PD Strategies Blog

Your attitude comes through in your communication. A positive uplifting message will lead to positive results. Unfortunately, the opposite is true when you have a negative message. Some time ago I had started working with two leaders of an organization. They complained of their many problems. It was their location, their clientele’ but most of all it was their employees. “We can’t get the right people to work for us,” they said. I spent some time interviewing them as well as a sample of people in their organization. There was a big disconnect. The employees wanted the organization to be successful. However, one owner was abusive in constant criticism and the other was running around putting out fires. This father and son team could not convey the goals of the organization and they were not even communicating completely the upcoming projects. The staff was frustrated. The father was totally exhausted because...

Do you think that attitudes are important to performance? If you don’t, consider the fact that most terminations occur because attitudes and behaviors rather than lack of skills. I love what Zig Ziglar said, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” The fact is that people do not put enough emphasis on how attitude affects performance. Yes, attitudes DO affect performance. In fact, they affect everything that we do. There is a strong link between attitude and performance. Let’s start with defining what attitude means in this context. An attitude is a pattern of thought. It affects how we approach everything we do. If you change your attitude and change your outlook you will change your outcomes. Not that this is as easy as turning on a switch. It’s not easy. You can change your attitude, your outlook, and how you think but it will take real commitment, discipline and desire to change...

Today’s fast paced economy demands that we work at peak performance or fall behind. That also requires that all your employees are working at peak performance. It is no secret that more organizations are doing more with less. That is certainly a good thing if we learn to work smart. This means that we should engage smart development of our staff members. One of the problems I have noticed in many organizations is their lack of clear training and development objectives. Furthermore, many do not tie training and development initiatives to measurable outcomes. Here is an example. I recently had a credit union call me. They had found me online and saw that I was doing leadership development sessions. They asked if I could do the same thing at their premises. Naturally, I asked about their business objectives for the training. In other words, what business outcome did they want to...

It seems that when many people hire a staff member that spend a tremendous amount of time on resumes, skills and knowledge. And yet people usually don’t fail because of lack of skills. It is usually bad behavior, bad actions, or bad attitude. Several years ago, I heard Zig Ziglar speak. He said, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” What do YOU think about when you hear the word attitude? When I ask this question at workshops people usually respond with examples what they consider a bad attitude. It may even have a negative connotation to you. The fact is that people do not put enough emphasis on how attitude affects performance. Attitudes DO affect performance. In fact, they affect everything that we do. There is a strong link between attitude and performance. Let’s start with defining what attitude means in this context. An attitude is a pattern of thought. It affects...

A number of years ago I heard Zig Ziglar speak. He said, “Your attitude determines your altitude.” What do YOU think about when you hear the word attitude? When I ask this question at workshops people usually respond with examples what they consider a bad attitude. It may even have a negative connotation to you. The fact is that people do not put enough emphasis on how attitude affects performance. Attitudes DO affect performance. In fact they affect everything that we do. There is a strong link between attitude and performance. Let’s start with defining what attitude means in this context. An attitude is a pattern of thought. It affects how we approach everything we do. You can change your attitude, your outlook, and how you think but it will take real commitment, discipline and desire to change your old habits. Would you agree? In other words, you can do it,...