Does your team have the mindset for success?

15 August 2016 6105 Views

By Iain C. White, Agency Mentors

One of the best pieces of advice I have been given over the years is to hire on attitude, as everything else can be taught.  These wise words have stayed me over the years, and also proven time and time again how right they are.

Having the right mindset combined with experience can create success, and developing your team’s mindset is a proven way to affect your results.

Investing in expert outside help to create positivity and energy is just that, an investment, yet the uninitiated see it as a cost.  

The team is everything; without them, who wins the hearts and minds of your customers?

The trick is to create permanent improvements, not just a blip in positivity or energy.
 

Mindset and performance are two different things.

Recent events and subsequent in-depth observations have proven beyond all doubt for me that the main difference between high performers and the rest is ATTITUDE. In multi office businesses where some offices are excelling whilst others are struggling, in all but a very few cases the differentiator has been the attitude of the manager and/or key players in the office.

What kind of ‘attitude’ is found in a performer, in a winner, in one who can sail the ship thorough tougher times and really drive ahead, regardless of circumstance?

1. Solutions not excuses

2. Action not just talk

3. ‘Can do, will do, have done’, as opposed to procrastination

4. Positive - ‘where is the win’, as opposed to negative, ‘this is going to be impossible’

5. Takes responsibility as opposed to blaming others

6. Credits others for their successes as opposed taking all the glory  

7. Relentless energy as opposed to lethargy

8. Pride as opposed to ‘don't care’

9. Strong work ethic as opposed to laziness

10. Honesty as opposed to always blagging it

Okay, so it's not rocket science; we all know which member of the team we want in the trenches with us, and which ones we could, and should, do without.  But knowing this and resolving it are two different things.

Most businesses seem to identify training needs, or worse, keepers vs. leavers, by looking at immediate results only. This has to be a recipe for disaster; it's understandable, but for me it's flawed thinking.  A team with the right mindset will flourish, whereas a company that focuses on the ‘performers’ will not work as a team, as there is a shift in culture that attributes success to an individual rather than to the effort and skills of each member of the branch.

How many businesses have properly identified and documented which members of the team are in the right attitude camp, as opposed to identifying ‘star’ staff by results only? (Some don't measure individual results either, but that's another story). How many know how to measure attitude?

Agency Mentors have programmes designed to understand staff attitude and engagement, as well as to developing personal development needs for those who need help with attitude.

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