Negativity attracts attention and is often equated with intelligence, so it’s no surprise that leaders often feel they need to focus on what might go wrong. That kind of defensive posture can be helpful, in that it allows leaders and organizations to detect problems and threats, but it can also narrow your focus, and in so doing reduce your creativity and make it hard for you to recognize opportunities. Hope, research in behavioral psychology suggests, provides a bulwark against this self-defeating behavior — and if leveraged appropriately, it can be a powerful force in helping organizations thrive.
