An underrated and often overlooked leadership quality is enthusiasm. When you have a manager or leader who regularly presents themselves as melancholy, cynical, or worse: sarcastic, it’s incredibly hard to get excited about projects, objectives or key initiatives your team is working on. Nothing will rob you of your excitement faster than having your leader roll their eyes at a new project you are excited about. Not only can it rob you of excitement, but when a leader isn’t genuinely enthusiastic about their work, it can often lead to insecurity on the team; I’m much less likely to share an update I’m passionate about if I think my team or leader won’t care. It also negatively sets the tone and culture for the rest of the team; I will subconsciously be less excited about my peer’s projects if it’s clear the leader isn’t. When a leader makes it cool not to care, those who do will hide it.
Conversely, it’s exceptionally contagious when a leader is enthusiastic about chasing a hard goal, accomplishing an objective, or discussing a project. How you show up as the leader matters and sets the tone for the rest of the team. When the leader is fired up, the team gets fired up.
And the reality is sometimes you need to channel your enthusiasm even when you might be having a bad day, which we all have, and may not feel particularly enthusiastic. I’m not suggesting ever acting disingenuously, but I am talking about showing up for your team when they need it, and that might mean in attitude as well as physical or virtual presence.