Your Professional Attitude at Work To be a star in any retail position, you must first have a positive professional attitude. Your professional attitude affects the way you see your job, your co-workers, and your customers. It is important that you enjoy working with people and for the public. You show your professional attitude in various ways. Show you can work together with your teammates and be respectful and co-operative. Your fellow staff will notice that you are positive, sincere, and open-minded, and they will be the same way with you. If you have a desire to make customers happy, they will notice and respond in a positive way. If customers bore you or you feel you are too good to be serving them, they will feel you don’t care about them.
Professionalism: - your approach at work - engaging in your work with seriousness and efficiency - demonstrated through your attitude and appearance
Customers pick up on your attitude, whether it is positive or negative, often before you say anything. Being honest, friendly, and accommodating to the special needs of customers will be noticed and appreciated.
Attitude: - a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state - an opinion or way of thinking, e.g. being friendly or helpful
Your Professional Attitude “When you expect the best, your mind focuses on the best.”
When you get up in the morning, you have two choices about your attitude. You can believe that… - Today is going to be a wonderful day. or - Today is going to be a lousy day. The choice is yours. What will you choose? Your outlook has a definite effect on how you will feel for the rest of the day. Your choice of words can change your thoughts. These thoughts can change your life. Think of a positive phrase, for example:
Today is going to be a wonderful day.
See yourself in your mind going through the day with this attitude. Greet your co-workers and customers with a smile and a positive remark. Look them in the eye as you begin the day. As the day progresses, you may find your positive attitude beginning to waver. Perhaps someone has pushed the wrong button. Feelings of anger, stress, and self-doubt can begin to creep into your mind. This is when you need to take a quick break and repeat your positive phrase to yourself. Take a few deep breaths, put a smile on your face, and let the negative thoughts go.
A positive attitude will reduce stress in your work life. Research suggests that as much as 80% of all disease may be because of stress. People bring their home problems to work and their work problems home. The following symptoms are directly related to stress: - being late - staying home from work - poor job performance
Try to keep a positive attitude. If you start to smile, soon you will forget what you were frowning about.
Checklist Before Work:
DID YOU... - Get enough rest - Have enough to eat. - Practice good grooming. - Leave your personal problems at home.
You are who you THINK you are.
You become what you BELIEVE you can be.
Helpful Reminders - Customers are willing to wait patiently longer if you let them know you know they are waiting. - Your attitude sometimes speaks so loudly that customers cannot hear what you are saying. - Customers are the purpose of your work, not an interruption.
What Makes A Positive Personality? Appearance First impressions are very important in everyday life and they are especially so in the retail industry. In general, there is a belief that your “outer you” reflects your “inner you”. Therefore, wearing the right clothes is an important aspect of your job. If you look untidy and sloppy, people will think you will do untidy and sloppy work. This isn’t always true, but it is a common way of thinking. Unfair as it is, you are often judged on your appearance. That is why it is so important to look your best in any situation, especially in retail. Your appearance will influence how your co-workers and customers view you. You will be in contact with many people every day. You want the people you work with to respect and feel positively about you. You also want your customers to return to your place of business. Therefore, you must have a pleasing outer appearance. Remember to give yourself extra time each day before you go to work to make sure you look the best you can. You never know who you might meet at work or how important that impression might be!
Confidence There are two kinds of confidence.
1. The first and most common kind of confidence comes from other people’s views and opinions of you. This kind of confidence is based on external factors. Although other people’s good opinion of you gives you a great and rewarding feeling, it is not always dependable. For example, if all of your confidence in your work is based on external feedback, you may easily lose your confidence if you are suddenly given a warning or have an issue at work that is difficult to resolve. Confidence can disappear if you do not have the internal type of confidence first. External: - coming from an outside source - based on a surface or superficial level
2. The second kind of confidence is much more important and that is the confidence you have in yourself. This confidence grows when you really try to achieve something, or when you lose something and grow through your loss. It also grows when you learn to trust your judgments and perceptions. When you learn to like and accept yourself, internal confidence grows. Although it is the most difficult and challenging type of confidence to work on, it is the only kind that results in definite rewards and inner strength. Indirectly, it results in receiving external confidence, too! Internal: - coming from an inner source - based on a personal or soulful level
Creativity Creativity is the ability to think around and beyond the obvious to solve problems. Creative people think about problems as challenges and find ways to come up with new and exciting solutions. Creativity is a quality that everyone has, but it must be practiced. If you use a creative approach in your work and your life, you will open up many great opportunities and experiences!
Determination Determination is about sticking at things and not giving up. It is about seeing things through to the end and using your creativity to overcome problems. Being determined means that if you don’t succeed the first time, you will START OVER. By following things through, your selfconfidence will grow. Determination is a quality that will result in a feeling of personal power when you have achieved your desired plans and dreams.
