Assume Positive Intent

When Indra Nooyi — who ran PepsiCo for 12 years, nearly 2.5 times the average CEO tenure — was asked for the most important leadership advice she’d ever received, she said: “Whatever anybody says or does, assume positive intent.”

We all look at life through different lenses — lenses that filter what we see, what we hear, what we believe. Psychologists have identified more than 50 unconscious biases that shape our thinking, among them:

Confirmation bias: We give more attention and credibility to facts that support what we already believe, and discount or ignore facts that don’t.

Loss aversion bias: We will risk more to avoid losing something we have than to gain something of equal value.

Transference bias: The unconscious tendency to react emotionally to someone based on whether they resemble someone from our past — even someone we haven’t thought about in 20 years.

In a very real way, each of us is continuously creating our own version of reality based on these lenses. Every time an event occurs, we make a choice — often unconsciously — about what it means.

When a team member makes a mistake, you might create the “reality” that this person is incompetent or careless. That’s a choice. There are other realities available: curiosity (what is it about the system, the communication, or the process that contributed?) or coaching (what can we learn here? what didn’t they have that they needed?).

“Assume positive intent” rests on a simple premise: most people aren’t deliberately trying to create negative results. They’re usually trying to do something right — they just see a different situation than you do. Investing time in understanding their reality, rather than judging it, tends to produce better outcomes for everyone.

Balance it with this: fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me. But start there — with the assumption that the person in front of you is trying.

What are you assuming right now?