Developing the Right Attitude and Personality at Work

If you want to someday become the senior vice president of marketing at your company, there's no reason why you can't start working toward that objective right now by obtaining the additional training, education, skills, and experience that will be required to make you qualified for the position. Likewise, there's no reason why you can't begin dressing the part in order to showcase yourself as someone who is professional, motivated, and success oriented.

Another major piece in the formula for success is your overall attitude and personality. Are you cheerful, friendly, outgoing, easy to talk to, a good listener, and generally someone other people enjoy working with and being around? Do people respect you, look up to you, and make an effort to spend time with you? Are you perceived by your employer as someone who is dedicated, loyal, hard working, and willing to work with others?

If you're truly passionate about the work you do, this will be readily apparent in your overall attitude and show through in your personality. Likewise, if you're constantly stressed out, in a bad mood, and/or you hate your work and those you work with, this too will become apparent to those around you. As you begin to formulate your professional self and discover who you are, what your goals are, and why you're trying to accomplish your professional goals, consider your own attitude and personality. Make sure you're being perceived positively by those around you. If you have concerns that the image you're conveying isn't what it should be, or your personality needs to be improved upon, these are things that should be addressed immediately.

Having a positive attitude and friendly personality isn't something that can necessarily be taught. However, it's typically a mindset that can be consciously adopted. If you're miserable in your current job, for example, this will have a long-term negative impact on your attitude and personality. It's virtually impossible to remain excited and happy about something that you truly dislike. If you alter your work situation so it begins to be closer to what makes you motivated, your overall attitude will slowly change for the better. This will happen subconsciously and automatically, once you make the conscious decision you want changes to happen and then begin taking steps to make these changes possible.

While it's important to maintain a positive attitude, upbeat and friendly personality for your own well being and success, this will also greatly impact how others perceive you. Your employer, for example, will be much more apt to promote someone who is perceived to be likable and hard working, as opposed to someone who is difficult to work with, who always watches the clock, and who doesn't work well with others.