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What Is An Attitude?

What Is An Attitude?
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That was my question when Bo Schembechler, our new head football coach at University of Michigan, challenged each of us players with the question, “What kind of attitude do you have? Are you eager to be here, to learn, and to be part of something bigger than yourself? Or do you feel that something is wrong with your situation but do nothing but complain?”

Bo proved to be one of the great leaders of our time, not just in football but in leading teams of people to new shared peak performances.

The concept of having an attitude had never crossed my mind. I was responding to pressures from school, coaches, my teammates, and my social life. What did Bo mean by taking responsibility for our attitude? What does that even mean?

The Role of Attitude in Achieving Your Vision

We nicknamed our Defensive Coordinator, Jim Young, “Univac” because he was brilliant, disciplined, and systems-oriented. However, he also possessed another side that showed his breadth of understanding of the fundamentals of success. Coach Young amplified Bo’s message about attitude by challenging us to use our minds to make things possible. He challenged us to have a compelling vision of what we seek to accomplish and to write down goals to measure our progress on our vision path.

Wow! This is different. It’s not just about our attitude today but its role in a positive vision for tomorrow! This was a foreign concept to all of us.

Most of us were immature and thought what happened to us was someone else’s responsibility. Certainly, we were not responsible, as we were doing our best!

It became clear very quickly that we were each responsible for our individual positions on the team and for the impact we would have on our team’s performance.

The concept of individual attitudes collectively manifesting into the team’s attitude became a centering concept for all of us. Each of us was responsible for a vision we saw for ourselves in the context of how it would help the team realize a shared and compelling vision. And it all started with our attitude.

The coaches challenged each of us to look inside ourselves. Did we come to practice and meetings every day with personal responsibility for where we stood on the team?  Did we think about our role in helping the team realize a shared compelling vision—to be Big Ten Champions and play in the Rose Bowl—that we created together? Or were we self-centered and complaining that life was not fair? Did we believe it was always someone else’s fault for where we stood on the team?

This was a revelation at a time when we thought football was solely about talent, skill, and experience. Bo opened the door for us to think about something we did not even know we possessed: an attitude. What a blessing to have such influential people, like these coaches, who impacted how we would think for the rest of our lives!

Our team’s vision—to be Big Ten Champions and play in the Rose Bowl—was achieved in Bo’s first year. Our attitude had everything to do with our team’s success, as no member of this staff or team had ever been there. To achieve success, we needed the most fundamental tool—a great attitude toward ourselves and our team.

The first teams that Bo and Coach Young led get together every five years. At the reunions, you can see the impact of each teammate taking responsibility for where he is in his life by how his family is doing and how he is positively impacting his organization and community.

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.” – Oprah Winfrey

In our January blog series, we will explore the role of attitude in our lives, families, and organizations. As always, we welcome your feedback with inspiring stories that illustrate the impact of a positive attitude in your life. Please share this blog with anyone who may benefit from the insights.