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Attitude Isn’t Aptitude, and Confidence Isn’t Competence When Building Teams
Attitude Isn’t Aptitude, and Confidence Isn’t Competence When Building Teams
By Jeffrey A. Mangus
Confidence is not just a personal attribute, but a crucial element in business and life. As a business leader, you understand the importance of confidence in setting and achieving your goals. It’s about knowing where you’re going and having the self-assurance to lead your team and drive your business forward.
In the 1980s, a cultural phenomenon, the self-esteem craze, swept across North America. Everyone, from CEOs to neighborhood janitors, experienced a significant impact during this period, characterized by constant classroom exercises centered on individual potential and uniqueness. The message was clear: improving self-esteem could unlock the gates to more happiness, better performance, and every kind of success imaginable.
But you may ask, what does this hve to do with business and leadership? It has everything to do with it, starting with the right attitude. The right attitude is beneficial and essential to building, launching, and growing your business. It’s true, but the catch is that our attitudes develop differently from infancy to adulthood. Attitude, like clay, is always shaping. You’re always shaping and adjusting your attitude to achieve positive results in business. Your attitude stems from your personality and your initial self. Your surroundings and environment not only influence your attitude, but also shape it. Growing up, did you ever feel like the kids you spent time with had an impact on you? As you grow, attitude forms, gradually adjusting and developing. The key here is that you can shape your attitude, transform it into a positive force, and leverage it to propel your business forward.
Predicting how a person’s attitude will turn out is difficult because we all have unique experiences and encounter various factors, such as death, loss, disloyalty, and mistrust. How we react to the expressions of others molds our attitude. We’ve all experienced the sting of someone’s harsh words or biting criticism. What happens? It stays in your memory and burns long after. Positive words and affirmations stay with us and can significantly affect your approach to business and life.
Everything you think about yourself, good or bad, composes your overall attitude, making it the differentiator in your business success. Your attitude gives you the razor’s edge, but is not a substitute. Attitude is not a substitute for ability and competence. Thinking and believing you can do something differs from knowing how to do it. Incompetence, mixed with a poor attitude, is one of the quickest team-building killers in any business. Incompetence is a distraction for competent people and can be detrimental to you as a leader trying to get the person on track. It takes away from progress and focus on the task as a team, hurting everything in the long run.
Zig Ziglar once said, “Attitude is everything.” While I beg to differ, I know firsthand that attitude is just one component of the equation. A poor attitude won’t prevent success, just as a good one won’t guarantee failure. In my personal experience, poor attitudes can defeat individuals. No matter how excellent and capable someone is, a poor attitude can prevent them from achieving their objectives. Their mindset can blind them to opportunities, discourage them from seeking solutions, ruin relationships, and lead to premature surrender.
Just having a good attitude isn’t enough to succeed. You still need thought, ability, and execution. Your respectful attitude can create an environment for others to work hard, learn, and persevere, but it takes more than just attitudes. Build confidence upon competence; don’t use it to substitute for it. Attitude and aptitude should complement each other, not substitute for one another.
Your attitude can be an asset in your everyday endeavors. So, use it to your advantage, merging it with your leadership competence, and you will have a winning formula for success. Harnessing the power of positivity to navigate through big and small issues makes a profound difference in decision-making and your relationships with your teams. Theodore Roosevelt said, “The most important single ingredient in the formula for success is knowing how to get along with other people.” Success in your business and leadership, as well as growing a positive team environment, hinges on your competence, skills, attitude, and ability to work with your teams.
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About Me
“My name is Jeffrey A. Mangus. I work with powerful executives, leaders, entrepreneurs, and new authors who have incredible, life-changing stories and want to put it all into writing their business books or memoirs. Authors I work with have beaten adversity down, survived gut-wrenching challenges, and overcome them to reach the top. I love rags-to-riches stories that show tenacity, grit, and determination. I partner with individuals committed to motivating others, going the extra mile, thinking creatively, and wanting to leave a lasting legacy.
Jeffrey A. Mangus is a 5x #1 Amazon bestselling ghostwriter and author with thirty-five (35) award-winning and bestselling books to his credit. Jeffrey has written for several major publishers, including Harper Collins Leadership, Harper Collins Focus, Rowman & Littlefield, Tantor, Blackstone, Highbridge Audio, and Audible.