“Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” – Ralph Marston
A study by Leadership IQ found that 46% of new hires are either fired or disciplined within their first 18 months. And in a staggering 89% of those cases, the reason for the action isn’t incompetence, but a negative attitude: poor motivation, bad temperament, or emotional issues.
Given a choice of two candidates, one with superior talent and one with the right attitude, I would select an attitude every single time.
You can teach technical skills, but you can’t train attitude.
A good quote that illustrates this:
“If you don’t have a good attitude, we don’t want you, no matter how skilled you are. We can change skill levels through training. We can’t change attitude.” – Herb Kelleher, Founder, Southwest Airlines
An extract from my book Smart Thinking for Crazy Times