Business Success: It's About Attitude…With Employees, Customers and Yourself.
The dictionary defines attitude as “a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person's behavior.” In essence, attitude “drives the bus” when it comes to running your business. The better your attitude, the more focused and intense, the better the results and ensuing success.
So to say “positive attitude,” to my mind, is redundant. That is the only kind of attitude that matters.
Attitude reflects in everything you do with your small business, from how you treat employees to how you deal with customers, to how you view and treat yourself. These three are inextricably tied together.It starts with the third one; your attitude about yourself, and that carries over into the other two.
For You.
- Attitude has to be something you feel deeply; you have to believe in it and live it. Regarding your business, this attitude is best described as a passion for your business, how you motivate employees and what you deliver and how to your customers. This passion/attitude is the foundation of business success.
- Attitude can make the worst situation a stepping stone to the best. For yourself, make defeat your fuel. As the theme of a Gatorade commercial during the summer of 2017, it focused on how famous athletes like Michael Jordan in basketball and Peyton Manning in football, to name a couple, overcame setbacks to fuel their competitive spirit, resolved to get better and, ultimately, succeeded. Success breeds more success.
- Attitude can give you confidence that you don’t necessarily have. When I was growing up, I lacked confidence. So I adopted a cocky attitude, carrying myself in a way that made people think I was more successful than I was, until I became successful, started believing in myself and built on that success. You have to believe in yourself before others will believe in you.
“Attitude is a state of mind that makes all things possible!”
For Your Employees.
- It’s an attitude that creates a culture that embraces and celebrates employee growth and “out of the box thinking.” It’s emphasizing and reinforcing a “can-do” attitude that tells them that their approach will drive their growth and advancement in the company.
- Extending that “can-do” attitude to customers with an understanding that’s those very same customers who by buying your product or service, pays their salaries. In essence, the attitude is “we don’t just work for the company; we work for the company’s customers.”
- Making mistakes and failures teaching moments and learning experiences, rather than ones of admonishment and blame. They already know they screwed up. Help them get better by holding them accountable, but allowing them to grow at the same time.
For Your Customers.
- The message is more than “we want your business.” The message is “we want to be an important part of your business.” Less saying “we care,” more showing “we care,” by both attitude and action.
- It’s going “the extra mile,” for customers by fixing that recurring problem, chasing down that late delivery or just remembering somebody’s birthday within the customer’s operation.
- Building customer loyalty by an attitude of delivering a product or service with the highest level of quality possible. It’s extending that quality by listening to the customer through maintaining periodic and consistent touch points at multiple levels; not just with key executives.
"The Entrepreneur's Yoda" knows these things. He's been there. May success be with you!
How has attitude affected you, how you interact with your employees and your customers.? Please share your thoughts in your comments. It can help another entrepreneur or small business owner.
If you like this post, by all means, share it with your networks and colleagues.