People who are pessimistic see failure as final. They put failure down to an obstacle that is impossible to move or change. People who have optimism see failure as an opportunity to change, or remove an obstacle so they can turn the failure into a success.
People who have optimism know that it’s important to have a vision. They have an optimistic view and a belief for the future. A view that the future is bright. A view that the organisation they work for is going to get better.
A view that their department is going to get better. A view that the team they are part of is going to get better. A view that their teammates as individuals are going to get better. Most of all, they have a vision that they as an individual is going to work every day to get better.
1. What Is Your Vision?
Highly effective leaders know that to make their vision a reality, then they need to take action. But, what exactly do they take action on, and how do they take action? Highly effective leaders take action on their team.
They lead from the front, and firstly show their team the vision, then take them on the journey to turn that vision into a reality.
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Highly effective leaders have optimism, and before you can have a vision, you must first have optimism. When you have optimism, it will help you to raise yours and your team’s level.
However, you cannot get to the next level on optimism alone. You must take action to bring your vision to life, and make it a reality. By focussing on your vision, and taking action, you will become a highly effective leader. You will also be on the right path to building a highly effective team.
2. How Vision And Optimism Works
As competency and character work in harmony, so too does optimism and vision. To have optimism, you must first have a vision. To have a vision, you must first have optimism.
When your vision becomes 100% clear and complete, your optimism will increase. As your optimism increases, the urge to take action grows. As you continue to take action, the more your vision will become reality.
To make your vision a reality, you will be required to make sacrifices for the sake of that vision. When you have optimism for your vision, you will realise that making sacrifices is necessary.
However, to begin making sacrifices and then continue making them, you must become disciplined. By having the discipline to sacrifice, your vision will become the priority until it becomes your reality.
Will sharing this post, or sharing what you are learning from this post help your teammates? If the answer is yes, then that is because the vision you have for your team is to help them become highly effective leaders just like you.
3. What Sacrifices Are You Willing To Make?
So the first sacrifice you are making is reading this and other posts, which takes up your time. Then the second sacrifice will be sharing what you are learning, which again takes up your time. But these sacrifices are necessary for you to help turn your vision into a reality.
The action you would be taking is reading this post, and then sharing it. Hopefully you are starting to see the correlation between sacrifice and taking action, and how important it is for both to happen.
Every vision has a price, and that price is sacrifice. If you have a vision to become a highly effective leader, then you must make the sacrifices necessary and the discipline required to work on yourself every day, and make that vision a reality.
If you have a vision to help your teammates become highly effective leaders, and build a highly effective team, then you must make the sacrifice of your time, and the discipline to meet with your line manager if he/she has final say on what happens with the team.
If you have the autonomy to make things happen, then you must make the sacrifice of your time and the discipline to meet with your team. During these meetings you must lay out your vision so everybody can see it with you.
Then map out the action steps to turn your vision into a reality for you and your team. Those steps could be taking your team through each post on this website so you can share what you have learned to become a highly effective leader.
If you have other action steps in mind, then they must be mapped out and acted upon. The price must be paid to make your vision a reality for both you and your team.
4. How Ambitious Are You?
Highly effective leaders are ambitious and they want to continuously improve. They also want to help others to improve too. To accomplish these things, you must be able to see what it looks like when it is accomplished (your vision).
Your vision will create an emotion inside you that will not let you detour away from your vision (optimism). Your optimism will give you the strength to pay the price to turn your vision into a reality (sacrifice).
Your sacrifice will give you the courage to not give up on your vision (discipline). Your discipline will enable you to accomplish what you saw in the beginning (result).
It is not easy to put into place everything that is required to make a vision a reality. As you climb the leadership ladder and take up higher positions throughout your career, more people will begin to rely on you.
5. Don’t Give Up On Your Vision
You may at times want to give up on your vision, but I am here to tell you, DON’T GIVE UP. Your vision will benefit so many people, including yourself. The higher you climb, your influence will increase across so many more teams. If you continue to have optimism, your vision will become a reality and a benefit for everyone.
As I climbed higher up the leadership ladder, my level of vision raised higher too. I always saw a vision of creating highly effective leaders, and highly effective team’s. But, as I started to take on more responsibility and more people, the harder it became to get the buy-in from everyone.
Especially when these people were low performing leaders. I had the optimism that I could influence these people, but on some occasions I had to leave them behind. I left them because I couldn’t have them dragging me, or the other optimistic team members who saw the same vision behind with them. We had to continue to move forward.
