It can feel like the ground is always moving these days. Headlines shift by the hour. Teams are tired. Families are juggling a lot. With so much friction in the system, it’s easy to feel exhausted and burned out.
And yet, the work of a leader is to not just focus on the current reality but to offer hope that it can be made better. It’s true at work and it’s true in life.
That’s why Dr. Rick Bedlack is my newest leadership role model. As the director of Duke University’s ALS Clinic, Rick’s daily work demands that he define reality with scientific rigor and then offer hope that is tangible, not wishful. As Rick put it in my conversation with him for Best Ever, hope isn’t just a feeling, it’s an action.
Here are three simple principles from Rick’s approach with some thoughts on how any leader in any field can put them to work.
1) Hope = Optimism + Agency
Optimism says, “A better future is possible,” Agency says, “and I can do something about it.” When you put those two words together, hope becomes a verb. That’s how Rick Bedlack operates: he encourages his patients to identify one thing that would be relatively easy to do and likely to make their life just a little bit better. For instance, if one of his patient’s hopes is to get to their kid’s soccer games, Rick and his team can help them find a wheelchair that will easily fit into a car.
This principle of “What can I actually do to make things better?” applies both to leading yourself and leading others.
If you feel like you could use a dose of self-leadership, try this today:
Write two lines: “I hope that…” and “This week I will…”
Choose one 10–15-minute action that nudges your hope forward – send the email, book the conversation, make the request, take the first walk.
Tell someone what you’re doing. Agency grows when it’s shared and witnessed.
2) Lead with curiosity
A lot of Rick’s patients come to their first appointment with a big bag of stuff. Instead of overlooking it, Rick asks, “What’s in the bag?” Usually, the patient starts pulling out supplements and other things that they think, or hope, will alleviate their condition. Instead of poo-pooing what they bring in, Rick says, “Let’s check it out.” He listens, looks for evidence, and tests claims rather than dismissing the hope out of hand. Rick’s approach demonstrates that curiosity lowers the temperature and raises the quality of decisions at home, at work, and in communities. Curiosity increases the sense of agency and expands the range of options.
Increase agency and expand options by trying this with your team:
Frame the question: “What problem are we actually trying to solve?”
List three facts you know for sure and one assumption you need to test.
Design a small experiment for the next 7 days: what will you do, what will you track, and how will you know if it helped?
Share the results in clear language – no hype, no hedging. People can move forward when they see a path.
3) Lead with appreciation
One of the many things I appreciate about the way Rick leads is that when he walks into the exam room, he doesn’t start by asking the patient, “What’s bothering you today?” Instead, he asks, “What are you hopeful about today?” It’s the perfect question to create hope based on optimism and agency. In my profession of coaching, some of us employ a similar practice known as appreciative inquiry. We don’t start by asking, “What’s going wrong?”, we start with “What’s going right?” Because the thing is that there’s almost something that’s going right. When we identify what’s going right, we can talk about how to build on that momentum. When you lead with appreciation, you typically spark optimism and agency.
Lead with appreciation by trying this with your team or family:
Start your next conversation with one or more minutes of “what’s working.”
Name at least one small win from the past week and one thing you’re excited to try next.
Offer a simple acknowledgement – a note, a quick text, a specific thank-you – that tells someone exactly what you noticed and why it mattered.
Life and leadership both benefit from offering hope. Before you move on to your next task, why not take a few moments to consider where and when you could offer hope by fostering both optimism and agency? I’d love to hear what comes up for you through your comment on LinkedIn.
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