Category: Leadership

Why the Best Leaders Know When to Keep Their Mouths Shut

Posted on by Team Simon

Imagine you’re in a high-stakes meeting. The team is discussing a critical problem, and as the leader, everyone expects you to have the answer. What do you do?

If you’re like most leaders, you might feel pressured to speak up immediately. To demonstrate your value. To prove why you’re in charge.

But according to former Navy SEAL commander Jocko Willink, that instinct could be undermining your team’s potential and your own effectiveness.

“When I go in a room with my 10 subordinate leaders, I know that they’re going to have better ideas than me or at least they’ll have a point of view that I don’t have,” Jocko shared with Simon on this week’s episode of A Bit of Optimism.

This seemingly simple insight reveals a profound truth about leadership: sometimes the most powerful thing you can do is create space for others to step up.

The Power of the Leadership Vacuum

Jocko calls it “the leadership vacuum”—that uncomfortable silence when a decision needs to be made, but no one is immediately taking charge. Most leaders rush to fill this vacuum, but Jocko suggests a different approach:

“When that leadership vacuum occurs, I’m going to give it at least enough time that everybody feels it. I want everyone in the room to feel it.”

Why? Because jumping in too quickly sends a powerful, often unintended message: your ideas aren’t wanted here.

“If I jump in too early, there’s a couple people maybe who were about to—Simon had an idea he was about to say something—and I just cut him off. Now he’s going to be begrudgingly executing what I told him to do.”

That begrudging execution is the enemy of true commitment and high performance. When team members feel their perspectives aren’t valued, they might follow orders, but they’ll do so without the enthusiasm, creativity, and ownership that drives exceptional results.

Creating Space for Better Ideas

The practical application is simple but powerful:

  1. Pause deliberately when decisions need to be made
  2. Let the silence linger long enough for people to feel the need
  3. Create space for different voices to emerge
  4. Step in only when necessary

“If a decision needed to get made, I would make a decision, but I would make a little tiny decision,” Jocko explains. “If someone else makes the next decision, I’m fine with it.”

This approach accomplishes several things simultaneously:

  1. It demonstrates humility by acknowledging others might have better ideas
  2. It empowers team members to contribute meaningful solutions
  3. It builds collective ownership of decisions and outcomes
  4. It prevents the team from becoming dependent on a single leader

Balancing Decisiveness with Openness

This doesn’t mean abdicating your responsibility as a leader. Jocko, known for his decisiveness in the SEAL Teams, isn’t suggesting indecision or endless deliberation.

“I was known in the SEAL Teams for being very decisive,” he says. The key is finding the balance between making necessary decisions and creating space for others to contribute.

In high-stakes environments, this balance becomes even more critical. “In chaos of combat, when the leader starts barking orders, the good followers know when to contribute and when to follow,” Jocko shares.

The goal isn’t to abandon decisiveness but to use it judiciously—to be decisive about when you need to be decisive.

Building Trust Through Balance

This balanced approach helps build the trust that’s essential for high-performing teams. As Jocko emphasizes, “The components of a relationship are trust, listen, respect, influence, and care.”

By creating space for others’ ideas while maintaining the ability to make decisions when necessary, you demonstrate both respect for your team’s capabilities and your own commitment to the mission. You show that you care more about finding the best solution than being seen as the one with all the answers.

The result? A team that feels valued, engaged, and committed—not just to following orders but to achieving shared goals.

Putting It Into Practice

Ready to try this approach with your team? Start small:

  1. In your next meeting, deliberately pause after presenting a problem
  2. Count to 10 in your head before offering your own solution
  3. Acknowledge and build on the ideas that emerge
  4. If no ideas emerge, make the smallest decision possible to move forward

Remember, as Jocko points out, “The team that gets along, the team that has good relationships wins all day long.” And few things build better relationships than genuinely valuing each other’s contributions.

Because ultimately, leadership isn’t about having all the answers—it’s about creating the conditions where the best answers can emerge, regardless of who they come from.

