It’s been my month for
hearing about the benefits of empathy. And I agree empathy can
sometimes be a key factor in extraordinary performance.
However empathy takes
developing a deeper relationship than I often can or choose. Empathy
works best with a settled team, which I get less and less. Too often
results are required before I know people.
Which led me to think
about optimism.
Optimism comes from
inside. I don’t need to build it in a team, I bring it. Winners recognize and reinforce it.
Optimism creates mirroring
behavior. Optimism creates intense focus. Optimism creates energy,
whether people know you or not.
Optimism creates culture.
Culture has to be present to have empathy.
Thinking back on the
people who have influenced me the most, many didn’t show empathy,
heck many didn’t even know me, but the common element was an
attitude of experienced, believable optimism.
As you get ready to go in,
turn on the grin. People will wonder what you know that they don’t.
The
Sales Lab Model – So THAT’S the answer!
3 comments:
I think a close sibling to optimism in a new team is confidence from their leader. Teams are almost always anxious at first and the calm steady tone of the manager can set things off on the right foot.
I got two ideas from your comment, David. First is that confidence is the reaction to optimism, and that both optimism and confidence are always appropriate for all members of the team, not just specific to the leaders or followers.
Optimism is much like positive feedback - it creates forward motion and more of the desired behavior.
It also makes the atmosphere a lot clearer.
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