This is so, so important. I don’t think there is any place for cynics on a high performing team (or in theology, to make what may seem to be an unlikely connection but which matters a lot). But there can be a place for skeptics.
The difference is that skeptics are genuine, and thus convincible. Scott Belsky, in Making Ideas Happen:
As you cultivate your team’s immune system, you will want to differentiate between skeptics and cynics. Cynics cling to their doubts and are often unwilling to move away from their convictions. By contrast, skeptics are willing to embrace something new — they are just wary and critical at first.
To expand on this a bit: the problem with the cynic is not that they will not move away from their convictions per se. People should not move away from convictions that are true. The problem with the cynic is that their convictions are false, because they stem from a false view of reality. A cynic is not guided by principles, but by themselves. They are “wise in their own eyes,” and that’s the reason they will not move away from their “convictions.”
A person whose convictions, on the other hand, are based on correct principles is something else altogether. Namely, a leader.