Flu season is coming to a close as we head towards Spring, but certain types of infections should be maintained and passed around without regard to season: Infectious positive attitudes at work.

You have a choice every day you go to work: What sort of mood will you adopt towards your day? Forget what has been going on in your life, good or bad. You can choose to check all that at the door and focus on your work environment. It's hard, but it has great benefit to you and everyone around you. Good attitudes are as infectious in the workplace as poor ones. In fact, you can be an “army of one” in getting better, more productive mindsets established in your company simply by making the effort to focus on that every work day.

Here are some thoughts and challenges for maintaining that upbeat “corporate mindset” infecting your workplace to make it a more energized, productive place:

--Every employee of a company has value and an ability to contribute, no matter the level. Do you value that potential, validate each contribution you generate or receive, and look to encourage more such contributions?
--Everyone around you comes with their own value system built in, and it isn’t yours. These values drive everything that they do or say. Identifying and accommodating these myriad value systems is crucial to your (and their) success. Do you actively make such accommodation part of your interpersonal skill set?
--Ask yourself: Would you invest all your energy and passion into any process, decision or program that you were not part of creating? Do you expect anyone else to act differently?
--Do your personal aspirations mesh/align with those you find advocated by your company? If yes, are you using that congruence to drive your commitment to excellence in both parts of your life? If not, how can you make them congruent? As a start: Have you even concretely identified your personal values and missions?
--Do you embrace what the human resource profession should call “true diversity?” Do you appreciate all the experiences and viewpoints, skills and talents that fill your workplace? This is the diversity that drives productivity and innovation within a company. Are you doing your part to maximize its value within your area of control and influence?

Fully engaging a workforce is not rocket science. It is hard work, however, that starts with you adopting a positive mindset about interpersonal “diversity”, and then spreading that mindset to the person next to you. This “do-good” mindset virus then spreads around the company, making it simultaneously more enjoyable and more productive.