In case you didn’t know your attitude to everything that happens in your personal, professional and emotional world is the foundation upon which your success is built.
In the customer service environment you and your attitude is what separates you from your competition. It’s the difference that makes the difference and because people buy people first we know, too, that it’s the USP of your business, because people buy from or buy into someone who sounds positive and upbeat, interested and interesting, friendly, helpful, happy, not from somebody who sounds beat off, or negative, or down in the dumps, or sounds that they don’t want to be there.
So all we need to do then to secure our success is to stay positive, to smile, to practise a constant PMA (positive mental attitude) and all will be well. Isn’t that what all those happy-clappy traders and motivational speakers tell us? Well, they clearly haven’t worked on a frontline like you and I, because sometimes when we’ve had just about as much as we can stomach in a day, sometimes when we’ve had to repeat ourselves 50 times already to get our point across and we don’t feel particularly chirpy or positive, then being happy-clappy, upbeat and smiley isn’t quite that easy, is it?
Great news is there’s lots of practical 1% techniques you can employ to change and choose your attitude however I’d like to share with you the most valuable little one-percenter of all. It’s a success formula like no other:
E + R = O.
It’s a very simple and straightforward formula that will help you maintain a PMA in any and every circumstance that you find yourself in whether that’s at work or at home. Here’s how it works;
The “E” stands for the EVENT. All those attitude busters that occur on a daily basis: the rude customer, the aggressive prospect, the whiny colleague, and so on.
There are two “R”s that apply to this formula. We can either choose to do what is perfectly normal and natural and we can REACT to this event, or we can find a way to press the pause button and RESPOND to this event. W
Whichever “R” we choose (and that’s a very important word here) we will get an OUTCOME and dependent on which “R” we’ve gone for that outcome is likely to be either a negative or a positive one.
Makes sense? It’s not rocket science, would you agree?
But here’s what most of us have missed. We don’t have any control over the event because that’s life (s**t happens as they say) and we also don’t have any control over the outcome, because that’s wholly determined by which “R” we chose. So the only part of the formula that you and I have total control over is the “R”, because we get to choose how we’ll deal with what happens to us, even though we know we can’t do anything about what actually happens to us.
So choose your “R” wisely. Find a way to press that pause button so that you take a moment to think through in a more considered way what might be the best way to deal with this event or this bit of “poop” that’s just hit the fan. My advice to you here is start with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey taught us. Ask yourself: What’s the best outcome I can get here? What would make me feel good about this experience that I’m having?
The wonderful Fish! philosophy has four key principles and the most important one is to choose your attitude each and every day you come into work. Leave any negative feelings and vibes at the door of your office and do the same at your front door when you get home if you’ve had any events to deal with that have knocked you off-kilter during your working day.
Attitudes are totally contagious, so please, please make sure that yours is worth catching – to prove the point we’ve selected this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynR1XmQruoo . Apart from the fact that it’ll make you laugh out loud I’d be hard pressed to find a better example of just how choosing your attitude affects your outcome.
Enjoy and keep FIT!
