While listening to CBC radio recently, a remark from the host caught my attention and set my imagination in motion. Although I can’t recall what they were speaking about, their conversation prompted me to begin thinking about what truly distinguishes wishing, hoping, and having faith in the workplace. What impact do these three mindsets have on outcomes and behavior?
In my own words, drawn from the Oxford and Webster dictionaries, a wish is a passive desire; something you long for but aren’t sure will ever happen, perhaps accompanied by nothing more than crossed fingers. Hope goes a step further; it’s an optimistic expectation that something good might occur, though you’re still on the sidelines, waiting. Faith however is having complete confidence or trust that an outcome will happen, that you are not just optimistic. In summary, wishes rely on chance, hope on possibility, and faith on certainty.
Why does this distinction matter? It’s not just a subtle play on words. Leaders aiming to align, inspire, and enable their teams should consider the unique potential each mindset brings. Understanding these differences can inform how, when, and why leaders, and teams take action.
If your team wishes things would change, they’ll likely wait passively. If they hope for improvement, they may want and expect change, but feel powerless to create it, therefore they will be passive and not even prepare for when things will be different. But if your team has faith, they’ll not only believe in an improved future, but as part of an inspiring team culture they will prepare and be ready for that future. People who have faith may even knowingly or unknowingly take steps to help that future arrive.
Faith is more enabling because it includes confidence – trust – that a specific future will happen. There may be some question to when and even how, but there is certainty that it will happen.
For example, imagine a group of mountain climbers arriving to base camp just as a snow and windy storm come in making the summit disappear and the path too dangerous.
• The person who wishes they could climb the mountain is likely still sitting at home wishing someone would plan the trip and transportation for them.
• At base camp, a hopeful climber says, “I hope the weather clears tomorrow.” We’ve come all this way and it would be amazing if we would be able to make our 3AM start tomorrow.” Then, they convince others to settle in for a long night playing cards as they hope for a break in the weather.
• Another clumber says, “I have faith that the weather will clear and the winds will drop.” Then, quietly she begins checking her ropes, reviewing the route map, and carefully packing her gear, with a focus still on the planned 3AM start, even though the potential didn’t look good.
One of her other team mates even asks, “Why bother preparing tonight? We don’t even know if we’ll get a weather window.” In response, she shrugs and says, “I have faith the weather will break. I am not sure when, but when it does, I want to be ready to be able to do my best and experience the greatest climb possible.”
At 3:30 AM the clouds and wind suddenly break. Those who wished and hoped had to scramble to get ready. But our faithful climber and the few other climbers who had also prepared were able to immediately begin moving up the mountain on their planned rout. And they did it with less stress and greater attention to the overall positive experience.
Nobody in the faithful group had any control over the weather. But their faith showed up in preparation.
Leaders talk a lot about goals, strategy, and performance, but the quiet force underneath all of that is faith — the belief that what we’re doing matters and that we can achieve our goals. When a leader inspires faith along with trust, respect, transparency and pride, people move forward – even before any evidence of success appears. And equally important, teams with faith in the outcome will understand and own the outcome even when they encounter setbacks or difficulty. A positive, proactive mindset changes everything and is essential for innovation, change, and big goals.
Inspired leaders hold faith for and in their team before the team can hold it for themselves.
So, as a leader, how do you help your team to not wait, wish and hope for opportunity? How do you enable your team by – in part – helping them to have faith that opportunity will come, and to help them to proactively be ready to have the greatest experience with the least amount of stress when it does?