The Power Of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World

Gordon quotes Alan Mulally on the importance of having a compelling vision and comprehensive plan to move an organization forward. Examples that Gordon cites to show the importance of having positive visions and goals include filmmaker George Lucas’s idea for Star Wars, President John F. Kennedy’s push to send humans to the moon, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of equality.

Positive leaders get ideas and then take the next steps to rally people to create them, but they must be able to articulate their vision clearly and succinctly, as with the Alzheimer’s Association’s motto: “A world without Alzheimer’s” (32). Similarly, the former CEO of Campbell Soup, Doug Conant, shared his vision before every meeting: “To build the world’s most extraordinary food company by nourishing people’s lives everywhere, every day” (32-33). The vision is like a north star that moves everyone in the organization in the right direction. It works because everyone wants to be great and have something to hope for and work toward.

Gordon says that the positive leader must carry both a telescope and a microscope. The telescope helps the team focus on the north star (the big picture).