Find me a Successful Cynic

Sometimes I am accused of being overly optimistic. People make it sound like this is a bad thing.

While I try not to be too idealistic, and instead keep a sense of realism about things, I am also determined to look at things with a positive attitude, and keep a focus on what CAN be done over what CANNOT. It is tough at times, especially in frustrating work situations, but I think it is important for helping creativity and innovation flourish in the workplace. An organizational culture based on cynicism is a recipe for disaster.

Many people wear their cynicism like a badge of honor, and I have never quite understood why. A cynical attitude inhibits your own vision and breeds negativity among those who work with you and for you. That just cannot be good in any field, and especially in knowledge or creative work, or in any customer-facing role. Your purpose as a leader (well, one purpose, anyway) is to inspire your employees to innovate, and if you are always focused on obstacles rather than opportunities, on problems rather than possibilities, then you simply are not going to bring the kind of vision to work that makes organizations successful.

Look at the people who have led major innovation efforts in the last couple decades and ask yourself how cynical they seem. Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg…do they seem like people with a jaded outlook on life? Or do they see what can be done and move toward it? Do they ignore possibilities because they might be too hard, or because they have had some past failure? Or do they instead see problems as an opportunity, something that might block their rivals but not them?

I have had some experiences during the last few years that reinforce my focus on positivity over cynicism. About 8 years ago I started running and decided I would aim for running a marathon. Some people who knew me well thought I was reaching too far, and were not shy about telling me so. After I in fact ran a marathon (actually, after running 4 of them) I set a goal of completing the Marathon Grand Slam, which consists of a marathon on all 7 continents and at the North Pole. I planned for that goal to take about 6 years, and got plenty of “that’s just too much to do” from people along the way, especially as I was changing careers and moving around the world. Had I accepted that attitude and adopted it as my own, I would be sitting here now wondering if I could have done it, but instead, I am running the North Pole Marathon in less than a month. That’s what happens when you say “what if?” rather than “no way.”

While you do not want to be a Pollyanna, spreading sunshine while ignoring problems, it will help your employees if you check your cynicism at the door. Rather than just complaining about problems, fix them and use what you learn to try to avoid problems in the future. Take control of your own success by looking for opportunities rather than just looking for limits.

And if you see cynicism creeping into your employees, try to correct that early on before it becomes part of their regular psyche. It does not help them, and it does not help you.

(By the way, if you are curious about my upcoming North Pole Marathon, you can follow that journey on my Athlete page over at Facebook.)