Enthusiasm The main quality that retail employers look for is enthusiasm. It is the greatest quality you have to sell. Enthusiasm is: a zest for living an interest in many things curiosity a high energy level at work and in life great eagerness
Enthusiasm is a powerful quality because it affects the way you view your surroundings. With an enthusiastic approach, you are better able to make positive things happen.
Imagination Using your imagination and picturing yourself in positive situations is a wonderful characteristic to develop. Through using your imagination, you can create the person you most want to be. Feeding this image into your mind everyday influences who you will become. You will get closer to that image. In time, and with developing the above qualities, you will be able to live your life as you “dream” it. You can use your imagination to build your self-confidence. A positive personality is very powerful. It is a combination of creativity, determination, enthusiasm and imagination. Continuing to develop these parts of your personality will increase your internal and external confidence.
Making customers happy is the best way to stay happy yourself!
Communicating Your Best Image Preparing to be “on stage”, looking your best, and making a good impression are all part of being professional. Good grooming is so important that many jobs have a dress code.
Three reasons to take a new look at your image: - Staff and customer reaction, whether it is positive or negative, will depend on the image you send out. - There is a direct connection between how you look to yourself and your attitude toward others. - The better your self-image, the more positive your attitude will be.
A Note On Smoking - Cigar, pipe, and cigarette smoke has a smell that is unpleasant to most people. - This smell clings to clothing, skin, and hair; it clings to you! - Places of business that allow smoking usually have a distinct smoky smell that clings to upholstery, curtains, carpets, even merchandise (especially food!) - Most smokers don’t notice this smell because they are so used to smelling it. - Even if you don’t smoke at work, but smoke at home, your clothes will still smell like smoke, because smoke clings to everything in your house.
Therefore... If your workplace allows smoking, there is not much you can do about the smell. It will cling to you. If your workplace does not allow smoking, and you choose to smoke on breaks, the smell will cling to you. It is a good idea to use breath mints and a body spray. Look for something designed for smokers. Be careful with perfumes or anything with a really strong scent. Often, this just adds to the problem and you end up smelling like smoke and a lot of perfume. This is not very pleasant to the people you work with or the people you will be serving. Be prepared for customers to react to the smell. If you just came back from a break where you smoked even one cigarette, you will smell like stale smoke.
Perfume and Aftershave Yes, it smells nice, but... Smelling your best is as important as looking your best. However, problems can come up when we use too much perfume. Have you ever noticed that over time you become less able to smell your own perfume? We become so used to the smell that we don’t notice it on ourselves. This is when it becomes a problem. We love the smell so we put more on so we can smell it. We end up smelling like we took a bath in our favourite scent! This is not very pleasant for others. There are also allergies to consider. More people are becoming allergic or sensitive to perfumes and body sprays. If you work with the public, then you need to respect this. You can wear your perfume on your own time. While you are at work, part of a professional attitude is showing respect and being considerate of others.
The following items are usually scented: - soap - powder - shampoo - deodorant - conditioner - perfume - hair gel - body spray - mousse - shaving cream - hair spray - aftershave
When these scents get mixed together, a whole new scent is created. If mixed in a laboratory, they probably wouldn’t smell very nice, and you probably wouldn’t choose to wear it! Keep this in mind when you are getting ready for work.
A Note On Body Odour... It is a smelly subject, and it makes people uncomfortable to talk about it, but the last thing that you want to do is offend people at your workplace by smelling like body odour! Here’s the deal...
1. You need to shower everyday. If you cannot shower or have a bath, you need to wash. 2. You need to wash your hair at least every other day. Hair picks up odours. Greasy-looking hair is unpleasant to customers and is not professional. 3. You need to use deodorant. 4. You need to brush your teeth after eating. Bring a toothbrush with you. 5. If you eat garlic, brush your teeth, and chew a breath freshening gum. Try to avoid garlic if you know you will be working with people. 6. If you are doing manual labour, it is difficult to stay fresh smelling. Shower each day, wear clean clothes, use deodorant, and stand downwind from people (just kidding!). 7. Wash your clothes regularly. It is okay to wear clothes more than once if they are still clean looking and clean smelling. Your clothes absorb sweat. If your clothes smell sweaty, choose something else to wear to work.
Being Positive! Sometimes, people get bored at work. This can result in a negative attitude. Staying positive at work means staying motivated and asking yourself, “What can I do next?” When there is a long time between customers, it can be difficult to stay eager and enthusiastic. Sometimes, it may even seem that staff are bothered by the presence of customers! Staying alert and keeping a positive attitude toward your customers can be a big challenge. This can be the most difficult part of the job. The following are some things people should not do while at work: Make personal telephone calls Read a magazine or book Play on the Internet Talk with friends who come in to the store Sit or lean on countertops Daydream Write letters, make lists, or doodle Eat a snack Do hair or make-up Turn music up loud Gossip or joke with co-workers
The following is a list of things you can do to keep busy when there are no customers: - Return work-related phone calls or email messages to customers or other stores - Read company notices and updates - Clean! Dust shelves, vacuum or sweep floors, wash windows - Restock shelves - Tidy up back room
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