Shane J. Lopez, PhD

Followers—students, employees, congregants, citizens—all need hope. There it is. I just summed up the last century’s worth of scholarly works on leadership. It is worth repeating. Followers need hope.

It is much discussed and celebrated, and it is somewhat important at school and in the workplace, but a high IQ is not essential to a good life. However, hope is like oxygen. As I saw then and continue to see every day, we can’t live without hope.

Hope is created moment to moment through our deliberate choices. It happens when we use our thoughts and feelings to temper our aversion to loss and actively pursue what is possible. When we choose hope, we define what matters to us most.

In his early research on hope, Rick Snyder found that thinking about multiple pathways to a goal is a core skill of hopeful people. It is also one that can be taught.

Hopeful people believe: There are many paths to my goals. None of them is free of obstacles.

In short, mindset influences every aspect of your life, from work to sports, from relationships to parenting. If you believe you can change and develop, you know you can move beyond your present limitations. This makes a growth mindset the natural companion of hope.

So whenever someone poses the question ‘What’s unique about humans?’ feel free to skip the traditional answers about opposable thumbs, tool use, and language, and instead answer, ‘Hope.’