Top 10 Ways to Foster and Maintain Positive Attitudes in the Workplace

Promoting employee engagement and positive attitudes in the workplace is an activity that is a constant for all leaders if they want to keep workplace productivity on the up and up. Done well it helps reduce turnover, employee complaints and makes your team a place that people look forward to being a part of.

Tip One: Set Goals and Deadlines

The greatest keys in helping people to become self-motivated are clear goals, a sense of purpose and urgency and challenge. These elements provide a feeling of accomplishment, the "Wow I did it!" feeling. People thrive on challenge and this will drive the positive attitudes in the workplace that you want.

Tip Two: Make Sure You Are Charged Up

It's impossible to help your team members have positive attitudes in the workplace if you aren't positive. Instead of walking around and grumbling about the fact that people's attitudes aren't where you would like them to be, focus your energy on creating and finding the positive in others. Be a guiding light that lifts your people up. Do you know what gets you to work with a spring in your step? Just as importantly do you know what gets the people in your team to come to work with a spring in their step? If you aren't sure ... you can discover the answers you need when you download my ebook "Creating An Inspiring Work Environment"

Tip Three: Encourage People Meaning in the Work They Do

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While not everyone working for you wants to be the next CEO of the company, most people do want more out of their jobs. Find out their goals, desires and strengths and help them to create in their job more of that which causes them to feel fulfilled. Even in the most mundane of jobs, help people to see the meaning and purpose to what they are doing. In his book Authentic Happiness, Martin Seligman tells the story of being in a hospital at the bedside of a friend in a coma.

The Ward Orderly was busy moving paintings and prints around in the room, moving them from one spot to another until they looked just so. When Marty asked what he was doing the Orderly replied: "My job. I'm an orderly here, but you see I'm part of the team responsible for the health of these patients. Even though Mr Miller hasn't been conscious since he arrived, when he does wake up I want to make sure he sees beautiful things right away". The orderly has been able to shift his job into a higher calling - he had shifted it to something more than just a person who was on the end of a broom. He knew he was making a real difference in the work that he did. Did he come to that realization of his own volition or was it a leader who inspired him to see the import of his work? We don't know the answer to that question but the question it begs you to ask yourself is "How can I help my people to create such a positive attitude in the work that they do?".

Tip Four: Be Flexible in Your Leadership Style

Emotional maturity and good judgement enable you to know when to be relaxed, open and warm to team members and when to put on the leader's hat, set limits and accept final responsibility. Different people respond to different styles of leadership and communication. One person will respond to warmth, a certain amount of familiarity and a lot of encouragement. Another will want only a business-like relationship, with a leader that is firm and direct. Yet another gets bored if not continually challenged and stimulated whereas someone else will want things to remain stable and have a sense of sameness about the job. It's your job to find the right buttons to press for each person to get the best results and foster their positive attitudes in the workplace.

Tip Five: Listen to Your Team Members Opinions

There is a saying that the person closest to the task generally knows the best way of improving it. Tap into the knowledge and talent of your people. Help them to understand the 'real' constraints about why things may not always be able to be changed, but as best you can work to implement the suggestions they have to improve job performance, quality of work or environment.

Tip Six: Promote Respectfulness

Job titles may mean that there is a certain order to control and responsibility but that doesn't mean someone with a lesser job title is any less important. Respect each individual for what they bring to the organization. At the end of the day man would not have walked on the moon without the janitors making sure that the halls of NASA were

pristine. Success and positive attitudes in the workplace are created when the entire team respects the value of each position and the diversity of thinking, talents, styles and experience each person brings.

Tip Seven: Be Appreciative of Others

Ask anyone what is one of the biggest issues they have with their job and they are going to tell that it is lack of recognition and appreciation. "What difference does it make if you do a good job or not, no one notices you until you mess up." Make an effort to let others know when they are doing a good job.

Tip Eight: Practice Random Acts of Kindness

This can be as little as offering a cup of coffee to someone who is feeling under the pump. Or giving a much-needed day off to someone who has gone above and beyond the call of duty. It will ensure others know that you care and that they are important to you.

Tip Nine: Make Work Fun

Ok, so you can't throw a party at work everyday. It is possible, though, to make the work day more fun. Fun can be a tool to help improve job performance and promote positive attitudes in the workplace. It doesn't have to be anything momentous - offering ice cream on a really hot day, a surprise lunch/morning tea, having a silly hat day. The effective use of humor can release team members creativity to resolve dilemmas because they feel safe to "think outside the box." The appropriate use of humor can create and maintain positive attitudes in the workplace.

