Ten reasons why you need optimism and faith as a leader

So far in this series on the 12 qualities of successful leaders, we’ve seen the following:

The eleventh quality of successful leaders is optimism or faith.

“We are optimistic about the future” or “I believe things will get better” are sentences that reoccur when you read about and listen to successful leaders from any field of endeavour. Optimism, just like its opposite – pessimism – is a mindset that can be learned. Successful leaders are chronic optimists; they develop and nurture a faith mindset so much that it becomes a part of their life.

The Holy Bible defines faith as the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen – Hebrews 11:1. Your ability to substantiate things that you’re hoping for, to provide evidence for something unseen is faith.

optimism and faith in leadership. by cabiojinia

Now, this definition doesn’t apply to the Christian faith in God alone; it can apply to every facet of life. And when it comes to leadership, you can’t succeed as a leader if you aren’t optimistic because optimism is an ingredient necessary for success.

To be optimistic doesn’t mean that you don’t recognise reality or what we may call the facts. But it’s that strong faith you have that the clouds will clear and the sun will shine as you set out. Everyone sees the reality but you choose what to focus on – how to change the reality with a bright future.

10 reasons why you need faith and optimism as a leader:

Successful leaders are never chronic pessimists. If you don’t have faith, you can’t move mountains. And seeing that you’ll face several mountains as a leader, it’s obvious optimism has to be learnt and re-learnt.

1. Faith earns and builds trust in you and your vision.

When everyone understands your optimistic mindset, it helps build trust in you. They’ll be settled that no matter the weather, you won’t give up or give in. Such a mindset makes you reliable, a rallying point during a crisis. People will find it difficult to trust someone that is a pessimist, who sees the worst in every situation and caves in under pressure. Faith helps you earn the trust of others in you and your vision as a leader.

So, successful leaders earn trust by showing faith over long periods because everyone knows that they’re clear on where they’re headed.

2. You are the helmsman, so the entire cruise depends on you.

You decide in what direction the institution or organisation goes. So, if a leader is discouraged and gloomy, it’s impossible to motivate the rest of the team. When Saul was faced with Goliath, his collapse made the entire army of Israel lose faith. There were times when the pains and agony of death were so much on Jesus that He took three of His disciples to pray privately. On reaching the place he always prayed, he left them and went farther to cry and agonise. He could have cried before them, but what’s the need for a complete breakdown before his disciples?

Successful leaders are always optimistic about the future of their organisation and the potential of their constituents; they learn it. Otherwise, they’ll destroy everyone with them.

3. Faith is necessary for accomplishments

Without faith, you can’t win or achieve anything of consequence. Victories and defeats begin in the mind. The 12 spies that were sent to Jericho in the Book of Numbers 13 were the heads of the 12 tribes of Israel. They were the leaders that were asked to go explore the land and bring reports. Instead of seeing the treasures of milk and honey in the land, they saw giants; ten out of twelve suffered defeat in their minds. The ten leaders that came back with negative reports didn’t enter that land, God took them out.

4. Optimism pulls you to your vision

Faith is the magnet that keeps pulling you to the vision that you had or was given in the beginning. A vision is always strong at the beginning; you’re excited about the direction you want to steer the organisation to and the prospects of success. With time, it’s possible for the magnetic field to become weak and the pull towards the realisation of the vision begins to wane. So, being optimistic helps you retain the fire that burned in your bowels originally or at least continue fanning the flames.

5. Faith keeps your feelings, including fear in check.

For several reasons (failures, disappointments, wrong predictions, unfavourable government policies, a pandemic etc.), discouragement and other feelings can set in. These feelings are normal to every human, faith that things will turn out good keeps you stable and focused on the goal.

6. Optimism is contagious

Faith in your vision and optimism towards the future is contagious. An optimistic leader will not only inspire action in his co-workers but will also transfer the optimistic spirit to them. A leader’s outlook on life can be a source of motivation or discouragement to others; others derive strength from him or her. And whatever attitude he has soon spread down the line to the managers and other co-workers. Imagine if your entire team was as optimistic as you are.

7. Optimism encourages productivity.

Faith sees the strengths in others and encourages them. It also sees the weaknesses but doesn’t dwell on them always. Where there are strengths, an optimistic leader will encourage you to work on them more. And improve on the weaknesses. A Successful leader has faith in his co-workers; so, he constantly feeds their strengths instead of continuously dwelling on their weaknesses. When a leader is an optimist or has faith in his co-workers, he brings out the best in them.

Also, an optimistic leader is after what best can be gotten from a given situation. Things may be bad, but he wants to get the best out of it instead of seeing only gloom and doom.

8. Optimism breeds commitment.

You can’t be truly committed to something you don’t believe in, that’d be difficult to maintain over a long period. When you’re optimistic about the future of your organisation, you’ll be committed daily towards the realisation of the objectives you have set.

9. Faith encourages innovation and risk-taking

Faith makes you take risks as a leader. Optimism is an essential element for progress, for any accomplishment. It’s faith that will make you welcome innovative ideas in your institution or company. Innovation is disruptive, it can alter established patterns that may have been producing some results too. So, not everyone is open to taking such risks. Faith makes you make investments that the probability of success isn’t 100 per cent. So, risk-taking is an offspring of faith. An optimistic leader would invest also in human capital, training and getting everyone ready for what is to come.

10. Faith inspires others

People need someone who can give hope, and tell them that it shall be well. We are surrounded by reality – I see it, you see it too. We need someone who can look at reality and inspire us for the future. No one is interested in knowing how bad things are alone. We have seen the statistics and we know them. Tell us that things will be better if we do this and that. One of the reasons superhero movies exist is because humans always desire a saviour – we want someone who can change things. So, we’re always in search of Captain America, Batman, Iron Man, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, etc.

As Martin Luther Jnr said, “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” So, have faith, for all things are possible to the person that believes. Mark 9:23.

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