Attitude. It can be wielded for good or can create havoc.

It can lead to the best decision you ever made, or the worst.

It is the difference between moulding raw talent, and micro-managing a mediocre team.

Attitude is everything.

When computer programmers and mathematicians Mary Jackson, Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Christine Darden worked as part of the team to get John Glenn to become the first American to orbit the earth, they faced challenges we can only imagine. In the end they triumphed, but it wasn't their academic skills that ensured their success. It was their persistence to be treated as equal to their teammates. It was their choice of behaviour and the way they channelled their emotions to rise to meet the ingrained racism and patriarchy in their workplace that meant they would be remembered in history and in the book "Hidden Figures:The American Dream and The Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematician Who Helped Win the Space Race" by Margot Lee Shetterly. Put another way, it was their attitude.

Attitude is the composite of your thoughts, feelings and behaviours. It goes beyond mindset. For me mindset is a noun - a fixed point of view. Attitude is a verb - it's a way of thinking, of doing, of progressing. If a business is a reflection of it's people, then surely it is the attitude of the leader that helps transform the people?

Great leaders have a great attitude and great leaders can be found in any area of a business. They are progressive in their approach. They are not oblivious to, nor do they shy away from challenges. Nor are they dragged down by them. Instead they face those challenges, they own the responsibility around those challenges and they ask "how will we sort this out...what do you suggest?" They understand there is no right or wrong way, but that there is usually a better way to deal with challenges that arise. And that is what they look for. The challenge is resolved and they move on, knowing there will be another one along.

Running a business is tough. It is exhilarating, exhausting and downright terrifying most of the time. The sands are forever shifting and your attitude towards those unknowns will ultimately determine the outcome.

There is good and bad in every challenge. Attitude is everything. What's yours?