Ideally

Einstein once described taking flying lessons to a group of students. He explained that the instructor told him that if there was a crosswind, piloting directly toward the desired point would cause drifting, leading you to end up somewhere downwind. To land where you intended, you must pilot toward a point upwind from that spot.

While human perception is a fluid spectrum, there are some handy points on that line whose definitions allow us to have some interesting conversations. Points like pessimism, optimism, realism, and idealism create the definitions necessary to discuss our experiences and feelings.

Pessimism anticipates a negative, undesirable outcome. The term pessimism derives from the Latin word pessimus, meaning ‘the worst’. There is actually justification for this perspective. Pessimists tend to be conservative in their appetite for risk (believing everything to be risky to begin with). This can help avoid significant failure and pain, but it comes at the cost of missing significant opportunity and joy.

Optimism expects events to lead to positive, desirable outcomes. The term derives from the Latin optimum, meaning “best”. Optimists are excited to see what might happen. This curiosity tends to make them more comfortable with risk and open to change. Ironically, the pessimist will not be swayed by good things happening, nor will the optimist be deterred by bad.

Realism (philosophical, not artistic) is the stance that things (ideas, people, the physical world) have mind-independent existence. They “are” what they are regardless of how you see them or believe them to be. The term comes from the Latin realis, meaning “real” (if you’re keeping score, you saw that coming). Basically, a realist isn’t anticipating good or bad, they are just accepting what “is.”

Finally, Idealism is the position that things “are” what we think them or experience them to be. I’m not going to insult your intelligence by telling you the Latin word. If we leave the heady philosophers to their machinations, we can simplify it this way: while realism is the belief that things are as they are, idealism is the belief that things can be improved. Idealism is looking at things as they could be.

Let’s go back to that classroom and let Einstein finish. He made a case for Optimistic Idealism, using his flying lessons as an analogy. He said, “If we take man as he really is, we make him worse. If we seem to be idealists, overestimating, and overrating man, we promote him to what he really can be. So, we have to be idealists in a way, in order to wind up as true realists.”

This is the Pygmalion effect where high expectations lead to improved performance. Pygmalion was a Greek sculptor who fell so much in love with the perfectly beautiful statue he created that the statue came to life. People become what others genuinely and passionately believe they can be. Therein lies the rub. The expectation must come from a place of passion and commitment.

Leaders have the responsibility to see people as possessing the best forms of themselves and sincerely and passionately communicating those expectations. In doing so, they become partners in each person’s journey to be what they really can be. Ideally, leaders are optimistic idealists when it comes to their people because believing really is seeing, and it is the Bison Way.