Every leader/manager will eventually run into overly-optimistic and overly-cautious employees. The question is how do we help each grow personally and professionally?
Overly optimistic
The overly-optimistic, regardless of how much they have on their plate, are the first to volunteer when you have a project with which you need help. There’s no point in trying to figure out why they fail to be realistic in assessing capacity. We simply need to guide them to more realistic expectations without diminishing their optimism.
What’s worked well for me is simply saying: I appreciate your willingness to help, but you’ve got a lot of valuable things on your plate…things I’d rather not postpone. Let’s let someone who has important, less-urgent, work to do, handle this project.
With this language, I’m honoring their optimism, their willingness to help, and the value of the work they do, while avoiding overwhelming them…something they’d do to themselves given the opportunity.
Overly cautious
Overly-cautious employees set goals for themselves that are easily attainable. Again, their motivation is irrelevant. What we need to do is get them to stretch; yet be successful.
Here’s the language I use in this situation: I know I’m asking you to stretch, but could you add these [one or two] goals to your list? If you don’t accomplish them I’m not going to beat up on you, but I am confident that you can accomplish them.
By using this language I’m telling them: I know I’m asking a lot, but I believe in you. One of the lessons I’ve learned is that people live up to or down to expectations. If we let them know that we trust them they will live up to that expectation. Conversely, if we continuously question what they do, how they do it or, worse yet, criticize what they do, they’ll lose all initiative.
What I’ve found, over decades of using the language above with overly-cautious people, is that they are successful in accomplishing the one or two additional goals…goals I considered to be a slam dunk success for them.
What I didn’t anticipate was their tendency to become more aggressive, less cautious, in their goal setting. As they saw the success they were having in accepting additional goals, their confidence grew and, along with that confidence, aggressiveness in setting their own goals.
It was a real treat to see them become more confident (less fearful), more successful and happier as a result of their new self image…something that spills over into their personal lives as well.
Takeaways
If we were to look at a bell-shaped curve, the overly-optimistic and overly-cautious are the tails of that curve. They’re the ones that need the most help in being successful at what they do.
With the overly-optimistic, we need to reign in their enthusiasm (optimism) without losing their initiative. We accomplish this by expressing appreciation for their willingness to help, reminding them that they already have a full plate of valuable, urgent work to be done, and that there’ll be future projects in which they’ll be involved.
This language helps fulfill their need to be seen as valued and valuable while preventing them from overwhelming themselves.
The overly-cautious grow in both their confidence and the aggressiveness of their goal setting when we:
- Ask them to stretch by adding one or two goals…goals that are slam-dunk attainable for them. Note: Ask them, do not tell, them to add the goals.
- Let them know that we’re asking them to stretch.
- Won’t beat up on them if they aren’t successful…even though we know they will be.
- Express our belief that they can handle the request we’re making.
This language expresses belief in them that they don’t feel in themselves. As they experience the enjoy of success in achieving additional goals, their confidence grows and they become more aggressive in setting their own goals.
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If you’d like the leaders in your organization to learn how to use the numbers more effectively and dramatically improve the productivity of your workforce, contact me to learn more about these resources:
Resources
Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal program helps you identify and nurture emerging leaders who elevate all around them to higher levels of performance and greater job enjoyment.
Financial Awareness & Strategy program where employees learn to identify opportunities to improve financial results and prioritize these opportunities on the basis of which produces the greatest impact with the least effort. Greater financial awareness = Better decisions.
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