What is positive leadership? Definition, Traits and Skills

Leadership is a quality that constitutes 90 percent of the qualitative requirements of a true professional/entrepreneur in an enterprise. The impact of quality leadership is undeniably among the primary factors that helps build up and maintain a workforce needed for a workplace. There are many who seek leaders rather than bosses, which implies that what workers look for is inspiration and guidance rather than enforcement and diktats. This is the context in which positive leadership takes centerstage, becoming the essential factor that determines the success of an organized activity as in a business enterprise.

What is Positive Leadership?

The adjective "positive" appears to indicate a skepticism that is attached to the idea of leadership itself. But, the fact is, the true spirit of leadership is maintained to derive highly positive results. This is never lost sight of. However, an emphasis on "positive" leadership only exposes the aspiration that individuals with dedication and committed drive can fulfil. Let us try to understand what positive leadership is all about.

Definition of Positive Leadership

Positive leadership is the ability to see and meet the purpose of every enterprise while not losing sight of how each individual in the team relates themselves to the goal and how they can be kept driven to contribute towards achieving the goal in a harmonious effort orchestrated by the leader with clarity, finesse and mindfulness.

Breaking down the definition, the first thing that comes to view is that the leader must have a clear vision as to the goal to be achieved and what achieving it would mean to each and everyone in the team. The second factor is to be mindful of how each member of the team is connected to the common goal and how to convince them to work towards the goal with all the capabilities they possess. A lot of clarity and patient tracking of the development of the efforts towards achieving a goal must be necessary in positive leadership as the leader cannot risk losing sight or draining the faith the team has in the goal.

Traits of a Positive Leader

Following are some of the traits of a positive leader:

Clarity

Nothing ranks above this one quality that a leader exhibiting positive leadership must possess. A leader cannot just settle to be a believer, but must be rock solid in his knowledge and awareness of the goals he/she is leading the team to.

Patience

What is a leader without patience going to achieve?! Really nothing! And patience here is not about putting up with the weakest member in the team with a sense of obligation, but all about leveraging efforts on the clarity that we mentioned earlier to refocus and reinforce the faith of the team in the goal and activity the team is required to carry out.

Faith

When results take longer to come, it becomes necessary for the leader to keep the team engaged and motivated by keeping their morale high and skills on point. Group sessions for discussions about experiences at work becomes the opportunity to reveal concerns and perspectives and address them in the next stage of the activity.

The goal is never to stall and the activity must be kept going. A positive leader will never let the mood of the team slack and focus blur owing to inactivity in times of delays or adversities.

Skills of a Positive Leader

Following are the important skills that a positive leader must possess:

Communication

Isn't that so obvious? Leaders use their communication skills to inform and inspire the team members. Can you communicate with examples and parables? That makes the effectiveness of communication improve manifold. A leader must ace formal and informal communication that effectively capture the attention and motivation in more circumstances than in the office or the meeting room.

Representation

If the leader does not effectively represent their team before the world, it's easy for them to lose motivation and confidence. A positive leader steps up for his team and represents the collective goals every time it becomes relevant before the world.

Delegation

The positive leader delegates work quite effectively after recognizing the capabilities of each team member. Such a leader won't be engrossed in getting the spotlight on him/her and would spread the opportunity to contribute and excel to the team members. The skill to delegate makes a leader the most valuable personality in the team.

Conclusion

So, these are some of the key observations on the role and personality of a positive leader. Positive leadership has always been the need in any scenario where there is a need for organized and goal-oriented activity, be it conducting a business or making a difference in general. If you have the aforementioned qualities in you or want to develop them, it could make your career and personal life prospects quite interesting and progressive.