Hope in a Strategy

On my daily walk, I was listening to a podcast that repeated the refrain “hope is not a strategy”, and we all nod along without thinking, of course it’s not, you can’t run your life, business, or any meaningful project based on hope.

But, I wondered, can you do these things without it? And without getting all philosophical or life coachy, I thought I’d explore that here.

What’s the alternative?

No hope?

No hope is definitely not a strategy.

As I walked and thought about this, a business development person I had worked with years ago came to mind. They had a reputation as “the glass-half-full guy” who described this lack of hope as “realism”. They went about their day, did all the things, but had lost hope in the business and struggled to get leads.

Was this causation or correlation?

Have you ever tried to do something when you have no hope of a positive outcome?

Of course, “hope is not a strategy” is shorthand for making strategic decisions based on data, research, and insight rather than on gut feelings, wishes, intuition, or misplaced confidence in the universe.

I am now worried about how this might sound, as you know, I have my inner voice that constantly suggests I might sound like a bit of a cock in these posts, but here goes…

Most of us naturally have hope. Doesn’t data, research, and insight just give us more hope?

It gives us the evidence to be hopeful and optimistic about an outcome.

In sales and marketing, there is no certainty in many of the outcomes we desire, and let’s face it, in this crazy fucked up world, who knows what’s around the corner?

In most fields, being pessimistic could be considered sensible and pragmatic, but in sales and marketing, the job literally requires you to believe the next conversation might go well, or why have it?

Hope is not a nice-to-have; it’s a professional requirement.

And back to my old BD chum, I wondered if that loss of hope was a self-fulfilling prophecy; would it be too bold to suggest that he was professionally lacking for not having hope?

Which led me to think, is hope an attribute of high-performing teams?

We’ve all made career decisions not knowing for sure if this is a rocketship to chocolate island or a handcart to hell, you just look into the eyes of its CEO and see it - raw hope - and strap yourself in, we don’t pop into the CFO’s office and ask for a word.

And if it is an attribute of performance, like anything, we can’t expect it; we have to nurture it, we have to create an environment for it to thrive.

Therefore, it’s our job to give our teams hope.

Right?

So, hope may not be a strategy, but your strategy is probably a bit fucked without it.