Do you feel appreciated by your company managers on a daily basis? Do you consistently have the opportunity to do your best work? Are you clear about what is expected of you? Does your manager provide you clarity and focus? People who are fully engaged can answer these questions with a clear yes and feelings of gratitude!


Most of us start a job motivated to perform our best, but sometimes working for a negative manager can negatively affect your motivation. Positive leaders help people tap into their intrinsic motivation to improve performance.


Optimistic leaders inspire people to achieve a better future. They have a strong spirit of significance. Are you a positive leader that gets results?


Positive Results


Margaret Greenberg and Dana Arakawa in a 2005, Gallup research study found that managers play a crucial role in employee well-being and engagement.


Greenberg and Arakawa discovered that managers who maintained a positive perspective when things went awry experienced greater project performance. Managers who scored in the top quartile for positive perspective (as reported by their employees, not self-report) had significantly higher project performance than those in the bottom quartile.


Of course, unrealistic optimism and inauthentic happy faces do not bode well for any manager or employee. Honesty is critically important, especially in uncertain times. Luckily, managers can moderate their emotional responses in ways that reassure people, without denying the reality of harsh situations.


In their paper, Greenberg and Arakawa wrote:


“In today's rapidly changing and uncertain business environment, managers and employees need optimism more than ever before to not only cope, but to innovate and flourish.

“Managers have more influence than perhaps they realize on the employees' engagement, optimism, and performance, and can consciously use this influence to benefit these employees and the organization as a whole.

“We have employed a strengths-based performance perspective in our technology organization for the past few years," says Hanover's Tranter. "Clearly, the outcomes of this study will continue to have a greater influence on how we recruit, interview, select, and hire managers and for our organization.”


Reflect on how you as a manager and leader can implement positive leadership by practicing these behaviors:


1. Focus on and work with people's strengths.
2. Improve the frequency with which you give praise and recognition.
3. Respond with your best game face when the going gets rough.


Are you working in a professional services firm or other organization where executive coaches provide leadership development? Does your organization provide executive coaching to help leaders improve their ability to focus on the positive? Leaders at all levels need to improve their emotional intelligence and social intelligence skills.


One of the most powerful questions you can ask yourself is “Do I focus on the positive when things go wrong?” Emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent organizations provide executive coaching for positive leaders who help their employees to be fully engaged and happy at work.


What actions can you take today to be a more positive leader? What activities further develop your people’s strengths? Companies need positive and results-oriented managers and leaders who are part of the solution to vexing problems.