The Hidden Cost of “Maybe:” How Unclear Requests Sabotage Your Team

Posted on by Team Simon

Picture this: You’re wrapping up a team meeting when you say, “It would be great if someone could pull together those numbers for next week.” Everyone nods. You assume Joe will handle it—he usually does. But when next week arrives, no numbers. No Joe. Just a gap where you expected results.

What went wrong?

According to communication expert and Optimist Instructor Lori Zukin, this common scenario reveals a fundamental breakdown that happens in workplaces every day: the gap between what we think we’re asking for and what others actually hear.

“When we have unclear or incomplete requests, offers, and commitments, they can frequently cause breaches of trust,” Zukin explains in a class on clear communication in The Optimism Library. Even more challenging? “People who have perfect intentions” can still fail to deliver simply because the request wasn’t clear from the start.

The High Cost of Ambiguity

These misunderstandings aren’t just minor annoyances—they can erode trust, delay projects, and create unnecessary tension between well-meaning colleagues. When someone doesn’t deliver on what you thought you asked for, it’s easy to question their competence or commitment. Meanwhile, they may be completely unaware they’ve disappointed you.

This pattern repeats itself in meetings, emails, and conversations countless times each day, creating what Zukin calls “breaches of trust” that could be easily avoided.

The SMART Request Framework

So how do we fix this communication gap? Zukin recommends transforming vague wishes into SMART requests:

  1. Specific: Exactly what needs to be done
  2. Measurable: How we’ll know it’s complete
  3. Attainable: Within the person’s capabilities
  4. Relevant: Connected to important outcomes
  5. Time-bound: Clear deadline

Instead of “It would be great if someone could pull together those numbers,” try:

“Joe, could you compile the Q3 sales figures into the standard report template by Thursday at noon? We need this for Friday’s executive presentation, and your expertise with these numbers would be really valuable. Is that something you can commit to?”

This approach answers the critical questions: the who, what, when, why—and most importantly—gets a clear commitment.

When “Yes” Doesn’t Mean “Yes”

Even when you make a clear request, Zukin warns about another common pitfall: hedging responses.

“Obviously, they leave ambiguity about whether the task is gonna get done or not get done,” Zukin notes. “I don’t know if I can trust them to get it done, and I don’t know if they’re really gonna follow through.”

Listen for phrases like:

  1. “I’ll try”
  2. “I’ll see what I can do”
  3. “Let me see how things go”
  4. “I should be able to”

When you hear these responses, Zukin suggests a simple approach: reflect back the hedge.

“Hey, I’m hearing you say that you’re gonna see how things are going. That sounds like a maybe.”

This gentle observation gives the person a chance to either commit firmly or decline honestly—both better options than a half-hearted maybe.

From Complaints to Requests

Perhaps most powerful is Zukin’s framework for transforming complaints into effective requests.

“One of my coaches noticed that I was complaining about something,” Zukin shares, “and she said, those gifts actually usually mean that you have a request that you are not making clear, or that you’re not making at all.”

The next time you catch yourself complaining, try this four-step process:

  1. Identify what’s frustrating you
  2. Clarify what you actually want
  3. Determine who can help you get it
  4. Make a SMART request to that person

For example, instead of complaining “This client keeps changing what they’re asking for,” you might request: “Can we schedule a 30-minute call with the client by Friday to confirm the final scope of the project?”

Making It Work for You

Start by auditing your own communication. Are your requests clear and specific? Do you check for real commitment? Do you convert complaints into constructive requests?

The payoff for this small shift in communication can be enormous: fewer misunderstandings, stronger trust, and teams that actually deliver on their promises.

Because in a world of constant communication, clarity isn’t just nice to have—it’s essential for teams that want to move fast without breaking things (or relationships) along the way.

For more insights on building stronger communication skills, check out Lori Zukin’s full class in The Optimism Library, where she shares practical frameworks for transforming how your team communicates.

The Surprising Skills Your Team Needs Most (They’re Not What You Think)

Posted on by Team Simon

Picture your last team meeting. Was everyone truly listening to each other? Could difficult feedback be shared openly? Did people feel safe enough to be vulnerable?

