It wouldn’t be the holiday season without a good reference to The Grinch. The bitter, grouchy, green creature who lives in solitude with his dog Max refuses to believe in the spirit of Christmas. While he is often described as “mean” among many other negative adjectives, it is his cynicism that is at the route of his troubles and keeps him from being part of a community.

Most people are familiar with pessimists. They go about their day with a cloud of negativity hovering over them, believing that there is more bad than good in the world. While pessimists certainly aren’t ideal team players, it is the cynics that can cause even more damage to a team. Cynics view people with distrust and scorn for their motives, believing that they only act with their own self interest in mind. They have a deep seeded belief that people can’t be trusted and it can cause serious issues when working with fellow team members.

Cynicism sucks the energy out of a group. It is deflating when someone is always pointing out why something won’t work, or when they explain that the positive things that have occurred were because the team got lucky. It creates a sense of despair and helplessness among the team. Misery also loves company and cynics tend to bring others down with them in pointing out problems or shortcomings as opposed to being solution-oriented.

Cynicism also comes with a host of health problems. Cynics tend to engage in more self destructive behaviors like excessive smoking and drinking. There was a study done at New York’s Mount Sinai Medical School that found that cynics are more likely to die from complications related to heart disease than those that have a more optimistic view on life.

Being overly optimistic can cause problems for leaders, so a small dose of cynicism can serve us in positive ways. The key is to be aware of when that small dose becomes an extra large portion. It’s also critical that we recognize an abundance of cynicism in others. A cynic is someone who once believed and was deceived or traumatized at some point. Deep down they want to believe again without that fear of being deceived. The best way to help them is to provide an opportunity for them to express why they stopped believing and became so pessimistic. When we take time to listen and understand, they have a chance to believe again. Or in the words of Dr. Suess; “And what happened then? Well in Whoville they say, that the Grinch’s small heart grew three sizes that day.”