Why the Best Leaders Focus on Attitude and Small Wins (Not Just Big Goals)

Last month, a close friend of mine had surgery followed by a recovery plan that sounded manageable on paper and humbling in practice: short walks, careful movement, no lifting, and a lot of waiting. In the first week, she texted me a photo of her “win” for the day: making it to the end of her driveway and back without stopping. 

The next day, it was standing without the walker to make coffee. A few days later, it was taking a shower without feeling completely wiped out.

What stood out to me was how she approached the process. She didn’t pretend recovery was easy, but she also didn’t let frustration run the show. She stayed grounded, paid attention to progress instead of the distance remaining, and treated each small improvement as proof that things were moving in the right direction.

Her surgeon was surprised by how quickly she regained strength. She treated recovery like a practice rather than a test. Progress—not perfection—was the goal.

And that mindset is just as powerful in professional environments as it is in physical recovery.

A positive attitude is not a soft leadership trait

In organizations, “having a positive attitude” can often seem Pollyanna-ish in the face of stressful situations and business challenges. Some might view it as forced optimism rather than accepting the seriousness of the moment. The truth is, a grounded, disciplined “we can do this” attitude is neither naïve nor performative. It’s the ability to have a vision, with goals, and when conditions are imperfect, stay focused on the steps for forward progress. This is particularly critical when priorities shift and clarity is elusive.

With senior leadership teams, attitude is most obvious in the face of uncertainty and stress. Leaders with a steady outlook don’t confuse friction with failure. They treat obstacles as information rather than crises, and that posture shapes how the entire organization responds.

Teams tend to mirror the tone at the top. When leaders frame challenges as problems to solve, people reframe the issues from tipping points to expected parts of the business journey. This makes the problems seem more approachable rather than something to fear, and they are able to take more ownership. 

On the flip side, when leaders narrate setbacks as proof that “nothing works here”, “we’re not trying hard enough” or “we’re looking at the wrong things”, teams narrow their thinking, lose confidence in themselves and their colleagues, and lose momentum.

Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer’s work on the “progress principle” shows that small, visible wins are one of the strongest drivers of engagement and performance. People don’t need constant breakthroughs; they need to feel that their work is moving something forward.

Small wins are how momentum returns when execution slows

Most teams don’t struggle because their goals are wrong. They struggle because the path from intention to execution fills up with ambiguity - unclear decision rights, competing priorities, and endless revisiting of the same conversations.

When clarity erodes, teams respond by staying busy. Meetings multiply and execution becomes the goal rather than the previously intended outcome. On the surface, this can look like effort and engagement but underneath, it’s often a sign that progress has stalled.

What’s key is to step back, re-examine your end goals, and determine which activities are useful or wasteful. Make sure everyone is clear on your organization’s top priorities – if they’re not, you’ll be continually swimming upstream.

Karl Weick’s research on small wins shows that large, complex problems become manageable when they’re broken into concrete, achievable actions. These wins don’t solve everything at once, but they reduce uncertainty and rebuild confidence in the team’s ability to move forward.

In organizations, meaningful small wins might include clarifying ownership of a key decision, resolving a long-standing cross-functional tension, or defining what “good” actually looks like so teams stop “working in circles”. Like the story of the Boys in the Boat, everyone has to row in sync to successfully cross the finish line.

Celebrating small wins isn’t lowering the bar

For senior leaders, celebrating small wins can sound like applauding minimal effort and that’s not what I’m recommending. We want to celebrate moments where something genuinely gets clearer, easier, or faster.

When leaders acknowledge these moments, they’re reinforcing progress. Over time, that reinforcement shapes behavior by signaling what matters and where people should continue to focus their energy.

Positive emotion plays a functional role here as well. Barbara Fredrickson’s broaden-and-build research shows that constructive emotional states expand cognitive capacity, making it easier to think creatively, collaborate effectively, and adapt under pressure. Chronic frustration does the opposite; it narrows perspective and fuels defensiveness.

Where team optimization fits

Most organizations don’t need more motivation, they need fewer obstacles.

That’s why one of the most reliable ways to improve morale is through structural clarity. When priorities are clear and roles are well-defined, progress becomes visible and attitudes improve as a byproduct. Team meetings can focus on what’s been accomplished not what’s been missed.

This is the core of TKJ Leadership’s Team Optimization work: helping leadership teams clarify strategy, strengthen decision-making, improve communication, and design operating rhythms that support successful execution over time. As bottlenecks ease and ownership grows, small wins emerge naturally and foster continued momentum.

The most senior-level small win

One of the clearest signals of team dysfunction is when progress depends on senior leaders constantly stepping in. This initially seems like displays of leadership and accountability, but it more likely reinforces dependency and slows decision making and outcomes.

The most meaningful small win at the leadership level is shifting from rescuing to designing—designing how priorities are set, what accountability looks like at every level, and where decision rights lie. This shift ensures complete alignment and the sense that “we’re all in this together”. And most importantly, team members will more easily see how their contributions impact the business.

If progress feels hard and activity outweighs results, the smart question is not: “How do we improve performance?” The more relevant question is: “Where are we actually making progress and where do we get stuck?”

Momentum comes from clarity, thoughtful collaboration, and expecting forward progress to occur from compounding each small win.