If you hesitated on any of these questions, you’re not alone. In his recent conversation about high-performing teams, Simon highlighted a surprising truth: technical skills might get you hired, but human skills determine whether teams truly thrive.

“If you create an organization that doesn’t have psychological safety, where it is performance at all costs, no one will reveal any of those things because they fear it makes them firable or damages their promotability,” Simon explains.

The Hidden Skills Gap

Most organizations are laser-focused on technical capabilities—coding, analysis, design, marketing expertise—but often overlook the human skills that actually determine whether those technical skills can be effectively deployed:

  1. Giving and receiving feedback
  2. Having difficult conversations
  3. Setting healthy boundaries
  4. Creating psychological safety
  5. Balancing individual needs with team needs

“Effective leadership involves teaching and developing human skills,” Simon says, “such as listening, giving and receiving feedback, and having difficult conversations.”

The Art of the Difficult Conversation

One of the most valuable skills Simon discusses is how to approach challenging conversations. His approach is refreshingly practical:

“Can I have a difficult conversation with you now? I might say the wrong thing, but bear with me because this conversation is more important than me doing it perfectly.”

This simple framework does three powerful things:

  1. It asks permission
  2. It acknowledges potential imperfection
  3. It emphasizes the importance of the conversation over perfect delivery

The result? A much higher chance of the message being received as intended.

Balancing Agency and Boundaries

Another critical skill Simon highlights is the dance between personal agency and healthy boundaries. He shares a story about a young employee who was burning out because they never said no to colleagues who needed support.

“This person would always say yes to the phone call and would always be there to listen, to the point of burnout,” Simon recalls. The problem wasn’t just individual—it was systemic.

“We can create conditions that make it very hard for somebody to flex their agency, but we can also create conditions where they are allowed to step into it,” he explains.

For leaders, this means:

  1. Teaching team members how to set healthy boundaries
  2. Creating a culture where “no” is respected
  3. Modeling balanced behaviors yourself
  4. Recognizing when someone is overextending themselves

The Paradox at the Heart of Teamwork

Perhaps most importantly, Simon reminds us of the fundamental tension that every team must navigate:

“Every single moment of every single day we are both individuals and a member of a group. We must weigh decisions between putting ourselves first or the group first.”

Great leaders understand this paradox and create environments where both individual growth and team success are possible.

“The team is more important than any individual on the team,” Simon says, “but I have to protect every individual on the team to make the team flourish.”

Making It Work in Your Team

Ready to strengthen the human skills in your organization? Start with these steps:

  1. Explicitly name these skills as valuable in your team
  2. Create opportunities to practice them in low-stakes situations
  3. Establish clear norms for how feedback is given and received
  4. Celebrate when difficult conversations lead to better outcomes
  5. Address violations of psychological safety immediately

Remember: Highly functioning teams aren’t just about achieving goals. As Simon explains, they’re about “the joy of the playing, the relationships built along the way, and the knowledge that their work is of greater value than simply the money they make.”

Because in the infinite game of business and life, the relationships we build and the growth we experience along the way aren’t just nice-to-haves—they’re the whole point.

For more insights on building stronger teams through human skills, explore our collection of leadership lessons in The Optimism Library.

Why Your Best Ideas Might Need a Waiting List

Posted on by Team Simon

Imagine you’re launching a new initiative at work. Your instinct might be to make it as accessible as possible—open to everyone, easy to join, readily available. But what if that’s exactly why it might fail?

During a recent talk about innovation, Simon shared a fascinating story about launching a millennial training program at a large company. Instead of making it widely available, they did something unexpected: the company made people apply for it.

“They said, ‘We only have a hundred spaces, and they have to apply to be a part of it,'” Simon recalls. The result? Not just full enrollment, but something far more valuable: organic demand that spread like wildfire across the organization.

The Power of Purposeful Barriers

Here’s what happened next: “About two weeks later, my sponsor at the company calls me up furious,” says Simon. “He says, ‘I’m getting calls from across the country from all these managers screaming and yelling at me, demanding why their people aren’t invited into this thing.'”

No marketing. No PR. Just genuine demand created by making something slightly out of reach.