Tip Ten: Make Sure People Are Rewarded Fairly

This is deliberately the last tip ... because if you get the rest of these tips right this becomes the least important. Having said that, as you will discover in the "Creating An Inspiring Environment Workbook" high wages do not motivate people, but low wages can demotivate. So your job is to make sure that people feel they are fairly rewarded so that it is a non-issue for them ... but most importantly make sure the other success factors are set up in your workplace so that the environment enables positive attitudes to thrive. You can download my ebook "Creating An Inspiring Environment Workbook here"today for more tips and ideas on how to keep people at the top of their game ... positive attitudes in the workplace are sure to follow! Take the Is Your Workplace Motivating? Quiz This great video provides a summary of what is shared above - but does it in a very entertaining way - dang I wish I was as creative as the RSA Animate team! The reason I put this video on the site is because the research quoted is the same as I have found

in my studies. If you want to find out more about how to implement this research in your workplace, then download the ebook "Creating An Inspiring Environment Workbook here"

These are simple tips to help promote positive attitudes in the workplace. In business, much as it is in life, it is really the small things that make the most dramatic impact.

http://www.leadership-and-motivation-training.com/positive-attitudes-in-the-workplace.html

Motivation in the workplace look for "the Yes-factor"

A really easy way to measure the attitude and motivation in the workplace is to, just listen! Yes, you heard right. Go out in the hallway and listen for the Yes-factor. The Yes-factor is when you hear employees go: YES! (or similar words). This is a sign of success. And success feeds back into motivation. Another way to measure the attitude or motivation in the company is to sit in the reception and listen to the climate. What I mean is that many time the reception works as a thermometer for the climate in the work environment. If the morale is high or if the motivation is high you can tell it directly by just walking into the reception hall. It works just as well with the canteen or employee restaurant. You can very often notice the collective motivation by just observing body language and the way people talk to each other. When things are well people tend to laugh and speak louder than when the motivation is low. People also seam to be more eager to go back to work when they enjoy their work. There is a sense of urgency in the air.

A really good product tip if you want to improve motiovation in the workplace: Employee Manual

http://www.communicationtoolbox.com/motivation-in-the-workplace.html

An employee's attitude follows her to work. It is the filter through which she views her job and her sense of how fair the workplace is. A good manager knows that attitude and performance are intricately tied and that part of motivation addresses attitude. The trick is to motivate people without them feeling manipulated. Related Searches:

1. Smart Motivation
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A manager can't just walk into the workplace and begin gushing compliments. Employees can see right through that. What employees want is to to feel heard on the job and to have their talents fully utilized. A high-performing employee is frequently trapped in a particular routine because so many people count on him to handle his tasks quickly and accurately. A savvy manager will offer this employee new, greater responsibilities as a way of recognizing his achievements.

Different Needs
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Not every employee works for the same reason. Some are strictly there for the money, while others love the feeling of achievement. Some work in a particular field because it's their "legacy" and expected of them and others feel a sense of calling to their profession. Motivating people is not a one-size-fits-all endeavor. The finesse behind motivation is in knowing what drives a person and addressing that factor. It may not be realistic to become intimately acquainted with everyone who works for your company, but you can give workers a say in what they do by allowing them to set goals and to chart a course for their department. By being part of the process, a worker is able to customize their role a bit and to acknowledge that they play an important role in the company's success.

Hawthorne Effect
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A study began at the Hawthorne plant in Cicero, Illinois, in 1927 that changed the way management looked at employee attitudes and motivation. Researchers, led by Harvard Business School professor Elton Mayo, wanted to find out what motivates employees. They tried making a number of environmental changes, like altering the brightness of lights and humidity in the plant. They attempted changes in routines related to work hours and breaks. What they found was that regardless of the particular experiment they ran, employee production improved with each change. The conclusion they drew was that workers were simply happy to receive attention from the researchers and that their attitudes were impacted by someone expressing an interest in them.

Attitude Is Contagious

Attitude begins at the top. People tend to react in kind, meaning that they find it easier to have a good attitude when they're exposed to one. One miserable employee can make an entire department unhappy. Finding a way to motivate that employee can be the first step in helping the entire company.

http://www.ehow.com/info_8675784_work-attitudes-motivation-workplace.html

Attitude and Motivation

When was the last time you took a stroll through the self-help section of your local bookstore? If it has been in the last 20 years, you have certainly noticed that there are thousands and thousands of self-help books available. Heck, I've even written one myself!

