Taken from an improvement plan I created a while ago for work. A little sad maybe but my intention was to improve workers' outlook on their job in a retail business:
The key to having a successful organisation is to have a strong team of employees. We have been chosen to work at (?), a great company with opportunities for progress and promotion if we follow the brand values, have a positive attitude and work hard.
This is our job, whether its 8 hours a week or 40 hours a week, it is still a lot of our time spent here. In order to maintain a happy, successful environment at work for ourselves and others, we must all have a positive attitude. The following are the traits of a positive attitude:
1. Focuses on positive events and aspects
The words ‘positive’, ‘negative’, ‘good’, ‘bad’, ‘right’, ‘wrong’, etc. are simply labels we place on things based on our environments and personal perceptions - we deem events good or bad depending on where we stand. For example; an exacting manager may be a nightmare to a lazy employee, but a star to a CEO trying to grow and improve the business. Put yourself in their shoes, think outside of the box.
We can change our views from negative to positive, for example: that last customer that we are waiting for to close - a possibility to get closer to target... That last hour before we finish - a chance to make things easier for the employee taking over when we leave... The 4 security tags found in the fitting room - a challenge to improve our security measures.
This is our time spent - looking at the brighter side of things will ultimately lead to happiness and well-being.
2. Focuses on solutions instead of problems
Here is an example of how people with negative and positive attitudes might approach the same situation.
Negative attitude: We’ve got an hour till we open and we’ve got so much to do with so little staff, this is ridiculous.
Positive attitude: We’ve got quite a lot to do in a short space of time so I will write a list in priority of what is most important and we can work our way through as quickly as possible.
Things don’t always go smoothly, sometimes our efforts don’t get noticed, unexpected things will happen, people will let you down, no matter how clever you are or how hard you try, these things happen and it is easy to feel demotivated, frustrated and discouraged.
BUT... Having a positive attitude will lead to the ability to move quickly from identifying a problem to identifying a solution for the problem. Don’t waste time dwelling on negative events or seeking out who to blame, i.e. “whoever did the rota is out of order”, “Jeremy should have done this last night”. Focus instead on how best to deal with issues and move beyond them to something more productive. If you show that you are capable of dealing with varied situations - this will benefit you in the long run. Responsibility - promotion - continuous improvement.
