III
TAP INTO THE GOOD

As a positive leader, possibilities abound for increasing individual and organizational capacities for excellence by tapping into the good. This section unpacks this aspirational goal by offering three distinctive approaches on what tapping into the good means. The first focuses on individual and organizational practices that promote virtuousness, namely, behaviors that represent the best of the human condition such as gratitude, compassion, honesty, and love. A second approach directs attention to how you and other leaders serve as role models, helping to create an ethical culture even when circumstances are working against you. The third approach encourages you and other positive leaders to articulate and to pursue a higher purpose. A higher purpose involves going beyond the normal focus on profits to create a more aspirational vision that embraces and fosters actions that serve the collective good. This section reveals practices that call forth moral goodness in people and in the organization, which is valuable on its own as well as useful in fostering desirable outcomes (such as higher performance, greater engagement, and more authentic actions).