BAD ATTITUDE: CHANGE THE FLAT TYRE OR TREK FOR ETERNITY

BAD ATTITUDE: CHANGE THE FLAT TYRE OR TREK FOR ETERNITY

“Bad attitude is like a flat tyre, you have to change it if you want to move forward” - Kenechukwu Ewelukwa.

Introduction

On Thursdays mornings in Sterling Bank, we usually have our short in-house training sessions from quarter past 7 (7:15am) to 8:00am before we open to customers at the top of the 8:00 hour. The Knowledge Sharing Session (KSS) as it is tagged is held to ensure that the staff of our great institution are trained in the most conducive and receptive atmosphere ever, the KSS is headed by someone in the branch who is otherwise referred to as the “Learning Champion”; this person is saddled with the responsibility of creating a schedule of presenters, arm them with the topic of discourse and materials which are in most cases sent from the Human Resources Department of the Bank prior to the day of KSS.

In consequence, on Thursday, 25^th of March, it was another opportunity for me to learn something new- something fresh and crisp. I sat in my usual corner, giving undivided attention to Fola (the Learning Champion in my branch) as he stated that, “the topic we would be discussing today is attitude and Evelyn would be presenting it, please can we all give her a round of applause has she steps forward?” He delivered in an eloquent voice.

Onwaniban (as she is fondly called) did justice to the topic and I was very impressed with her oratory skills and exploratory body language, she took us above board and she explained in personalized terms why good attitude is one of the reasons why God’s blessings and mercies continue to shower on every one of his subjects. I learnt a lot from the presentation and this is the sole reason I decided to extensively research what attitude entails, the necessity of good attitude and the reason why we should all be vanguards of enviable characters. Please come with me.

Attitude Defined

The Encarta Encyclopaedia defines attitude as “the relatively enduring belief or opinion that predispose people to respond in a positive, negative, or ambivalent way to a person, object, or idea.” Alternatively, in a lighter and less complicated sentence, the Encarta dictionary simply states that attitude is “a personal view of something; an opinion or general feeling about something”

Similarly, Wikipedia states that, “An attitude can be a positive or negative evaluation of people, objects, events, activities, and ideas.” In my own opinion, I believe that an attitude is simply your belief and reaction towards something or somebody. In an online publication titled; “Attitudes and Behavior”, the structure of attitude also known as the ABC model of attitude was given.

Ø Affective component: this involves a person’s feelings / emotions about the attitude object. For example: “I am scared of spiders”.

Ø Behavioural component: the way the attitude we have influences how we act or behave. For example: “I will avoid spiders and scream if I see one”.

Ø Cognitive component: this involves a person’s belief / knowledge about an attitude object. For example: “I believe spiders are dangerous”.

Functions of Attitude (Daniel Katz (1960))

v Knowledge: Attitudes provide meaning (knowledge) for life.  The knowledge function refers to our need for a world which is consistent and relatively stable.  This allows us to predict what is likely to happen, and so gives us a sense of control.

v Self / Ego-expressive: The attitudes we express help communicate who we are and may make us feel good because we have asserted our identity.  Self-expression of attitudes can be non-verbal too: think bumper sticker, cap, or T-shirt slogan.

v Adaptive: If a person holds and/or expresses socially acceptable attitudes, other people will reward them with approval and social acceptance.

v The ego-defensive function refers to holding attitudes that protect our self-esteem or that justify actions that make us feel guilty.

The previous paragraphs were dedicated to give my readers an insight of what attitude generally entails but the main reason for putting this piece together would be defeated if I do not discuss the importance of exhibiting positive attitude towards everything we do in life. It would also interest you to note that one of the reasons the topic was offered by the Human Resources Department is to educate staff on the general importance of good attitude and elucidate on its overall advantages. They are discussed in subsequent paragraphs.

ü Positive Attitude brings positive results- Without sounding far-fetched; I believe everyone reading this prodigious but entertaining piece would agree with the point that positive attitude brings about positive results. Our success in everything we engage in is greatly influenced by the attitude we abhor towards that particular thing.

ü Positive attitude develops team spirit- It is another valid point that can never be over-emphasized. Positive attitude exhibited by a group of people towards a particular goal would ensure the rapid actualization of the set goals and objectives.

ü Positive attitude fosters innovation- This is another valid and important point because when you have a positive mindset towards a task or target, you automatically begin to think of how best to achieve and reach your set goals in the fastest possible way in the shortest possible time.  

Conclusion

Attitude is a branch of social psychology that deals with how our mind generate information from the data we have imputed in it in form of our beliefs, opinions, views and understanding at about a particular subject or object.  The truth is that the importance of positive attitude is inexhaustible and it advantages can never be over-emphasized. The saying that “attitude is everything” in life further authenticates it importance and if every one of the seven alphabets that make up the word A-T-T-I-D-U-D-E are represented in the numbers then we will have 100. A warm hello to everyone reading this salmon, positive attitude is a necessity because;

“Attitude is everything, attitude is naira and kobo” – Uchechi Okafor.

God bless Us All

Olusanya, Oluwole Sheriff