I saw an HR poster in a business the other day proclaiming “Attitude
Determines Altitude,” and I immediately began to compare and contrast
that statement against my own experience in business to see if I could
prove or disprove it. Following are my thoughts on the matter:

One of my first jobs in high school was building roof trusses for
Boise Cascade. It was hard work and, in many ways, very menial. After
about a week I was assigned to a table with a man named Jeremy. Jeremy
was generally a happy person, competitive, and a very hard worker. The
first thing he told me is, “I’m going to bury you.” Then he laughed one
of those laughs that shook him to his boots.

He explained that he laid out the boards and put on the metal
gussets on his table, then he would flip the truss over onto my table
(the table right alongside his) and I would put the gussets on the
other side, run the truss through a giant roller and stack it outside.
When I came back, Jeremy would supposedly have another one on my table,
and so went the day.

Jeremy spent the day laughing, talking trash and trying to “bury” me
in trusses. I spent the day laughing, trying to get ahead, so I could
talk a little trash to him. The work ebbed and flowed and throughout
the day we each had our turn to heap on the other. The bottom line? It
was fun. I mean it. The day flew by. We laughed, we joked, and we got
more work done than any other line (by a considerable margin.) So,
really, it was fun.

Then one day, Jeremy cut his leg with a circular saw and was out for
a long time. A guy took his place that was grumpy and gloomy, and
couldn’t care less about burying anyone, or even whether he got an
acceptable amount of work done. Since his place in the flow was ahead
of mine, there was little I could do to change the situation.

I quickly went from being the hard-working, fair-haired boy, to a
member of a crew that didn’t cut it. And my happiness level (job
satisfaction level, really,) plummeted. The job was no longer fun. It
was a drudgery. There was no satisfaction — nothing.

The question is, what had changed? The work was exactly the same.
The only thing that changed was the attitude toward the work. When we
decided it was going to be fun, we had a blast. When someone else came
along and decided it would be a drudgery, it was. Nothing else changed.
In the eyes of the management, we went from the best crew to the worst.
Again, the only thing that changed was the attitude (which changed
performance, of course.)

So I’d have to say I agree with the statement on the poster.
Attitude really does determine much of your altitude. Really, who wants
to be around someone who hates what they do? On the other hand, what a
joy it is to work with someone who makes even menial jobs fun. You get
up in the morning and can’t wait to get to work. The day passes
quickly, and it ends too soon.

Now the only question is, are you the type of person who acts (who
brings the joy or sorrow to others,) or are you the type of person
who’s acted upon (the one whose day depends on the attitude of others?)
The person who takes initiative to be happy and positive at work, and
who can inspire others to do the same is invaluable to a business.
There is a name for him or her: leader. That’s what a leader is, and
that’s what a leader does.

As a young boy, I let someone with a sour attitude ruin my chances
at Boise Cascade. Since then I’ve learned that I am in control of my
own destiny. I don’t have to let what someone else thinks or feels make
me feel that way. I now know a positive outlook on life can be every
bit as contagious as a negative outlook. It just takes a little longer
to bloom. How’s your attitude? If you really don’t know, look at the
attitude of your subordinates. They will be reflecting back what they
see in you. So if they have bad attitudes, don’t blame them. They are
nothing more than a mirror of what they see in their supervisor.