How to Get a Promotion: Where a Bad Attitude Will Leave You

Leadership Strategy Number Six

Tell me about your attitude. You may say, “Oh, John, I’ve heard about attitude all my life. And I know you have heard about attitude all your life, but you haven’t heard about it today. Did you know that it is your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude? Okay, I won’t preach about where a good attitude will take you, but I will tell you where a bad attitude will leave you. Twenty nine years ago, I met this young sales rep who was hired by one of my top suppliers. He serviced our account then and he still does today. He was efficient and reliable. And today, he is still as just as efficient and reliable as ever. But every time I call him, he seems like he is in a bad mood, because he is. He answers the phone in a monotone voice and talks to me in a monotone voice and thanks me for orders in a monotone voice. I almost want to apologize for bothering him. Every year, just before Christmas, he and his sales team – usually about 4 or 5 people have their picture made for the Christmas card that they send to his basket of customers. Twenty nine years I have been receiving his Christmas card and in not one of them was he smiling. I hear him bad-mouth his company, bad-mouth his bosses and bad-mouth life in general. I’m here to tell you, he brightens up the whole room, when he leaves. I have seen this company hire many young men and women after him and some are now his bosses. Some people may say that he is where he is because of what he is, but I say, “He is where he is where he is because of what he’s not” No, I won’t tell you where a good attitude will take you. I will tell you where a bad attitude will leave you.