I got help from my team of optimistic team players who were on the journey to becoming highly effective. They tried to sell my vision to the low performing team players, but because of how stubborn they were, and the values they had, no matter what we tried they would not buy-in.
I know for a fact that they could see the team changing. We were disciplined to persevere with making the sacrifices and taking the action required to make our vision a reality.
It gives me hope that some of the low performing team players did eventually change their ways, and came around to the vision we had. Some of them even helped us in putting things in place and took the same actions that we did.
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It goes to show that with optimism, vision, sacrifice, discipline, perseverance, and hope, you can make things happen and bring people along with you. For the sake of yourself, your vision, and your team, just DON’T GIVE UP.
Your vision must become a commitment, if you commit then you are more likely to not give up on it. If you think you can turn your vision into a reality, then you will.
You are reading this post, so I believe that you have a vision, and I believe you have what it takes to make your vision a reality.
Successful people see failures as a stepping stone to ultimately achieve their greatest victories.
I welcome hearing how this post has influenced the way you think, the way you lead, or the results you have achieved because of what you’ve learned in it. Please feel free to share your thoughts with me by commenting below.
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All the best,
I agree with you about persistence and not giving up. Do you have any advice for people who are in that phase where they are contemplating stopping?
Hi Catherine,
Thank you so much for your comment and question.
For people who are contemplating giving up, I believe they need to look at the reasons for starting in the first place. As Simon Sinek says, “What is their Why?”
It is their “Why” that will keep them going and keep pulling them. If they quit then their “Why” wasn’t strong enough. It needs to be so strong that it doesn’t matter if it takes a month or ten years to get to where they want without giving up.
Keep that “Why” and vision for starting very visual to you. That’s why we call it a vision, we have to see it and think about it every day.
When working on ourselves every day, keep that strong vision and “Why” in your mind, and you will not give up.
If you need any further help or anything else then let me know.
All the best,
Tom
I agree with your article completely you have to have a positive attitude or you are going to fail before you ever succeed in anything you do, I used to lack the self-confidence and everything I tried just seemed to work out for the worse, One day I read a book on positive thinking and how to change your negative thoughts to positive thoughts, so this changed my life completely
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thank you for your comment.
Really pleased you found this article valuable. It’s great to read that you turned it round when you read a book on positivity.
Looking at your site I can tell that you now ooze the self-confidence and are on the right path to succeed.
All the best,
Tom
Hi,
This is a great perspective on staying optimistic through failure, this reminds me of the common sales rule for every 100 No’s you will receive a Yes so just keep pushing until you get that yes. I love this post great content.
Hi Carlton,
Thank you very much for your comment.
You are so right. You may receive 100 no’s but you need to hang in there until you get that yes.
I watched a video on Meryl Streep a few weeks ago and before she was cast in her first major role, she received something like 200 no’s. But she stuck with it, believed in herself and trusted the process. That is exactly what being optimistic is all about.
Great that you found the post valuable.
All the best,
Tom
Very informative read, really motivational and stellar advice, the messaging is great “DON’T GIVE UP” !!!! it is so easy just to quit, thank you and wish much success, all the best
Take care
Hi Butch,
Thank you for your comment.
The message is to absolutely not give up on your goals. Keep going no matter what, and do your best to work on yourself to overcome any obstacle.
Most people quit, but it is the few who don’t quit who ultimately succeed.
All the best,
Tom
I agree with you, that in order to achieve something you need to believe in yourself and be optimistic. I think that it’s also better to start with smaller goals and build up your confidence and skills. And like you said, even if everything doesn’t go according to the plan, don’t give up.
Thanks for a great post about the importance of optimism!
Regards,
Joonas
Hi Joonas,
Thank you for your comment.
You are right. Starting with smaller goals and then working your way up to increase your confidence and skills is how you do it. Breaking big goals up into smaller achievable goals is how I do it too.
Believing in yourself is the most important thing.
Thank again and all the best,
Tom
Hi Tom,
We fully agree that a vision is paramount. It would set the tone (a positive one), a possible end-game that can be targeted, and the motivation required for the journey. If the vision has to be something that will stretch one but at the same time, something that people would feel to be within the range of the possible. If the vision is challenging, the transformation journey will also be challenging but will provide more satisfaction once achieved. And along the way, positive outlook and perseverance will be crucial.
