An optimist is the human personification of spring.
– Susan J. Bissonette

Many people wait for the first signs of spring to shift into their sunnier seasonal disposition. This year I’m feeling the warmth of Colorado’s first April days with a sense of relief — that the world outside is finally catching up with my mood. Since the New Year, I have been abundantly optimistic. And that’s a little surprising.

It’s actually a smug time for pessimists: While mass layoffs have slowed, millions of Americans still face the challenge of unemployment. The earth recently dealt several nasty blows to thousands of people. In our industry, potential work that had been put on hold is — still on hold. So, you might ask, why so optimistic?

Many words are often confused with optimism: hope, confidence, faith, idealism. To be sure, they all serve a purpose, and they do share a quality of believing in a positive future. At Wisdom Works, the distinction we make with our clients is that optimism is linked with vision. When you have a clear vision of your future, that vision provides energy. And energy, in turn, fuels fresh new responses to your current situation. Having a vision — and leading from it — helps focus you on the actions that will get you more of what you want.

My own optimism in the face of these troubling times comes from the people I work with. Business leaders, entrepreneurs, people who guide their organizations into an uncertain future: without optimism — and its accompanying vision and energy — these people would not find the success they do. Take for instance a gathering of around 700 engineers: does that sound like a group that could inspire you?

Last month I spent a weekend at the Engineers Without Borders – USA conference. Since its inception in 2002, the organization has grown to 12,000 members engaged in 350 projects in over 45 developing countries. At the conference, engineers share success stories, best practices, and new possibilities for their work in water, renewable energy, sanitation, and all of the underlying infrastructure most of us take for granted. Every participant I met, from students to senior engineers, demonstrated a huge passion for their vision of “a world in which all communities have the capacity to meet their basic human needs.” That kind of energy is potent stuff — and infectious.

The University of Colorado builds a solar-powered pump in Peru through Engineers Without Borders

Now consider these engineers arriving in an isolated village in Ecuador where the people are getting sick because their water supply is insufficient and contaminated. It can be tough to see past the despair and tackle the problem with your best talents. If you find yourself facing a challenging situation and feel yourself losing heart, know that optimism can be cultivated. Here are a few quick ideas:

• Notice when you are stuck in a rut of negative thinking such as “this is impossible,” or “I don’t know what to do.” Check those pessimistic thoughts by asking “what else could be true?” or “what am I not seeing?”
• Consider the long term possibilities inherent in your current disaster. The 35 minute film Lemonade follows a group of people who find new inspiration, expression, and meaning in their lives after a layoff.
• Let positive events and emotions really sink in. Don’t hurry on to the next challenge; savor the moment. Stop and reflect on what you have accomplished and acknowledge your efforts.

As Winston Churchill said, “I am an optimist. It does not seem to be much use being anything else.” That’s the key: optimism is not just something you are, or something you believe: it’s something you use. Whether you’re rebuilding a village, an organization, or your own self image, engage a sense of fresh, new possibility and you’ll be amazed at how easy it seems.

Images courtesy Engineers Without Borders – USA

But my tank is full.

I’m fueled by the bigger purpose for this ride: to raise money for cancer research. At this point in my life, this isn’t just a “nice thing to do.” One of my dearest friends has just succumbed to cancer. One year ago she was here riding with me on this same canyon road. Her personal journeys — and the healing efforts of people like her — keep me inspired. I’m not alone: with me are the five other members of our newly-formed Team Wisdom along with over 500 cyclists, each with an inspiring personal story. And the ride itself, the Moab Skinny Tire Festival, has raised over $1.6 million for cancer research in its first decade. Out on this long stretch of desert highway, I’m drafting (to use a cycling term) behind that powerful sense of momentum.

My experience on this trip is a great reminder about the power of purpose to create wellbeing and to motivate people to do extraordinary things. I’ve believed for years now that everyone has a reason for being, a purpose to fulfill. We all have answers to the question “why do I exist?”—if we’re courageous enough to ask. However, many of us are so far removed from those answers that we lack a larger raison d’être to guide our daily decisions and actions.

