Skill v Attitude – would you rate one over the other in the workplace?
Perhaps you are teacher or career’s adviser in a school/college and you have just one work placement position, what would be more important to your client (the organisation)? Or perhaps you are the client – an entrepreneur, or employee of a small/large organisation, what would mean more to you in a student – skill or attitude?
I once heard someone say “You can teach anyone the skill, but if they don’t have the right attitude, they can’t deliver”, I agree with that, but wonder what I would do if I had to choose between both skill and attitude, which would I consider a priority? If I had two very good candidates vying for a position within DCT, what would swing it for me if the difference was between skill and attitude? Or is this a no-brainer? Would it depend on the circumstances? The candidates and the position they were applying for? Or should it matter at all?
Let’s say it is a back-office position where he/she wouldn’t have any contact with clients…etc, I guess the skill would come more important, and before attitude – in terms of ‘must-haves’; but if it was a personal assistant position, attitude would be more relevant, right? Well you may wonder why I am concerned about something so trivial (to some!) when there are ‘other’ more important things going on in the world around us; but I think it is important if you are interested in the next generation and/or would be recruiting them in the near or not so distant future.
Recently I went to deliver the ‘Having a positive attitude’ programme to a Further Education (FE) College. I always enjoy these sessions because it is really interesting listening to young people – their views on life around them – family, school, ethics etc. I always learn something new which is very refreshing. As usual some students are not interested compared to others. Some were actually sending text messages during the talk. And no, I didn’t tell them to stop and pay attention – they had a choice – either to pay attention and learn or spend the time on what they considered more important. What would have been the point really? They knew it was wrong! To me it demonstrated their attitude – Full stop.
I had a chat with the teacher afterwards, and he had put together a good group of students to listen to me, so they were quite switched on, had goals and he said all of them are more likely to go to university; which was very encouraging – education is very important. But as I thought about how the session went, I said to myself if anyone from this group came to me for an intern position, attitude would triumph over skill.
And I don’t think my decision would change if I was faced with recruiting between 2 good candidates for a permanent, I would always choose attitude over skill, for the simple reason you can train anyone up to have the necessary skill levels required because they already have the right attitude to learn, rather than have someone who thinks they know it all, and probably drive me crazy everyday with an attitude that stinks!
So what would you base your decision on – skill or attitude? What factors would you take into consideration? Would answers differ if you worked for a corporate organisation or yourself or as a career’s advisor? Or does it matter at all? What do you think?
Comments
Viv, I have worked in the Sales environment for many years and I firmly believe that attitude beats aptitude anyday. We can train people to utilise technology packages and applications, we can familiarise them with the company policies and procedures. We can introduce them to the client base and the vision we have for our business, we can even try to change their psychological belief systems. Yeah I know quite a lot of hard work in that one.
Nothing beats a person who is internally happy, internally motivated to achieve, internally possesses a healthy attitude to colloborate to make a business and their own life a success especially when the going gets tough, when the shit hits the fan, when every turn they take appears to be the wrong one and in doing so they learn, they don’t see it as failure but having tried one way that didn’t work at that time.
Give me people with a good attitude anyday for that is where true personal success lies.
Hey Imeda! Thanks for your comments. Everything you said is so true. I guess a balance-sheet driven Exec will think differently. I guess the reason I raised this point is for Schools and Colleges to start thinking about addressing attitudes before they get to the workplace, because it does make a huge difference.
Viv, a person with an attitude will never get into unnecessary arguments because he knows what it is going to fetch him. In my experience, i have seen people who are skilled yet with no attitude to understand and correct what his fellow colleagues are saying, which ultimately will prove to be correct.
When one understands that every human being divine…he naturally will leave his bios nature and can find a solution for his internal sufferings.
Hello Viv
I have worked in large and small organisations, public and private. Much of the time devoted to learning and development not only in the UK but also in various parts of Europe. And for me attitude (or behaviour as it is sometimes referred to) beats the rest hands down.
Nowadays, I work predominantly as an Investors in People specialist and so try to persuade organisations to raise the bar on skill, knowledge and behaviour. To give you an example – I can give people the ingredients and menu to make a loaf of bread (knowledge) and I cna run a half day workshop so they can practice how to make the loaf till it is really good (skill) but I can’t necessarily persuade them to do it (behaviour). When i talk to organisations about recruitment, I always say that they should recruit “behaviour” as the others can be taught.
Sure, it will depend on the role and the circumstances, but behaviour is still top of the pile.
Dear Sravan, thanks for your comments and I couldn’t agree with you more! My aim is to raise awareness of how important it is so schools and colleges can pay more attention to equipping students for the workplace.
Dear Tim, thanks for your detailed comments. I completely agree. It is great to see organisations are placing more emphasis on it rather than just the profit-line. The thing is are schools and colleges equipping the students who are coming along with the necessary skills to match the employers expectations? I am hoping to raise awareness of the importance and see the gap narrowed….best wishes.
Attitude. Skills can be taught relatively easily; a positive, can-do, willing, attitude is more difficult to engender. I've been hired, and would hire, because of attitude. Attitude can make or break not just the job, but the individual! Thanks for asking.
Leave a Comment