Introduction
The Power of Positive Leadership, a book by Jon Gordon published in 2017, explores how optimism may impact leadership. The author shows how and why optimism affects leadership and its results. Additionally, it offers a basic framework with doable suggestions for developing into a constructive leader. The author starts by discussing positivism and how it has affected his life. He stresses that what counts is the mentality that connects the business, forges relationships with others, and shapes the future. (Gordon, 2017). Optimistic employees are more likely to succeed, put in longer hours, earn more money, provide better work, and be promoted more frequently.
Summary of the Book
The book’s framework is explained in detail in the Chapters. In the first segment, Gordon explains how to alter corporate culture, transmit specific ideas, and propagate them throughout the business. The leader must encourage employees to form dependable ties and relationships to foster a healthy culture. The author claims that culture influences beliefs, which inspire actions, habits, and behaviors that advance the future. The book argues that when organizational behavior affects a company’s goals and performance, culture may triumph over strategy (Gordon, 2017).
The author uses Apple and Hendrick Motorsports as two examples of successful American businesses. These businesses created their cultures first, followed by their approach, and this practice has persisted until the present day. They are acknowledged for their goods, market, research, accounts, partners, staff, and anything else relevant to their products. An individual goal as a leader is to change the culture by setting an example of contagious goodness that motivates people to think creatively and perform better. According to the author, it is a critical component of success.
In the following chapters, the author focuses on how to develop skills that can support a positive mentality. Encouragement is a vital skill that opens opportunities to widen viewpoints, strengthen relationships, and enhance outcomes. Regardless of the situation or challenges, a person must first believe in themselves before they can believe in others. One last thing is to get rid of the wrong organizational concepts. The author explains that while it may appear to be the same as generating positivity, leaders must adopt attitudes to reduce complaints, persuade individuals who drain productive energy, and break undesirable behaviors. Other crucial skills include the ability to listen and communicate effectively. These abilities are essential for inspiring and influencing others as a leader (Gordon, 2017). The book looks at organizations and teams that create knowledgeable, dependable, and bonded employees. A team may produce more significant results with less work when people collaborate if there is mutual trust, established openness, and honesty. The company’s personnel must be integrated for advancement, from entry-level staff to top management.
The author claims that the more connected a person is, the more the individual becomes committed. Collaborative leaders may influence their followers’ attitudes by facilitating the task-finding and task-implementation processes. As a result, leaders pursue greatness and grandeur, which may be attained by having a positive outlook. It increases everyone’s expectations for themselves and their work product. A good example is a the one percent more rule, which calls on all team members to exert one percent more effort, energy, time, and focus than they did the day before.
Analysis
A modern trend, positive leadership, has drawn particular attention in behavioral studies. The leader’s successes are crucial for the growth and maintenance of an organization’s wellness at individual and collective levels. The positive psychology paradigm connects to organizational behavior and the leadership position. The Power of Positive Leadership highlights some crucial applications for fostering positive thinking. Some key ideas are revealed through the examples given in the book, such as developing a positive culture, creating connected teams, and looking forward.
Developing Positive Culture
While discussing establishing culture, it is crucial to emphasize that every company has its own culture, which may be either beneficial or destructive depending on the organization’s goal, history, and core beliefs. Organizational culture relates to the nature, ideas, and expectations for corporate existence (Gordon, 2017). Developing a healthy culture with reliable connections inside a business is advantageous to skill development and employee impact. People want to be in a comfortable situation where they can offer their best effort. Leaders need to find out what their workforce values in a pleasant atmosphere and make plans to make it a reality to foster this good culture.
Creating Connected Teams
The corporation depends on the employee’s efforts to accomplish its objectives. To do this, people need to be driven and engaged, and they also need to have trust in one another. Building a trustworthy team is so crucial that the author emphasizes it in various chapters. A strong leader may motivate the team to work together by modeling good behavior and sharing personal experiences. People who are at ease and stick together indicate that your team is working well. Therefore, by having a positive attitude, leaders may create a satisfying connection, a pleasant workplace, and better results.
Looking Forward
In the short and long terms, positive results are what leaders want to achieve. Being hopeful about the future might become a trend if a person is positive. The leader must be willing to accept new ideas, learn new things, and put plans into practice inside the firm if they want to be able to enhance teams. Additionally, it is crucial to concentrate on the chosen technique. The short-term development of leadership strategy, values, and personal traits of leaders must be the main focus (Gordon, 2017). Additionally, businesses must cultivate positive and strategic behavior to adapt to new difficulties over the long term. This study establishes the link between good conduct and the creation of innovative company strategies and results.
Purpose and Audience
The book’s goal is to provide a framework for leadership and explain some instances of effective leadership. Additionally, it can help organizations and trainers by offering some examples and directions. After reading, it is possible to deduce the suggested goal. People who want to improve their leadership abilities are the target audience, which includes businesses, schools, sports teams, hospitals, and non-profit organizations from across the world. The author chose this group of people as his audience because he wanted to show them practical instances of constructive leadership and encourage them to think more clearly. The examples are used in a conversational, educational, and inspiring manner. Since the topic is briefly treated, the book cannot be used as informational material by professionals or rational thinkers.
Conclusion
Jon Gordon’s book, The Power of Positive Leadership, helps start the process of growing people and the environment. Although there is no analytical substance, the examples and techniques are relevant, genuine, and valuable. The book makes a convincing case for the value of cultivating optimistic attitudes, charisma, and ideas. Inspiring examples from successful people may be found in the book. By examining the results, adopting the attitudes practiced by organizations like Apple, a highly successful worldwide firm, or even a school bus driver who influences her children’s attitudes by modeling, shows that good conduct may impact the workplace.
Reference
Gordon, J. (2017). The Positive Leader: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World (1st ed., p. 208). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.