A lot has been talked about and written about leadership. It’s not surprising. It’s such an important factor for success, depending on the kind of leadership existing in a place, it can make or break big business corporations, civic organizations, sports associations, small or medium size enterprises and even fund-raising charitable institutions and foundations … and for that matter, in a more expansive perspective, even governments.
What exactly is positive leadership?
In the context of running a business or a typical organization, profit or non-profit, Positive Leadership is about putting the emphasis on what elevates individuals, teams, and organizations. It’s about developing and gearing them up to achieve their full potential in addition to supporting and guiding them as they face everyday challenges they meet in the course of their personal and professional lives.
Positive Leadership is about creating affirmative bias – in other words, a positive leader focuses on the strength and capabilities of his people and affirming their human potential. Rather than harping on weaknesses and inadequacies … rather than seeing a glass of water as being half empty, but seeing it half full, a positive leader centers his or her efforts on his team’s inherent goodness. He focuses on the positive, putting his/her heart and soul on what is going right in addition to what’s going wrong.
Practicing all these, a good positive leader becomes effective and prone to achieving extraordinary positive performance on the job, resulting in outcomes that exceed expectations.
How does one go about becoming a positive leader?
If you’re running a small or a medium size business or some form of an organized outfit, here are three key strategies you can apply to achieve positive leadership in your workplace:
- Create a positive climate –While it’s not something you should ignore, try not to dwell too much on the hard, no-nonsense, profit-or-bust stuff. Instead, foster compassion. Thank your people for well-done jobs. Where they may have some shortcomings, learn to forgive while teaching them how to do things the right way.
- Create a two-way positive communication – This involves that popular adage about building bridges rather than walls. Make sure your feedback system is one that is constructive in nature identifying flaws and weaknesses without demoralization and advocating training and development for professional advancement. It won’t hurt too for you to do an objective and honest self-critique. It’ll keep you on track about achieving positive leadership.
- Practice a positive relationship with your people – Build a community-like workplace where you connect to your guys’ personal values. Work towards their physical and emotional well-being, they are after all, not cold robots. Reinforce their strengths, constantly looking for ways to build their energy and enthusiasm.
These then are the three important strategies in achieving positive leadership. As you imbibe and adopt these, a positive performance, the extraordinary kind that goes beyond expectations, becomes almost inevitable.
English (Australia)