“Our attitude determines our relationships with people.”

A thought by John C. Maxwell from his book, How High Will You Climb? (p. 18). Harpers Collins Leadership Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

This is his second axiom on attitude, and it is a good one.  We want and need good relationships, don’t we?

John says, “The Golden Rule: ‘Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them’ (Matt. 7:12).”

He later says, “People are funny. They want a place in the front of the bus, the back of the church, and the middle of the road. Tell a man there are 300 billion stars, and he will believe you. Tell him that a bench has just been painted, and he has to touch it to be sure.

“The Stanford Research Institute (www.sri.com) says that the money you make in any endeavor is determined only 12.5 percent by knowledge and 87.5 percent by your ability to deal with people. That is why Teddy Roosevelt said, ‘The most important single ingredient to the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.’

“When the attitude we possess places others first, and we see people as important, then our perspective will reflect their viewpoint, not ours. Until we walk in the other person’s shoes and see life through another’s eyes, we will be like the man who angrily jumped out of his car after a collision with another car. ‘Why don’t you people watch where you’re driving?’ he shouted wildly. ‘You’re the fourth car I’ve hit today!’”

John goes on, “Usually the person who rises within an organization has a good attitude. The promotions did not give that individual an outstanding attitude, but an outstanding attitude resulted in promotions. A study by Telemetrics International pertained to those ‘nice guys’ who had climbed the corporate ladder. A total of 16,000 executives were studied. Observe the difference between executives defined as ‘high achievers’ (those who generally have a healthy attitude) and ‘low achievers’ (those who generally, have an unhealthy attitude):

“High achievers tended to care about people as well as profits; low achievers were preoccupied with their own security.

“High achievers viewed subordinates optimistically; low achievers showed a basic distrust of subordinates’ abilities.

“High achievers sought advice from their subordinates; low achievers didn’t.

“High achievers were listeners; low achievers avoided communication and relied on policy manuals.”

People are very important and your attitude makes a major difference in your relationships?  Do you see that?

Yes, yes!