My staff and I were debating if Grab falls under our target audience, and she insisted that she had written Grab down previously and I had shot down the idea. Then I asked, but if you believed in it, why did you not argue your point?

Because that would not make for a positive work attitude (by challenging you, the boss).

That is wrong.

Instead, this is what it means to me to have a positive work attitude.

You are always stretching yourself.

You seek to improve to be a better version of yourself. And you achieve this by introspecting frequently and retroactively. In your attempt to become a better version of yourself every day, you experiment and take initiatives, even if the effort may lead to nothing.

You know are succeeding in stretching yourself when you spend the end of each day thinking of what went well and what could be done better -- then you act on the less positive items.

You help other people become better versions of themselves

An individual with a positive work attitude is helpful! You help your colleagues out not only when they ask for help. Better yet, you offer help on suspicion that a colleague might be struggling.

You know you are succeeding at this when you have a best friend at work, and your colleagues at work consider you as a friend even outside of work.

You care about the tiny details at work.

Before you start any piece of work, you seek to understand the problem at hand completely and thoroughly before diving into the task. If there is missing context, you will ask for it. When the day ends, you provide an update timely and predictably.

When your task is complete, you reread it before submission.

You know you are succeeding at this when your boss loses the habit to double-check your work. You know you are nailing it when you are the one catching the flaws in your boss's job specifications.

You embrace change

Contracts get canceled, the business model pivots, agreements are tweaked. The default is change. And when change happens, you embrace it. You do this because you understand the method is irrelevant, and the only thing that matters is the outcome -- that is in doing whatever it takes for the company to succeed because of you.

You are respected

You garner respect because people know you deliver consistently.

BUT!

It does not mean that you should agree blindly

No self-respecting manager seeks a yes-(wo)man. You can stand your ground and defend your work, and your work only. You leave emotions outside of discussions.

It does not mean that you should work unsustainably

Working long hours signify one thing. That you are not able to be productive at work or understand what it means to work at a sustainable pace, I want an employee with a positive work attitude to be around for life, so make sure you work sustainably.

It does not mean that you have to pretend to be someone else.

Do not pretend to be someone else. You do not have to be artificially nice. You be yourself unless the natural self is an asshole. Then do not be an asshole to your colleagues. Just be yourself. You can be an employee with a positive work attitude and yet not partake in social activities. That is fine.

Positive work attitude is a minimum requirement of all employees at Nubela. To set the expectations clear, I am writing this piece as a guide to myself, my current team, and all future employees of Nubela.