It's time to get a surreal attitude

Do you ever feel like it’s time to do all the things you want to do, become the person you know you can be, just generally stop wasting time? Well now might be just the time to do it.

For some of us, a big barrier to making the impact you want to make or the life choices you know you could achieve is the assumption or belief that you are shy or ‘introverted.’ If you were asked to name your top 5 list of shy introverts I’m guessing the name Salvador Dali probably would be missing. In fact he was a ‘morbidly shy’ person in his youth who could barely be in company of others without blushing.





But one day Dali was advised to ‘pretend’ he was an extrovert. To ‘act as if’ he was a flamboyant, confident and celebrated painter. And guess what? He soon became one.

Dali had clocked that regardless of how self-conscious he felt inside, by adopting the ‘attitude’ of a successful artist – the clothes, the body language, the persona – he began to transform into exactly what he wanted to become – a successful, notorious and celebrated artist-extraordinaire. His work may have been surreal but his extroverted persona was as real as real could be.

As this article in Psychology today discusses “You Become What You Pretend To Be.” The secret is attitude. Your attitude influences your behaviour and your behaviour influences your attitude. If you start to act ‘as if ‘ you are the person you want to be then you will change your physical behaviour. You then begin to feel and think differently in the emotional and intellectual dimensions and before you know it your ‘intentional dimension’ will have integrated with the other three dimensions and you will believe in yourself and all that you have become. It’s still you. Just you with ‘attitude!’

From my earliest school day memories, ‘Having an attitude’ was often endowed with incredibly negative connotations. ‘Having an attitude’ usually meant ‘that child doesn’t work hard enough, they’ll never be an A grade student.’ But perhaps it’s time to challenge those disapproving finger-pointy curmudgeons of one’s rebellious youth and start to adopt an attitude. An ‘attitude’ of confidence, of success. The attitude of whatever you want to become.

Attitude might just be the new A grade. The time never looked better to get some serious attitude and start working it very hard.

Why being human is the only way to win.

If like us you're sick of having to endure endless automated telephone voices programmed to deal with your customer service needs then you are waking up to the tip of a deep iceberg that is threatening to sink your humanity.

Over the last 3 decades there has been an increased attempt to remove the human factor from business at nearly every level to increase efficiency, productivity and profits. But this is changing as more and more of us crave the human touch. Empathy, autonomy, someone to listen to us and work with a purpose that makes us feel valued.

In the face of an increasingly low cost (and exploited) labour force around the globe the Western world is waking up to the fact that our old management models are leaving many organisations floating dead in the swamp of economic collapse.

We are realising that our humanity and it's creative expression is the only thing that can differentiate us from being robots or even worse - 'human resourses'.

On this video from www.managementexchange.com bestselling author Seth Godin describes the fork in the road that every worker and company faces today. Are you racing to the bottom or exerting your humanity?

The MIX is a great idea, why not join in the conversation?

Here is some blurb from the site:

"The MIX is designed for all those who are frustrated by the limits of our legacy management practices. It's for all the inspired thinkers and radical doers who believe we can — and must — find alternatives to the bureaucratic and disempowering management practices that still rule most organisations."

Are you in?

Qualities of a Leader

Every now and then we like to collate the latest thinking on a subject and create a condensed but integral list of highlights. This week we've pulled together some of the latest research on desirable, leadership qualities and translated them into terms we can understand and communicate.

So, in no particular order here are the qualities considered to be vital for leadership in the 21st century.

Ambition - A desire for success with respect to career progression, status and productivity.

Initiative - The willingness to take action by exerting additional effort to exceed expectations.

Energy - A high degree of stamina and the ability to maintain a high rate of activity is revealed as a key determinant of effective leadership.

Need for power - The satisfaction a leader derives from exerting influence over the attitudes and behaviours of others is a key driver of successful leaders. The motive to influence is associated with seeking positions of authority, being attuned to the political climate of the organisation, and the assertiveness needed to direct group activities and advocate for desired changes to the organization and as such, is a frequently proposed antecedent of effective leadership.

Honesty/integrity - The correspondence between a person's words and deeds as well as being truthful and non-deceitful. People are less likely to be influenced by someone they do not trust.

Creativity – Coming up with novel and innovative solutions to problems to effectively resolve business issues together with an ability to challenge followers to consider alternative approaches to address organisational challenges.

Self-monitoring - The ability to understand and manage your feelings, thoughts and behaviours in each and every situation. Positive and negative.

Flexibility - The ability to alter one’s behaviour depending on the demands of the situation.

Interpersonal skills - An understanding of the dynamics of human behaviour and groups, together with an ability to communicate effectively at every level.

Problem-solving - The ability to think logically and to exercise sound judgment to resolve organisational issues.

Decision making - The ability to take decisive action when facing ambiguous challenges.


There are still many old and familiar themes here so the work continues.