Why This Works

The psychology behind this approach ties into what Simon calls the Law of Diffusion of Innovations. Here’s the breakdown:

  1. 2.5% of any population are innovators
  2. 12.5% are early adopters
  3. The rest need more convincing

“The way you talk to early adopters is by starting with WHY,” Simon explains. “Talk about what you believe, not what you do.”

Putting It Into Practice

Want to launch your next initiative with built-in momentum? Here’s how:

  1. Start Small and Selective: Instead of trying to please everyone, create a pilot program with limited spots. Make it feel special—because it is.
  2. Make People Work for It: Create an application process. Ask for essays. Request recommendations. As Simon found, “We made the application process wasn’t easy. We read the actual essays and chose 100 people.”
  3. Focus on True Believers: Here’s the magic: when Simon asked these selected participants to volunteer extra time to help build the program—with no extra pay or promotion prospects—50 people raised their hands. Why? Because they believed in the vision.

The Counter-Intuitive Truth

“I built my entire brand with zero marketing budget and no public relations,” Simon reveals. “It’s because I made a decision that I was going to focus only on early adopters.”

This approach works because it:

  1. Creates natural scarcity
  2. Builds organic excitement
  3. Attracts committed participants
  4. Generates word-of-mouth buzz
  5. Establishes genuine value

Making It Work for You

Next time you’re launching something new:

  1. Resist the urge to make it immediately available to everyone
  2. Create thoughtful barriers to entry
  3. Focus on finding your true believers first
  4. Let their enthusiasm create natural demand

Remember: Sometimes the best way to make something spread is to make it slightly harder to reach. As Simon’s experience shows, the right people will not only find their way in—they’ll bring others with them.

For more insights on launching new initiatives and building organic momentum, check out Simon’s full collection of leadership lessons in The Optimism Library.

How to Hook Your Audience in 30 Seconds, According to Simon

Posted on by Team Simon

Picture yourself at your last presentation. You probably started with some context: “Over the past two years, we’ve been analyzing…” or “I’d like to talk to you today about…” Now imagine instead walking in and saying: “The year is 1963. January. Vietnam.”

Feel the difference?

“Most people start with stuff that doesn’t matter,” says Simon. “They tell you the lesson they want you to learn, then tell you the story as an example. But it works much more effectively when you start with the story itself—when you start with the emotion.”

It turns out, we might be overthinking our openings. Here’s how to grab your audience from the first sentence (and why it’s simpler than you think):

Start Where the Action Is

Remember writing essays in school? We were taught to start with background, context, the “setting up” paragraph. Simon suggests something different: Write that first paragraph—then delete it.

“Just start where the action happens,” he advises. “Don’t worry about the lead-up. Don’t worry about saying ‘I’ve been thinking about this for quite a while now…’ Just begin.”

Trust Your Audience’s Patience

Here’s something reassuring: You don’t need to explain why you’re telling a story right away. “People are patient,” Simon explains. “They’ll listen without knowing why they’re listening—if it’s a well-told story.”

In fact, that curiosity can be powerful. When people think “Where is this going?”—that’s not a bad thing. It means they’re engaged.

Three Ways to Start Strong:

Set the Scene Simply: “The year is 1963…” Sometimes that’s all you need. Let people’s imaginations do the work of filling in the fashions, the environment, the mood.

Jump Into Action: Skip the build-up. Start where something happens. As Simon puts it, “When we start a story where the action happens, I’m saying ‘This story is for you, and I want you to be a part of this with me.'”

Save the Lesson: Here’s the game-changer: Don’t start by telling people what they should learn. Start with the story that makes them want to learn it. “When you’re giving the explanation after,” Simon shares, “you’re not talking at them—you’re bringing them along with you.”

A Simple Test for Your Opening

Next time you’re preparing a presentation, try this: Write your introduction as you normally would. Now look at your second paragraph. Could that be your opening instead?

As Simon puts it: “There’s no right way to start a story—but there are more engaging ways.” The goal isn’t perfection; it’s connection. Start where it gets interesting, and trust that your audience will come along for the ride.

