Hope.

It’s a four-letter word that can change everything.

When someone has hope, they keep moving forward despite their challenges or adversity.

What happens, though, when hope is absent?

Consider the results when people don’t believe there’s any hope of success:

What would have been the outcome had the Apollo 13 team lost hope in returning the crew to earth?

What would be the impact if an Olympic athlete lost hope of ever winning a medal?

People lose their aspirations, ambitions, and plans when they stop hoping for something better.

I’ve said many times that hope isn’t a strategy, but without hope, people are unlikely to believe your strategy.

With hope, people look for innovative ways to succeed.

With hope, teams support each other in difficult times.

With the hope anything becomes possible.

Simply put, hope is the fuel to turn your strategy into reality.

Start by checking that you have hope.

Do you have hope that the team can succeed?

If you don’t, that skepticism will unconsciously leak out and reduce the hope others feel.

Your responses, actions, and leadership are critical factors in how much hope your team holds.

Even if you believe you have hope, look for ways to amplify it. Find the little things that worry you and confront them.

Your hope will be infectious.

Build alignment to purpose

When teams aren’t aligned with their purpose, they will struggle to have hope. This struggle will result from confusion about what they’re trying to accomplish together.

When you invest the time to explore purpose with the team, you will quickly discover how they’re not aligned.

With that awareness, you have the opportunity to create alignment.

Alignment will increase hope.

Invest in your team’s hope.

Hope isn’t something that happens by accident. Hope also isn’t something you can measure.

For this reason, it’s essential to continually work on ensuring hope exists.

After all, without hope, what’s the point, right?

Hope.

A four-letter word with lots of power.