How Attitude is Impacting Your Bottom Line
Attitude sounds like a subjective thing. I can’t describe a bad attitude but I know it when I see it, right? Well there is some truth in that, you can “see” a bad attitude. There are physical indicators of attitude, and most are non-verbal. Posture, voice tone, eye contact, body language, and word choice are all reflections of our attitude. Our attitudes are a direct reflection of what we are thinking, and more importantly, how we are feeling. Your attitude, and the attitude of your team, can have a dramatic impact on your bottom line. And I’ll let you in on a little secret… it could be just how others perceive your attitude!
Quality Employee Interactions
How does your team interact with each other? How do you interact with your team? How do you interact with your peers? These are all important questions when addressing attitude in your company. For a team, or a company, to be working at maximum efficiency, your team has to be working together, and moving towards the same goals.
Employees, at all levels, should have a respect for each other. Jealousy or excessive competitiveness can lead to tension and resentment. Why is she getting the promotion and not me? Why does he get the high-profile assignments? These are the types of comments and thoughts (attitudes) that kill morale in your organization. When jealousy reigns, people don’t function as a team, and productivity and profitability suffer.
When teams come together with respect, creativity flourishes. Through creativity teams become productive and more importantly, they become great problem solvers. Don’t you want to give the important/challenging projects to a highly functioning team? They are more likely to get the job done!
In Good Company
Like it or not when your employees, colleagues, and peers leave work, most of them talk about the job. It might be with at an after work happy hour, Holiday party or to their spouse at dinner. How do you want them talking about your company? What do you want them to say about you as a leader?
When morale is high people will talk highly about their company. They’ll be excited to tell their peers and friends what they do an all about their company. This is free advertisement. A great attitude at work, leads to higher retention of employees, which reduces costs associated with turnover.
Also, when your team brags about where they work, they become recruiters. Their friends will want to work at your company, allowing you to hire the best talent! And let’s face it, social media is an influential part of our society today. Statistics show that happy employees are more likely to post positive comments about their employer on social media. This becomes a basis for better referrals and more recruiting.
Customers Love Happy Employees
Your employee’s attitude has a direct impact on customer satisfaction. Happy employees create happy customers. Companies like Southwest Airlines and Ritz Carlton found success by adopting the mindset that if they made their employees happy, the employees would in turn make the customers happy. This is especially important in the area of customer care, where the majority of the time the agents are hearing complaints.
An employee with a positive attitude is more likely to look for better outcomes to problems. This means either helping a customer with a product after purchase, or even helping the customer find the right solution before the sale. All good salespeople know they are more likely to make a sale if you sell a solution to a problem, rather than a product. Employees with a winning attitude lead to increased customer satisfaction, which, in turn, leads to loyal customers and referrals. What’s better than that?
This Week’s Challenge
Knowing that attitude directly impacts the bottom line is only half the battle. Now what do you do with that information? Make a commitment today to start by evaluating your own attitude. Seek objective feedback from others on how your attitude is perceived. If you are very direct and light on the small talk, people may perceive that as a bad attitude. Do you say negative comments about work, colleagues, projects, the economy, or even what you ate for lunch? Do others in your workplace say negative comments? Even companies with high morale and good attitudes can improve. Keep improving the attitudes of your teams and watch your profits increase!
Are you Serious About Improving Attitudes in your Workplace?
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Quote of the Week
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
Albert Einstein