Optimism - Insights From a Motivational Speaker
Optimism and Leadership
Stories matter. Role models matter. What we hear and what we see - daily - shapes our thinking.
If my parents are poor then I'll be poor too. I'm shy and I'll always be shy.
Unless you find a new role model to follow who can put new ideas in your head then you will continue to be who you are. It will not work out any other way.
Two role models, telling pessimistic stories, that optimistic leaders need to be aware of are the cynic in the room and the cynic outside.
The Cynic In The Room
Every meeting has them. They sit at the back, arms folded, saying little. They’ve been in the saddle for a while and if this were a Western movie, they’d be chewing a grass stalk while grimacing.
They let the room exhaust of ideas and then they step in with the reason it won’t work. They’re often the loudest so they seem the wisest and right about now collective illusion kicks in.
A collective illusion is a situation where most people in a group go along with an idea that they don't agree with, simply because they incorrectly believe that most people in the group agree with it.
But the problem is cynics aren’t the wisest. Research clearly says so. They’re just mean.
So an optimistic leader has to have a better story to counter the cynic or you might end up with a room of good people acting mean because they think that’s the way that stuff gets done.
The Cynic Outside
It’s a fast-changing world and who is valuable in a fast changing world? People who can change. And that’s what businesses want. Right. Resilient people who can change. We want resilient children. Resilient students. You, we want to be resilient. Why? Because life is easier that way.
But it’s harder than ever to be resilient. Optimistic leaders need to be aware that the cynic in the room is little league compared to a non stop commercial message that tells us: there are external solutions to our internal problems.
Consumerism has trained the world that the best way to solve a problem is by buying something,
Overweight, there’s a pill for that. If she doesn’t love you, buy a bigger ring. Injured. Someone’s got to pay. My child says the teacher doesn’t like them; get the teacher fired.
The will of people to take control of their own destiny is being sapped by relentless messages of a cynical discouragement industry.
This isn’t a conspiracy. It isn’t nefarious. It’s just business. It’s mostly decent people, whose job it is to make money, making incremental decisions that have led us here.
The point is it is real. We have slipped into the habit of outsourcing personal responsibility, and-it’s-hurting-us. We do it at home, we do it at work.
Optimistic leaders need to help their people reclaim accountability and get back in touch with the feelings of power that accompany being a high-agency human.
Optimistic leaders need to encourage
En - to put onto, to pass on, to enable.
Courage - the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty.
But let’s be honest. Role modelling courage through your actions is ideal but it’s tricky in the real world where compromises must be made.
So start with stories.
Here we are in the global village but where are the wise storytellers? Once priests told congregations, fathers told sons, mothers bonded with daughters, and uncles told all the kids in the village.
Stories are just words and thoughts. It’s a choice of which words and thoughts you use. Start small. You’ll work it out as you go.
People want hope over cynicism. They want stories they can relate to. They want to know that they can have a chance at making it right for themselves and have that bright future we all yearn for.
