3600 MW TPP, Chhattisgarh, India
KSK Mahanadi Power Company Limited
By
Pramod kumar Nanda
ATTITUDE

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What is a Positive Mindset and Attitude?
A Definition
You probably have an idea of what a positive mindset or positive
attitude is already, but it’s always helpful to start with a definition.
This definition from Remez Sasson (n.d.) is a good general
description:
“Positive thinking is a mental and emotional attitude that focuses
on the bright side of life and expects positive results.”

What is a Positive Mindset and Attitude?
A Definition
Positive thinking actually means approaching life’s
challenges with a positive outlook. It does not necessarily
mean avoiding or ignoring the bad things; instead, it involves
making the most of the potentially bad situations, trying to
see the best in other people, and viewing yourself and your
abilities in a positive light.”
We can extrapolate from these definitions and come up with
a good description of a positive mindset as the tendency to
focus on the bright side, expect positive results, and
approach challenges with a positive outlook.
Having a positive mindset means making positive thinking a
habit, continually searching for the silver lining and making
the best out of any situation you find yourself in.

Characteristics and Traits of a Positive
Mindset: 6 Examples
 So, now we know what a positive mindset is, we can dive into the next
important question: What does it look like?
 There are many traits and characteristics associated with a positive mindset,
including:
 Optimism: a willingness to make an effort and take a chance instead of
assuming your efforts won’t pay off.
 Acceptance: acknowledging that things don’t always turn out how you want
them to, but learning from your mistakes.
 Resilience: bouncing back from adversity, disappointment, and failure instead
of giving up.
 Gratitude: actively, continuously appreciating the good things in your life
 Consciousness/Mindfulness: dedicating the mind to conscious awareness
and enhancing the ability to focus.
 Integrity: the trait of being honourable, righteous, and straightforward,
instead of deceitful and self-serving (Power of Positivity).
 Not only are these characteristics of a positive mindset, but they may also
work in the other direction—actively adopting optimism, acceptance,
resilience, gratitude, mindfulness, and integrity in your life will help you
develop and maintain a positive mindset. 28

A List of Positive Attitudes
 If you found the list above still too vague, there are many more
specific examples of a positive attitude in action.
 For example, positive attitudes can include:
 It is looking adversity in the eye… and laughing.
 Getting what you get, and not pitching a fit.
 Enjoying the unexpected, even when it’s not what you wanted
originally.
 Motivating those around you with a positive word.
 Using the power of a smile to reverse the tone of a situation.
 Being friendly to those you don’t know.
 It’s getting back up when you fall down. (No matter how many
times you fall down.)
 Being a source of energy that lifts those around you.
 Understanding that relationships are more important than
material things.
 Being happy even when you have little.

A List of Positive Attitudes
 Having a good time even when you are losing.
 Being happy for someone else’s success.
 Having a positive future vision, no matter how bad your current
circumstances.
 Smiling.
 Paying a compliment, even to a total stranger.
 Tell someone you know that they did a great job. (And mean
it.)
 Making someone’s day. (Not just a child’s… adult’s like to have
their day be special, too!)
 It’s not complaining no matter how unfair things appear to be.
(It is a waste of time… instead, do something!)
 Not letting other people’s negativity bring you down.
 Giving more than you expect to get in return.
 Being true to yourself… always (Jarrow, 2012).

Now we know a little bit more about what a positive mindset looks like, we can turn
to one of the biggest questions of all: What’s the deal with having a positive attitude?
What is it about having a positive mindset that is so important, so impactful, so life-
changing?
Well, the traits and characteristics listed above give us a hint; if you comb through
the literature, you’ll see a plethora of benefits linked to optimism, resilience, and
mindfulness.
You’ll see that awareness and integrity are linked to better quality of life, and
acceptance and gratitude can take you from the “okay life” to the “good life.”
Why is a Positive Attitude Considered
the Key to Success?

