Have a Positive Attitude at Work

Leaders who have a positive attitude at work can transform a team. They live in the real world, but show up in such a way that it lifts others up. 

Time flies when you are enjoying the journey. Lighten up and enjoy today. There will be enough troubling days that come along over the years. We don’t need to purposely create them.

Laugh, enjoy people and spend time with your family. Try to help someone or bring a smile to their face every day. A happy attitude will make your life rich and rewarding. And that happiness is good time management.

Happy people with good attitudes tend to live longer, enjoy better health and make an impact on others around them. They take fewer sick days. Over a lifetime, that could literally add up to years of available productive time. So let a smile bubble up from your heart and spread over your face. Enjoy the journey.

Five Days of Coaching to Have a Positive Attitude at Work

DAY ONE

Take some time to reflect on whether or not you are a happy person. Happiness is a choice. Good attitudes go far. This is big, but make the choice to go through this day being positive and happy. Whatever their lot in life, you know people who are enjoying the journey. Start enjoying yours.

The Coach asks:

• What are the similarities and variations between happy, joyful and positive? What's the opposite of each? Does one seem stronger to you? 
• Who do you know that comes across happy, have some kind of deeper joy, and seeks to remain positive? How consistent are they in good times and in tougher situations? What about them is a positive role model? 
• What would a choice to be positive and happy look like for you? What change would that entail? 
• Go through this day with the intentional purpose of being positive and happy. What did you notice in people's response to you? Your own emotions? 

DAY TWO

Today is a day to lighten up. Regardless of your work and responsibilities, lighten up on yourself and others. It doesn't mean you overlook critical faults.  It means you operate from a different personal energy and attitude. It will be far more attractive to others and more rewarding for you.

The Coach asks:

• Yesterday you thought about happiness, joy and a positive attitude. What does "lighten up" convey to you? 
• Operating from a different personal energy and attitude indicates a shift from what to what? How easy or hard is this to do for you? 
• Think about your team? How do you think they might respond to a more positive and happy you over the next three months? How might that be worthwhile? 
• Smile, laugh, enjoy, be grateful. Focus on doing small, but satisfying things like these throughout the day. 

DAY THREE

The Boy Scouts want to “do a good deed every day”. How could you adopt this attitude and turn it into action for this week? Find that one thing – it doesn't have to be large – that will bring joy into someone else's life. It will make you feel good too.

The Coach asks:

• What one thing, that has no expectation of return, could bring joy into someone else's life? How willing are you to make it happen? Do it.
• What would your life be like if you were intentional about "doing a good deed every day"?
• How could you remind yourself on a daily basis to look for such opportunities? 
• What's been the response? 

DAY FOUR

Make up your mind today to enjoy living. Take a much bigger perspective on your life and leadership. The two are not separate. Be a different person on the outside because you have made a fundamental choice to be different on the inside. This may be a big shift in your thinking.  Make it.

The Coach asks:

• How significant and challenging has it been thinking about this practice to have a positive attitude at work and throughout life? What's impressed you about it? 
• How closely related are a joyful home life, and a positive work life? 
• How do you see yourself changing "on the inside?" What's shifting toward being more permanent in your behavior "on the outside?"
• It may take great courage to have a positive attitude at work, but it will pay off over time. You'll notice others change around you. It will strengthen your own leadership. You'll be a more respected person to follow. Make that change. 

DAY FIVE

Be on the outlook for books, articles, movies or documentaries on people who have faced adversity and challenges with a whole different attitude than the rest of the population. Let their stories inspire and instruct you in your new approach to living.

The Coach asks:

• Do some research to find positive accounts of people that exemplify these things you have been thinking about. Who did you find out about? 
• Watch a movie about an inspiring positive person? What did you notice about them? What is useful to incorporate into your own life, work, and leadership? 
• Who might be watching and "taking their queues" from you? How's that strike you? 
• What do you want to do next? 

Spiritual Reflection for Christian Leaders

As a Christian Executive Leadership Coach I encourage Christian leaders to reflect on God's Word to add to their wisdom.

• Ecc 3:12  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.

• Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. 

• 2 Cor 3:18  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

• Php 2:3 - 5  Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility vale others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus ...

• Pr 15:13  A happy heart makes the face cheerful ..

If you are a leader, executive, or senior level professional looking to work with a Christian Executive Coach, I invite you to connect with me here.

If appropriate, we can meet by phone or Zoom to discuss your situation.

Record Your Progress

This is your opportunity to track your progress. Start by asking yourself how important this practice is to you? Record the importance as - not at all, somewhat, fairly, highly or extremely. 

Now next to it ask yourself how well you carry out this practice. Record your performance as - very poor, poor, okay, good or very good. 

The things we track, we pay attention to. Across time, come back and record your new results. You will find that as you are intentional about making improvements, you will bump your "score" up higher. 

This is significant. Don't miss the opportunity to acknowledge your success, and use it as a springboard for making even further gain.

Notes

It's great to be around someone who is genuinely happy. Even better to be with that person who exhibits profound personal peace. It lifts you up. Encourages you. Puts a smile on your face. 

Those leaders who have a positive attitude at work elevate the whole organization. Be one of those leaders. It will garner great respect as someone worthy of leadership.