Infectious Optimism for Leadership

At its simplest, optimism is an expectation that good things will happen and things will work out in the end. There’s strong evidence that optimism will improve your health. There is a strong link between optimism and longevity. Infectious optimism is the essential trait of the globally successful leader.

Victor Perton is the Chief Optimism Officer of The Centre for Optimism and a Director of Project Optimism.  The offspring of stateless refugees from the Baltics, Victor's early working years were spent in the law, politics and public policy culminating in 18 years in the Australian Parliament.

After working overseas, Victor returned to  Melbourne, and was surprised by the negativity around Australian leadership and increasing levels of anxiety and depression in the community.  This led to the founding of The Australian Leadership Project and, after a Eureka moment, the founding of its offspring The Centre for Optimism which now has over 5000 members and subscribers in 90 countries.

Today Victor's work centres on asking people the question "What makes you Optimistic?"

Spreading optimism starts with how we greet each other. Asking 'How are you? is a pointless question. Asking 'What makes you Optimistic?' lights people up and elicits a positive response.Research shows that great leaders are infectious optimists. They focus on what's possible and look for opportunity at every level instead of problems.Optimism is beneficial for everyone, from prisoners in jail to corporate leaders.  The Delai Lama said that young people especially need a sense of optimism.The media take a pessimistic approach to global issues such as climate changes and this is counter productive. People need hope in order to take positive action. Big brands understand this concept, hence their success.There are 14 habits of an optimist. Ending every conversation with 30 seconds of laughter is one of them!

Connect with Victor Perton

The Centre for Optimism
Optimism: The How and Why

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