CEOs tell me about the importance of managing your good attitude:
“I can easily hire qualified people, but it’s not so easy to find people with a good outlook.”
“I hire attitude. Skills can be learned. I’ll take good attitude any day.”
“I can teach people the technical side of the business a lot easier than I can teach them how to have a good mindset.”
“I no longer hire for technical skills. Instead, I hire mainly on personality and work ethics. Not only does technology change so often that people have to constantly learn new things but also, people who understand technology are not necessarily able to interface with customers, and they can quickly do more damage than good.”
“What catches my eye in an employee? Someone who has a positive attitude about everything, leaves problems at home, is uplifting, and turns crap into gold.”
“If I have a choice of two people who are comparably talented, I will always choose to go with the one who has the can-do, ‘Hey, boss, we can get this done’ attitude. Frankly, it’s too tiring to have to coax and cajole a negative person.”
“I don’t have a lot of patience for a person who always acts like there is a rain cloud parked over his boat.”
“I want people who calm trouble and soothe rough edges, who are even-keeled, who are happy with themselves . . . . They don’t have to be jolly and joking; they just need to be more amiable than most.”
Debra is the co-author of the new book from McGraw-Hill titled, The Leadership Mind Switch (June, 2017)
