Infectiously Optimistic Leadership

Optimistic Leadership
By Victor Perton, the Author of "Optimism: The How and Why?"

The 2020s call for optimistic leadership. The times call for leaders who are realistic and infectiously optimistic: people who can face facts, build trust, lift energy, and help others take the next wise step. Optimistic leadership is not a performance. It is not a pep talk. It is the practical discipline of helping people believe that good things can happen, difficulties can be faced, and their own actions matter.

The leader looks like the person in your mirror. Life calls us to lead from kindergarten to our deathbed. We lead ourselves. We lead in families, friendships, teams, businesses, institutions, communities and nations. At The Centre for Optimism, we work around self-leadership, self-empowered leadership and infectious optimism. One of our favourite mantras is simple: “The leader looks like the person in your mirror.” Leadership begins with the way we show up.

Optimism helps you function better as a leader. Optimism is a belief that good things will happen and that things will work out in the end. The optimist sees the world as it is, recognises that progress is possible, and acts to make things better. That matters because leadership is rarely exercised in easy conditions. Leaders meet uncertainty, criticism, exhaustion, conflict, disappointment and change. The question is not whether difficulty will come. It will. The question is how the leader meets it.

Optimists try harder. I interviewed Professor Martin Seligman, the global leader of positive psychology, on what makes him optimistic. On personal leadership, he made the point that pessimists tend to believe bad events will last a long time, undermine everything they do, and are their own fault. Optimists, facing the same hard knocks, tend to see defeat as temporary, specific and something they can respond to. As Seligman has put it, when optimists are confronted by a bad situation, they “perceive it as a challenge and try harder.” That is a powerful leadership insight. The optimistic leader does not collapse into the problem. The optimistic leader looks for the next constructive move.

Optimists take charge rather than run away. Social psychologists Lise Solberg Nes and Suzanne Segerstrom found that optimists were more likely to take charge and find ways to solve their problems than pessimists. They were more likely to seek support, draw on spiritual resources, accept what had to be accepted, and not run away from their problems. That fits what I have seen in leaders across business, government, community life and civil society. Optimistic leaders do not pretend everything is easy. They help people believe the next step is possible.

The fog of pessimism is real. In much of the developed world, the zeitgeist is pessimistic and cynical. In Australia, many people remain personally optimistic about themselves, their families, their work and their enterprise, while feeling much bleaker about institutions, the nation, the world and the future of work. That is the optimism gap. It does not call for slogans. It calls for leadership. It calls for people who can hold reality clearly and still help others see a future worth building.

Realistic optimism lifts the room. The best leaders are not merely cheerful. They are grounded. They face facts. They recognise risk, cost, fatigue and uncertainty. Then they help people see what can still be done. Realistic optimism gives people energy. Infectious optimism spreads that energy through a team. It is visible in tone, posture, language, questions, listening and follow-through. A leader’s presence is felt before a strategy is read.

Optimistic leadership is practical. Optimistic leaders ask better questions. They notice what is working. They study problems seriously. They honour effort and progress. They draw on the optimism already present in the team. The leader’s role is not only to infect the team with optimism. It is also to draw out the optimism of the team, so people can recognise their own confidence, agency, courage and capability.

Optimism becomes culture. Sally Foley-Lewis told me, “Bringing more optimism into workplaces aligns with improving workplace cultures that lead to less staff-turnover, higher productivity and profits. Optimism can start from reframing an attitude or viewpoint from mistrust or concern to most people want to do well and most people want to get along, be engaged and be a valuable contributor.” That is a beautiful and practical leadership frame. Most people want to do well. Most people want to contribute. Most people want to be part of something worthwhile. The optimistic leader helps people believe that their contributions matter.

Optimism matters in business. In sales, studies have shown that optimistic salespeople and agents, on average, sell more than their pessimistic counterparts. In medicine, research suggests optimistic doctors can make better diagnoses. In enterprise, optimism helps people see opportunity, take sensible risks, learn from setbacks and keep going. What the optimist lacks in job-specific skills, they can often acquire through enthusiasm, application and persistence.