With access to all of these resources, why is that only 5% of today's population consider themselves to be successful? We could get into the definition and meaning of success, but that's an entire article in itself. Here, we're going to examine how attitude and motivation affect our roles as leaders in our companies and our own lives. The biggest difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is: successful people are willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are not willing to do. That's it! You might think "It can't be that easy!" I'm here to tell you, it is that simple, but perhaps it's not that easy. Think about it. If it were extremely easy, then everyone would be successful. If we want to create success in our lives, then we must look at these two factors: attitude and motivation. Unsuccessful people spend the majority of their time and energy speaking negatively and complaining about circumstances in their lives. In contrast, successful people come from a position that's far more optimistic, looking for what's right in life instead of what's wrong. Another difference between successful people and unsuccessful people is their attitude toward life. Successful people can take a negative or seemingly unfair situation and somehow turn it into a positive reality, while others complain and manufacture excuses that kill any chance they have to succeed. Many individuals believe that people are simply born a certain way, with a predisposition toward negative or positive thinking. I totally disagree with this belief system. We all have different backgrounds, influences, and education levels, but now we're adults with the freedom and ability to choose our realities. Many people (if not most) have bad attitudes and lack motivation. The truth is, it is their attitudes that keep them from being motivated. Because they're not motivated, they don't have a sense of purpose or accomplishment in life, so they develop a bad attitude and the unproductive cycle continues. Motivation is the vehicle that leads us down the road to success. We will certainly hit a lot of potholes and bumps along the way, but that's why a change in attitude is paramount. As you adopt an increasingly positive attitude, you gain the ability to learn from your mistakes, jump back up when life knocks you down, and move forward with a productive mindset. The secret to changing your life begins with you. It begins with the choice to monitor your attitude and a commitment to maintaining your motivation on a daily basis. All the self-help gurus in the world can lead you down a path, but cannot help you change if you're not devoted to improving your life. It's been said that "Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try." Personally, I prefer Yoda's perspective: "Do or do not, there is no try." Either way, the point is, you must begin. You must decide to view life a little differently if you desire a different outcome than you are currently experiencing. You're a leader of your company, your team, your family, and many other areas in your life. What you think about matters, my friend. If you're willing to be diligent, search deep within and find your intrinsic motivation, you'll be well on your way to a more positive and productive life. Business is simply a part of your life. While it may be a big part, it's still just a segment of the whole. The more you're willing to adopt a positive attitude and find your true motivation, the better results you'll enjoy, and the more impact you'll have in all areas of your business and life.

http://www.thebluecollarcoach.com/articles/attitude-and-motivation.php

Attitude and motivation

What have attitude and motivation got to do with goal setting? Well, I always remember the quote from Zig Ziglar, Its your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude.

And its true! Shear guts and determination, particularly in the face of adversity, is what has made so many of our business leaders so successful check out the Successful People tab on the NavBar for some examples. We can only achieve our goals if we have the motivation the burning desire to do so. And this is why it is so important for your goals to be personal let personally desired outcomes or goals be your motivation to achieve success. And apply that go getem attitude to power your way! You too can be successful at what ever you set your mind to. All you need to do is: y y y y y Empower yourself have confidence in yourself and believe that you can achieve! Get the right attitude and motivation a positive mindset and daily dose of goal visualisation will keep you speeding down that highway to success. Try some alternative methods for motivation if you dare! And dont just visualise success - IMITATE success! Make the law of attraction work for YOU.

Check out law-of-attraction-guide.com - The Complete Guide to The Law of Attraction. Exploring the History, Background, Definition and the ways to utilise the Laws of Attraction. Containing book reviews, film reviews, free ebooks and practical lessons in visualization and affirmaton techniques. And one of the best self-help books Ive read is Stephen Coveys 7 habits of highly effective people heres a summary . He also developed the Urgent/ Important matrix used for setting priorities. Use the power of positive thinking and the fuel of personal motivation to achieve your personal success its all about attitude! What life skills do YOU think are critical for success? Write a page on it and teach others. Read these articles on whether affirmations work, how to create your own luck and how to get what you want for more information.

Super Mind Evolution System is a revolutionary method for controlling your own mind to manifest a successful life. And get a FREE copy of their eBook Super Dream System and learn more about dreams and Dream Programming, possibly the simplest and most potent technique taken from the incredible research of Jim Francis. The ability to cure your mind and body whilst sleeping. Can't find what you're looking for?

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