Raining on people’s parade is rarely welcome. How can you moderate your pessimism so that you can be effective — and have healthy relationships with your colleagues? In this article, the author outlines practical, research-backed strategies to try. You may not be able to change your outlook — particularly if you’re someone who has a prevention focus — but remind yourself that you do have agency. And you can make choices to change your behavior so that your negativity isn’t infecting anyone else.
Have you ever been in a meeting where someone puts down every idea or always jumps right to the risks of a new tactic or strategy? They claim that a proposed initiative is doomed to fail or assert that “we’ve tried that before and it didn’t work.”
