This post originally appeared on Forbes.
Do leaders need to be optimists? In a recent conversation, Sumit Paul-Choudhury, physicist, journalist and author of The Bright Side: How Optimists Change the World, and How You Can Be One, makes the case for having a brighter outlook at work and discusses why it’s preferable to work for and hire people who actively express their optimism.
What It Takes To Be An Optimist
The optimist’s general stance, says Paul-Choudhury, is: “We can solve challenges. I can solve challenges. I will find a way to a good outcome, even if things change along the way. It’s not necessarily the goal I was headed for, but I’ll find a good one anyhow.”
To be an optimist, he says, “You only need to believe three things.” First, “the future is open. You know that there are possibilities in it.” Second, “some of those possibilities are positive—for you, for your society, for whatever you’re trying to work on.” And third: “You have to believe you have some ability to steer toward those positive possibilities. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t mean you have absolute control over your destiny. You just need to believe that you can—through your actions—make the positives more likely than the negatives.”
On the other hand, he warns, if you’re a pessimist, “you essentially just cut off all those possibilities. You say, ‘I don’t think there’s a way out of the situation. I don’t think there are positive solutions or outcomes to my problem.’ And then you don’t make any effort, or very little effort, and you basically accept the hand you’ve been dealt.”
Why You Want An Optimistic Boss
Optimists bring pragmatism and creative solutions to challenging circumstances and look toward the future with confidence, says Paul-Choudhury. “You’re going to want to work for the person who says, ‘We will get through this. We know we’re going to solve our problems.’”
But it’s best to avoid working for “the person who says, ‘Everything’s going to be fine,’ but doesn’t do anything,” he says. This type of leader actually suffers from positivity: they won’t necessarily deal with the reality in front of them, won’t pivot when necessary and may have rigid thinking.
These excessively positive leaders often stall progress altogether through lack of action: “I’m just going to pretend there isn’t a problem. I’m going to hope that someone down the chain will sort it out or that it will go away, or just ignore it and it won’t be discovered.”
Permanently upbeat leaders can be even more damaging than the true pessimists who say, “We’re doomed!” notes Paul-Choudhury. “You know they’re not going to end up performing in their position. They’re not going to get you out of whatever problems you may have.”
How To Hire For Optimism
Part of optimists’ value, he says, is that they’re “more resilient, so they can cope with setbacks.” When interviewing a candidate, Paul-Choudhury suggests considering whether the person is optimistic or merely performing positivity; is this “someone who’s going to go looking for solutions or is this someone who’s going to deny that there’s a problem.”
One salient behavioral question to ask during the interview is: “‘Tell me about a time when your objective turned out to be impossible and you pivoted to something else.’ That’s the hallmark of what optimists seem to do better—when it becomes apparent that what they were setting out for doesn’t work for whatever reason, they don’t cling onto it with an iron grip. They kind of go, ‘Well, all right, what’s another good outcome? What am I going to go after now?’”
Help Generate More Optimism
If you’re trying to be more optimistic yourself, Paul-Choudhury suggests that you debate your own assessment of the situation. For instance, you might ask yourself, “How do you know that’s the case, and not just what you think is happening?”
Question your own thoughts to “try and come up with alternative framings in which your situation is not implacable,” and at the same time, “recognize that it’s not necessarily your failings that put you in this position.” Consider alternative reasonable explanations for the current situation. Paul-Choudhury refers to this as “a way of double-checking your assumptions and trying to come up with a more optimistic framing.”
When you’re working with a negative colleague, he says, “you can step through it with that person, if they’re receptive enough,” by asking them, “Actually, what is the best possible outcome here? What is the best possible way of doing it?”
Use Premortems To Derisk Optimism
Another effective tool is the classic premortem approach: first, speculate that a future project or decision has failed, then hypothesize all the reasons why. “If you do that with someone who’s a pessimist,” says Paul-Choudhury, “it kicks out the props of the perpetual ‘This isn’t going to work.’”
The premortem approach can bring flawed thinking to light and permit people to generate creative solutions rather than catastrophizing or giving up. It also lets you declare that you’ve gone through a rigorous review, identified what could go wrong and found ways to mitigate those flaws. This makes it harder for the pessimist to continue justifying a negative position.
Balance Optimism And Oversight
It’s not surprising that entrepreneurs and owner-operators are sometimes accused of being excessively optimistic because they can’t continue moving forward without believing they’re right and their efforts will pay off. But a company’s board of directors can moderate this potential danger since they’re expected to be more cautious and to question management’s strategies and tactics.
Paul-Choudhury sees the dynamic between company management and the board as a healthy mismatch: “The people running the show have a certain level of optimism, and they probably need it to keep going under circumstances where they are essentially pushing the boulder up the hill and solving the problems and dealing with whatever comes along.”
Given that the board “is protecting an investment,” he says, “they are naturally more conservative. There should be that kind of check and balance. It behooves the people running the company to remember that they have a board because they want advice and wisdom and perspective, and it behooves the board to remember that they’ve invested in people who are going to kick down doors and find their way through the obstacles.”
Managing Optimism
Optimism can drive results because it’s a pragmatic and resilient mindset. Unlike either pessimism or false positivity, it permits decision-makers to acknowledge challenges and then adapt to sustain progress. There’s significant benefit to the organization when both leaders and employees are optimistic about what they need to achieve—as long as they are fully aware of their optimism and guard against the possibility of denial.
Onward and upward—
LK