战略上，乐观的领导者比悲观主义者好不到哪里去

Happy individuals enjoy improvements in intuition, creativity and resilience. Happiness reinforces our immune function, reduces susceptibility to strokes, among other things, and even improves longevity.

快乐的人能够获得直觉、创造力和适应力方面的改善。快乐有诸多益处，比如可以增强我们的免疫功能，减少中风风险，甚至还可以延长寿命。

Positive emotions also widen the number of ways in which people react to threats and challenges. Too much negativity merely encourages us to fight or flee from danger.

积极的情绪还会拓宽人们应对威胁和挑战的方法。太多的消极情绪只会促使我们对抗或逃离危险。

So it is entirely logical, even desirable, that leaders should aim to encourage this self-reinforcing attitude.

因此，领导者应该致力于鼓励这种自我强化的态度，这是完全合乎逻辑的，甚至是非常可取的。

Listen to the London Stock Exchange’s chief executive David Schwimmer on the prospects for his group’s $27bn high-stakes takeover of Refinitiv, the data provider:

听听伦敦证券交易所(LSE)首席执行官大卫•施维默(David Schwimmer)对该集团以270亿美元大手笔收购数据提供商路孚特(Refinitiv)的前景是怎么说的：

“We feel that this is a very strong combination that we feel very good about strategically, we feel very good about the leverage and our ability to pay it down. We feel good about integration and we feel very good about the combined team.” It is fair to say he feels good and wants everyone around him to feel good.

“我们认为这是一个非常强大的组合，我们在战略上感觉非常好，我们对使用的杠杆和偿还它们的能力感觉非常好。我们对整合感觉很好，我们对合并后的团队感觉非常好。”可以这么说，他感觉很好并希望身边的每个人都感觉良好。

In business, the influence of psychologist Carol Dweck’s concept of the “growth mindset” — openness to learning and trying new approaches — is spreading. It has been key to Satya Nadella’s plan to change Microsoft’s culture. When he stepped in as chief executive of Volkswagen, mired in the “Dieselgate” scandal, Matthias Müller talked of the need to change the carmaker’s mindset and adopt “the right attitude and mentality”.

在商业领域，心理学家卡罗尔•德韦克(Carol Dweck)提出的“成长思维”(对学习和尝试新方法持开放态度)的影响正在扩大。它是萨提亚•纳德拉(Satya Nadella)改变微软(Microsoft)文化的计划的关键。当马提亚斯•穆勒(Matthias Müller)成为陷入“柴油门”丑闻的大众汽车(Volkswagen)的首席执行官时，他谈到了改变大众思维方式并采取“正确态度和心态”的必要性。

Both CEOs recognise relentless positivity alone will not achieve results, though.

然而，两位首席执行官都承认，单凭积极态度是办不成事的。

Prof Dweck herself has criticised the common misconception that just by assuming a growth mindset, “good things will happen”.

德韦克教授本人批评了一种常见的误解，即只要采取成长思维，“好事就会发生”。

Leaders who set a strategic goal, without rooting it in reality, or laying out the steps to execute the strategy, set followers up for disappointment, cynicism and chaos. Boosterism risks being exposed as mere blusterism.

领导者如果没有根据实际情况制定战略目标，或者没有制定执行战略的步骤，都会让追随者失望、产生怀疑和混乱。推动主义有可能变成吹牛主义。

Before leaders take to the battlements to rally their troops with positive messages, they must understand their own abilities. Adam Grant of Wharton business school points out that “whether people succeed is not a matter of thinking positively or negatively, but rather whether they choose the strategies that match their thinking styles”. A defensive pessimist will look foolish and unconvincing making a tub-thumpingly upbeat speech to the Boosters’ Club.

在领导人以积极口号集结人手参加战斗之前，他们必须了解自己的能力。沃顿商学院(Wharton)的亚当•格兰特(Adam Grant)指出，“人们是否成功不是积极思维或消极思维的问题，而是他们是否选择了与其思维方式相匹配的策略”。一个防御性的悲观主义者向推动者俱乐部发表慷慨激昂的乐观演讲，这会显得很蠢而且难以令人信服。

Leaders who are strategic optimists actually perform no better than pessimists, who are able to turn anxiety into action. What is needed is a mix of both. “We do not wish to knock the booster,” Sinclair Lewis wrote, “but we certainly do wish to boost the knocker.”

战略上乐观的领导者实际上比悲观主义者好不到哪里去，后者能够将焦虑转化为行动。需要的是两者的结合。辛克莱•刘易斯写道：“我们不希望打击推动者，但我们当然希望推动消极者。”

Studies back him up. Too much positivity can be bad for you. In fact, there’s an ideal ratio for human flourishing of about three to one, between positive emotions — amusement, hope, joy and so on — and negative ones. Three cheers, then, for positive thinking — and one carefully modulated catcall.

研究支持了他的观点。太多积极思维可能不是什么好事。事实上，人类要蓬勃发展，乐趣、希望和喜悦等积极情绪和消极情绪之间的理想比例大约是三比一。所以，请为积极思维欢呼三声——再加上一声谨慎的嘘声。