THE LAW OF CONNECTIVITY: HOW ASSUMPTIONS, ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS IMPACT SUCCES
Posted on May 09, 2011 by John Meggiolaro, One of Thousands of Leadership Coaches on Noomii.
Understand the Law of Connectivity and you can begin to change your life for the better.
If you hold out any hope of being successful in your personal and professional life, you need to understand what I call the “Law of Connectivity”. That is the relationship and connection among your assumptions, attitudes and behaviors and how, together, they impact your ability to be successful.
Think of it as a chain where one link is intertwined with the next. When properly maintained, each link is the chain’s strongest feature. When improperly maintained as evidenced by rust and corrosion, each link can become its weakest feature. So it is with one’s assumptions, attitudes and behaviors. When each is properly established, aligned and in concert there is no limit to what a person can achieve. When improper maintenance exists among these links of connectivity, the likelihood of success becomes less certain.
The Components of Connectivity: Assumptions, Attitudes and Behaviors
We need to start with our assumptions. Assumptions are the conscious judgments we make about a situation, a person or an event. Assumptions can be good, bad or indifferent. Our assumptions can be based on experience, intuition, anecdote or belief. What’s important to note is that our assumptions drive our attitudes.
Attitudes are patterns or habits of thought that have been forged around our assumptions. Attitudes serve as our internal compass, setting our directional path moving forward. Similar to assumptions in terms of connectivity, attitudes drive our behaviors.
Our behaviors are the visible manifestation of our attitudes. It is what we make known, make public. Our behaviors are the window to understanding our attitudes and our assumptions.
The Law of Connectivity: Two Examples
Here are two examples of how the Law of Connectivity is often applied.
Example #1: A friend invites you to join him next Saturday afternoon at an art gallery exhibit featuring the work of some local modern artists. Though you enjoy art, your artistic taste and interest tends to run more along traditional lines (portraits, landscapes, etc.). However, not wanting to disappoint a friend, you agree to go.
As the date for the exhibit nears, your prevailing assumption is that this will be a wasted afternoon with nothing of particular interest for you. Next, your attitude begins to conjure thoughts of boredom, tedium. Come the day of the exhibit, your behavior indicates a clear lack of interest, overt indifference and strong desire to be someplace else.
Example #2: A business owner finally connects with a potential customer that she has been soliciting for over a year. During a telephone conversation about setting up a face-to-face meeting, the customer informs the business owner that he only has 30 minutes for the meeting.
The business owner hangs up the phone and immediately assumes that there is no real interest on the part of the potential customer to do business with her firm given the time limit imposed for the meeting. Her attitude quickly morphs towards one of perfunctory indifference. During the actual meeting with the potential customer, her behavior suggests politeness, but no serious interest.
Making The Law of Connectivity Work For You
As shown in the above examples, unjustified assumptions can lead to poor attitudes that clearly show themselves in the form of behaviors.
That said, here are some steps you can take to ensure that the Law of Connectivity can be applied to your advantage:
1. Challenge Your Assumptions – since assumptions are the basis for all that follows (attitudes, behavior and degree of success), starting with a negative assumption will only set you up for failure. Instead, challenge yourself to find and then adopt a new, more positive assumption from which you can build on in terms of your attitude and behavior. Reinforce your thinking by noting that new assumptions can result in new opportunities.
2. Align Your Attitude and Behavior – having challenged and established new assumptions, you must next align your attitude and its complementing behavior. Any disconnect between assumption and attitude will result in a disconnect in behavior as well.
3. Realize Success Is The Desired Outcome – keep in mind that the Law of Connectivity is all about achieving success. When that becomes your goal, the actions that need to be taken (new assumptions, better attitude and properly engaged behavior) make more sense and will be much easier to undertake.
