THE SELF
to build correct attitudes that
can give graduates an edge on
their global competitors, but the
Seven steps to build Attitude
question is two fold; fi rstly what
is attitude? Secondly how do
graduates develop it?”
What Attitude?
Attitudes are a series of beliefs
and feelings we hold about
specifi c situations, ideas, or
people. Attitudes are developed
out of three core ingredients;
namely affect, behaviour and
cognition. Affect is the emotional
content you experience in any
given situation. For example,
when you queue in the bank,
what emotions run through you
1. 2. 3.
at that moment? Behaviour is
Travel to 3rd world Work for a not-for- Work for a political
self explanatory, and stems from
countries, ones profi t organisation, party candidate
affect, that is the emotions we
with a completely doing anything during election time.
experience. Intertwined with
different culture that they ask inc. This could involve
affect and behaviour is cognition;
and language. something you canvassing.
the thinking process that goes on
might not enjoy.
before, during and immediately
after the situation – it’s how
we understand any situation.
Combine these three aspects and
What people like Vinay, and about the basics of a working
we begin to see attitude.
graduate recruiters around lifestyle. Nearly everyone learns,
Our attitude infringes on all our
the country are noticing is a but it would be better if they came
perception. Carl Jung, the Swiss
negative attitude towards work. prepared. Some graduates come
psychologist, compared our
In every corporate sector, out of university with very little
possessing a particular attitude to
fi rms face challenges that are industry experience, and as such
us wearing glasses with coloured
unique, volatile, fast changing have the wrong attitude to work.
lens. Everything we see out of
and increasingly competitive, Most graduates having little or no
them would be contaminated
leaving little room to slip up. experience, means that they have
by that colour. Similarly, no
“The truth is most fi rms operate no emotional content about the
matter how sharp our intellect
on a tight rope, a small slip and situations that arise at work on
may be, if our attitude is wrong
we loose our competitive edge a daily basis; they do not have a
then everything we perceive will
and market share”, says Chris coping mechanism, which is why
be contaminated. Our potential
Phillips, Director at Arnold their behaviour in challenging
becomes disabled by our own
Chase, an executive headhunting situations is often poor, as they
attitude.
fi rm. This makes selecting the are emotionally overwhelmed,
right graduates from the offset all resulting in a poor cognition;
increasingly important for fi rms their understanding is hampered,
Many [graduates] who rely on the innovation, and learning happens slower than
come and go
management, vision, and simple expected.
because they are
graft of its employees.
This problem is then amplifi ed
ill-equipped The Problem by the fact that many come with
Too many graduates have no clue a “proactive bad attitude”. An
10 10 HPD Sept ‘09 - Feb ‘10