I try to go for a long walk every day, and while I walk I listen to a lot of news oriented podcasts. I admit that most of it is politically oriented, and it is often infuriating or shocking. Given our polarized society, it is easy to be consumed by strong opinions. One piece really got my attention, and I translated it into how I feel about business leadership.
The pundit was comparing a dystopian view of the present and future with an upbeat positive view. It was a comparison of “everything is terrible and those guys are going to make it worse” versus “things aren’t perfect, but they are getting better and the future is bright.” The commentator’s opinion was that optimism “scales” and inspires believers, but pessimism does not. They pointed to several great U.S. presidents who won their contests and inspired the country with optimism, even in bleak times. The most notable was FDR in the depths of the great depression with his famous speech that “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Another example was Ronald Reagan who expressed a similar optimism with “America is a beacon of hope” and “a shining city upon a hill.” These great communicators knew that optimism inspires and scales. It brings people together, even in the face of adversity.
As I thought about how this relates to business, I kept coming back to the question of what leadership behaviors inspire scale, and what behaviors inhibit scale. We often talk about CEO optimism, or sales ‘happy ears.’ Over-optimism and wildly aggressive plans can quickly become demoralizing when the team feels the goals are out of reach. ‘Stretch’ goals can turn into ‘impossible’ goals, and when the team stops believing the optimism we do not get the benefit of a scaling effort. Alternatively, If we project too much caution and pessimism we head down the dystopian path that translates into not believing there will be more opportunities tomorrow than today. The result is we don’t invest in our future, and that is a guaranteed recipe not to scale.
Teams internalize the slightest whiff of a leader’s negativity and they often adopt a ‘sky is falling’ victim mentality - ‘no matter what we do we can’t succeed.’ Leaders need to make prudent decisions about how to operate their businesses, but if we project paranoia and negativity it will lead to a corkscrew of planning for less, investing less, delivering less, and planning for even less, etc. Without optimism, instead of pulling together we pull apart.
Leaders have to strike the Goldilocks balance between realistic optimism and healthy paranoia. Teams want to be confident that we honestly understand our current situation, but our role is to inspire and lead the team to come together - to scale. Teams are resilient and can handle honest tough messages if they are delivered with a vision for the path forward to success. Optimism has to be believable, and when the balance is right, teams rally. When we wrap our plans in a healthy dose of confidence and optimism we create the environment for scale. Optimism scales.