Hope can be a faint glimmer on the distant horizon. It can keep us moving on the journey of community, belonging and love. Hope is a way of thinking - a cognitive process - or as C. R. Snyder called it a trilogy of: goals, pathways and agency.
Yes, hope is also based in emotions and can greatly inspire us to reach the highest heights, however its core is in ‘function.’ We experience hope when we can set realistic goals, when we can stay flexible and develop alternative pathways, and when we believe in ourselves or “agency.”
Interestingly, hope is also a function of struggle. As Brené Brown, in Atlas of the Heart, writes, “We develop hope not during the easy or comfortable times, but through adversity and discomfort. Hope is forged when our goals, pathways and agency are tested and when change is actually possible.”
Hope is learned in childhood by parents and by our communities. To learn hopefulness, children need relationships that are characterized by boundaries, consistency and support. Children with high levels of hopefulness have experience with adversity. They’ve been given the opportunity to struggle, and in doing so, they have learned how to believe in themselves.
Community leaders must also have a healthy dose of pragmatic hope to accomplish their plans and dreams. Even today, when our communities feel like they are on the brink of fracturing and possibly dissolving, community leaders must remain hopeful for the good of the whole community.
The Stockdale Paradox offers a poignant example, emphasizing the need to confront the brutal facts of the current reality while maintaining unwavering faith in eventual success. Admiral Stockdale, of which the Paradox is named after, was a POW of the Vietnam War and when interviewed on how he survived all those years of torture and imprisonment he said: “You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end – which you can never afford to lose – with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they may be. The ones that didn’t survive were the ones who thought they were getting out every Christmas and then Christmas would pass and they’d still be imprisoned – you must confront the facts of your current reality, however never lose faith.”
Can you commiserate, community leaders? What if we talked more about being vulnerable, honest and addressing our “brutal facts,” while encouraging our community (and naysayers) that we do indeed have unwavering hope for our community?
Jim Collins described that type of pragmatic idealism. “An unwavering faith that the company [community] will prevail is foundational to a great companies’ ability to confront the brutal facts of the current reality, no matter what the facts are. The discipline of paying attention to brutal facts is developed by creating a culture of allowing people at every level to have a voice and to speak.”
Faith teaches us to live without certainty and to hope without guarantee. Faith can be a four letter word especially if you’re talking about community leadership. In fact, I would suggest that faith rarely, if ever, enters the leadership lexicon. Some of that may be an aversion to the politics of religion or, we just have never really thought of faith and leadership intertwined.
However, faith leads to hope and overcomes fear. Without faith, we can never reach innovation and advancement (which should be every leader’s goal). Innovation, change and progress requires faith. Seth Godin, a secular business author, once remarked, “Faith is the cornerstone of humanity.” Faith in ourselves, in others and in our communities, is best held with an open heart, nurtured by hope.
The journey toward hope isn't just about professing positive dreams (or for some, toxic positivity). It's about the meticulous blend of art and math, mind and heart in every facet of community building.