Do you want to improve attitude at work?
If you do, then come along with us.
At work, your productivity, work style, and work ethic can be affected by your mindset and attitude.
This is because your attitude determines how you view and do things.
For instance, if you have a negative attitude at work, everything you do will have a negative touch.
If that attitude is not changed, then your productivity will decline.
Consequently, it might make you struggle to grow your business and career.
So, to avoid this, you need to check your attitude at work and improve it.
In this article, we will discuss some great tips on how to improve attitude at work.
But before that, let’s take a look at what attitude is.
What Is Attitude? – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Attitude is an opinion, disposition, or feeling about something or someone which affects how you act and behave around them.
It can be either negative or positive.
A negative attitude is a feeling, opinion, or deposition that is not optimistic, cooperative, or constructive.
When a person has a negative attitude it makes things hard for such a person and the people around them.
An example of a negative attitude at work is the fear of failure.
If a person possesses this attitude at work, it will stop them from taking risks that will help their career grow.
Meanwhile, a positive attitude is a feeling, opinion, or deposition that is optimistic, cooperative, or constructive.
A positive attitude makes things easier for a person as they strive to make progress in their life and work.
An example of a positive attitude at work is being enthusiastic and passionate.
A person can have both positive and negative attitudes at work.
For example, their attitude towards an aspect of work might be negative, while for another aspect, it could be positive.
However, it is important to know that having a negative attitude at work can overweigh your positive attitude.
Consequently ruining your overall attitude at work.
This is because a negative attitude has a way of overshadowing the positive if it is not dealt with.
So, when you notice that you have a negative attitude towards anything at work, you need to quickly work to improve it.
Components of Attitude – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Every attitude is made up of three fundamental components which are cognition, behavior, and affect.
To effectively improve your attitude at work, you need to understand these components:
Cognitive Component – How to Improve Attitude at Work
This component is solely based on your belief of how things are or seem to you.
For instance, the statement “I will fail” is what you believe.
You cannot have an attitude without having a core belief about it.
The core belief you have concerning something is what builds up to the affective component of an attitude.
Affective Component
The affective component is what provides the feelings and emotions to the belief you have.
It is what demonstrates or reflects what you believe.
For instance, if you believe that you will fail, emotion will be evoked in you.
The most possible emotion that will be evoked or reflected by that belief is fear.
You would be scared to do anything that will push you towards success.
At this point your attitude has grown to be more than just your thought or belief, but how you feel.
Behavioral Component – How to Improve Attitude at Work
What you feel is what would most likely determine how you behave.
For example, if you are scared of failure, your behavior towards your job will be bad.
You might avoid doing anything that will push you outside your comfort zone and towards success.
When you are offered a position at work, you will reject it cause you are scared of not succeeding.
Hence, the behavioral component of attitude is all about how you behave based on what you feel and believe.
Factors that Can Form an Attitude – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Attitudes are structured based on your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
However, different factors can make you form or shape an attitude.
When you understand what formed your attitude, you will find it easier to change or improve them.
Experience – How to Improve Attitude at Work
What you experienced can shape what you think, feel, and behave towards a particular thing or person.
For example, if you once had a difficult partner who made business difficult for you, you most would believe that it is bad to have a business partner.
As a result, when asked to partner up with someone to conduct business, you will easily turn the offer down.
In some cases, the experience that shaped your attitude might not be yours.
You can develop an attitude because of what you saw happen to someone.
For instance, let us assume you experienced someone losing their business stocks.
You might not know the reason, but because this happened and you witnessed it, you can develop an attitude towards buying stocks.
Therefore, what you experienced or what you witnessed happen to someone else can shape your attitude.
Culture and Religion
Culture and religion are also factors that can shape your attitude.
Your culture and religion provide you with different sets of beliefs and values.
These beliefs and values in turn can affect your opinion or feelings about things and people.
For example, let us assume that your culture teaches that female should cover their hair.
If you are not careful, you might form a negative attitude towards religious or cultural diversity.
Media – How to Improve Attitude at Work
We are all exposed to the media through different mediums.
