“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.” - Colin Powell
A pessimist, given a choice of outcomes, believes the worst is more likely.
As managers, it is easy to fall into pessimism. First, every day you are faced with one problem or another from your team, peers and boss. Second, your job description includes being responsible for seeking out risks, issues and potential roadblocks. If you happen to be an engineering manager, you are blessed with the double whammy of an engineer’s analytical soul - the ability to slice and dice any person, process or product.
Optimists have an undeserved bad reputation. Sometimes characterized as mindless numbskulls wandering through life oblivious to reality, not paying attention to how “serious” the issue of the day has become. In technical organizations, it has become cool to bash the optimist for their apparent lack of analytical skills. Optimists are viewed as taking the “easy way out” by not facing what is clearly apparent to a pessimist - failure is imminent.
Don’t confuse data collection with the spirit of your approach.
When coaching new managers I try and reinforce the importance of optimism by telling them “people work into hope”. If the leader can’t look forward and see some possible positive outcome, then it is very difficult to get the team behind them to put in optimal effort.
You don’t need to look very far to see the Power of Optimism. Obama has changed US history by becoming the first black president with a platform of “Yes we can”.
Closer to home, two of my cousins were recently part of a news story. A lone gunman hijacked their flight to Cuba, which was on a layover in Jamaica. The crew, and in particular one of the flight attendants, negotiated the release of the passengers in exchange for the cash in their pockets. Eventually a SWAT team also rescued the crew. This is courage, true. But without the power of optimism, the belief that there could be a positive outcome, things might have played out very differently.
So, in good times and in bad - believe in the possibility of the positive and don’t be surprised if, all of a sudden, your team does too.