PREFACE

This book was motivated by feedback from a variety of colleagues and respected leaders who wanted to see more information on putting the strategies of positive leadership into practice. In an earlier book, Positive Leadership, I identified four key strategies that have been shown to produce extraordinarily positive performance in organizations. These strategies include the creation of a positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning. Substantial empirical evidence from a wide variety of organizations confirms that these strategies are crucial for achieving what I call “positively deviant” levels of performance—that is, performance that allows individuals and organizations to achieve their highest potential, flourish at work, experience elevating energy, and achieve levels of effectiveness difficult to attain otherwise.

This book offers five sets of very concrete positive leadership practices to help leaders implement the four positive strategies in all types of organizations, including businesses, educational institutions, health care organizations, community associations, sports teams, and families. Organizational change agents—whether internal or external consultants, unit leaders, or parents—will find this book to be of particular relevance.

Specifically, the book addresses the criticisms of some detractors that positive leadership is too soft, touchy-feely, smiley-face, saccharine, New Age, or naive. Some claim that positive leadership ignores the hard-nosed, competitive, and challenging aspects of leadership. While the positive practices outlined in this book are aimed at producing positive results, they are not synonymous with mere sweetness or indulgence. They are intended to help leaders address common challenges and difficult obstacles that characterize all organizational settings. Positive leadership practices are anything but superficial and permissive. They require effort and tenacity if positively deviant results are to be produced.

The practices described in the book have been selected because they are less well known than common organizational intervention techniques such as team building, trust building, consensus building, and influence building. The practices here are meant to supplement those useful common techniques. They have been tested in the field as well as having their credibility confirmed in scientific research. Though not all of the practices will be applicable in all organizational settings, you are likely to find several that will assist you in achieving extraordinarily positive performance.

I owe a debt of gratitude to many of my colleagues who have provided insight into the practices associated with positive leadership and who have served as role models for putting them into action. I am especially grateful to my faculty colleagues in the Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship at the University of Michigan: Wayne Baker, Jane Dutton, Shirli Kopelman, David Mayer, Carlos Mora, Robert Quinn, Gretchen Spreitzer, and Lynn Wooten. The staff at Berrett-Koehler deserves accolades for being the best publisher on the planet; special thanks go to Steven Piersanti and Jeevan Sivasubramaniam. External reviewers Tom Kruse, Jackie Stavros, and Leigh Wilkinson offered very helpful suggestions for improvements in the manuscript. Colleagues in the Ross School of Business Executive Education Center have provided many opportunities to interact with organizations as well as valuable feedback; special thanks are due to Melanie Barnett, Cheri Alexander, and the outstanding staff. Especially, my assistant, Meredith Smith, has made this work possible through extraordinary support, organization, and encouragement. Thank you very much to all.