Improve Your Team Attitude
June 1, 2009 by Phil Gerbyshak
Filed under Business
Do you have any gloomy people on your team, folks that really bring your whole team down in the dumps?
Do you wonder why these folks won’t just quit…or won’t just “get with the program” and be HAPPY. I mean, come on, this economy stinks. They should just be happy to have a paycheck, right?
WRONG!
But maybe you do need to improve your team’s attitude, and you’re wondering how to do it.
I’m going to let you in on a secret: You can’t improve your team’s attitude.
Nope, you CAN’T improve your team’s attitude!
Which attitude works for you? Credit to Jakob Botter
Hold on, I’m not done yet. I’m not going to leave you hanging with this statement, and not tell you something you CAN do.
That just wouldn’t be right.
You CAN improve behaviors.
That’s right, you can improve behaviors, which drive the attitudes you’re looking to improve.
You have to be specific about the behavior you want to improve, and you have to be specific about HOW you want it improved.
Situation: John has what you think is a bad attitude, and so do many of the folks who work with him.
Example of ineffective coaching: “John, you need to have a better attitude. Everyone around you says your attitude stinks. You got it?”
How do you think that would work? It wouldn’t, right?
Example of effective coaching: “John, when Sally asks you for help, your tone of voice is harsher than the one you take when you talk to the other people on the team. You probably didn’t realize this, and I know you wouldn’t want to be harsh with one of your co-workers. Can you please take a little kinder tone with Sally the next time she asks you for assistance?”
Unless John is a doofus who WANTS to mean to his co-workers, John will probably be much nicer to Sally the next time she asks for help…and maybe John will be kinder to the rest of your team too.
You may even want to ask Sally to let John know she feels he’s behaving strongly with her. Sometimes simple awareness is enough to fix a problem.
Not knowing can be more than half the battle.
I felt a huge sense of relief when I read this. It’s something that I had been battling with for about a year and then gave up – I realised that some people are never going to be happy (a concept I cannot on a personal level get my head around) and as long as they do good work and alter attitudes to other people when asked, that I should let them be.
But it’s great to see someone else say it!
Well first off, when you point a finger one a person three point back. You may just want to check your OWN attitude when you walk in the door! I also believe in serviant management style where the employees are customers as well with their needs, wants and desires. What have YOU done for them today?
Granted that everyone is under pressure now-a-days. We don’t drop off our home life when we enter the work place. Sometimes a manager/leader needs to ask (and should know SOMETHING about the employees) how their kids are doing, ever got that roof fixed, etc. – something personable without getting TOO personal in their life.
It may also help to have read “Dream Manager” as a means to get in their heads and help turn the attitude around. But you have to start with yourself and lead the way!