The pursuit of purpose can be such a personal journey that today I offer just a few thoughts on its application to leadership in organizations. Management consultant Kevin Cashman says:

Purpose is spirit seeking expression … It converts average-performing organizations … into highly spirited, effective ones. It transforms employees … into partners. With purpose, managers become leaders.

For the organization, purpose is something that outlasts “making a profit.” You could say the same of life purpose, but somehow encountering the personal side of purpose is unmistakable: out here on this eastern Utah highway I have no doubts about my store of energy, my direction, my destination. My purpose is crystal clear. And that is potent fuel.

Your work is to discover your work, and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.
- Gautama Buddha

In researching my book Driven By Wellth, my interviews turned up a wide variety of people’s statements of purpose — for both their personal and professional lives. Some may seem simple, some ambitious; but as long as yours feels true, it can have a compelling influence when your life and work seem to need direction:

• “To build a positive future for the company.”
• “To continually provide clarity and direction for the department, and protect that focus from being eroded.”
• “To help people open new doors of possibilities that they never believed were available to them before.”
• “To integrate Eastern and Western ideas into a new paradigm for living, working and managing business.”
• “To bridge the cultural, wealth and digital divides with global technologies.”
• “To communicate authenticity and truth.”
• “To maximize the best in people and situations.”

What answers ring true for you? What deeper purpose would give your leadership actions greater meaning?

I already miss my friend, Gerda. I know the miles she pedaled, both literally and metaphorically, in life were just a beginning. May you all feel the encouraging breeze — the cyclist’s benefit of drafting — that propels us forward together.

Photo by etharooni

This little rumination stemmed from today’s session with one of my favorite clients: a vibrant senior executive running a major pharmaceutical organization. He shared what turned out to be a profound and refreshingly personal insight. Although a motivating leader, he discovered that his power to motivate springs from crises — those potholes of organizational life — and not from a dynamic vision of the future.

Whenever confronted with a big hairy ordeal, he said, his target becomes crystal clear, his adrenaline spikes, and he leads with the single-mindedness needed to conquer the challenge. In his view, he performs better under pressure than without it, and has thus surrounded himself with managers who are kindred spirits. Now leading his organization is a team of well-meaning, but compulsively crisis-driven, execs.

To be fair, this new leadership team has been a boon to the pharmaceutical company whose previous team’s efforts scored poorly by every measure: quality of services, employee satisfaction, relevance to the community, and revenue. The new team performed with the finesse of a veteran surgeon: checking the organization’s vital signs, stopping severe bleeding, and finding remedies for its ailing health. You could say the patient’s prognosis has taken a rosy turn.

But what’s next for this ace team of trauma experts? What do leaders of this sort, so proficient at managing through adversity, do when hardships abate? OK, I hear your protests: when do our organizational crises REALLY take a break?  Fair enough. Yet, in decades of working with executive teams, I’ve witnessed a widespread epidemic of crisis obsession.

Without some immediate “condition critical” situation to confront, many competent leadership teams begin (often unconsciously) to manufacture problems. In motorcycle riding it’s called overcorrecting: you sense errors in your steering — or panic at the sight of every pothole — and constantly adjust then readjust. It creates a scary wobble or, worse, the dreaded “death swerve.”

The alternative is to maintain a natural gaze on the farthest point in the road ahead. It’s an equally valid approach on two wheels, four wheels, or the many-wheeled vehicle that is organizational leadership. This “long view” makes for a far smoother ride than crisis-obsession, and it’s just what leaders need to avoid organizational road rash. Sean Maloney, Vice President of Intel, agrees. He says your single most important task is to “get the vision right and to pursue it with as much energy, passion, and enthusiasm as you can.”

When I do this on my bike, I sense a smooth, forward direction in the machine beneath me. I feel calmer within my own skin and better equipped to react to ruts, slippery pavement, or whatever the trip might hold. From blacktop to business, it’s always good advice to take your eyes off your front tire and focus on the road ahead. And whether you’re Easy Rider or Evel Knievel, don’t forget to enjoy the ride.

Photo by pacomexico