Let’s See This in Action

Here’s how a lot of people might start a presentation about a new team collaboration tool:

“Good morning everyone. Today I’d like to talk to you about improving our team’s efficiency. Over the past six months, we’ve been analyzing our workflow patterns and researching various solutions. Our studies show that teams spend approximately 23% of their time searching for information across multiple platforms, and…”

Cue the audience checking their phones.

Now, here’s how you could start the same presentation:

“Last Wednesday at 3am, Sarah from Marketing was in tears. The biggest campaign of her career was launching in six hours, and she couldn’t find the updated brand guidelines anywhere. Not in Slack. Not in Drive. Not in any of the 47 email threads she’d searched.

“Finally, she found them—buried in an email from last June, hidden in a folder called ‘Misc 2023.’ She’d been looking for three hours. The campaign was due at 9am. Later, she discovered three team members had the file all along, each working from different versions.

“Sarah’s story isn’t unique—it happened again yesterday to the sales team during their biggest pitch of the quarter, and it’ll happen tomorrow to someone else on your team unless we do something about it. Let me show you what that something could look like.”

Feel the difference? The second version:

  1. Raises emotional stakes (tears, biggest campaign)
  2. Adds specific details (47 email threads, biggest pitch of the quarter)
  3. Creates more urgency (six hours, biggest campaign)
  4. Makes the problem more personal (someone else on your team)
  5. Maintains credibility (doesn’t go over-the-top)
  6. Sets up solution more compellingly

The data, research, and context can come later. First, give your audience a reason to care.

Because in the end, a great opening isn’t about being perfect—it’s about making people look up from their phones and think, “Wait, this matters to me.”

Ready to tell better stories? Dive into “Storytelling Secrets from Simon”—out now in The Optimism Library.

Want Better Teams? Put Your Phone Down First

Posted on by Team Simon

Think about the last time someone came to talk to you. Where was your phone? Be honest—was it face up on your desk, quietly demanding attention with each notification?

“When somebody walks into your office, put your phone away,” says Simon. “It’s so easy, but it sends a powerful message that they matter.”

It sounds almost too simple to be meaningful. But according to Simon, these small moments of complete attention are the building blocks of extraordinary team culture.

“It’s the little things that add up more than the big things,” he explains. “Like saying good morning in the hallway. It doesn’t seem to do anything, but when you do it every day, people start to feel seen and heard.”

The Power of Consistency

This isn’t about grand gestures or company-wide initiatives. It’s about the tiny choices we make dozens of times each day. Simon shares a story about his friend Bob Chapman, who learned from his priest that “consistency is more powerful than intensity.”

Think about that for a moment. We often believe leadership is about big moments—the inspiring speeches, the crucial decisions, the bold directions. But what if the real magic happens in those small, everyday interactions?

Making It Work (Really Work)

Here’s how to put this into practice:

Create a Phone-Free Zone

When someone enters your office or starts a conversation, make it a ritual to physically put your phone away—not just face down, but out of sight. This isn’t just about reducing distractions; it’s about sending a clear message about what (and who) matters most.

Make It a Daily Practice

“Leadership is a human enterprise,” Simon reminds us. “It’s about making people feel seen, heard, and understood.” This means showing up the same way, every day, in every interaction.

Watch for the Ripple Effect

When leaders model this behavior, it spreads. Team members begin to give each other the same undivided attention, creating a culture of genuine listening and respect.

The Parent Test

Simon offers a powerful way to think about this: “The closest analogy I can give to being a great leader is like being a great parent. Yes, I know you don’t get to pick your team sometimes, but you don’t get to pick your children either, and yet you show up with love every day.”

Would you check your phone while your child is telling you about their day? That same principle applies to your team.

The Real Impact

This practice isn’t just about making people feel good—though that matters. It’s about creating the kind of psychological safety that leads to:

  1. More honest feedback
  2. Better problem-solving
  3. Increased innovation
  4. Stronger team bonds

Because when people feel truly seen and heard, they bring their whole selves to work. They take risks. They speak up. They care more.

“Leadership is nothing about being in charge,” Simon reminds us. “It’s about seeing those around us rise.”