The Outcomes of a Positive Attitude
 Aside from enhancing your skills and personal resources, there
are many other benefits of cultivating a positive mindset,
including better overall health, better ability to cope with
stress, and greater well-being .
 According to the experts at the Mayo Clinic, positive thinking
can increase your lifespan, reduce rates of depression and
levels of distress, give you greater resistance to the common
cold, improve your overall psychological and physical well-
being, improve your cardiovascular health and protect you
from cardiovascular disease, and
 help you build coping skills to keep you afloat during
challenging times .
 You’ve probably heard of all these generic benefits before, so
we’ll get more specific and explore the benefits of a positive
mindset in several different contexts:

Benefits of a Positive Mental Attitude in
the Workplace
 No construct better captures the essence of a positive attitude
in the workplace quite like psychological capital (or PsyCap
for short). This multicomponent construct is made up of four
psychological resources:
1. Hope 2. Efficacy3. Resilience 4. Optimism
 PsyCap was first conceptualized as “positive psychological
capital” by renowned management and leadership researchers
Luthans and Youssef in 2004. The concept quickly took off
among positive organizational psychologists, and by 2011 there
were already hundreds of citations of PsyCap in the literature.
 The first meta-analysis of all the research on PsyCap was
conducted in 2011, and it outlined some of the many benefits of
PsyCap in the workplace:
 PsyCap was positively related to job satisfaction,
organizational commitment, and psychological well-being.

Benefits of a Positive Mental Attitude in
the Workplace
 PsyCap was also positively related to organizational citizenship
(desirable employee behaviors) and multiple measures of
performance.
(self-rated, supervisor evaluations, and objective measures).
 PsyCap was negatively related to cynicism, turnover intentions, job
stress, and anxiety.
 PsyCap was also negatively related to negative employee deviance
(bad employee behaviors; Avey, Reichard, Luthans, & Mhatre,
2011).
 It seems pretty straightforward that positive attitudes like
optimism and resilience lead to positive outcomes for the
organization and for the employees!
 Another study by a few of the giants in the field of positive
psychology (Sonja Lyubomirsky, Laura King, and Ed Diener, 2005)
investigated the relationship between happiness and benefits to
employees. They showed that positive attitudes in the workplace
also benefit the employee in addition to the organization:
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Benefits of a Positive Mental Attitude in
the Workplace
 Happier employees are more productive than other
employees.
 Happy salespeople have higher sales than other salespeople.
 Happy employees are more creative than other employees.
 Happy employees are evaluated more positively by their
supervisors.
 Happy employees are less likely to show job withdrawal
(absenteeism, turnover, job burnout, and retaliatory
behaviors).
 Happy employees make more money than other employees.
 So, a positive attitude can have great benefits for the
organization as a whole and for all of its employees.
 It turns out that a positive attitude can also result in benefits
for leaders and their followers (as well as spreading
positivity throughout the organization). 35

The Importance of a Positive Mindset for
Leadership
Positive mindset is important for the rank-and-file, it’s easy to see why it is vital for
those in a position of leadership.
Researchers Hannah, Woolfolk, and Lord (2009) outlined a framework for positive
leadership that rests on the idea that leaders with a positive self-concept (a positive
idea of who they are and a habit of thinking positively about themselves) are more able
to bring the “right stuff” to their leadership role.
In their theory, a leader with a positive mindset is not only more likely to be actively
engaged and to perform at a high level, he or she can influence followers towards a
more positive mindset through role modeling .
A study around the same time provides support for the relationship between leader and
follower positivity; trust in management influenced positive PsyCap, which had a big
impact on performance for leaders and followers (Clapp-Smith, Vogegesang, & Avey,
2008).
Trust in management was linked to positive leadership and performance. While trust in
management isn’t necessarily indicative of a positive mindset in both leader and
follower, it is certainly a likely outcome of a generally positive attitude in the workplace.
Forbes writer Victor Lipman (2017) puts findings like these in simpler terms:
“It’s always easier to follow someone with a positive outlook.”

The Importance of a Positive Mindset for
Leadership
 In other words, positive attitudes in a leader will draw followers
and encourage motivation and engagement in subordinates.
Lipman also notes that having a positive outlook and being
resilient is vital in leadership positions because there is a lot of
stress involved in managing and leading others.
 Leaders must always be “on” and spend much of their time
“performing” as a strong, confident leader and perhaps even a
public face. This role is a tiring one, and being optimistic and
resilient will help leaders stay sane and healthy in challenging
contexts.
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Any Questions
?

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