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

Positive leaders create unity, which is the difference between a great team and an average one. While a vision and a north star are important, the leader’s ability to unite and connect people is what makes an organization great. Alan Mulally’s “One Ford” plan did this, bringing regionalized companies together as one team with a single goal.

A leadership team itself must be connected. For instance, the success of a sports team depends on the connectedness of the owner, general manager, and head coach. When companies merge, it is important to make sure that the leaders are connected. In some college and professional sports teams, players focus on their individual goals; in offices, people often focus on politics and personal agendas. Gordon calls this narcissism the “disease of me” and says that it infects everyone (90), not just athletes, and that it undermines teams. 

One way to build connection is to have each team member share a defining moment in their life. Another is to have each person on the team share their “hero, hardship, and highlight” (91). Dabo Swinney, the Clemson coach, uses a stool called the “Safe Seat”: Each team member takes a turn on the stool while the team gathers around him.