Having a positive attitude is Necessary for Leadership. John Maxwell devoted a chapter to Positive Attitude in his book The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader ( Becoming the Person others will want to Follow). He describes four attributes that contribute to having a positive attitude. According the elements of Leadership being conscientiousness is one. Conscientious people have positive attitudes. Oprah Winfrey, Sojourner Truth and Coretta Scott King are examples of women leaders whose positive attitudes have transformed our world.
1. Your Attitude Is a Choice
According to Maxwell, ” No matter what happened to you yesterday, your attitude is your choice today.
Psychologist Victor Frankel believed, “The last of our human freedoms is to choose our attitude in any given circumstances.”
Oprah Winfrey could have chosen to have a bad attitude because she was raised in a single parent family and sexual abused. She could have bought into the stereotypes about her ethnic identity and gender. She chose to have a positive attitude and become an anchor woman, awarding winning talk show, actress , and powerful woman.
Coretta Scott king husband was killed and she could have allowed that to make her become depressed and hopeless. She maintained a positive attitude and continued to champion her late husband’s cause.
Sojourner Truth has a positive attitude despite being a slave and losing her children to the system of slavery. She did not believe that ideas held by most people at the time about African-Americans or women.
2. Your attitude Determines Your Action.
Maxwell explains ” Your attitude is crucial because it determines how you act.”
Sojourner Truth’s attitude is what made her able to define what femininity is versus what people thought it was in her speech Ain’t I a Woman.
Coretta Scott King’s positive attitude and belief in the civil right movement lead her to establish Dr. Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, in Atlanta.
Oprah Winfrey’s positive attitude changed the direction of her talk show and lead her to start the Angel Network, which is a non-profits organization that helps people.
Maxwell suggest in the Bringing It Home section that you do the following to improve your attitude.
Fed yourself the right “food”. Read books that encourage a positive attitude. Listen to motivational tapes.
Achieve a goal everyday. A pattern of positive achievement will help you develop a pattern of positive thinking. Some people get into a rut of negativity because they feel they’re not making progress.
Write it on your wall. We all need reminders to help us keep thinking right. As incentive , people put up awards they’ve won, inspirational posters, or letters they’ve received.
The article about positive attitude was good but what is your attitude about God? No offense meant.
God is the perfect example of positive attitude. He allowed man-kind to continue exist after all the mistakes we have made. Jesus is an optimist he desires for everyone to be saved. In the bible there are lots of examples of positive attitude. Nehemiah was an excellent leader with a positive attitude. When he heard about Jerusalem he could have made the choice to be depressed, instead he prayed and lead the rebuilding effort. He could have been like I don’t have the resources to rebuild but he relayed on God to provide.
Esther is an example of a biblical heroine with a positive attitude. That is why she won the king’s heart in the first place. She could have responded to Mordecai, by saying I am only a women, what can I do, when she learned of Haman’s evil plan. She believed God could use her to make a difference.