Give em’ Attitude! Key to Turning Interviews and Difficult Situations Around

It's great to start seeing things return to some sort of normal. Yesterday, I walked into a neighborhood gym (yes, it's time for me to reverse my pandemic weight gain) and I was given the choice not to wear a mask. It seemed like Twilight Zone.

Not so long ago, people were fighting about wearing masks. Tempers were flaring at places like Wal-mart. Remember that?

As Building Supers / staff members, we've also had to enforce rules inside the building that stoked anger among shareholders, vendors, etc. I remember the mad dog stare straight into my soul when I asked a shareholder to put his mask on inside the building's common area laundry room last year.

Luckily, it was my attitude that de-escalated the situation and persuaded him to wear a mask. I'm sure you've had similar incidents. Building Supers and staff often have the unappreciative task of enforcing rules that residents don't particularly like.

And, I'm sure you know that, many times, the key to preventing things from heating up is by keeping cool and having a positive attitude.
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So, I would like to end this week with a podcast and Youtube video dealing with this touchy subject: ATTITUDE.

Coincidentally, this past week, I sat in on several job interviews for open Resident Manager positions and, afterwards, I was given the opportunity to listen in as the Board discussed the pros and cons of each candidate. Can you guess which trait came up time and time again? You guessed it: attitude.

The Boards seemed to think that a good attitude would spell success when it came to dealing with the building's residents, with staff, upcoming projects, etc. Attitude was a close runner-up to a candidates' actual real-life professional experience.

On the other hand, attitude -- or a negative attitude -- was often a huge, if not the main, reason behind unfortunate situations I've witnessed where the Superintendent was finally terminated from his or her job.

The scary fact is, every single one of us is vulnerable to slipping into a negative attitude without realizing it. We can sink into a negative attitude when we're overlooked for a promotion, feel under-appreciated, or our integrity or self-respect is questioned or challenged. The list of pitfalls is endless.

The goal of this podcast is to help you recognize when these negative attitudes creep up on you, and how to counter them before it takes root in your soul (and your professional work).

Having only a great attitude will not help you win every interview, but it will make you memorable to the interviewer and give you the edge when you don't have everything else.

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