3 Ways to Be a Positive Leader, Regardless of Your Job Title

It’s hard to open your web browser, check social media, or read the news these days without being bombarded by negativity. From politics to business, it can seem like organizational culture is overwhelmingly driven by fear.

The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Instead of motivating results with fear, remember that leaders, employees, and teams actually produce better results when managed through positive leadership. (Research out of Duke University found that employees who are positive and optimistic actually work harder.)

That’s the message shared by Jon Gordon in his book, The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World. “Being positive doesn’t just make you better,” Gordon says, “It makes everyone around you better.”

Here are three ways to channel positive leadership at work day-to-day, regardless of your job description:

1. Distort Reality Like Steve Jobs

To be a positive leader, it’s critical to have a clear positive vision – sometimes even a distorted or delusional one – of what’s possible. Gordon uses Apple’s Steve Jobs as an example of someone who did this with success. His aggressive optimism fueled the success of everything from the iPhone to the iPad and beyond.

“Jobs repeatedly convinced Apple employees that they could meet deadlines everyone thought were impossible,” says Gordon. “Time after time, they would tell Steve he was being unrealistic and there was no way they could create software or hardware in the amount of time he was expecting. And yet, they did accomplish the ‘impossible.'” Relentless optimism produces better results than relentless pessimism.

2. Make Complaining Unacceptable

Gordon writes that this rule can change everything in terms of having a positive impact in the workplace. The rule is simple, straightforward, and powerful: you can’t complain unless you can also provide a potential solution to a problem.

“If you are complaining, you’re not leading,” writes Gordon in The Power of Positive Leadership. “If you are complaining, you are not showing your team the way forward.”

When we complain, instead of feeling empowered and empowering others, we actually create toxic environments where nothing gets done. “Complaining causes you and your team to focus on everything but being your best,” Gordon says. “It causes you to be stuck where you are instead of moving forward to where you want to be.”

3. Shift Your Approach, Shift Your Perspective

Most of you have probably heard some version of the Epictetus quote, “It’s not what happens to you, but rather how you react to it that matters.” This is particularly true when it comes to business and being a positive leader. Gordon recommends taking a proactive “inside-out” approach to happiness.

“Leadership is not just about what you can do, but what you can inspire, encourage, and empower others to do.” This means that external events or unfavorable circumstances that might negatively affect us aren’t meant to define us as people. Instead, it’s critical to take control and instead define the circumstance for yourself. Sometimes this means focusing on one small victory at a time as they slowly lead to big wins. It may not be easy, but it’s certainly better than the alternative.

“When you make the decision to rise above negativity, you can become the leader of your own life,” said Gordon.