A-Z of Soft Skills: A is for Attitude

 

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Attitude. The dictionaries define it as a settled way of thinking or feeling about something.Let's talk about what it is and how it affects what we say and do.

Attitude, basically, is my general inclination or my tendency to react happily or unhappily, positively or negatively, My attitude affects my acts and behaviour and also impacts how I react to to something or someone or to an idea or event.

My attitude is formed through the generalities or stereotypes I hold consciously--this is the cognitive component. For instance, I may think all teenagers are lazy or all babies are cute or dogs are ferocious or women are nurturing.

This general cognitive component affects the affective component, that is, my feelings or emotions towards eenagers, babies, dogs or women as a group even before I get to know them individually. For instance, I distrust teenagers, feel warm and fuzzy about babies, am afraid of dogs and think women are wonderful.

This affective component in turn governs the connative component of attitude or my expressed behaviour when I am confronted by people or situations. I am stand-offish to teenagers, I smile at babies, I avoid dogs and befriend women.

Thus it is that my attitudes determine how I relate to the world. They form my perspectives and orient me. They are the unseen and unknown parts of me that fuel and direct my expressed behaviour. My attitudes give me my individuality and they aggregate to form my personality.

In the specific way my attitudes combine to make me who I am, they also make me unique, like snowflakes and grains of sand.