The Power Of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World

Gordon lays out the first principle in his framework for enhancing leadership capacities in Chapter 3, “Positive Leaders Drive Positive Cultures.” By placing the creation of a positive culture first in his framework, he emphasizes its significance: Creating a positive culture is a leader’s most important job. In addition to fostering motivation and cooperation, it helps communicate the organization’s values. In a metaphor to which Gordon returns often, culture is like the root of a fruit-bearing tree: Leaders should not focus solely on outcomes (the “fruit”) but must also nourish culture (the “root”).

To a large extent, the rest of the book elaborates on this basic idea, identifying various components of organizational culture and providing strategies for cultivating them. For instance, a positive organizational culture starts with a leader’s vision, which in turn requires knowing what the group stands for and what it wants to be known for. Once a vision is established, the leader must communicate it clearly to their team. For instance, Alan Mulally printed his vision of “One Ford,” a commitment to company teamwork across many regional entities, on T-shirts. The vision must be articulated clearly and often since it is the foundation for the plan that moves the vision forward.

The leader must also live by the values of the group to create a positive culture. One example of this kind of leadership is Rick Hendrick, whose personal humility drives a business culture that stands for servant leadership both within the organization and in service to clients. While leaders need not be extroverts, they must broadcast their passion and positivity to the group. Though some values will vary from group to group, others are worthwhile in any organization. For instance, Gordon devotes particular attention to cultivating and modeling grit, the ability to work hard for a long time toward a goal. This starts with having a vision, but it also involves loving what the organization does and how it does it, or the process. Knowing the group’s “why”—the bigger purpose behind its goals—is another key component of grit, which helps leaders overcome negativity and failure and build positivity within the group. Here again, people in positions of power should lead by example, embodying the perseverance and dedication that they would like others to adopt.

Finally, creating a positive organizational culture requires thinking about the kinds of people involved in the organization—for instance, confronting negativity and “energy vampires,” those who drain positivity. Gordon promotes listening and empathy as the first step in dealing with energy vampires and points out that complaints are valuable when they are paired with possible solutions. At the same time, he acknowledges that sometimes the leader must simply weed such people out of the organization; although Gordon generally stresses that culture is contagious and malleable, this implies that there are limits to a leader’s ability to harness positivity through precedent alone.