Sep 26, 2016
A Winner’s Attitude
A wise man once said that “hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” I am going a little outside of the box today and will be linking in my favourite pastime, golf, into how attitude will get you ahead in the workplace. As I am a religious viewer of all things golf, especially The Masters, this is an analogy I believe goes hand in hand. However, for those of you who do not find golf as riveting as I, just bare with me!
Golf is the perfect example of how attitude can mean so much to a sport. The only way to become the best in the world is to put in hard work and practice. In addition to the hard work, you need the right attitude; it is a mental game more than any other. You can have all the talent in the world but if you do not put in hard work and practice and keep yourself in a positive head space you will not succeed.
The most common comments I hear from managers I work with are; ‘I have someone in my team who has all the talent in the world, but they just don’t apply themselves.’ Another is ‘I have someone in my team who works hard and is an excellent worker but their negative attitude brings the rest of the team down.’
It is essential to look at these comments and understand how you can not only increase your career opportunities but also how you get ahead in the workplace. To relate this even more to the analytics world specifically, the common theme is everyone is now looking for analysts who can not only do the analysis but also provide actionable insights back to nontechnical stakeholders. The only way to impress senior management is to have the right work ethic and to go above and beyond, work hard and all the while come across in a positive manner.
Recently I had a candidate interview with one of my most trusted clients. The feedback was simply that they had all the skills and could definitely do the job but their attitude just came across as wrong. The person who ended up getting the job was a candidate that didn’t necessarily have all the skills but showed the drive, motivation and work ethic that convinced the managers that they would be a success.
If we look at a prime example in the golfing world you can see every time a pro player misses a short, easy putt and if their head drops, they project a negative attitude and more often than not, their round tails off into nothingness. Sergio Garcia being an example of a player with all the talent in the world but he just seems to project a negative attitude and doesn’t seem to enjoy his work. His head drops and he hasn’t ever fulfilled his full talent or potential.
The most successful are those who miss the putt but look inside themselves and know that they have put in the hard work on the practice ground, have the right positive attitude and will learn from their mistake and grow from there. This relates directly back to work.
