Being Optimistic

David Maister presents a short list of sad truths for leaders. I find one of them especially addressed to me:

“Those you lead will never be more optimistic than you are.”

I like to consider myself as a realist, however I’m aware that sometimes I’m overly skeptical. I know that you can’t just play an optimistic person, you have to be one. In other case a team will soon learn that your attitude is just an official pose and the truth is somewhere else. That’s not how credible person should act.

Sometimes I enjoy my not-so-optimistic attitude, especially when discussing with other managers from my company – that keeps them running and trying to convince me. On the other hand as David points it affects team’s attitude. That’s definitely not the tradeoff I want to accept.

It’s time to become a bit more optimistic then.