Hail to the Positive Leader in Companies
LEADERS THAT KNOW HOW TO MOTIVATE COLLABORATORS BY PROMOTING SKILLS AND SHARING VALUES INCREASE THE ENGAGEMENT AND CREATIVITY OF EMPLOYEES AND ENSURE HIGHER INNOVATION AND PROFITABILITY IN THE COMPANIES THEY MANAGEby Gabriella Bagnato, Dept. of Management and Technology
Translated by Alex Foti
At a time when responding effectively to rapidly changing market dynamics means knowing how to innovate while at the same time operating according to a logic of efficiency and optimization, companies need to be able to rely on high levels of worker engagement as a source of competitive advantage. Engagement means a psychological state in which a person is focused, energetic and deeply emotionally and intellectually involved in what he or she is doing.
Engaged employees are a valuable resource for companies precisely because in carrying out their tasks they deploy the best resources they have, take on responsibilities, are willing to take calculated risks, learn from experience, and show good levels of resilience.
Research studies provide clear evidence in this regard: companies with higher levels of engagement have higher profitability (in some industries, more than 45% over competitors), have higher innovation rates and higher customer satisfaction, and, last but not least, retain outstanding talent more easily. But what are the determinants of engagement and how can executives guarantee its stability and/or improvement over time?
There are several factors involved, including adopting streamlined organizational models and human resource management systems that are capable of spurring above-average performance and supporting and guiding the development of personal skills.
The most important factor, however, is the quality of the leader-collaborator relationship: when leadership style brings out the best in this rapport, it gets called positive leadership. However the positive attribute needs qualifications. It is not related to so-called positive thinking, but rather to the fact that the concept was born in the context of Positive Organizational Scholarship and Positive Psychology.
The positive leader is neither good nor a friend. He/she aims to achieve excellent results with and through the people on his/her team, by identifying and enhancing strengths of collaborators rather than correcting or containing their weaknesses. The positive leader generates positive deviance, i.e. "the emergence and coming into play of non-ordinary behaviors and strategies that enable better and more innovative solutions to existing problems, by using available resources in the best way and dealing positively with the challenges that the business context poses."
The most important thing that a positive leader must do is invest in a relationship built on trust and mutual respect between him/her and his/her collaborators, keeping in mind that trust is about people rather than skills.
What is the concrete behavior that a positive leader should engage in? First of all, strongly communicating the business vision and corporate objectives, and especially the values anchoring that vision and the reasons underlying those objectives: what engages somebody is not the what but the why. Secondly, to understand and support individual talent, by identifying the roles where it can best develop and grow.
Thirdly, to make clear there is an interdependence between individual talent and excellence within teams, and provide the level of psychological security that enable learning from experience without excessive fear of errors. Finally, a positive leader should focus on the emotional dimension: anger, frustration, powerlessness all curtail energy, prevent empathy, and reduce creative abilities.
As you go through the above list you might think these are common-sense suggestions. But can we be sure they are also common practice in the offices and on the shop floors of our companies?
