I met Steven Pesavento after a Denver Start-up Week event in Fall 2014.  I have been very impressed with his spirit and asked him to contribute to the Jane Knows Strong Skills series.  Steven works with the team behind GrowthHackers an online community of growth professionals. He started his career in management consulting working with big brands, but quickly realized he was missing the passionate world of entrepreneurship. He’s been working with startups ever since.  Check out his take on positive attitude!

-Jane

Since entering the workforce in 2011, I've found that the benefits of a positive attitude have followed me from company to company. Frankly, I think the same is true in everyday life. 

Every boss, mentor or teammate appreciates when you have a bright outlook on a difficult problem.

The only people who don't are the complainers, and believe me, they're not the ones you want to focus on pleasing. Management doesn't want to listen to negative motivations or excuses. Rather, what they want is someone with a "Can Do" attitude (hint: it's a positive one) who just gets the job done.

Put yourself in your bosses' shoes for a moment, and you'll understand why a positive attitude literally pays in their eyes. First they've hired a team because the company has a lot of important tasks to accomplish, and some of those tasks you have control over. Their entire world revolves around reports, meetings with upper management, and managing their teams to accomplish these "important tasks" (they're different in every role). So when they hear "I'll take care of it" rather than "this sucks, or I can't do that," believe me, they notice. 

Next, your entire job (outside all of the reasons on paper that they hired you) is to make their lives better and having a positive attitude helps lighten a situation when the job gets tense. This is huge, but simply put, when you have a positive attitude, it rubs off on the rest of the team. Soon, rather than stressing about all the work you have to accomplish, you'll start seeing it as the exciting challenge that it is (positive twist, see what I did there?). 

Finally, having a positive outlook is actually easier than having a negative one. I can hear you asking yourself, "what is this guy talking about?" Don't worry, stay with me here. In the workforce, you either get the job done or you get a new job. Which means, in the end you're going to have to do the work anyway, and it's actually more work to fret than just doing it. 

In closing, just have a positive attitude. You'll start seeing the benefit to your personal and work life once you make the switch. This doesn't mean you can never be negative. By all means, I have my moments. But it does mean you just have to try, every day. 

The big bosses prefer it. You'll make their lives a little easier. And truthfully, it is easier. 

@StevenPesavento