The Incurable Optimist

I have a confession to make.

I am an incurable optimist.

I call it a confession because it’s not something I’ve been proud of. I know how my world view is highly positively skewed and how my default setting is an inherent trust in the goodness of people and a belief in their positive intentions. I’m probably perceived as someone who’s na?ve with high expectations and a tendency to undermine risks in a project.

Of late though, pessimism has become fashionable, making it difficult for closet optimists like me to come out with our truth. In our boardrooms, in our newsrooms and in our social media feeds, pessimism has become seductive, because for some reason pessimism sells.

“Optimism sounds like a sales pitch. Pessimism on the other hand sounds like someone trying to help you” - Morgan Housel in 'Psychology of Money'

Think about it. When someone warns you of a stock market crash and recommends you make a quick exit, that sounds like a super helpful tip. On the other hand, when someone tells you that the economy will grow 15 times in your lifetime (which was what actually happened in post WWII Japan) you’d probably laugh and write it off as wishful thinking.

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The Psychology of Optimism

To understand the seduction of pessimism, we need to look at the way our brains are wired.

Because the primary function of the human brain is survival, danger and fear-based messages get our brain’s undivided attention. The amygdala -the body’s internal threat detection system- is like a military radar that is constantly scanning the dark seas for an enemy submarine. This radar is what has kept us safe and ensured our survival since the history of mankind.

But that’s where the value of pessimism ends. Because the psychology research on the benefits of optimism have been clear and unequivocal.

Martin Seligman, the founder of the positive psychology, has done decades long research in the constructs of happiness, hope and optimism. Seligman finds that optimists enjoy better health, stronger immune systems and end up living 8-9 years longer! Optimists are high achievers who are more resilient and can recover from setbacks quicker. They experience positive emotions oftener and form deeper, long lasting and fulfilling relationships. Cognitively speaking, they are also more creative problem solvers who are willing to approach problems and challenges with a positive mindset and an openness to new ideas.

What optimism is… and is not

We know that optimism is a mindset - an outlook of hope, confidence and expectations for a positive future.

What optimism is not however is complacency, refusing to see the pitfalls of a strategy or blindly believing that everything will work out without taking action. Nor is it about blind trust in the world around and in people’s intentions. It is instead understanding that the issues are real and serious, that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and that one has to carefully plan to mitigate any and all risks involved.

This I learnt from a start-up Founder (let’s call her Jane) whom I was coaching last year, at a time when we were coming out of the pandemic and business started looking up again. Jane came across as a highly confident and assertive leader, and she was extremely bullish about her company and its prospects. Her confidence was not misplaced. The product was shaping up really well, the future for her industry was looking very promising and quite a few venture capitalist firms were interested to speak with her. Yet despite all the great things happening, session after session Jane chose to focus on planning for financial runways, budgeting for worst case scenarios and forecasting potential risks that could get in the way of their success.

Jane taught me that Optimism is not about seeing the glass as half empty or half-full, but instead learning to add a spoonful of realism to a glassful of positive expectation.

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The Optimistic Leader

We know the strong correlation between optimistic leadership and organizational goal achievement, financial performance, employee morale, productivity and innovation.

Traditionally we have looked to leaders to demonstrate strong decisiveness, confidence, extroversion and a ‘larger than life’ charisma – what is called the ‘alpha’ style of leadership. In the post covid world we’re experiencing the need for our leaders to demonstrate their ‘beta’ skills of empathy, responsiveness and human connection. We’ve needed them to be authentic, humble and vulnerable and allow us a glimpse into their ‘human-ness’.

The future leader however will additionally be required to inspire her people through her optimistic outlook and positive emotional contagion. Because what we see of the world through our newspapers and social media feed is an account of a dismal world, whose gloominess is slowly beginning to creep into our work, our lives and our homes. It is not the abyss of depression, despair or hopelessness, which is usually quicker to detect and hence easier to treat; but a more insidious yet equally dangerous ailment of chronic, negative low energy - lethargy, languishing, indifference, listlessness, apathy and torpor. Whatever name you chose to call it, it is taking a toll on our workforce in very real ways.

"Optimism is the most important human trait, because it allows us to evolve our ideas, to improve our situation, and to hope for a better tomorrow” - Seth Godin

More so now than ever before we need leaders who are fiercely and unapologetically optimistic.

We need them to give their people hope for a better tomorrow and to paint a view of the future that is inspiring and powerful enough to overcome obstacles. We need them to be great at rousing the energies of their teams and channeling them towards the vision of a compelling future. We need them to shake the lethargy out of the system and build momentum and a strong sense of moving forward.

One can even say that optimism is one of the most under-rated leadership traits! But it is a trait whose time has come.

As I write this, I realize that it is ok for me to be incurably optimistic, with its downsides and all.

Because really the alternative is to believe that there is no point or purpose to life, or that nothing we do will make a difference, and so we end up doing nothing.

And that way lies the path to the negation - and maybe even the destruction - of everything that makes us human. ?