People are always free to offer their opinions and most have opinions on things they didn't realize they had opinions on. People who don't work in the area of organizational effectiveness or corporate culture still may have their opinions on how organizations can better their collective attitudes but that doesn't mean we have to take their advice.
I have opinions on a lot of things that are clearly not within my realm of expertise: who should stay and who should go with the NHL's Calgary Flames, which models of car should GM discontinue or which brand of maxi-pads do the best job. Clearly, these are not my areas of expertise. But it doesn't mean I don't have an opinion. I just wouldn't offer it as gospel.
So, when I stumbled onto a question on the LinkedIn bulletin board this morning that was right up my alley, I had an expert opinion. The question being asked was, "does attitude drive behavior or does behavior drive attitude?"
I was the eleventh person to answer the question and, strangely enough, the only person who works in the area of Attitude. Several motivational speakers before me had offered their simple platitudes: attitude is everything, it pays to be positive, a team with a focused attitude can accomplish anything, yadda, yadda, yadda and other motivational drivel that we've heard for years. In virtually every answer though, people equated the word attitude with positive attitude. This is a big mistake and a poor assumption.
My caution to you is to make sure that if you are soliciting advice, that you are asking people in the know. If you needed a wedding catered, you wouldn't ask the hot dog vendor on the corner. Sure, he may have some experience with food but it may not be the experience you require. In the same way, if you're looking for counsel or advice in one particular area of either your life or your business, ask an expert. Get good advice one time so that you don't compound your problem by having to go back and fix it again based on the poor advice of a non-expert.
There is much corporate discussion on "specialists versus generalists." Personally, I don't think there's much room left for generalists anymore. You only have to look to the retail sector to see evidence. Those who were once the behemoth players are slowly having their market share chipped away by specialists -- niche marketers. Even Wal-Mart is a niche marketer -- their niche is price and nothing else.
The speaking industry is no different. There are specialists and generalists. Motivational speakers are the generalists (they say stuff that makes people feel good for a while but nothing really specific) and there are specialists who address problems and issues with surgical precision.
The challenge for generalists in this economy is their inability to address specific problems and challenges with any degree of authority. For example, if your organization was facing growth issues -- either upwards or downwards -- then I would recommend my friend Marty Park. If your organization was facing performance issues than I would recommend my friend, Ken Larson. In the same way, I would hope that if your organization wanted to tweak its corporate culture, which is the corporate attitude, I would hope that you would choose me. After all, Attitude affects culture and the way your organization handles change, communication, customer service, health and safety, leadership, work life balance, management, productivity, problem solving, sales, corporate social responsibility and virtually every department within the organization. Each one of these areas has an effect on bottom-line financials. Improve the attitude and you improve the financials. The proof is that organizations with strong attitudes outperform their competitors financially by four times.
The motivational speaking industry is hurting right now because, in an economy of counting pennies, organizations want something more than platitudes that pump their people up for a few hours. They want real-world solutions that leave an organization different. Experts do just that. Experts know that low motivation in their employees is a symptom of something within the culture. That's why motivational speeches rarely change an organization's culture - because the speech addresses only the symptom and not the root cause.
So, what was my answer to the question that started this discussion? Attitude drives behavior in every single circumstance. Every event in our lives presents a choice. We make our decisions and then we act. Then, the results of our actions go back to either add to or take away from our ingrained attitudes. But every time, it's Attitude first.
--
Attitude w/ ATTITUDE
Subscribe to Kevin's Attitude with ATTITUDE Blog by Email
Follow Kevin on Twitter @attitudeburns
The Official Kevin Burns YouTube Channel
No comments:
Post a Comment