How Important is Positive Leadership?
Who would you prefer to work with? An optimist that values your ideas or a pessimist who only finds fault? Pretty easy question to answer, right? Unfortunately, many people in leadership roles are anything but positive.
Positive leadership is critical for a healthy organization.
A bad manager can poison the work environment and lead to employee attrition. A good leader or leadership team can make a workplace thrive. It’s not a difficult concept. Improve the quality of your leadership and business will improve.
“Being positive doesn’t just make you better; it makes everyone around you better.”
– Jon Gordon
Raise your hand if you have suffered under a bad leader.
Who hasn’t, right? According to a Bamboo HR study, 44% of resigning workers pointed to management as their cause for leaving.
Top offenses of bad leadership include:
1. Taking credit for another’s work
2. Overworking employees while not advocating for their compensation
3. Bad hires and promotions
4. Lack of direction and/or micro-managing
5. Blame shifting
But are bad leaders really that bad for business?
It’s not just a personality contest. Bad leadership impacts the workforce in measurable ways. A Harvard Business study offered some sobering statistics about employee productivity under poor leadership.
Nearly half of workers surveyed admitted to putting forth less effort and time on their work. Just over half said that their quality of work declined and that they spent work time attempting to steer clear of their manager. Over 75% experienced a decline in commitment to the workplace and 25% confessed to off-loading their discontent onto customers.
Doesn’t sound good for business, does it?
Now, raise your hand if you think you may have been a bad leader.
Ask yourself these 4 questions:
1. Do you have clear goals and a vision for the business?
2. Are you optimistic about the future?
3. Do you promote connection and a team environment?
4. Are your actions fostering positive attitudes about the business?
A positive leader will drive a positive culture.
Take a hard look at your leadership team. Your business depends on it.
Resources
Cronquist, Danielle. (220, March, 10). The Top 10 Bad Leadership Behaviors (And How to Avoid Them). BambooHR.
Vakil, Tushar. Poor Leadership Behaviors & its Collateral Damage . NewAgeLeadership.com.
Porath, Christine and Pearson, Christine. (2013, Jan-Feb) The Price of Incivility. Harvard Business Review.
