This is an extract from my weekly newsletter The Looking Glass.

“The lesson I learned is that the player who looks least engaged may be the most committed member of the group. A cynic, after all, is a passionate person who does not want to be disappointed again.”

Benjamin Zander, The Art of Possibility

That bombshell insight bears repeating: 

The player who looks least engaged may be the most committed member of the group.

We often quickly write people off (usually those with different personality types or values) as disengaged and underperformers. What if they are the most committed to the relationship, team, project, or organisation, but they have had the passion beat out of them, maybe through poor leadership or frustrating team members. They have lost hope and become cynical.

The challenge for us as leaders is restoring enthusiasm. Can we help re-light their fire?

Benjamin Zander’s learning from his scenario was:

“The secret is not to speak to a person’s cynicism, but to speak to her passion.”

This key takeaway leads us to today’s question(s):

Reflect on some of your recent conversations. 

Would you say you generally speak to your partner or colleagues’ sense of cynicism or passion?

If necessary, how could you start to tilt this in the opposite direction?

I hope you enjoyed this extract from The Looking Glass newsletter. Sign up for the full newsletter here.