Sometimes, that rising starts with something as simple as putting your phone away.

These Conversations Are Quietly Killing Your Career (And How to Fix Them)

Posted on by Team Simon

They happen in every meeting. Every “quick chat.” Every carefully worded email. Those moments when you almost say what you mean—but not quite. When “I completely disagree” becomes “Interesting perspective…” When “This timeline is impossible” turns into “I’ll try my best.”

These almost-honest conversations feel safer in the moment. But according to Tessa White, a career HR executive at several Fortune 500 companies, they’re silently sabotaging your career.

“If you don’t have the conversation, it won’t get better,” White explains in her Optimism Library lesson, How to Succeed at Every Stage of Your Career. “No conversation, no fix.”

The Real Cost of Holding Back

We’ve all been there. You sense a project is heading in the wrong direction, but instead of speaking up, you send a carefully worded email hinting at your concerns. Or maybe you’ve sat through meetings where you knew the team was making a mistake, but chose to stay quiet to avoid rocking the boat.

“Email is such a terrible form,” says White. “It’s so rife with miscommunication and misinterpretations.” 

Those diplomatic emails and half-spoken concerns might feel safer in the moment, but they create a cascade of problems: issues fester until they’re unfixable, trust erodes as colleagues sense your hesitation, and opportunities for real collaboration slip away.

Creating Space for Real Conversations

The good news? You can start changing this pattern today. White suggests beginning with something simple but powerful: creating the right conditions for honesty. “You can’t make somebody have the conversation with you,” she acknowledges. “You can only do your best to create the conditions to have an open conversation and let it remain open.”

This might mean inviting a colleague for coffee instead of sending that careful email. It could mean starting your next team meeting by acknowledging the elephant in the room. The key is shifting from hints and implications to clear, respectful directness.

The Language of Complete Communication

Think about how different these conversations could be. Instead of saying “That meeting was… interesting” and hoping someone picks up on your concern, try “I have some specific concerns about the direction we discussed. Could we talk through them?” Rather than suggesting “Maybe we should consider other options…” say “I don’t think this approach will get us where we need to go, and here’s why…”

The most trusted people at work aren’t those who tell others what they want to hear—they’re the ones who can deliver honest feedback with respect and clarity. As White reminds us, getting comfortable with discomfort doesn’t mean you’re in the wrong place; it means you’re growing.

Making the Shift

Start by identifying one conversation you’ve been having halfway. Maybe it’s with your manager about your workload, or with a colleague about a project’s timeline. Write down what you really need to say—not the diplomatic version, but the honest one. Practice it with someone you trust. Then, instead of waiting for the perfect moment (it doesn’t exist), schedule the conversation.

Remember, the goal isn’t to be harsh or confrontational. It’s to be clear and kind, rather than just nice. Your career growth depends not just on what you know, but on how clearly you can communicate it. Those uncomfortable moments of complete honesty? They’re not obstacles to your success—they’re the path to it.

For more career-changing insights from Tessa White, check out her full lesson in The Optimism Library, where she shares her 25 years of HR wisdom on adding value, managing conflict, and owning your career growth.

Why Being “Not Funny” Might Be Your Secret Strength

Posted on by Team Simon

Imagine being in a meeting where someone cracks a joke and everyone laughs—except you. You’re the one thinking, “Really?” with a raised eyebrow. Good news: that skepticism might actually be your superpower.

“Being a skeptic isn’t all bad,” explains humor expert Andrew Tarvin. “You understand that humor doesn’t always work. Humor can distract, divide, disparage.”

It turns out, there’s more than one way to be funny at work. In fact, there are seven distinct humor personas, and the Skeptic—yes, that person who questions whether we need humor at all—is one of them.

The Power of the Raised Eyebrow

Think about the last time someone made an obvious joke in a meeting. While others laughed politely, your deadpan stare probably said more than any punchline could. That’s the Skeptic’s superpower: the ability to be funny by not trying to be funny at all.

Here’s how being the “not funny” person can actually work in your favor:

The Reality Check Champion

When someone says, “Hey, what if we made our quarterly report a musical?”

