The Secret to Inspiring Others? Optimism
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Research has conclusively shown that engaged employees are more productive and satisfied. John Maxwell, America’s noted authority on leadership, said, “An organization cannot rise above its level of leadership.” This means that leaders’ attitudes set the tone for those who follow them. Therefore, if you find that many of your employees are not motivated, it’s time to do some self-reflection. Employees will not thrive under negative leadership. Now, we don’t know anyone who would refer to themselves as negative, but people who would be considered negative often call themselves realists. These self-proclaimed realists seldom have many motivated people following them.
On the flip side, employees don’t want a Pollyanna who ignores reality and believes that despite all the evidence, everything will turn out just fine.
Whether you describe yourself as a realist or an optimist, leaders today need to be positive, self-confident, have high-expectations, take initiative, be resilient and accountable. Most employees want to work for a leader who truly believes that tomorrow is going to be even better than it was today, and is taking the necessary actions to turn those beliefs into a reality.
The following are nine keys that will help you become a more positive leader; a leader who makes even the realists excited about tomorrow.
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Filed under: Leadership, Peter's Blog, Quest Newsletter, Vision on January 31st, 2012 No Comments »
Sometimes, despite your best effort, things just don’t go as planned. You experience challenges, setbacks and outright failures. You look back at your life and begin to count the few failures, losing sight of your many successes. What you forget is that so many success stories have resulted from failure to accept failure as an end result. If everyone gave up at their first failure, no one would learn how to ride a bike, read or tie their shoes. Accomplished people realize that failure is just a part of the path to success. Here are few examples of famous individuals who had a taste of failure before succeeding:
For nearly thirty years, executives, managers and employees alike have marveled at Steve Jobs’ ability to innovate. After all, Jobs did not only foresee the future of technology (and music, and animation), he created it. It’s clear that Jobs was one of the most visionary leaders of our times. But, what most people don’t realize is that if it were not for his dedication to communication, the way we interact with technology today would be vastly different. His excitement when introducing new products mesmerized customers. His commitment to specifically communicating what he envisioned motivated employees at all levels and made revolutionary products and services possible.
There is no such thing as organizational change. Organizations don’t change. The only thing that does change in an organization are the people within it: when enough people have bought into the change, we then see the changes happening. 
Today’s successful organizations are led by talented leaders who have high expectations for their organization, their employees and most importantly, for themselves. In many cases, long before they received their title, these leaders were demonstrating their leadership capacity by leading themselves. What do we mean when we talk about leading yourself? When you are a successful self-leader, you typically achieve the following:
We have spent the last 20 years identifying the traits that make leaders successful. This has led us to strongly believe that there is a significant difference between leaders and managers. Managers always have a title and a formal position on the organizational chart. Leaders may or may not have a title but they always have a relationship with people who make a conscious decision to follow them.
Globalization, dazzling advances in technology and increased customer demands drive organizational change. To remain competitive, your organization and its people must be willing to adapt, or even completely reinvent, to stay relevant.
We recently worked with the VP of a financial institution who was challenged by the fact that one of his managers was constantly trying to change the ways of the bank. Although many banks have had to change radically over the last 36 months, historically, banks have not been well known for rapid change and innovation.
Employees may like reading a mystery, but they don’t like working in one. Heidi Grant Halvorson, 
Innovation is quickly becoming the word du jour despite being around as a concept since the beginning of man. For the longest time, it has simply been called creativity. The other day I noticed that on almost every TV commercial, the word innovation was mentioned at least once. And it’s not just commercials, it manages to creep its way into articles, books and now even job titles, like Chief Innovation Officer. This has got me thinking…
It’s a hard fact to face, but it’s the truth: because of the economy, many people have not only fallen short of their goals, but have moved further away from their dreams and vision. Maybe you know someone who has lost their job. You may have not received that raise or promotion you were hoping to achieve. Perhaps you feel your organization has taken a step back on the road to 
“The best years of your life are the ones in which you decide your problems are your own. You don’t blame them on your mother, the ecology, or the President. You realize that you control your own destiny.”
For the last 20 years, we have had the privilege of working with thousands of leaders. Leaders who are passionate about life and love what they do to earn their living. Leaders who are CEO’s, managers and supervisors representing all types of organizations and industries.