5 Attitudes That Lead To Job Search Failure

Your attitude can make or break your job search. Having a bad attitude -- whether that means you no longer care enough to put effort into your applications or you think no one is ever going to hire you -- is one of the fastest ways to fail in your job search. Having a good attitude, on the other hand, can help your cause as much as a bad one can hurt it.
"Attitude is vitally important in a job search, because it's the one thing out of the entire process you can control," says Dave Sanford, senior vice president of business development at Winter, Wyman, a Boston-based staffing firm. "You can't control if and when someone is going to call you back, or if the person liked you or what the economy is going to be like, but you can control your attitude and how you conduct yourself throughout the process."

Five attitudes that will get you nowhere in your job hunt:
1. "I'll never find a job." OK, so it may sound obvious, but a negative attitude will seriously hinder your job search. It will not only kill your motivation, but like the old saying goes, "If you think you can't, you probably won't."

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Do the job you love and love the job you do

IN this era of global competition, the focus of education should be on enhancing employability of the students of professional courses rather than merely seeking employment. This is the only way to ensure sustainable employment.

What's employability?
When an employee adds value to the employer's investment in the human resource by effectively performing intended functions, he/ she is employable. It's important that educational institutions focus on integrated development of knowledge, skills and attitudes of students for holistic personality development. Knowledge based on information and data should lead to understanding and wisdom. Skills in its multifaceted dimensions require the capability to use domain knowledge wisely for good of humanity. This calls for communication, interpersonal skills and personality pre-dispositions like initiative, leadership, team playing, positive thinking, integrity, respect for self, others and the environment and of course time management.

'Total quality person'
A positive attitude comprising both time and work discipline is perhaps the most powerful attribute to enhance a person's employability quotient. Every problem has a solution for anyone with a positive attitude. A negative attitude finds problems with every solution offered. A great mind and a greater mindset are essential for excellence. Integrity and trustworthiness are vital for success. In domains of technology, a set of good human values is a pre-requisite to ensure that technology contributes to progress and improved life quality. Hence, every engineer, scientist, professional or manager would succeed in life if he/she is also a good human being. It is an interesting coincidence that the weighted sum of the words 'ATTITUDE' and 'DISCIPLINE' in each case adds up to a perfect 100 by giving increasing weight to alphabets (A=1, B=2 etc.). They make you a 'total quality person'. Patience, entrepreneurship, innovation, integral thinking, eye for details and capacity to analyse as well as synthesise are some other attributes that will stand you in good stead. In today's world of electronic revolution one must one's computer skills on a regular basis

Learn to learn
Learning to learn is the trait that enables us to our knowledge fast and retain our employability quotient. Knowledge is said to double every 72 hours and if we do not update, unlearn and re-learn, we are left behind. Today we have to run to remain at the same place!

Weakness to opportunity
Analyse your strengths and weaknesses and choose a career where your strengths are leveraged and weakness minimized and converted to opportunities to improve. "Do the job you love and love the job you do" is a mantra for success in life. Excellence and indifference can not coexist. If we nurture our young talent well, the demographic dividend that we have in India, can ensure that we lead the knowledge driven society and become a major supply source of globally employable Indian talent.


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Help Wanted! Good Attitudes Only Need To Apply

Earlier I talked about the need to train people and develop processes for employees to perform successfully. Several people exchanged e-mails over how difficult it is to find good people with good work ethics, attitudes and communication skills. I had one reader who really has a good grasp of reality. I think his message is worth reading and thinking about. "I've enjoyed the banter on attitude & motivation. Certainly, I'd prefer to hire someone with a great attitude. I believe, however, we're faced with a growing "good attitude" shortage. I'm going to wade in over my head here so y'all pull me out if I get too deep.

It seems to me that our hiring pool in the future will not have the work ethic we were raised with. I'm sure that's no news to anyone. These kids who hear KISS (punk rock) on OLDIES stations have a different worldview than we do. They are motivated differently than we are. Many were raised by day care centers and came home to single parents. Many are dating at the same time their parents are. Their whole life has been one "entertainment baby sitter" after another.

I believe the successful businesses of the future will have a good handle on how to direct the behavior of these attitude basket cases. We won't have the luxury of hiring new people with the attitudes and people skills we prefer.

That's why I think we need to be learning how to elicit proper behavior out of whatever personnel we have. Behavior, not attitude, is what puts beans in the pot. Consider this personal example:

I believe I have a great attitude. I care about people and I love to bring them together with the things they want or need. That's how I make my living and according to the numbers, I'm good at it. However, it's not just my attitude that sells. I'm sure I could just walk out the door in my Bermuda shorts, unshaven, wearing a T-shirt and I'd be able to sell something to somebody. It would be slim pickings, though. I certainly wouldn't sell much that way.

So, I use behaviors to "grease things up" a bit. Being polite, using floor protectors and rugs, wearing neat uniforms, properly writing work orders, using price books ad infinitum are all behaviors that can be taught, monitored and inspected. Granted, many of these behaviors are simply common courtesy but apparently, common courtesy is in short supply these days.

You might be able to recognize my good attitude because it's almost always there but you wouldn't be able to quantify it or make adjustments to it. That's up to me. You can, however, document every little behavior you expect me to perform. Further, you can demonstrate that my performance rides on how well I execute the behavior you expect. Whether I'm late for work because of a bad attitude or a flat tire, the numbers will show that a late start usually means missed opportunities. In other words, it's not the attitude; it's the action (behavior) that determines success or failure.

Have you noticed that fast food franchises have pretty much "behaviorized" every step of the selling process? From "you want fries with that?" to the way they wrap a burrito is all boiled down to a process. People with good attitudes certainly excel but the majority of the revenue is generated by gen-X kids with a blank stare.

In our industry, we have the same hiring pool. By providing trouble shooting check lists and procedures (behaviors) we can narrow down most technical problems to find a reasonable solution. Sure, there's a desperate need for technical expertise as well and those who have it will excel. But the majority of our revenue can be generated by "average" people who follow the rules.

By implementing service call procedures (behaviors) we can insure that our valuable customer gets the treatment they deserve. Again, great attitudes will rise to the top but the majority of our revenue will come from average people who simply follow our rules. How well we develop and manage these rules will determine how successful our businesses will be.

I'll leave you with this thought: Have you noticed the trend toward consolidation? I thought so. I think part of the driving force toward consolidation is that there are fewer and fewer business people out there that understand how to develop their people. Inability to manage people (direct their behavior) could be the biggest growth inhibitor small businesses face. After all, if a business was growing, profitable and had it's people working like a team, who would sell it?

So, if my premise is correct, where do we go from here? If I'm out in left field, where do we go from there? -RH

I think he is right on target. The secret of success is learning how to create the behaviors the business needs for success.