Positive Leadership: It Makes A Difference
Some might say that positivity is something you’re born with and that you are either a positive leader or not. Actually, positivity is a skill that requires work each and every day. It may look easy to others, as if you are simply a positive person (and you were born that way), but that’s because you have worked on your ability to stay positive no matter what – despite the health or personal crises you are facing, your overwhelming workload, the obstacles that arise, and the difficult personalities and challenging people you are dealing with. This is further complicated by the fact that leaders have to always “be on” if they are in the public. It takes focus and perseverance on being positive each day as it comes. You may have the same fears and struggles as others but you don’t allow them to dominate your behaviors and attitudes. After all, who wants to follow a negative person or leader? There’s actually research demonstrating the effects of positive leaders on the workplace.
I have coached a number of leaders who have great self-awareness (not afraid to seek feedback from others), are optimistic, and are viewed as having strong personal integrity. These attributes are described in theories of positive leadership such as: Authentic Leadership Development, Transformational Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Servant Leadership, and Spiritual Leadership. According to Bruce Avolio and his colleagues all of these theories emphasize the role that leaders play in ensuring the development of their employees as well as being leaders who intentionally enhance positive emotions. In addition, positive leadership has been shown to be related to better organizational outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction job performance, going above and beyond at work, psychological well-being, organizational commitment, creativity) than negative leadership styles (which have been shown to be related to turnover intentions, stress, anxiety, absenteeism, job burnout, retaliatory behaviors). In short, leaders set the tone for their team and/or organization. Similar to the book Zapp by William Byham and Jeff Cox, positive leadership encourages, empowers, and energizes people (zapps them) whereas negative leadership drains, discourages, depletes, and demoralizes employees (sapps the energy out of them).
Becoming a positive leader
If you want to demonstrate positive leadership when interacting with your employees, here are some tips based on the research. It doesn’t simply mean smiling and looking cheerful and ignoring difficult situations. There’s much more to it than that. You have to be an authentic positive leader, which means you need to:
Empower your employees (provide autonomy and flexibility yet at the same time make sure they have the needed training to be successful)
Show that you genuinely care for your employees (by getting to know them and actively listening to them)
Show compassion when your employees are struggling and seek to understand why they have good and/or bad days or performance
Support your employees (advocate for them; speak up for them, serve as their champion)
Serve as a role model and demonstrate positive social exchanges (getting employees to keep conversations about others positive to avoid gossip and spreading negative information). Not letting others’ negativity bring you down
Share inspiration at work and hope for the future
Bring energy to the workplace. Leaders’ behaviors are highly visible to others so if you aren’t bringing energy then why should those around you? Enthusiasm is contagious and it is a great motivator
Remind your employees about the purpose of their work (sometimes in the midst of tough times, people forget why they are at work and what the reason is)
Treat all employees with respect and integrity
Find and share humor
Be a positive change agent – focus on strengths rather than weaknesses (it doesn’t mean that you ignore or gloss over weaknesses, but rather, than you point out the talents people bring to work and how to better utilize those). This comes from having an affirmation bias (oriented towards seeing strengths instead of weaknesses) and by looking for the silver lining in situations
Create a culture where individuals celebrate wins and make note of progress and accomplishments; they cheer each other on
Have a focus on coming up with solutions to problems, not just mentioning the problems; Optimism allows you to tackle challenges head on to move forward
Accept that there will be conflict and address it in a timely manner
As a leader, to be positive and engage in the behaviors listed above, you need to have some of the following characteristics to enable you to keep moving forward despite difficult times and setbacks:
Integrity and a sense of ethics – do what you say you will do; being honorable
Positive self-esteem and self-efficacy (the belief you can do something; control over your own attitude and behaviors)
Resilience (especially when dealing with failures and difficult situations you are able to pick yourself up from setbacks and not view them as overwhelming)
Gratitude – appreciating the good things in your life
Self-care (you have to take care of yourself physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually)
Positive leadership has been shown to have a beneficial impact on the satisfaction, engagement, and performance of individuals, teams, and organizations. It’s not easy for anyone to display a constant positive perspective, especially during challenging times. It requires dedication, persistence, and continual focus for a leader to be optimistic, upbeat, and encouraging around their employees. Yet it is something that we can all work on developing to build better workplaces for everyone.