{"id":7235,"date":"2021-05-21T06:15:07","date_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scottcochrane.com\/?p=7235"},"modified":"2021-05-21T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2021-05-21T11:15:08","slug":"is-optimism-always-the-best-way-to-lead-heres-how-to-tell-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/21\/is-optimism-always-the-best-way-to-lead-heres-how-to-tell-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Optimism Always The Best Way To Lead? Here\u2019s How to Tell"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As a leader are you always supposed to be an optimist?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well\u2026no. Not necessarily.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

To be sure, optimism is vital for effective leaders. But so is the discernment to know when it\u2019s time to shelve the optimism and to lead with realism\u2026idealism\u2026or even pessimism.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

The reality is, in some circumstances a leader must be a grim-faced pessimist, while in others it requires being a cheery-faced optimist.<\/p>\n

How do you know? Here\u2019s a basic guideline to help you navigate this.<\/p>\n

A leader must be a PESSIMIST when\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2026making financial forecasts in a challenging season.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the financial fortunes of the organization are at stake it\u2019s time for the leader to put on the demeanor of a pessimist.<\/p>\n

Perhaps a better word than pessimistic is \u201ccautious\u201d. Any leader who has led a turnaround will tell you that the first step is to stop the bleeding by taking a worst-case scenario approach to budgeting.<\/p>\n

A leader must be a REALIST when\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2026developing the team.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A leader must not only be committed to the development of the team, the leader must also be ruthlessly realistic when it comes to the potential of each team member.<\/p>\n

Nothing will crush the spirit of a rising leader quite like giving them too much responsibility too soon. Instead, effective leaders must be realistic when it comes to each one\u2019s potential, and then design their development plan accordingly.<\/p>\n

A leader must be an IDEALIST when\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2026casting vision.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ideals have gone out of fashion in our culture. But effective leaders must embrace the ideals of their organization\u2019s mission and vision and describe them with authentic passion.<\/p>\n

Why does the organization exist? What difference will it make in the world? These are the organization\u2019s ideals, and the leader must espouse them eloquently and proudly.<\/p>\n

A leader must be an OPTIMIST when\u2026<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u2026building a healthy culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When the going gets hard, the team wants to know essentially one thing: \u201cIs all of this work worth it?\u201d<\/p>\n

The leader\u2019s job is to remind the team that things are going to get better\u2026That the mission is worth pursuing\u2026and that success will come.<\/p>\n

Some will tell you that leadership is all about being an eternal optimist. Others will say it\u2019s all about being an idealist. But to be truly effective, you must learn when to apply each of these qualities.<\/p>\n

And that, you will discover, really can be a game-changer in your leadership.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As a leader are you always supposed to be an optimist? Well\u2026no. Not necessarily. To be sure, optimism is vital for effective leaders. But so is the discernment to know when it\u2019s time to shelve the optimism and to lead with realism\u2026idealism\u2026or even pessimism. The reality is, in some circumstances a leader must be a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":6817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[734,1018,738,478,7,585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7235","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-change-2","category-decisions","category-effectiveness-2","category-featured","category-leadership","category-wisdom-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7235"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7237,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7235\/revisions\/7237"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottcochrane.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}