The third law of CEO communication

The third law of CEO Communication is to deal out optimism.

Great leaders are dealers in optimism: they are optimistic about their goals, organisations, people, and the future. 

Here optimism does not mean burying one’s head in the sand and not acknowledging reality. On the contrary, if the circumstances are bad, the great leader acknowledges the negatives and gives hope to his people that better days are ahead – and outlines his game plan to get to the promised land. 

The best example of this is British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s speeches during World War II. Another great leader, John F. Kennedy, described the ingrained optimism in Churchill’s speeches: “In the dark days and darker nights when England stood alone – and most men save Englishmen despaired of England›s life – [Churchill] mobilised the English language and sent it into battle. The incandescent quality of his words illuminated the courage of his countrymen.” 

The ever-present optimism in Churchill’s speeches helped him win the war.

More recently, in the US, Barack Obama’s optimism (“Yes We Can”, and the “audacity of hope”) pulled America out of the worst recession since the Great Depression.

The business world too is strewn with examples of optimistic statements by great business leaders: Bill Gates stating his vision to put “a computer on every desk”, Steve Jobs wanting to “put a dent in the universe”, and Richard Branson passionate about making “peoples’ lives better” by entering and revolutionising new industries. 

A hallmark of great business leaders is transforming their industries and the world through their optimism. That’s why Henry Ford said that “a business that makes nothing but money is a poor business”.

Optimism shows a higher purpose to employees, and fires them up to achieve the leader’s goals. That is why dealing out optimism is one of the tools in the CEO Communicator’s tool kit. As Churchill said, “For myself I am an optimist – it does not seem to be much use to be anything else.”

You can learn about more CEO communication tools at YKG’s flagship training workshop ‘STAIRS TO CEO – For Senior Managers on their way to CEO’ – on Thursday 24 May at the Cinnamon Grand, Colombo. Call or mail: 077-999-2442, [email protected] to register.