Attitude training should come first as firms build skills

The list goes on, in all its mundanity.

The acquisition of skills and knowledge appears to be the main thrust in the training or recruitment objectives for any organisation.

We seem to be carrying over the style and aims of academic institutions.

But why? A staggering 94 per cent of all Forbes 500 executives attribute their success more to attitude than to any other ingredient.

What is organisational culture if not the cumulation of individual attitudes?

Attitudes and belief systems are the true driving force behind organisational success — but are taken for granted, and feature nowhere in the institution’s mission and vision.

Edgar Schein, one of the most prominent theorists of organisational culture, gave the following very general definition of organisational culture

“A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems. (Schein 373-374)

Shared attitudes make or break organisations.

Despite this, you will be hard-pressed to find anything tackling mindsets, belief systems, positive attitudes, emotional intelligence, in their training calendars.

And yet all the skills and knowledge we train our people to accumulate become useless when inculcated in an employee who has the wrong attitude.

By way of analogy, skills and knowledge are a seed that an employer plants in the hope and belief that the same will germinate, grow and flourish.

But what is the quality of land this “seed” is being planted in?

What is the mindset, the attitude, the demeanour of the employee into whom the “planting” is being done? Is it “fertile”?

Consider the common reasons why we terminate employees: Misbehaviour or rudeness toward clients or customers; drunkenness or substance abuse on the job; theft of company property; frequent and unexplained absences from work; entering false information on records; gross insubordination; incompetence or failure to respond to training; fighting or other physical aggression; sexual harassment; verbal abuse; using company property for personal business and on and on.

How many of these have to do with job skills or knowledge?

And how many are attitude and behaviour related?

It would appear we hire and train on the basis of skills and knowledge yet de-hire and never train on matters to do with attitude. Then we hire afresh, and the cycle continues.

To most human resource experts the importance of attitude is not foreign.

A staff member with a positive attitude is every employer’s delight. After all, skills can be learned.

Intellectual capability and technical skills are no longer the sole criteria for a successful career?

Managing emotions intelligently is a key ingredient for an individual’s success and organisational well-being as a whole.

Most employers are quick to look out for skills and knowledge.

And why not, you may ask. In the immediate, these translate to results, productivity.

Most times though, poor attitude kicks in and the skills and knowledge are no longer in the spotlight— attitude is.

Perhaps then we have it in reverse. Should we not start with attitude, build on attitude and keep at it, even while seeking skills and knowledge? Sounds absurd? Perhaps, crazy, even?

Mr Kageche is from Peak Performance International while Mr Mutwafy is a practising HR professional.