The job of leaders is to keep hope alive and to create conditions for hopefulness in organizations. Leaders must have a vision for themselves and must involve employees in a collaborative effort to establish and achieve challenging and attainable goals. Often we think that the goal of change in organizations is to make people happy. Forget about happiness. Create conditions and expectations for goal attainment and happiness will be an outcome for most.
Leaders manage transitions and the tension that exists between what is and what can be.
The leaders of hopeful organizations spend time with employees to build trust, to learn, and to communicate. In this time together, people talk to one another, and they listen to one another. If organizations are to change, people must talk to one another much more than most are doing today. Tearing down the barriers of isolation, passivity, and hopelessness is difficult, painful, and frightening at first, but real leaders understand that authentic relationships are the key to hopeful and sustainable organizations. The Weltanschauung of control and predictability has depleted itself of active hope.