9 Practices that Make Great Leaders Great Positive leadership is not Pollyanna leadership. Positive leadership is the way to lead if you want to build a great team and organization. It's the stuff that makes great leaders great. In this spirit here are 9 practices that make up the positive leadership framework that you can begin to implement today. 1. Positive Leaders Drive Positive Cultures - Leaders who drive the culture and create a culture that is strong on the inside will withstand the forces trying to sabotage it from the outside. Culture is not just one thing. It's everything. 2. Positive Leaders Create and Share a Positive Vision - Positive leadership is all about seeing and creating a brighter and better future. It's about inventing, innovating, creating, building, improving, and transforming every aspect of our lives and the world in which we live. A positive leader sees what's possible and then takes the next steps to rally and unite people to create it. 3. Positive Leaders Lead with Optimism, Positivity and Belief - Pessimists don't change the world. Naysayers talk about problems but they don't solve them. Throughout history we see that it's the optimists, the doers and the positive leaders who transform teams and change the world. Positive leaders don't lead in a sea of tranquil positivity but through the storms of negativity and adversity. That's why optimism and belief are so essential. 4. Positive Leaders Confront, Transform, and Remove Negativity - One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is that they ignore the negativity within their team and organization. They allow it to breed and grow and it eventually sabotages them. This chapter includes everything I have learned since writing The Energy Bus. A key piece of advice is "Don’t be negative about negativity." There's a better way to deal with it. 5. Positive Leaders Create United and Connected Teams - It's the leader's ability to unite and connect people that truly creates great teams and organizations. Positive leaders create unity which is the difference between a great team and an average or dysfunctional team. The more united and connected a team and organization is the more they are able to accomplish together. 6. Positive Leaders Build Great Relationships and Teams - When you focus on building relationships with your team, performance, morale, and engagement rises. It's about making time to communicate, encourage, connect, commit, serve and care about those you lead. It's probably the most important chapter in the book. 7. Positive Leaders Pursue Excellence - Some think that positive leaders are just about having fun and don't care about winning. This couldn't be further from the truth. Positive leaders are very competitive. They pursue excellence, build greatness and often try to accomplish the impossible. You don’t have to choose between positivity and winning. Positivity leads to winning. 8. Positive Leaders Lead with Purpose - There will be days and nights when you wonder why you chose a leadership position at all. That’s why you need a purpose to fuel your positivity. We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget WHY we do it. Positive leaders are driven with a bigger purpose and they inspire others to live and work with purpose. 9. Positive Leaders have Grit - A leader will face countless challenges, failures and setbacks that will become roadblocks unless they find a way forward. Positive leaders have grit and find a way to navigate the roadblocks or run through them to move closer to their vision and goal. - Jon
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