REVIEW
Optimism – your super power – the why and the how Victor Perton
On returning to Australia from the San Francisco of ‘flowers’ and positivity, Victor noticed a significant change in Australia towards pessimism. Rather than adopting this pervading and prevailing malaise, he set up instead The Australian Leadership Project to “celebrate, understand and improve Australian leadership”. Under this Project, his interview research involving hundreds of executives led to a characterisation of ‘Aussie’ leaders as egalitarian, with self-effacing humour, and open - ‘you will never die without knowing what an Aussie thinks!’. It also formed the basis for his book entitled The Case for Optimism: The Optimist’s Voices which received the comment from Helen Clark, former New Zealand Prime Minister, that “Good things happen when good people get together in common cause ... this is excellent, thought provoking material to share in conversations”.
In our 20th October Special Online Event we heard from Victor Perton, Chief Optimism Officer at the Melbourne-based Centre for Optimism. Victor began by outlining his interesting ‘graduate pathway’ from economics and law degrees, to joining The Bar in his early twenties followed by positions in politics, including election to Victoria’s State Parliament, and government with periods in opposition and in government as a Minister across a variety of portfolios, including manufacturing, economic development, technology, regulatory reform, data protection and privacy, multimedia, conservation, environment, innovation and education.
Balking at the question oft asked of leaders: ‘What keeps you awake at night?’, Victor suggests asking instead ‘What makes you optimistic?’. His ‘Case for Optimism’ is suggested also from studies around the world in different populations. There appears to be a strong correlation between good health and optimism. One longevity study in Sardinia, Italy by Dr Dilip Jeste and psychologist Anna Scelzo (published in International Psychogeriatrics, 2017) found, for example, that those aged 90 years and above were ‘positive, optimistic and hopeful’ notwithstanding having been through many traumatic events in their lives. At the other end of the age spectrum, research by Harvard University Professor Laura Kubzansky in a population of relatively young and healthy US Army active-duty soldiers found that those who tested highest for optimism at the start of the study had a 22 per cent lower risk of developing hypertension during three-and-a-half years of follow-up than those who scored the lowest.
Leaving politics and government due to a change in culture, Victor returned to the law before being appointed by then Victorian Premier John Brumby as the Victorian Government Commissioner to the Americas, based in San Francisco. This role involved bringing foreign investment to Victoria, protecting existing employment-producing investment interests (e.g., Ford, General Motors, Alcoa) and promoting exports of Victorian produce and products. In his dealings with hundreds of senior executives and board members across the United States he noted their consistent view of Australians as reliable, trustworthy and positive with a ‘can-do’, ‘nothing is impossible’ attitude. www.graduatehouse.com.au
Optimistic people appear to sleep better. Medical University of Vienna epidemiologists found that 44
