Attitude or Behaviour. Which comes first?

‘He’s applied for the position, so we have to go through the interview process. We’ll never promote him though, not with his attitude. We all know that.’

‘We just don’t have many in this company who could do the job.’

‘The procedures were much better at my last workplace.’

How often do we hear this. Judgement. Pre-determined judgement. Big statements. Low objectivity. Groupthink even at higher levels. A successful candidate for a promotion is pretty much already known. People are ruled out for a position before they walk in for the interview.

For certain, there are those who simply cannot be considered for promotion. Past behaviour could be such that further promotion would be detrimental to the organisation; no question.

There are however some things we need to consider.  

Why is a person’s behaviour as it is?

Why do they have such an ‘attitude’?

Do we, in charge of promotion, entrusted with that significant responsibility, in fact have to look at our own attitude?

Can people change? With responsibility? With experience? With age?

Can their very attitude change? If so, what would alter it?

Let’s begin with when our attitudes and values are established in the first place 

And that’s not long after we greet the world. Cemented they are, in those early years. And once set, they’re all but locked in, and nothing but another major event in our lives will change them. What a huge responsibility for parents then? Absolutely. And most of us are simply passing on what we, ourselves, have learned. Right or wrong. Cloning? Well to some extent, but not altogether. We may grow up to think other than our background.

Take, for example, the person who spends so much of their life making money, gathering ‘things’ – houses, cars, whatever – only to become sick later in life, say in their ‘50s. At that moment those material items become valueless. And then they take another step, and actually resent those houses and cars for what they represent, and that’s waste. Wasted time better spent with family and friends.

So, the question. Why? 

Nature or nurture? Genetics or experience? Well the consensus is that it’s a combination of both.

We’re gifted or doomed from the start then? No, and here’s the really good news. Now that we’re aware of the why, we have a choice; most of us anyway. If we’re brave enough to look harder at the person in the mirror, and be completely honest with that person, we can decide to change, to improve ourselves, to be less judgemental and more objective, without waiting for a life-changing event to force it upon us. To choose to rise above groupthink at any level. To allow ourselves to think others may have changed also.

Let’s return to the title, which comes first?  

Our attitudes and so our behaviours are being altered all the time. A driver speeds through a school zone at high speed. We are disgusted. We may be required to wear uniforms. We wear them. Those in the armed forces or in responsible positions must behave in certain ways. On it goes.

The new employee judges their new employer’s procedures as being sub-standard compared to their previous employer’s – sure, then after a few years they adapt, and become biased to their current procedures.

It may seem an endless argument but there’s no doubting our behaviours are often controlled, and so our attitudes fall into line.

Still, a question remains.  

Do we or do we not give a different person an opportunity? Consider why they may have been as they have. It could just be frustration. Sometimes those who appear to be negative are actually the very ones who will rise when given a chance. Ask them.

Granted, we’re a business, not a counselling service, but let’s not do ourselves or our company a disservice by prejudging, or automatically excluding on the basis of history.

And have you noticed that even so-called ‘bad boy’ rock and rollers often become nicer with age?

Written by Chris Smith.
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