Positive Leadership Paper

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Positive leadership is a leadership approach grounded in ethical values that focuses on bringing out the best in everyone while creating a transparent and appreciative environment. This concept applies the principles of positive psychology to take a value-driven approach to motivate individuals to exceed their goals. Youssef and Luthans (2012) define it as “the systematic and integrated manifestation of leadership traits, processes, intentional behaviors and performance outcomes that are elevating, exceptional and affirmative of the strengths, capabilities and developmental potential of leaders, their followers and their organizations over time and across contexts.” Cameron (2011) had a very similar interpretation that focused on ways in which …show more content…

From the moment he was hired, his aim was to spread positivity throughout the club to motivate not just his players but everyone related to the club - including the groundsmen, laundry women and even the canteen staff (Robinson, 2015). The mid 1980s was not a great time for the club. They hadn’t seen much success, players were depressed and the change in managership brought with it an atmosphere of negativity and uncertainty. But Ferguson enforced a climate of positivity and discipline from day one. He always tried to focus on the positive and constantly found ways to see the positives in situations that seemed very negative. Davis (2016) summed this up quite eloquently - “Failure is never the end result. It’s simply an inevitable event that occurs on the road to success.” And Sir Alex was a master at not letting failure bring him or his players down. He is not a big believer in criticism and feels that most people respond to encouragement which is what he tried to do whenever he could. According to him, there is nothing better than hearing the words “well done”. He even considers them to be the two best words ever invented (Elberse, 2013). This approach uplifted spirits in the dressing room and created a positive atmosphere throughout the club which in turn resulted in exceptional performances on the

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