Attitude in the workplace by Virginia Perkins
With my attendance at various meetings across the Springhill Care Group, I often get asked to explain more about the area of behavioural competencies and what they actually mean to each of us.
I reply that a behavioural competency is a specific behaviour that we expect our people to portray in relation to certain areas. We have a standard set of behavioural competencies appended to the Company’s Staff Code of Personal Conduct which explains positive behaviours and negative behaviours. As we work in a person centred environment, our behaviour is so important and we expect every employee to display positive behaviours in the working environment, in particular due to the nature of caring for others. You will have seen from my previous blogs that I have focussed on some of our key behavioural competencies, for example, how we expect our employees to work together as part of a team, how we expect our employees to communicate with each other and how we expect our employees to strive for continuous improvement.
Today’s blog will be focussing on the behavioural competency of “attitude” and how this is a really important aspect of how we should behave, not only to each other but to the people we support and the wider community. Our attitude in the working environment is crucial to how others perceive us. Having a good, positive attitude, along with positive thinking, at work will reflect on what you do and make you a more productive employee. This can determine how well you get your work done and also how others perceive you. If you display a good attitude, you may increase your chances for a promotion or being successful as a champion in a particular area for example, dementia, safeguarding, equality and diversity. You can be a positive role model for others to look up to within your department at work.
I appreciate that employees and managers will have a bad day from time to time but how you choose to display that to others can really affect the balance and harmony of any team. Your attitude is an expression of yourself, those employees and managers who express a positive and optimistic attitude are more approachable, work well in teams and are better leaders and role models.
Those employees who are committed to displaying a positive attitude are more appreciative, enthusiastic, kind and willing to help others which is a crucial aspect of working in the healthcare sector environment.
A bad attitude is like a flat tyre, you can’t go anywhere until you change it.
By Virginia Perkins
Associate Director
People and Organisational Development