was actually inferior in all of those areas.

What made the difference? Her attitude. She was enthusiastic, positive, upbeat, energetic and truly excited about what she was talking about! It wasn't the quality of her presentation that impressed people, it was how she made them feel. Her enthusiasm was contagious, so the audience greatly enjoyed listening to facts and figures that, presented by someone without her energetic attitude, would've bored them to tears.

Everyone in that room will remember and think very highly of her--not the more experienced, knowledgeable, skilled or talented presenters--because of her attitude.

You know why companies conduct time-consuming, labor-intensive job interviews instead of simply hiring people based on the qualifications presented in their resumes? One of the reasons is to find someone they'll enjoy working with. This can only be conveyed in person, by your attitude.

Think of your own coworkers. Who do you enjoy working with? The smart guy who has all the answers but acts superior? The woman who's has the most experience but whines or complains whenever she's asked to do something in a new way? Or the person who always smiles, listens to you, stays positive, friendly and supportive no matter what?

How's your attitude?

?expert=Bonnie_Lowe