When I was a young person in the workplace, corporate leaders and trainers routinely extolled the virtues of being an optimist. They often framed one’s state of mind as either pessimistic or optimistic. More than once, I heard people say I’m neither a pessimist nor an optimist. I’m a realist. Perhaps. I think the thing that most of these individuals were rejecting was the concept that it’s a purely binary situation. For most of us, the situation as we see it at that moment has a tremendous effect on whether or not we feel optimism or pessimism. The bell curve applies in this context just as much as anywhere else. Most of us are somewhere in the middle, but there are certainly those on both sides of the extreme ends of the spectrum.
We all know somebody in the organization who is ridiculously Pollyanna and sees nothing but rainbows and potential in everything around them. Conversely, Winnie the Pooh’s Hundred Acre Woods isn’t the only place with a died-in-the-wool pessimist. There’s at least one Eeyore in every organization.
Even for those of us that fall squarely in the middle of the bell curve, the optimism versus pessimism construct can have a tremendous impact on what we can achieve or fail to achieve. It’s a subtle distinction sometimes, but it can significantly impact how we approach our way forward. I’ve realized the way that senior leaders perceive their situation will always be the biggest determinant of their ability to achieve their goals.
The first thing I do when I begin any development engagement is ask the organization’s leader to describe the current situation. One group of leaders will invariably describe their current situation in terms of the “circumstances” they are facing and often categorize those conditions as reasons or obstacles that keep them from achieving their goals. Other leaders will describe their current situation as a series of opportunities yet to be achieved. In both cases, the leaders recognize that obstacles must be overcome.
The key difference is that one leader views the current situation as an unfortunate set of circumstances that are in the way, while the other sees only the potential opportunities that are yet to be fully realized. The way these two different philosophical leadership styles manifest themselves in the workplace makes a tremendous difference in how they approach dealing with the barriers facing each of them. The potential barriers are always the same and fall into four categories we must address if we want the greatest potential for success. Every organization with a vision barrier due to poor communication, people barriers due to misaligned incentives, a management barrier due to poor priorities, and resource barriers due to the failure to finance the desired strategy effectively.
Leaders who focus on what’s standing in their way always seem more inwardly focused and passive in their vision forward. Leaders who spend their time focusing on the potential of the opportunities ahead are more outwardly focused and far more aggressive in their approach.
If you simply reframe your perspective to focus on the potential of your opportunities, you will soon find yourself figuring out innovative ways to remove the barriers to execution rather than accepting your current circumstances and resigning yourself to simply working around those barriers to execution. It’s a simple mental first step, but it’s an impactful first step you can take today.
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