Your Work Attitude will Determine Your Altitude
PART 1.

CHRIS EGBU MBA, CMC,FCA

Some people complain about being stagnant in their career. Have you look at your work attitude? Research has shown that poor work ethics is correlated to career stagnation. How do the under-listed affect your career progression?
·               Sense of urgency
·               Time consciousness
·               Dress to fit the job
·               Loyal to your boss
·               Positive mental attitude
·               Good manners


When you attack any obstacle, you must have a sense of urgency, because people are watching you in everything you do, how you carry out your assignment at the office and in other aspects of life you are being watched. I once went to a government department, and I met an office assistant whose job was to bind reports, and by one 1:30 pm when I was in that office, his supervisor asked him how many reports he has binded? And he said that since 7:30 am when he resumed office to that very time 1.30pm he has binded just five reports. And to crown it all he said that he is tired. Such a person does not have sense of urgency, and as a result of that he will never get to the top of his career.

 

Associated with a sense of urgency is time consciousness, when we are given assignments in the office we should know how long it takes to complete such an assignment and not delay in accomplishing it because if we fail our boss will not be happy. There was a time, I had a paper to present the next day and we had almost finished typing it by five or six pm (6.00pm) and the computer system crashed so we lost everything, so what do we do, do we go to the venue the next day and tell our audience or participants that our system crashed and as a result of that there will be no paper for them that day? Having paid so much, will they be happy? No. so we had to look for another computer system, start all over typing till about 10:30pm when we completed it. Why did I do that? Because of time consciousness, I knew that the paper was needed by 8:00 am the next day. But some people will say, “It is not my fault, after all it is the computer system that crashed and I could not have stopped it, so it is not my fault. Tomorrow they will know what to do, it is their own problem as I have been telling them to change the system and they refused.” Then tomorrow if your Director call you and asks “where is the seminar paper?” You will tell him “ the system crashed, what do I do about it?” That Employee is not time conscious.


Then also you must dress to fit the job. Depending on where you are. Some jobs require that you should wear jeans and T-shirts, especially if you're a bus conductor in Lagos Nigeria, then you need to wear canvass, jeans and T-shirts, because you must be ready for action at all times. And if you are working in mechanic shop you must wear green overall, so that you will not be afraid to get dirty, but on the other hand if you are working as a Personal Assistant to the Chief Executive you must dress to fit the office. If you are going to see a Chief Medical Director of a Teaching Hospital for instance, and you get to the office the first person you see there is the Secretary. So as you enter there you observe that the Secretary dressed inappropriately. You will say “so this is the Secretary to the Chief Medical Director dressed so shoddily?”
The Secretary by so doing is giving a wrong image of the Chief Medical Director. You must always dress to fit the occasion.


You must also be loyal to your boss. Some Employees today are alienated, disaffected, estranged; and insubordinate to their organizations. This leads to poor productivity. We might think that loyalty is unnoticed but it is. Say for example that your boss sent you to buy pure water and you come back and tell him that you bought it for twenty naira and tomorrow he sends someone else who bought it for ten naira, whenever there is an opportunity and you are recommended he will always turn your recommendation down, and that will mean you can't get to the top of your career because you cannot be trusted.


We also need to have a positive mental attitude. Do you have a good effect or favourable influence in your organization? Are you a role model? Are your actions marked by optimism. To get to the top of your career you need a positive mental attitude even when things are not okay, you should be positive that things will get better. People should see that positiveness in you so that they will feel that you should be part of the team. If you are always discouraged or afraid then people would not want you to be with them or be in the same team. You may not be promoted, because Employer's want employees who are positive. Someone who will get to the top of his career is a leader. A leader is a person who directs a unit, a person who has commanding authority or influence and someone who leads others must be courageous, like Comrade Adams Oshiomhole former President of Nigeria Labour Congress when he talks there is no sign of fear but what you see is someone who is courageous and positive.


A positive mental attitude has to be built continuously
Watch your thoughts, they become your words
Watch your words, they become your actions
Watch your actions, they become your habits
Watch your habits, they become your character


Another quality we need to have to get to the top is good manners. If you are someone who always sighs or hisses, those are bad manners and no one would like to be around you because you have bad manners. If you are also someone who is always infuriated, or that gets easily irritated, and flare up at every little thing, then you can never get to the top, because when you are working people will always get at your nerves or hurt your feelings and so how you react matters a lot. I have witnessed in an office, a private setup, a Storekeeper and a Purchasing officer, had a misunderstanding between them, and the Purchasing officer which happened to be a man flared up and slapped the Storekeeper who was a lady. That put a question mark on his character and emotional intelligence and whenever they want to talk about him they always refer to that incident even after about ten years in that office.


Clued from Newways of Employee Empowerment By Chris Egbu