THE MINISTRY MBA

10 Practical Courses to Lead a Thriving Church

7 Positive Attitude Adjustments to Deploy in Negative Circumstances

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THE MINISTRY MBA

10 Practical Courses to
Lead a Thriving Church

The below is Lesson 7 from our Leadership Lessons series.

LESSON SEVEN: My attitude is more important than my actions

KEY QUESTION: How can we maintain a positive attitude regardless of the circumstances?

As the inspirational poster says, “Our attitude determines our altitude.

Cheesy, yes! But also true.

If you are a mom, have a mom, or had a mom (I.E., all of us), you know that every home has a tone.

Any guesses who sets that tone?

The mom.

In every home, the mom sets the tone. Her attitude sets the climate.

The same is true at work.

It’s the leader who sets the tone and climate for the organization.

Hence, in this cheesy case: 

Your attitude determines everyone’s altitude.

What Exactly is Attitude

As a kid, I often heard the phrase, “Don’t get an attitude with me.”

Anyone else?

I always thought this statement was funny. I learned not to laugh when it was said to me, but I always chuckled a bit internally. It’s impossible not to have any attitude. In every situation, we have an attitude. As a leader, that is true, too.

No matter the circumstance or situation, we have an attitude, and our leadership attitude sets the tone for the entire organization.

Pause for a moment and consider how powerful our attitude is!

A couple of things about attitude that we should consider: 

  1. First, your attitude is your choice. Your feelings and beliefs about your circumstances create your attitudes. Since you can choose your feelings and beliefs, you can choose your attitude. 
  2. Secondly, your attitudes will eventually create behaviors and actions.

These attitude truths are critically important to understand.

Here’s one more attitude truth for good measure:

Your attitude will shape the team’s attitudes, creating the behaviors and actions they will exhibit.

The Power of Attitude

It’s incredible to consider the power of our attitude. Your attitude can:

  • Change the behaviors of your team.
  • Change the perception of your team.
  • Help engage your team.
  • More easily incorporate changes across your organization.
  • Open your team to give and receive feedback.
  • Create a desire to experiment and take more risks.

I could list a hundred things, but you get the point.

And, even if you aren’t the point leader, your attitude still affects your perception and behavior while influencing the perceptions and behaviors of everyone around you.

The real question is, how can we maintain a positive attitude regardless of circumstances?

Maintaining a Positive Attitude

Circumstantial positivity is the norm. We’re human, after all. But, if we hope to move our team’s perceptions and behaviors forward, our attitudes must rise above our situations.

Here are six strategies for staying positive when turning negative is the norm:

1. Think beyond the moment.

By its name, circumstantial positivity is linked to our situations. Having a good attitude when things are good doesn’t mean you have a good attitude. It means you appropriately respond internally to external situations. That’s it.

As a leader, it’s easier to maintain a positive attitude in challenging situations when we rise above the moment to see the bigger picture. For example, when we changed the name of our church from Watermarke Church to Woodstock City Church, there were plenty of negative nellies giving in to the momentary circumstance. I understood their perception. I also believed that we’d be grateful for the new name when we looked back five years down the road. That gratitude only took five weeks, but you get the point. 

Seeing every situation as part of a larger perspective helps us maintain a positive attitude.

2. Pay attention to your tension.

Self-awareness helps you maintain a positive attitude. At a minimum, self-awareness signals when your mood might be tested.

The more self-aware we are, the better we can experience trying moments and stay ahead of our negative tendencies.

It’s like pain management. When you have surgery, the doctor typically prescribes medicine to help with the pain. The doctor always says, “Take this every four hours for the first day even if you aren’t in too much pain.” Why? The good doctor understands that staying ahead of the pain keeps you from feeling the fulness of the pain. In the same way, if you skip a dose and allow the pain to get ahead of you, you’ll never catch up.

Let’s call this attitude management. The more aware you are of the circumstances that generate negativity, the better prepared you’ll be to navigate them as they begin.

3. Incorporate gratitude into your attitude.

It’s challenging to be upset when you’re generous. Generosity generates gratitude, and gratitude is an attitude setter.

When a situation presents that might rob you of your good attitude, find a way to incorporate generosity into the circumstance.

Example: My wife and I are part owners of a coffee shop in our local community. We recently scheduled a deep cleaning and invited our entire staff to participate (and be paid for their time). Only two employees came. And one was my son, so he doesn’t count. I could easily take on a bad attitude. Instead, I decided to give each employee who took the time to help a $100 bonus on top of their hourly rate for their three hours of work. That one generous decision changed my entire deep cleaning night attitude. And my better attitude rubbed off on the team of two employees, too. Knowing I’d surprise them at the end of our cleaning shift immediately set a new mood in me.

4. Practice mindfulness.

This term is relatively new to me, but I’ve already felt the positive effects of my limited experiences. Mindfulness is basically an intense awareness of what you feel and sense at the moment. Mindfulness requires that we pause and give our attention to our feelings and, in turn, create space to choose a new attitude.

Knowing that attitude is a choice, mindfulness helps create space to make a better choice.

5. Separate fact from fiction.

It’s incredible how often I’m tempted to be frustrated by a circumstance that isn’t even real. When I learn of a situation, it’s too easy to become pessimistic about the situation, the person, and the pending outcome. There are times what I hear is true. There are plenty of times what’s said is partially true. Not that anyone is attempting to lie or pass along partial truths, but we all filter through perception.

Pausing to separate fact from fiction allows for consideration. And consideration helps our attitude.

6. Choose to believe the best.

Your default assumption is to assume the worst. I know that because you’re human. Mine is, as well.

Positive people learn the art of believing the best. Remember, we’re talking about circumstantial attitudes. When there is a gap between what you expect and what you experience, you get to choose how to fill in that gap. You can assume the worst, torpedoing your attitude. Or, you can choose to believe the best by inventing the most generous explanation for the gap.

Positive people learn the art of believing the best.

Conclusion

I’m sure many other things have the power to improve or destroy your team and organization. I think we’d be hard-pressed to find something as simple to do as choosing to have a good attitude.

How Can I help?

Partnering with ministry and marketplace leaders from innovation through implementation is why I created Transformation Solutions. I’m dedicating my time to helping leaders like you discover potential problems, design strategic solutions, and deliver the preferable future.

Go right now to mytransformationsolutions.com and sign up for a free, 15-minute conversation to decide if working together works for you.

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