Your response: “Sure. Because nothing says fiscal responsibility like jazz hands.”

The impact: Your dry delivery makes people laugh while actually making a valid point.

The Accidental Comic

When the team is brainstorming “out-of-the-box” ideas:

Everyone else: “Let’s think bigger!”

You: “We could train dolphins to deliver our packages.”

The impact: Your obvious skepticism becomes the comic relief.

The Truth Teller

During yet another “team-building exercise”:

Facilitator: “Let’s all pretend to be trees swaying in the wind!”

Your raised eyebrow: Priceless.

The impact: You give permission for others to acknowledge the absurdity.

Why It Works

“When you never express any humor whatsoever,” Tarvin notes, “people start to see you as insincere, robotic, or cold, and they’ll avoid working with you.” But the beauty of Skeptic humor is that it’s inherently authentic. You’re not trying to be funny—you’re just being honest, and that honesty, delivered with perfect timing, becomes the humor.

Making It Work For You

  1. Embrace Your Natural Reactions
  2. Don’t hide your skepticism—let it show (professionally)
  3. Perfect your “Really?” face
  4. Master the well-timed silence
  5. Use Your Powers for Good
  6. Be the person who can lighten tense moments with a reality check
  7. Help keep meetings on track with well-timed observations
  8. Turn potential conflict into shared laughter at the situation

Know When to Deploy

Good times to use Skeptic humor:

  1. When a meeting goes off the rails
  2. During overly enthusiastic brainstorming
  3. When someone needs a gentle reality check

Not-so-good times:

  1. During serious feedback sessions
  2. When someone is genuinely excited about an idea
  3. In high-stakes situations with senior leadership

Imagine your team is caught in an endless debate about the color scheme for a presentation:

Colleague 1: “What about chartreuse?”

Colleague 2: “No, maybe mauve!”

You: “Because that’s definitely our biggest problem right now.”

Your dry observation not only gets a laugh but also helps refocus the team on what matters.

Because as Tarvin reminds us, “If you want to be authentically you, then that means bringing your sense of humor, too.” Even if—especially if—that humor comes with a side of skepticism.

The Next Time You’re the “Serious One”:

  1. Remember that your perspective is valuable
  2. Trust that your natural reactions can be funny
  3. Use your powers to bring people back to earth (gently)
  4. Know that being the voice of reason can be both helpful and humorous

For more workplace insights, explore The Optimism Library today. 

How I Went from “I’m Too Lazy to Write” to Published Author

Posted on by Simon Sinek

When I was in college I had to make a choice, did I want to do a thesis project or not?

I like research, I like learning and I like difficult problems. But I ended up deciding not to do a thesis project for one simple reason: 100 pages sounded like a lot of writing and—this is a little embarrassing—I was too lazy to do that work.

Flash forward a bunch of years and turns out I’m an author now. I’ve written hundreds of pages…more than once!

How did that happen?I was never one of those people who “thought they had a book in them.” Writing books was not my dream or my chosen career. So how did I go from being too lazy to write 100 pages to writing books?

The one thing that changed was Cause. Namely, I found one (or it found me).

A Cause is not a goal. It’s not like an ambition. A Cause is more like a membership club. Not everyone wants to be in the club, but if you find yourself in it, you’re more than happy to do whatever you need to do to serve the other members.

I still can’t say that I enjoy writing books, but every one I have written was worth it because it was not ever about the writing. It was always about contributing to something bigger than myself.

More Useful Advice from The Optimism Company

Simon’s Tips for Starting Any Presentation with Confidence

Read Simon’s Best Advice for When You Hate Your Job

Learn Simon’s Go-To Exercise for Finding Your WHY

The One Question You Should Always Ask in Job Interviews

Curiosity is essential
                for progress.
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We fully agree, so we like to reward curiosity.
Use code GETCURIOUS for 20% off your next purchase.

A spark is something quite small and, by itself, not very powerful. But a spark has the ability to ignite. An idea is like a spark; alone it is just a set of words, but it too can ignite. A great idea can inspire others to dream bigger. Let us all work together to ignite something greater than ourselves.

Let us all be a Spark of Optimism.