Do Leaders Choose to Be Optimistic?

If there is one theme more than any other that permeates Roy Jenkins's magisterial one volume biography of Winston Churchill it is that of Churchill's indomitable spirit. One of the most important qualities that many successful leaders have in common is optimism.

There is a story told about the Antarctic explorer, Ernest Shackleton, being interviewed by a journalist. The story may be apocryphal; it does, however, chime with what we know of Shackleton. He and his crew of twenty seven had been stranded in Antarctica when their ship was crushed in the ice. When asked whether he believed at the time that the men he left behind on Elephant Island would survive whilst he and a small group made a perilous 800 miles sea journey to find help, Shackleton unhesitatingly replied that he had no doubts they would as “optimism is true moral courage”.

There are very few of us in leadership roles who cannot, at some time or other, have doubted our own abilities to do the job, who have not felt that we are frauds, the so-called “imposter phenomenon”. It is, then, somewhat comforting to learn that, on that 800 mile sea journey, even the supreme optimist, Shackleton, let slip to the expedition’s captain and navigator for that journey, Frank Worsley, his own private doubts.

Most of us will never find ourselves faced with challenges that faced Churchill and Shackleton. The most remarkable thing is that given the enormity of the challenges they faced, these two men remained overwhelmingly optimistic. For me, the question is whether this quality is something you can choose. Can you choose to be optimistic?

Some things we can choose: we can choose, for example, to apply for a new job. Some things we can't choose: we can't choose how tall we will grow. Is the quality of optimism something we can choose like applying for a job, or is it something that either we have or we don't have, like being tall.

If it is something we can choose the danger is we will, as leaders, refuse to choose optimism. As leaders – indeed as human beings - we are morally bound to take responsibility for our actions and decisions: as human beings we are all too prone to give in to the desire to absolve ourselves from the undesirable consequences of our actions and decisions.

If optimism is a choice, there is every temptation, therefore, for leaders not to choose to be optimistic. It is very difficult – next door to impossible - to be optimistic about your leadership without taking responsibility for it. Thus arises the spectre of radical freedom as identified by the French writer and philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre.

We are condemned to be free, said Sartre. We alone are responsible the choices we make. Today's choices do not preclude different choices tomorrow. The responsibility of our extreme freedom causes anguish and thus we try to evade our freedom by acting in bad faith, which means refusing to take responsibility for our choices.

When Shackleton was stranded in Antarctica, he could have held his head in his hands and given up the hope of survival. He didn't. The result was that he and twenty seven crew survived. But the question is did he choose to be optimistic?

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.