The Power of Positive Leadership

Chapter 8Positive Leaders Build Great Relationships and Teams

Leadership comes down to taking care of the people in your organization and making them the best they can be, not giving up on them and never failing to be there for them.

Pete Carroll

The first step in uniting people and being a leader is not saying, “Follow me.” It's being someone your team wants to follow. You can have the greatest vision and mission statement in the world and be optimistic and positive, but if you are not someone people want to follow, they are not getting on your bus. People follow the leader first and their vision second. What you say is important, but who you are is even more important. Leading is more than sharing a vision and being optimistic. It's more than talking and thinking. It's also about investing in relationships, bringing out the best in others, coaching, encouraging, serving, caring, and being someone that your team can trust. The two questions that the people you lead are asking are, “Can I trust you?” and “Do you care about me?” To be someone who people want to follow, you have to be someone they can trust—someone who cares about the people you lead. To unite others, you have to be someone people want to rally around. To connect with others, you have to be someone who creates connections.

Love Does

Leadership begins with love. Bob Goff, the author of Love Does, says that love is not a noun. It's a verb. It's about leading with and sharing love. It's about putting love into ...