Television shows and adverts, radio shows, and even social media can negatively or positively influence our attitudes.
When you come across new information about something, it can make you create a new or fresh cognitive attitude component.
This will, in turn, affect your affective and behavioral components.
Ultimately, a new attitude will be formed.
Educational Background
The education and knowledge you have acquired also have a significant impact on the attitudes you have.
This is because they serve as a foundation for what we understand and the concepts we accept.
We get to know different things and form attitudes towards them based on what we have been taught and how we understand them.
Two people can have the same educational background but have a different understanding of something.
Hence, the attitudes formed will be based on their understanding.
Emotional Factors – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Experiences and environmental circumstances are not the only factors that shape one’s attitudes.
Sometimes, attitudes are formed solely on our emotions.
However, these attitudes can be short-lived as sometimes they are only formed out of frustration, ego, or defense.
Meanwhile, sometimes they can be more durable and persistent.
For example, you can form an attitude towards a person because they disappointed you.
If they do something pleasing, that attitude you formed towards them can be changed.
Importance of a Positive Attitude at Work – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Knowing the importance of a positive attitude at work will encourage you to put more effort into improving your attitude.
So, below are the importance of a positive attitude at work:
Improves Productivity
Having a positive attitude at work helps you to do better.
This is because your mind will be more stimulated and would function better.
You will not be weighed down by negativity and focus on your work.
As a result, you will have more clarity and also concentrate better on your work till you get your desired outcomes.
Check here to discover 12 time-tested techniques to increase workplace productivity.
Better Health – How to Improve Attitude at Work
When you have a positive attitude at work, you will be less stressed.
You will do your job better, and have a clearer mind.
This will not only end at your workplace but throughout your day.
As a result, you will be happier and have a better life quality which will in turn improve your health condition.
Greater Resilience
Having a positive attitude is not a guarantee that things will go well at all times.
However, it ensures that you don’t give up when things go badly but keep pushing forward.
Additionally, it will help you recover quickly from any negative emotions that you might feel when failures or mistakes occur.
As a result, you will develop greater resilience.
Better Decisions – How to Improve Attitude at Work
With a positive attitude, you have a reduced stress level and be level-headed.
As a result, you will make clearer and better decisions that you will be confident about.
Better Work Relationship/ Interaction
When you have a positive attitude, it positively affects people around you.
You will communicate and interact better with people in the workplace, and form and build better work relationships.
This will, in turn, create a better work environment for you and others working with you.
Learning from Mistakes – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Mistakes occur in business and career-building.
When they occur, one is expected to learn from them and do better.
A positive attitude will ensure that this is possible.
Instead of wallowing in self-pity and shame, you will learn from your mistakes and move on.
Seeing and Seizing Opportunities
People who have positive attitudes are less burdened with negativity.
As a result, they can see amazing opportunities that other people cannot see.
When they see these opportunities, they seize them and use them for their benefit.
Better Reception of Feedback – How to Improve Attitude at Work
In the workplace, several people cannot accept constructive feedback because they have a negative attitude.
Rather than accept and work to change or improve, they would disagree.
This does not help them to grow.
However, those who possess are more receptive to feedback.
They accept feedback and work to do better.
Tips on How to Improve Attitude at Work
Your attitude can either be positive or negative.
There is hardly any neutral or indifferent attitude.
However, one negative attitude towards a particular thing at work can negatively influence any positive attitude you have.
This ultimately makes you have a negative attitude at work.
Hence, when we talk about improving attitude at work, we are talking about changing negative attitudes at work to positive ones.
We have prepared some amazing tips that will enable you to do this.
So, we expect you to practice them and enjoy the benefits of having positive attitudes at work.
1. Identify Your Negative Attitude
The first thing to do to improve your attitude at work is to identify those negative attitudes.
Sometimes, we do not know that we have a negative attitude towards something.
This is mostly because we believe that our thoughts, emotion, and behavior are right.
So, you have to carefully find out those negative attitudes.
The best way to do this is to look at those behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that don’t allow you to do your best at work.
When you have identified them, you will be able to pinpoint them back to those negative attitudes you have.
