In the Movie “Remember the Titans" there is a scene where the Defensive team Captain is calling one of his fellow players to the carpet for having a bad attitude, to which the other player responses "Attitude reflects Leadership".
While, one can make the argument that there are some people that are going to have a bad attitude no matter how good a leader they have, the fact still remains that there is a lot of truth in this statement and attitude does often reflect leadership.
This was driven home for me during a recent business trip where I visited some customers that I hadn't seen in a while.
During my visit with them they were sharing with me some horror stories about a Vendor that was once a valued partner and produced a quality product. Now this same company's performance had gotten so bad that the Customer had made the decision to not allow this particular company to have any future opportunities.
They were sharing this information with me because we both knew several people that worked for this company and would consider some of these people mutual friends.
When they showed me the work that this group was putting out, I was shocked and a little heart-broken. Even though these guys were my competitors, some of these guys were also my friends.
At one time this team was putting out great looking work, but what I was seeing was the work of a team that didn't care and didn't have any pride in their craftsmanship at all.
How could this happen? How could such a talented team of guys produce the crap I was looking at?
It was a change in Leadership.
This company had undergone a recent change in leadership. The former leadership had the reputation for being customer-centric and focused on producing great machines, whereas the new leadership was focused solely on money.
My customers told me that these guys were short on support and performance but always standing with their hand out asking for extra dollars for every little thing that was done. My customer’s perception was that there was a definite shift in the leadership’s focus from them to their wallet and we all know what perception is. Reality!
Even with the leadership change, the guys I knew cared about their work AND their reputation. There was a time where the work that I was seeing would have never left the shop floor.
Here’s where the heartbreak came in for me.
Guys that I knew and respected as true professionals in our field had allowed the poor leadership they were under to compromise them. Their attitude was reflecting their leadership and it was showing in their work and in their attitude towards valued customers.
I drove off from that visit determined that I would never allow myself to work under poor leadership that had the potential to compromise my attitude and that I would NEVER offer the people that looked to me for leadership, something that would affect their attitudes in anything other than a positive, uplifting way.
I have a deeply held conviction that if I make others around me successful, I will be a success. I also recognized that every leader has his own personal limits and needs to listen carefully to his mentors and the good people around him in order to push past those barriers and become a better leader.
I hope and pray for those of you that may be reading this post that you will guard your attitude and always strive, not to be just good at what you do, but Great. Lead well and seek out great Leaders and Mentors in your own life because “Attitude reflects Leadership”.
All the Best
Joe
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