Check Your Attitude At The Door

When things don't go the way you expect in the corporate world, you might want to scream that it's so unfair or it’s so stupid.  And when those incidents repeat, you are more than convinced that your managers are a bunch of lunatics, and that every time you turn around and look up, someone or something is testing your patience and making it harder for you to succeed. You then quickly develop a bad attitude without thinking about the consequences.

I fell into this trap during my career. I had a clear picture in my mind as to how the projects should be run, how the business should operate, and I considered my division’s failures to be the incompetence of my bosses. 

Every time my progress was blocked, my frustration grew as I happened to wear my emotions on my sleeve. My managers hoped that I would slowly blend into the company culture and eventually achieve my goals.  Afterall, I had some talent and the potential to succeed. But boy, did that happen? Did I blend in? Was I successful?  Not really.  I stayed exactly where I was and watched my co-workers with half my experience move ahead of me in the company.  Consequently, I decided to quit, believing my company was the problem.  A couple of jobs later, I realized that corporate culture is the same everywhere, and I recognized that the problem was not my company or my job, but rather my attitude. My negative attitude. I finally realized that fulfilment is not about the job itself—it's about your attitude towards the job.   

Negativity might be a natural reaction to frustration, but that doesn't mean it's the right one. Negative people waste a lot of energy being unhappy. They are unpopular with their colleagues and managers because they suck the life out of everyone around them. Their reputation in the company suffers because they are perceived as immature. You may be talented and hard-working, but if you are a negative person, no one would give you a leg up in your career. Negativity suppresses your emotional control and it is a cause for conflicts, stress and making enemies.  It is completely self-defeating.

Unless you want your career to end prematurely, your strategy must be - to kill negativity, before it kills you.  In today’s competitive landscape where job security has almost become a myth, your positive attitude can save your job.  

However, the bigger problem seems to be a lack of self-awareness in most working professionals.  They tend to underestimate the level of negativity in them.  In fact, most of them do not agree that they are negative.  You cannot tell a negative person that they are negative.  When others complain that they are rude, they confront that they are not actually rude, but straight-forward.  When others are concerned about their arrogance, they defend that it is their aggressiveness.  When others think they complain too much, they respond that it is not complaining, but it’s called ‘speaking-up’.  And the list goes on. 

Consequently, no one wants to deal with them because they often dispute constructive feedback.  Hence, most managers go tight-lipped.  But that is never a happy ending.  When people around you, especially your managers do not like your behaviour and hesitate to confront you because you are not open to feedback, they believe they have no choice but to resort to office politics to slowly push you out. And the best thing about it is – you never know that you were the victim because they never made you feel that way. 

I get it. It is not always easy to be upbeat.  Life doesn't always go your way. When faced with demotivating situations, it is not easy to suppress your bad feelings and maintain a positive attitude. But it is definitely under your control.   

Remember! Your thoughts control your feelings and make you who you are. You are responsible for your own life, and you have the ability to choose your response to your situations.  Nothing, and no one controls your attitude, but you.

Staying positive is vital for your own personal growth and happiness too.  A positive person, while they hope they don’t get into trouble or face a mess, they recognize that it is not practical to expect a problem free work environment or for that matter a life free of problems.  Positive people believe that any problem can be solved, provided you have the resolve. That’s their confidence. And that confidence in turn helps them to always stay positive. 

So, it’s time to double check your attitude at the door. After all, not too many doors are open in today’s tighter job market. 

Being positive is mostly about being pragmatic. It’s about accepting that the world is not perfect, and not how you wished or expected to be.   

If you are passed for a promotion, instead of choosing to think that your bosses are a set of jerks and they are playing favourites, you might want to choose to find out what you missed and what you can do to get the promotion next time.

If you are given a task that challenges your skills or paygrade, instead of venting that your bosses are dumping their job on you, you might want to learn something new and take it as an opportunity to prove your breadth and positively surprise them by giving them more than they would expect.

If you’re given a difficult assignment on a Friday evening that is due on Monday, instead of saying: “There's no way I can do this. I can't believe they didn't give me more notice”, you might want to think – “Well, if it is that urgent, let me think about what resources I can call on to get this done.  This is not the time to worry about how unfair it is. Let me roll up my sleeves and get this done first.”

Of course, every situation has pluses and minuses. But it's dangerous to your well-being to focus only on the minuses, even though they may be the first to pop into your mind.  Life does not always play out in a logical or fair way. And you do yourself a grave disservice when you hold on to your own picture of how people in the company should function. 

Unless you have a positive outlook towards people, they will never come forward to support you.  People may talk nicely, but when you need their support or help, that’s exactly when they get extremely busy. So, make a commitment to be more tolerant and flexible, and recognize that everyone has a different point of view.  Instead of creating a whole bunch of rules and judgments based on your own values, walk into your office each day with an open mind. And stop acting too pompous and pretentious. Smack yourself in the head if you start taking yourself too seriously.  

To the best of your ability, refuse to talk about other people unless it’s on positive terms.  In the beginning, people may judge that you are a fake, but in time, with your consistency, they will come to see that you are different, and some who is focused and interested in work and not in manipulating the workplace. 

And lastly, everyday at least once, think about how lucky you are to be educated, employed, and to have a standard of living that is better than 90 percent of the world's population. You'll notice an improvement in your attitude overnight, without any changes in your work situation whatsoever!  

If being positive is natural for you, wonderful. Thanks for reading this blog by the way.  If it isn't, fight to find it and wear it all over yourself.  You will ultimately become a happier person in life.  Cheers.

Venu Muvvala is a seasoned career coach with 25 years of rich experience in the Technology Industry. With a proven track record of senior management roles and serving global clients in multinational corporations, Venu is deeply passionate about guiding career professionals through challenges, fostering successful career paths, and ultimately elevating their overall quality of life.