Once you know what those negative attitudes are, start tackling them one at a time.
2. Avoid Negative Triggers – How to Improve Attitude at Work
While working to improve your attitude at work, you need to be mindful of negative triggers.
This is because negative triggers can destroy positive emotions and attitudes.
So, if you know that you will develop a negative attitude from reading sad stories in newspapers or from watching depressing news, then avoid them.
It is better to avoid exposure to negativity when your attitude to work is shaky.
Therefore, keep a distance from negative triggers.
3. Find Solutions to Issues
Most times, people develop wrong or negative attitudes to and at work because of issues they find difficult.
They get frustrated and overwhelmed with issues or problems, and let it dampen their mood.
Instead of focusing on problems and letting them get to you, fix your mind on finding a solution.
If you do this, you will be less stressed and more focused on righting a wrong.
Once you find the solution to that issue, your mood will be lifted, and your negative attitude towards that issue will go away.
Ultimately, it will affect your overall attitude towards work.
4. Be Appreciative and Grateful – How to Improve Attitude at Work
To improve your attitude at work, you need to be appreciative and practice gratitude.
There is a lot to be grateful for.
Yes, you might not be where you want to be in your business and career.
However, you are taking steps and working daily to achieve what you want.
So, be grateful for what you have attained so far.
Furthermore, appreciate your employees and team.
Showing them appreciation can drastically evoke improvement in their attitude and work style.
When you are appreciative and thankful and surrounded by people who are too, your attitude at work will improve for the better.
5. Celebrate Your Achievements
Celebrating your achievements whether small or big can encourage you to do better at work.
As a result, it can make you enjoy your work better and push away negativity.
So, learn to celebrate your wins.
6. Encourage Humor – How to Improve Attitude at Work
Your attitude at work might be negative because you see work to be a serious place with no smiling.
However, that should not be so.
Understand that the workplace is not a war front.
And that, “all work and no play make Jack a dull boy”.
So, improve your attitude at work by encouraging humor.
Make small jokes, and encourage your employees to do the same.
Laugh, love, and have a fun time working with people around you.
7. Spend Time with People at Work
You are human and need human connection to function well.
So, do not make yourself a reclusive at work.
Rather, during breaks and free time spend time with people at work.
Eat lunch with your employees, and play games with your business partner.
When you do this, your attitude to work will improve and you will enjoy work better.
8. Acknowledge and Reward Your Employees – How to Improve Attitude at Work
This cannot be over-emphasized.
Your employees are an important aspect of your business and work.
So, you need to be careful with the way you treat them.
Their attitude can influence you, as your attitude can influence them.
Therefore, as you work to improve your attitude at work, ensure that you acknowledge and reward your employees.
When they do something good reward them, and when you see them doing the right things acknowledge and praise them.
This will make them develop a positive attitude at work, and influence your attitude for the better.
9. Make Use of Positive Speech
Your belief and feelings form your attitude.
So, when working to improve your attitude at work you need to tackle your beliefs and feelings.
The best way to do this is by making use of positive speech.
When you notice that your feelings or belief toward something are negative, speak positively.
This way, you will quickly deal with that negativity before it becomes something that will affect your attitude at work.
For example, if you get scared to do something at work because you think you will fail, change that thought and feeling by saying something like “I will succeed”.
You could keep repeating it till you feel better and then do that thing you were scared of doing.
10. Avoid People with Negative Attitudes – How to Improve Attitude at Work
You can practice all the tips we have shared and still have a negative attitude at work if you associate with people with negative attitudes.
So, to avoid this from happening, make it a habit of consciously associating with positive people with positive attitudes.
Ensure that you keep a safe distance from negative people.
Conclusion on How to Improve Attitude at Work
Your attitudes at work have a great impact on your productivity, decision-making, and work relationship.
So, if you have a negative attitude at work, you have to work to improve it.
You can do so by being grateful, learning to work and relate better with people at work, and appreciating your employees.
Also, you can improve your attitude at work by avoiding negative people, celebrating your achievement, and finding solutions to issues.
While doing all these things, do not forget to avoid things that will trigger negative emotions in you.