When you recruit, recruit optimists. When interviewing a candidate, ask, “What makes you optimistic?” Then ask, “How do you infect others with your optimism?” These questions reveal more than mood. They reveal mindset, energy, agency, resilience and how a person meets difficulty. If you are preparing for an interview, prepare to answer them. In the 2020s, organisations need people who can think, adapt, encourage, learn and keep moving.

Optimistic leadership is a global human phenomenon. In my work with the Australian Leadership Project, it became clear that optimistic leaders have a strong advantage in Australian culture and beyond. My subsequent research and interviews have shown me that this is a global human phenomenon. People want leaders who help them see a future worth building. They want leaders who face difficulty and still create confidence. They want leaders who lift the room, rather than drain it.

Ukraine gave the world a living example of optimism under pressure. In the 2020s, one global example of generating national optimism has been Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. When the American Government reportedly offered to evacuate him and his family, he said, “The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.” Asked by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria about his optimism, President Zelenskyy said, “We have a very profound faith in ourselves. And a very profound faith in the West, a profound faith in people.” That is optimism under extreme pressure: faith in people, faith in purpose, and the refusal to abandon responsibility.

Entrepreneurs understand infectious optimism. I once led an hour of optimism for the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce. Sam Hoath, founder of TeamKids, captured the business power of optimism beautifully. He told us, “I think a fundamental reason my business has been quite successful is that I always see the opportunity in things. I always see the brightest side of things. And I think what happens is that optimism becomes infectious in a good way. It provides hope and it provides positivity. And I think the culture in any organization is the most important thing. And if you can share optimism, then that promotes healthy culture, positive culture. And I think that’s a key ingredient for success, no matter what you’re looking to do.”

Optimism moves people. Many economic surveys purport to measure optimism on a weekly or monthly basis. Some are shallow, yet they point to something real. Optimism is one of the lifebloods of a growing economy. When people trust the road ahead, they move. They invest, employ, buy, build, train, innovate and take calculated risks. When they feel precarious, they pause. The work of optimistic leadership is to restore enough confidence, clarity and agency for people to move again.

Pollyanna has her virtues too. We are talking about realistic and infectious optimism: the discipline of facing facts, seeing possibility and acting. And Pollyanna optimism has its virtues too. It supports ambition, delight, imagination and passion. The New York fashion designer Anna Sui once said, “When I was a kid, my favourite movie was Pollyanna because she was the ultimate optimist. I wanted that optimism, that dreaming of the possibilities.” Dreaming of the possibilities matters. Leaders help people see possibilities again.

A meeting can become a practice in optimism. In our corporate and institutional work, we ask senior leaders to open up conversations across the organisation by asking team members what makes them optimistic. I once spoke with a Singapore businessman who was frustrated that the effect of his Monday morning pep talks to his sales team seemed to have worn off by Monday lunchtime. I suggested that he change one of his Monday morning meetings. Instead of giving another pep talk, he could open by asking each member of the sales team to express their own case for optimism. It worked. He made it a monthly ritual at sales meetings.

The leader does not have to carry all the optimism alone. That is one of the great insights of infectiously optimistic leadership. The leader can invite optimism, gather it, strengthen it and send it around the room. Ask your team: “What makes you optimistic?” Do not narrow the question to work. Ask the whole human question. What gives people energy, hope, confidence, joy, faith, courage or a sense that good things are still possible?

The answers will help you lead better. One person may draw optimism from family. Another from faith. Another from service. Another from nature, music, progress, friendship or the quiet satisfaction of solving a hard problem well. When leaders know what makes their people optimistic, they understand what sustains them under pressure. They also discover what makes the team more open, resilient, creative and generous.

Optimistic leadership begins now. Ask yourself, “What makes me optimistic?” Then ask someone else. Ask it in your next meeting. Ask it at home. Ask it of a colleague. Ask it of a young person. Listen carefully. The answers will tell you what people value, what they notice, what gives them energy, and where they may be ready to act.

Infectiously optimistic leadership begins with the person in your mirror. Then it spreads.