Print Solutions December 2006
president’s message
By JAMES M. RILEY, CDC
Maintain Your Holiday Spirit
It’s my favorite time of year—the holiday season, when Thanksgiving and Christmas raise everyone’s spirits a few notches. It’s a time of year that finds almost everyone in good cheer for one reason or
another. Maybe it
’s because family and friends have opportunities to get together or because we
share our children
’s or grandchildren’s excitement about Christmas presents. Maybe it’s a special time for you and your significant other, as it is for me, and you
start thinking about the surprise you might receive or what you might want to
give that special person. Maybe you use this season to reflect on your good
fortune and all of the good things you
’ve been given, and you use it to think in an optimistic way of the challenges
you face in the coming year.
It’s a wonderful thing, whatever it is, that brings this positive feeling around
the holidays that we
’re so willing to share with others. Problems seem lighter, and people seem more
accommodating. I
’m always a little sad when the season winds down. I know it will be back to
business as usual when we put away our holiday spirit until the end of next
year.
But why do we have to pack it up like Christmas decorations until the next
holiday season? Why can
’t we keep this positive feeling all year long? The decorations, family and
friend get-togethers and slower pace helps, but isn
’t the holiday spirit primarily the way we look at things? Isn’t it primarily our attitude at this time of year? Our attitude toward ourselves
and others? I think it is.
Come to think of it, our attitude, positive or negative, seems to dictate the
course of any day and the odds of success in any area of life, personally or
professionally. It has certainly been that way my entire life. If I have a
challenge, I know that expecting good things and approaching the challenge with
a good attitude are usually precursors of a positive outcome. I always look for
the good in everyone and appeal to that good. I have been accused of being a
Pollyanna at times, but it seems to work for me. I
’ve found that when I don’t think I’ll have a positive outcome, I usually don’t. So having a good attitude about any issue helps bring about a positive
outcome.
I’ve noticed it helps others too. Being successful in sales is not an easy thing.
It may look easy from the outside, but the rejection can wear on even the best.
I note that our sales people have more success when they have a good attitude.
They should have a good attitude about themselves, the company they work for,
an honest concern for the customer and a healthy attitude toward the industry
we are in. It almost guarantees success. They have more sales success and more
success in solving problems in a positive way. They also get more excited about
new products or concepts to make things better for their customers.
Being successful in this industry is not as easy as it used to be. A good
attitude helps when a challenge arises with an opportunity or a customer or an
area of conflict within your company or in any relationship. The ability to
approach any issue with the right frame of mind and expect a positive outcome
seems, more often than not, to produce success.
A good attitude is certainly not the only thing we need to be successful, but it
is an important first step. So I
’m going to keep that holiday spirit going a little longer. Let’s all try to maintain that holiday spirit as a “positive attitude” through 2007. Good things will happen. Expect it!
James M. Riley, CDC, is CEO of Riley, Barnard & O’Connell Inc., St. Louis, and president of DMIA.
