Ahead of The times
It is now generally accepted wisdom that the main role of education is to make us trainable. Training then makes us employable. But it is our attitude that will make us successful, or not.

Many organizations and individuals are slowly coming to understand this process. Of the three, the first two – education and training, are the easiest to tackle, quantify and assess. Attitude is the one that takes the longest to form and is indeed the hardest to change. It is for this reason that the position of at least one organization I know of is to Hire for Attitude, Train for Competence, Coach for Performance, Manage to Retain. They begin with attitude because it is much easier to transform all the others if the right attitudes are in place. It is easier to go back to school to upgrade qualifications or learn a skill. It is very, very difficult to change attitude.

Attitude & Opportunity
It is reasonable to focus on attitude because past experience has shown that attitude predicts behaviour. This process is quite circular because once people see certain behaviours, they infer a particular attitude. People will extrapolate that attitude to a cluster of related behaviours which are then used to define the person, whether positively or negatively. Attitude can make all the difference.

What Is Attitude?
An attitude is a complex mental state involving beliefs, feelings and values and the disposition to act in certain ways. Attitudes are learnt, relatively enduring feelings we have about objects, events or issues. An attitude can be seen as being either positive or negative in a specific cultural context. Individuals will act based on their attitudes. So for example, if you believe that Rastafarians are social misfits, your attitude will cause you to treat them in that manner regardless of the place you meet them, the station you hold and the substantive relationship between you.

Where Attitude Can Take You
Many people, managers and supervisors included, are willing to give individuals with the right attitude extra assistance, more opportunities for growth and development, and more forgiveness. We all have encountered persons who were a joy to work with or deal with. If you are perceived as a person with a positive attitude, options will become available to take your life in directions that you could not have predicted. 

If on the other hand you want to ensure that you go nowhere, and that you will get there very fast, the following attitudes and subsequent behaviours are suggested:

1. Be the epitome of arrogance. Give the impression that you know everything and that what you don’t know is not worth knowing.

2. Be consistently disrespectful to your co-workers and others. Remind them that “me run tings, tings no run me”.

3. Try not to help your co-workers no matter what the context, “yu naa look no fren”.
   
   
4. Criticize everyone as if it was a part of your job description.
   
   
5. Always be unprofessional in your dealings with customers.

6. Try your best not to smile at work and to behave as if you really do NOT enjoy being there.  Make sure that they understand that you are only there because “you caan do better right now”. As soon as you get your Visa (legal or otherwise) “yu gaan”.
   
   
7. Take everything personally and defend yourself tooth & nail.

8. No point in wearing fresh and clean clothes. It is said that dirt only kills you if it fall on you, and in large amounts.
   
   
9. Remember that punctuality is for punks.
   
   
10. It’s not necessary to complete your assigned task within the time frame specified. Why do today what you can put off for tomorrow?
    
    
11. The two most important subjects that you should spend your time at work discussing are politics and religion. If you have some time left over, you can throw in a comparative discourse on sexual fantasies.
    
    
12. Take a radio to work. Better yet take your Cassette/CD player and your collection of Fire Links cassettes and CDs. Remember that the volume knob would not go up to “10” if they did not want you to turn it up that loud.
    
    
13. Make anyone who tries to reprimand you know that “yu a bad man” And ask them “yu know weh mi come fram?”
    
    
14. Treat all meetings as optional. If you get there fine, if not, next time.
    
    
15. Start nasty rumours about your co-workers and boss.
    
    
16. Insist that people listen to stories about where you went, what you own, or who you went out with. Never listen to what they have to say.

Dr. Semaj is a frequent facilitator for Strategic Planning Retreats, Cultural alignment and Organizational Restructuring. He conducts Staff Selection and Development Programmes for different business sectors across the Caribbean.