Why Optimism Matters
We live in tough times. Daily, we’re faced with the specter of terrorism, war, political polarization, economic fragility, and marketplace upheaval. It’s easy to become cynical and pessimistic. That’s precisely why nowadays more than ever, we need business and government leaders who shine with optimism.
There is clear empirical evidence that people resonate to positive messages. This impulse appears to reside somewhere deep in our human wiring. Unsurprisingly, people will choose to follow a leader with a can-do, optimistic message rather than one with visions of doom and gloom.
Optimistic leaders are “unreasonable”, and they have “unreasonable” expectations of what they can achieve. They fully acknowledge the barriers and challenges before them, but they also feel a confidence that they can hurdle over them. They overestimate their skills and their capacity to influence events, even when times are tough. Winston Churchill once observed, “Success is measured by your ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures.”
Let me tell you how important optimism is in the private sector. Personally, I believe that people aren’t just “born” leaders, they can learn to be leaders. But my research suggests that some people come to the table with certain attributes that make it easier for them to learn. One of those attributes is optimism. If you’re not an optimistic person yourself, it is very difficult to create a collective tone of hope and confidence that is so necessary to achieving sustained competitive success.
For employees to strive for extraordinary goals, they must feel a sense of hope and confidence. The leader is essential in setting that tone. As motivational speaker Keith Harrell notes, “a dead battery can’t charge another battery.” When Katharine Graham ran the Washington Post, she was well-known not only for her can-do optimism, but also for urging the Post staff to get on with it and “don’t tell me never.”
As I noted in my last blog, hope and optimism are vital parts of a healthy organizational tone because there are so many forces of resistance to any actions that violate habit and conventional wisdom. I want to repeat Ex-GE chief Jack Welch's sentiment. He says this issue is so critical that one of the most important things a leader must do is to constantly resist “the gravitational pull of negativity.”
Today more than ever, we need optimistic leaders who can inspire people to do what pessimistic leaders warn is impossible. Which kind of leader are you?
There is clear empirical evidence that people resonate to positive messages. This impulse appears to reside somewhere deep in our human wiring. Unsurprisingly, people will choose to follow a leader with a can-do, optimistic message rather than one with visions of doom and gloom.
Optimistic leaders are “unreasonable”, and they have “unreasonable” expectations of what they can achieve. They fully acknowledge the barriers and challenges before them, but they also feel a confidence that they can hurdle over them. They overestimate their skills and their capacity to influence events, even when times are tough. Winston Churchill once observed, “Success is measured by your ability to maintain enthusiasm between failures.”
Let me tell you how important optimism is in the private sector. Personally, I believe that people aren’t just “born” leaders, they can learn to be leaders. But my research suggests that some people come to the table with certain attributes that make it easier for them to learn. One of those attributes is optimism. If you’re not an optimistic person yourself, it is very difficult to create a collective tone of hope and confidence that is so necessary to achieving sustained competitive success.
For employees to strive for extraordinary goals, they must feel a sense of hope and confidence. The leader is essential in setting that tone. As motivational speaker Keith Harrell notes, “a dead battery can’t charge another battery.” When Katharine Graham ran the Washington Post, she was well-known not only for her can-do optimism, but also for urging the Post staff to get on with it and “don’t tell me never.”
As I noted in my last blog, hope and optimism are vital parts of a healthy organizational tone because there are so many forces of resistance to any actions that violate habit and conventional wisdom. I want to repeat Ex-GE chief Jack Welch's sentiment. He says this issue is so critical that one of the most important things a leader must do is to constantly resist “the gravitational pull of negativity.”
Today more than ever, we need optimistic leaders who can inspire people to do what pessimistic leaders warn is impossible. Which kind of leader are you?
posted by Oren Harari at 12:28 PM
1 Comments:
You're right about Katharine Graham's optimism and motivational approach. As a fan of your Colin Powell book, I thought you'd like to know that I just published "Katharine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon" which examines how her leadership style developed.
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