The Optimism in Gratefulness

People prefer to follow optimistic leaders.

Leaders who display confidence in the future and predict individual and team success energize others.

Their positive outlook and encouraging attitude towards challenges and opportunities motivate the team to view setbacks and failures as temporary.

Because they focus on finding solutions rather than dwelling on problems, others find them uplifting and refreshing to work with.

Simply stated, optimistic leaders boost morale and foster a climate of collaboration that benefits the team.

Optimism is good for their well-being as well. Research confirms that optimistic leaders experience higher sleep quality, lower stress, and faster recovery from negative events. So, developing leadership optimism has multiple advantages for leaders and their followers.

Whether optimism is learned or innate has been hotly debated for decades. The general consensus is that optimism is a combination of learned behaviors and genetic factors tied to personality.

While some leaders have a natural inclination towards optimism, practicing specific behaviors can greatly shape this important leadership quality.

Leaders who choose to engage in positive self-talk, celebrate short-term successes, view the positives of any situation before the negatives, focus on what went right instead of wrong after performance, set realistic and achievable personal and team goals, and use humor to cope with tension and stressful situations build the muscle of optimism.

Practicing gratitude to improve well-being has been in vogue for many reasons, but using it to increase optimism has been largely ignored. Yet, research strongly suggests that gratefulness and appreciation for others stimulate optimism.

This is especially true for leaders.

Leaders who are intentional in their practice of expressing appreciation and gratefulness for others develop a more optimistic outlook. Their appreciation for others and the work they perform strengthens relationships, which can, in turn, boost optimism.

Over time, grateful leaders become optimistic leaders. Given the increased effectiveness of optimistic leadership, gratefulness can play a critical role in making leaders better.

Together, gratefulness and optimism reinforce each other and create a supportive cycle that enhances leadership success.

No more excuses.

Now, every leader has a bona fide reason for practicing gratitude. Today is the perfect day to start expressing gratitude more openly and actively. Everyone you lead will thank you for that.