Truman

An underrated source of leadership gems

“A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties.” ~ Harry S Truman

Success is a lot more achievable on a team if the team is realistic, but focused on the positive. We can see the challenging parts and work to succeed. Acknowledge the challenges, but keep morale high. “Yeah, this is a curve ball, but we can handle it.”

The other side of that coin is not to whine or complain about things, especially to your team. If the boss tells people that the new initiative out of the C-suite is a stupid waste of time, no one will feel much like doing it, and they will be trained by the experience to think that the company is being run by people who are either out-of-touch or stupid. That’s bad for morale and retention.

Gripes go UP the chain of command (shout out to Saving Private Ryan). Make sure people know they can come to you with their problems, and that you will help them see a way over, under, or through them.

(Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash)