The Cost of Leadership: Rewards of a Positive Attitude

The genesis of this series titled The Cost of Leadership was the many discussions I have had with followers and leaders about their experiences with bad leaders. As many of us have experienced and know, you can learn a lot from a bad leader. Maybe all too true, we seem to run into more of the bad leaders than the good ones. So our challenge is how do we make a leader into a great leader? More importantly, how do we prepare and train leaders to understand the development that needs to occur to be a great leader. This series was to give some time and attention to that development.

The Cost of Leadership so far has taken us to the price leaders pay in the change to their peer relationships when they move into a leadership position. We also shared the cost for which leaders are required to humble themselves in the service to others. Another Cost of Leadership is the change required in your perspective on issues, policies, and programs. You should grow, expand, and challenge your preexisting thoughts on your organization and leadership now from the vantage point of your position. And our last blog post discussed the cost which sometimes comes as a leader and that is the sacrifice of trust you had with your leaders or organization. If you have missed one, please go back and follow along with our journey.

To many leaders, the Cost of Leadership is blindly unknown. When leaders discover some of this cost, they can become disillusioned instead of motivated, they become angry instead of determined to improve, and many times they stop leading instead of charging forward to grow themselves into better leaders. I have stated before, leadership is action, it requires action, and it comes at a cost.

It is time to share a cost which might not be hard to pay for some, but the dividends when done correctly are vibrant and palpable by your followers. Leaders set the tone for their followers. The attitude you exhibit in every day operations, the way you respond to crisis, the leadership style you display when there are challenges clearly defines how your followers will react and how they will act. I will stand and say, as a leader, you don’t have an option; you need to exhibit a positive attitude to be effective.

Leaders no longer have the luxury of believing they are just a worker like everyone else. They cannot believe that they can work and operate as an independent person and do what they want without impacting others. As a leader, you are always watched by someone. And the higher you go the more they watch. Leaders now should realize that their attitude which they might naturally or are more comfortable operating from, if different from a positive attitude, needs to be adjusted. The leader cannot just decide that their attitude will be the one the followers will adjust too. If that leader does not exhibit positive, then the attitude they do exhibit will be the ones their followers put into action.

When you accept the mantle of leadership, or when it thrust upon you, then your attitude towards how you approach leadership and your organizational issues should support a positive approach. This attitude leads to followers being more receptive to feedback, allows for people to be more courageous in their thoughts, and permits openness for dialogue amongst the staff. The positive attitude provides support and grounding for your staff to move forward, to take risks in making bold changes, and improve the outlook of the work.

Another benefit I have noticed from leaders who pay the Cost of Leadership by using a positive attitude is worker engagement skyrockets. In a recent lecture I attended with Bob Dent (www.bobdent.com), the culture of an organization, positive or negative, sets the tone for the workers and the success of meeting the mission. The positive approach and attitude a leader uses increases the engagement of their followers and that engagement translates into more optimism, trust in the organization, and more effective use of resources to meet the mission of the organization. Additionally, Stander, and Stander (2015) highlighted some inspiration on the importance of gaining a positive attitude.

So leaders have several things they can do to solidify their positive attitude in leadership or to start to build and develop it as part of their leadership development journey.

1. Choose Grateful Thoughts: Wow, how easy or foolish? The fact remains, those who choose to be grateful for their work, education, family, community, or for the small things like a great janitor, the fact that Tuesdays means cheap tacos, or your favorite movie is coming out and are grateful for these things, so positive attitude in tough times. The grateful approach was shown to me by a leader who was truly treated poorly by her boss, and she never flinched. Instead she was grateful her job, the opportunity to learn from this leader, and she provided support and guidance to others being demeaned by this leader. Her grateful thoughts provided a path towards a positive attitude which created an oasis of support for colleagues in a time of need. It didn’t change the boss, it changed the leader.
2. Choose to be Positive: The old mantra is back…YOU choose your attitude because it is yours. You can play the blame game; blaming your boss, spouse, coworkers, peers, or your education on why your attitude sucks and why you have a right to have a sucky attitude. But, my friend, that does not benefit you or the organization. That is a selfish behavior. And that behavior and attitude does not support longevity in a career or for creating potential for advancement or opportunities for new adventures in your development.
3. Respond Positively: For many leaders of immediate action, holding a response in or not reacting immediately is like asking the wave not to crash to the shore. How you respond to circumstances, particularly challenging ones, states a lot about your attitude and character. This is critically important when it comes to problems or sensitive issues in the organization. This does not support sugar coating actions or decisions. It does support providing the framework for why decisions were made, the goal of the decision, and the positive approach of dealing with it as soon as possible. Many times leaders make matters worse because they feel their response should be immediate, but they honestly don’t have a correct site picture of the situation. The important note, when you respond, it should be methodical, logical, objective, supportive, and positive.
4. Be Authentic: Having a positive attitude comes easily or more naturally to some. Others will have to grow. Your approach, however, needs to be authentic. Even those who have a more negative approach can redirect their responses and provide a positive point while still being comfortable doing so. The authenticity of your leadership leads to your credibility. Take your transformation into a more positive attitude as a calculated journey. Find a mentor to help guide you and provide you feedback. And then grow.

Leading from a positive attitude is a Cost of Leadership some choose not to pay. Sadly, that mistake will impact their followers and mostly likely their future opportunities. Research has shown again and again that people like to work for they like. A positive attitude attracts others and inspires them to do things greater than they could on their own. So why do so many leaders not want to pay the price of choosing a positive attitude?

The Cost of Leadership…there is much more for us to learn. In future blogs we will expand on this topic further. What have you learned about the Costs of Leadership? We’d love to hear your stories and growth!

Leading with you,

Dean

Reference: Stander, F. W., Leon T de Beer, & Stander, M. W. (2015). Authentic leadership as a source of optimism, trust in the organisation and work engagement in the public health care sector. SA Journal of Human Resource Management, 13(1), 1-e12. doi:10.4102/sajhrm.v13i1.675

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