Generating optimism

Optimists tend to see the impact of GOOD events as widespread and permanent, BAD events as limited and temporary.

Pessimists are the opposite: they see impact of GOOD events as limited and temporary, BAD events as widespread and permanent.

As slightly ‘dramatic’ examples:

• A pessimist breaks his leg and has to be off work for two weeks. Before long he is thinking that he will lose his job, the loss of income will mean he loses his flat, and then his partner will leave him. An optimist will think “Hmmm. Two weeks of work. I can start work on my novel”.
• A pessimist sees a £50 note in the street and thinks “If it were a genuine £50 note someone would have picked it up by now, and if someone sees me picking it up I’ll probably be mugged on my way home.” The optimist picks it up and gives it to a charity thinking it might make a huge difference to someone’s life.

So, the glass-half-full personality will look on the bright side, while the glass-half-empty person does the opposite. And this seems to make a difference to how well we cope with the world. Glass-half-full people actually seem to do better.

In other words, stuff happens, but the evidence indicates that the way we talk about events influences how we feel about them, and vice versa.

As leaders it is important to emphasise and celebrate positive results, as well as acknowledging and dealing with poor results.

What is not helpful is to ruminate about negative events, or let cynicism be the main tone for interpreting events in or around your team at work. There is an almost tangible difference between a team culture born of cynicism, and a culture based on optimism.

Moods are contagious, and optimism (and pessimism) can spread. Most helpful in creating an optimistic culture is to challenge the nay-sayers who spread cynicism. Quite often this is more a matter of habit than maliciousness, but the way events are talked about influences the culture, and should be addressed.

The good news about pessimism

One of the most intriguing findings of the optimism research is that pessimists actually see the world more accurately than optimists. Which means you need your inner pessimist (or the team pessimist) to help you make a decision when there are serious consequences at stake. “Tempered optimism” is the jargon.

So in general, keep your rose-tinted spectacles handy – a positive, slightly inaccurate, view of the world will keep you and your team motivated and successful.

Just be sure to take them off when you’re finalising the budget.

Practice makes perfect.

Try the personal exercise 'Reviewing your explanatory style' or the team exercise 'Creating an empowered and optimistic culture' to help you in the shift to a more optimistic frame of mind.