Why you need a staff pessimist

OK, I'm the black cloud. You know - the guy who isn't a "team player". Most meetings and motivational events are the purgatory I put up with as part of the job. I'm probably not the guy you want writing your annual review. I understand the importance of maintaining good morale and the need to remove individuals who continually drain morale. However...

Groups are smart when there is a diversity of experience and information. If everyone has the same information of the same experience they are inclined to make the same mistakes. There is a name for this groupthink.

So when you are evaluating your staff pessimist, you need to ask yourself a couple of questions:

1. Why is the individual negative? If you can find out why the individual views something negatively. There are many reasons. How much change has the individual been through? How long has the individual been working for the company? What kind of leaders has the individual had? Is the individual dealing with any crisis? Without understanding why you run the risk of missing something important. You may not have managed change well. A history of bad managers may have squandered goodwill. There may be a crisis that is tainting the individual's perspective. The individual may have information you are not aware of, or that you are ignoring. You may not have provided enough information. You may not have earned trust.
2. What is the individual's role? In sales or marketing, you need eternal optimists - people who believe they can move mountains, because that is what must be done. If the person is in risk management or finance you want someone who is pessimistic, paranoid, and suspicious. Any where else it shouldn't matter.
3. Is the person affecting the morale of the people around them? Or another way to ask the question, does the individual support decisions? There is a fine line between questioning rationale to understand a decision and insubordination. The difference is simply in motivation. Does the individual want to prove you are not a competent leader or does she truly want to understand the decisions being made.

Leaders have responsibility to understand the people that work for them - these people are going to be crazy. You need to understand their kind of crazy and how to use it for the benefit of your company. You need to find a way to make decisions based on all the little pieces the crazies know. You need black clouds just as much as you need eternal optimists. May be more. Not because the pessimist's view is right, but because reality is somewhere between the two views.