Mental Attitude Contributes to Career Success

Mental Attitude Contributes to Career Success

I think we are going to continue to see those people who use more than their skills and degrees gain traction in the workplace while those who show up with a sense of entitlement and absence of empathy will not achieve what they believe they should. People like Dale Carnegie began writing about the importance of “social intelligence” in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People in the 1950’s. Daniel Goleman has spearheaded the Emotional Intelligence movement and with his colleagues is demonstrating how our brains are wired to connect. Despite all of this, manners, etiquette and respect seem to have gone out of fashion, replaced by an attitude of “what can my boss or organization do for me?”

The attitude of permissiveness (I can do what I want without consequence) and entitlement (I am amazing; my parents told me I was every day; you have to treat me the same way) demonstrate how disconnected many young people are. It also demonstrates that they are divorced from the reality of life in the business world and what it really takes to work with others and, of course, to compete and succeed. 

Without emotional intelligence, a moral compass and empathy for the impact that behavior has on others, there can be little hope of employees aligning with the goals of the organization. This type of employee will be more concerned with their own agenda than what their employers want and need.  Those employees who are self-aware, know what their potential is, and are willing to work hard to achieve the goals set out for them with a positive mental attitude will rise to the top. Motivated from within, they don’t whine about every little thing they don’t like or engage in power struggles with their boss. They don’t expect their boss to motivate them or to make them feel special. They have cultivated a positive mental attitude within them and are fueled by their own desire to become who they are meant to be.

Employers who tolerate and foster entitlement in their workplace need to get busy defining emotional and behavioral competence and manage employee performance accordingly. They do employees a disservice when they allow this attitude to prevail without defining expectations for attitude and behavior, instead complaining about or avoiding problem employees altogether.