HOW TO RISE ABOVE PESSIMISM AND LEAD OPTIMISTICALLY

A challanging post by Dan Rockwell 

Pessimistic leaders focus on faults and weaknesses.

Success with people requires optimism.

You choose:

Think of optimism as a skill, not a disposition.

Choose optimism over pessimism. Optimists honor progress, affirm strength, and celebrate good. Pessimists notice shortcomings, complain about things they can’t change, and anticipate bad.

7 advantages of optimism:

1. Better health.
2. Longer life.
3. Richer relationships.
4. Greater achievement.
5. Less stress.
6. Emotional health.
7. Grit.

When seeing bad is good:

Optimism is usually the best approach, but pessimism isn’t always bad.

Pessimism is useful in high risk situations. You don’t want your brain surgeon saying, “Let’s try it and see what happens.”

You want airplane pilots assuming the worst, not the best.

The upside of pessimism:

1. Lower expectations. (Less disappointment.)
2. Preparing for the worst, as long as you don’t catastrophize everything.
3. Attention to detail.

The downside of pessimism:

Successful leaders have the gift of strengthfinding, not faultfinding.

Faultfinding leaders…

1. Destroy morale.
2. Demotivate teams.
3. Create caution.
4. Motivate blaming.

Your team is better without you if you’re a faultfinding pessimist.

A lunchtime challenge:

I challenge you to only notice good until lunch. No faultfinding, complaining, or finger-pointing allowed. None!

Rules:

1. If you’re a diehard pessimist, think of how much worse things could be and be thankful they aren’t that bad.
2. Don’t hide in your office until after lunch! (Cowardice)
3. Silence isn’t optimism. Sometimes silence is a good thing. If you’re a negative leader, your silence will help your team feel better. But for this challenge, you must practice optimistic speech.
4. Ask an optimist for suggestions if you can’t think of anything good to say.
5. Expect people to be shocked, but don’t let that deter you.

What concerns you about optimistic leadership?

How might leaders develop the skill of optimism?

Quotes:

“The learner always begins by finding fault, but the scholar sees the positive merit in everything.” Hegel

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Jesus

To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult. Plutarch

Don’t find fault, find a remedy, anybody can complain. Henry Ford

8 FOOTPRINT TRACKS TOWARD MORAL FAILURE

Thanks to Dave Kraft for posting this article - very helpful for leaders who see the importance of building safeguards into their lives and ministries.

Author Jim Collins (Good to Great) also wrote a book titled, “How The Mighty Fall.” It deals with why companies fail and fall. In Scripture, we also observe story after story (especially in the Old Testament) about mighty leaders falling. Things haven’t changed much in this regard. Well known and seemingly successful leaders both in the church and in the world of business are “Falling.” Chuck Lawless shares eight steps that can assuredly lead to a fall. Please read carefully and prayerfully with an open heart to the Holy Spirit.  Originally posted by Chuck Lawless

By God’s grace, watch your step!

I love hiking and backpacking. Recently, I read an article about recognizing “critters” in an area by looking at footprint tracks in the dirt. Some tracks aren’t alarming, but others say, “Be careful. There could be trouble in the area.” Based on my knowledge of far too many moral failures among church leaders, here are some “footprint tracks” that could signal upcoming trouble:

1.     An unhealthy marriage somewhere. It might be that only a few people know the troubles, but every moral failure I’ve seen occurred in the context of somebody’s struggling marriage.

2.     Undisciplined living. I’ve never met a fallen leader who says, “But, I was walking faithfully with God, reading the Word and praying intimately – and the affair just happened.” I’ve met several, though, who admit they weren’t meeting with God in their spiritual disciplines at the time of their fall.

3.     Ministry companionship. Some church-based affairs begin with two people doing ministry together in some setting – perhaps as simple as serving on a committee together. The time together becomes alluring, and it’s easy to excuse it because it’s ministry.

4.     Unwise sharing.  If you want to invite trouble, tell someone of the opposite gender the difficulties you’re having in your own marriage. Even pastors must be careful when they’re in counseling situations dealing with such matters.

5.     Email or social media flirting. It’s surely not an affair. It’s only jesting. Just words, and just for fun. Nobody really means anything . . . . except that I don’t want anybody else to see what we’re writing . . . .

6.     Conversational hints. People in the midst of a fall sometimes inadvertently give hints about what’s going on. They speak more often about the person. They respond differently when the person’s in the room. The problem is that others don’t recognize the “tracks” until after the failure’s made public.

7.     Emotional connections. More than once, I’ve heard, “But, it was just an emotional affair.” That may well have been the case, but I’ve also never seen a physical affair that didn’t start with an emotional connection – tracks that indicate coming trouble.

8.     Ongoing lies. It’s hard to have moral failure without telling lies at some point. In fact, it’s not uncommon that the church leader living a lie also lies about other stuff as well.

What about you? Are you leaving any tracks that could spell trouble?