10 Winning Attitudes for a Successful Career Kick-Start

Are you starting a new job? How do you think your managers will react to your attitudes? Look in your attitude mirror? No, no, look hard? Not just a peek. Are you Mr. Big Head or Miss Snooty Nose?

In surveys of employers across the world, many have been very strong in their accusation that most applicants have messed up attitudes towards work.

Attitudes Employers Look For. Source: pixabay

Employers keep emphasizing the need for schools to teach employability and technical and business skills.

Many of these employers don't care about the tech skills of their new hires. They want them to have the right attitudes towards the job, the company, the other employees, managers, and customers or clients.

Winning Attitudes at Work. Source: Pixabay

What are these right attitudes identified by employers? Here are the big ten that Employers and managers demand in recruits and HR departments are searching for:

1. Readiness to Listen
You are the new one. You are the one with no experience or very little in the job. The best thing to do is listen to those who have been before you.
You are not in school showing off to your teacher what you know. Your managers and the other employees in your job do not care about what you know. They want you to listen to how the company does it and what you need to know.
Ask questions not to show off but to learn. Remember, it is hard to listen when your mouth is open!

2. Have an open mind
Forget about the behaviors and attitudes you learned in school. Maybe you know the latest, most innovative, and most effective, but show-boating is not your goal. Your goal is to find out how the organization works, how it thinks, what its expectations are, what it rewards and what it considers a no-no. Perhaps most important, what are the politics? You are in a new environment. Start learning on day one.
3. Readiness to Learn from othersYou are not the only one who will be adjusting. The others who had been there will need to make adjustments, too. They may not show it, but they, too, may be apprehensive with a new kid around.
Observe the go-to gals and guys in the company. What do they have, and what do they do? Observe the managers. How did they get their promotion? Identify people who can be mentors to you.

Winning Work Attitudes. Source: Pixabay

4. Readiness to Change
Yes, try to be one of the guys. When they come in smart casual, don't insist on your coat and tie even if your Dad wants you to do so and your Mom bought you a very sharp suit.

Drop the habits people don't appreciate and start developing habits that you see in those who are successful in the office unless those habits defy your core values like gossiping or reporting others to the Boss.
Remember, do NOT be a fake! Folks will see it immediately. Be who you are, but polish that diamond every day so it takes on a bit of a corporate shine.
5. Give flirting a 10-day holidayDon't become the latest office tart. Keep covered up. Let them see your smile and your brains. Watch how you sit. No posing. The other women are watching; if you mess up, you are TOAST!

Accepting Direction. Source: aesta1

6. Accept direction or, in other words, humility
This attitude is especially true with your relationship with your managers. Acknowledge that they came into those positions in the company because they know and do what the company rewards.
If you want a positive experience in your first job, take direction from your managers or other senior employees. It's not your Mom telling you to eat breakfast. It's the gal or guy responsible for the efficient/effective operation of your area. No silliness or smart answers. Take the direction.

7. Take Initiative
Taking direction does not mean just blindly following all the time. You have a task to do, and take the steps needed to make it happen. No excuses. Take responsibility, and you will earn the respect of others. This task is where you show new things you may have learned in school that can add value.

8. Respect Others
One-upping other people's stories is a flawed strategy to follow in your first weeks on the job. Listen to their stories and marvel at their success or their fun. Laugh at their jokes.

Acknowledge their presence when you come in. Do not slam on your colleagues' ideas in meetings, even if you know better. Pick up their ideas, support them and give yours as an addition or a twist they may consider. Find your place, fit in, and then, when comfortable, open up and perform. Here are 5 key steps to top performance.

9. Positive disposition
In school, students mostly complain about everything. It's part of the student culture. Students criticize, grump, whine, and whinge. To bitterly complain of an unfair world is a student privilege and a heaven-given right.
However, at work, it is a different story. Bring the sunshine in when you arrive at work. People appreciate that very much. A smile, a greeting, a recognition, or an acknowledgment of their contribution or help or their personality will bring you a long way. Be interested in what they share.

Work Ethic. Source: aesta1

10. Develop a Good Work Ethic
Be prompt. Don't arrive in the office looking like you've just gotten out of bed, even if you have. That was fine, even expected, when you were a student. Maybe, it gave the teacher the impression you studied late or didn't care. But don't show up shabby in your job.
Observe the accepted attire in the office and do as they do. Don't spend much time on your phone calling your friends or tweeting or responding to social media posts. Be on time when you get back after lunch break or coffee break.

Be ready to help others when the company needs to respond to clients or customers. No slouching like you're in front of your television at home. No bragging about your escapades, either. Listen to others brag about theirs. Everyone loves being a good listener, even if you are a total doofus!

This job is your first experience after school. It will be an exciting adventure with new responsibilities. Do not think of it as torture. Think of it as another learning adventure. Now that you've finished school, drop the attitudes that made you a successful student and master the perspectives of career winners.

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