Thank you for a very insightful post.
Hey,
Thank you for your comment.
Your outlook on having a vision is excellent. Having a vision that is challenging and achievable is perfect for anyone. If it’s impossible to achieve then it is the wrong vision to have.
Perseverance is most definitely crucial to keep on the journey.
Thanks again and all the best,
Tom
I got excited when I noticed this article. I am thinking of saving it just to use as personal motivation to stay focused on my personal stuff.
One point which really caught my eye was “Highly effective leaders take action on their team. They lead from the front, and firstly show their team the vision, then take them on the journey to turn that vision into a reality.” What a beautiful set of words.
I have been inconsistent with my work efforts. Life gets in the way. But this post is very inspirational to keep me going. Thank you!
Hey Dave,
Thank you for your comment. Really pleased you found the video valuable.
Thank you for your kind words too. Staying consistent and motivated to keep up your efforts on your work and striving towards achieving your vision and your goals is what is important.
If you need any help from me then just let me know, and revisit for future posts and videos.
All the best,
Tom
This was certainly something I needed to read today. Having a bit of a bad day professional and thinking about bringing myself back to this message is helpful. Thank you!
Hi Hillary,
Thank you for your comment, and I’m really pleased you found it valuable.
Sorry to hear that were having a bad day. So happy I was able to help you with it from my post.
If you need any further motivation then please come back to my site, and if you need to get in touch then don’t hesitate.
All the best,
Tom
It is an excellent article on how to be an optimistic and highly effective leader.
Yes, I agree with you to be a great leader must be optimistic in his vision and ready to carry out and overcome obstacles so as well to burn bridges for no return and retreat.
Thank you so much. Your article motivates me.
Best regards,
Lyn
Hi Lyn,
Thank you for your comment. So happy that you found the post valuable.
I’m glad you found some motivation from it, and if you need any further motivation then please come back. I will be posting 3-4 times a week.
All the best,
Tom
A great writeup on leadership and how to be effective leaders. I believe that true leaders grow more and more humble as they grow in stature.
The hallmark of great leadership was this quote by Chetwode :
The safety, honour and welfare of your country come first, always and every time.
The honour, welfare and comfort of the men you command come next.
Your own ease, comfort and safety come last, always and every time.
Hi Aparna,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that you found the article valuable.
I really appreciate you stating the quote by Chetwode, and thank you for sharing your thoughts on what you believe true leaders to be and do.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
I agree with your very well-presented case for optimism and vision. I keep my thoughts fixed on my vision and intentionally choose optimism. I endeavor to live by what I call “The Eleventh Commandment”: Thou Shall Not Sweat It!
Hi Glenn,
Thank you for your comment. It’s great that you agree with my article.
I really do appreciate you sharing your thoughts on this, and that you intentionally choose optimism. This sounds great to me.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
Hello Tom – this is a good motivational article. I can see your steps to success, and you are right with one point being, discipline. For me, I see so many go getters flame out early. They want success, but don’t want to do the hard work, and go the distance with the discipline that is required. With your game plan, it is an excellent way to keep yourself accountable, by leading with optimism, vision, sacrifice, discipline, perseverance, and hope. This really works when applied to a team that has similar goals. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so happy that you found the article motivating to you.
You are absolutely right that to keep ourselves accountable, we must lead with optimism, vision, sacrifice, discipline, perseverance, and hope. If you keep this up and inspire others to do the same then you are certainly on the right path to becoming a highly effective leader.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom
I am being through a hard situation now, many times I want to give up, glad to drop by your website, this post makes me more motivated now. I believe I can find my way. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Lena,
Thank you for your comment. I’m so pleased that this article has helped you with your motivation, please go through my other articles as they will help you even more.
If you need any further help or advice then please don’t hesitate to contact me.
All the best,
Tom
Such a great motivational article. Yes, failure is hard but you have to pull yourself together and find a way out, and plus motivate your team to see that way out – way to a better future.
Great article! Thank you Tom. Love your website
Hi Tatjana,
Thank you for your comment. I’m really pleased that you found the article motivational, that was my aim.
I completely agree with you that when we encounter failure, we must learn from it and embrace it. It can be difficult but we must build the courage to do it. Otherwise, we will end up quitting and letting our team down. I love how you say we need to pull ourselves together, great advice.
Keep returning, keep engaging and keep leading.
All the best,
Tom