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Positively Energizing Leadership
This practical guide, the first to show how leaders can achieve extraordinary results through the positive energy generated by virtuous interactions with employees, is written by one of the giants in the study of positive leadership.
This book is about one of the most important factors that leads to spectacular performance in organizations. Kim Cameron, a true pioneer in the study of positive leadership, offers validated scientific evidence that all individuals are inherently attracted to and flourish in the presence of positive energy. Further, he shows that the positive relational energy generated by leaders' virtuous behaviors--for example, generosity, compassion, gratitude, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and kindness--is tightly linked to extraordinary organizational outcomes like greater innovation, higher profits, and increased engagement and retention.
Cameron has not written a feel-good tome about the power of positive thinking, happiology, or unbridled optimism. This book is a research-based exploration of how to capitalize on an inherent tendency in all living systems. He provides practical suggestions and exercises for how leaders can assess the level of their positive energy and recommends specific practices that will increase positive relational energy. Positively Energizing Leadership is a major contribution to the theory and practice of leadership.
This book is about one of the most important factors that leads to spectacular performance in organizations. Kim Cameron, a true pioneer in the study of positive leadership, offers validated scientific evidence that all individuals are inherently attracted to and flourish in the presence of positive energy. Further, he shows that the positive relational energy generated by leaders' virtuous behaviors--for example, generosity, compassion, gratitude, trustworthiness, forgiveness, and kindness--is tightly linked to extraordinary organizational outcomes like greater innovation, higher profits, and increased engagement and retention.
Cameron has not written a feel-good tome about the power of positive thinking, happiology, or unbridled optimism. This book is a research-based exploration of how to capitalize on an inherent tendency in all living systems. He provides practical suggestions and exercises for how leaders can assess the level of their positive energy and recommends specific practices that will increase positive relational energy. Positively Energizing Leadership is a major contribution to the theory and practice of leadership.
240 pages, Paperback
Published August 3, 2021
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March 7, 2023Learn how to harness the empirically validated value of positive energy and virtuous practices.
We live in serious times. Society is riddled by fear, mistrust, racial injustice, climate disasters, and the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic – all of which have sowed a climate of violence, outrage, and conflict. As a result of this culture of despair, the power of positive thinking has mushroomed as an industry. There are thousands of books out there promising to guide you to happiness, and each year more and more are published.
But the problem with what Kim Cameron calls “happiology” is that it encourages us to put a smile on our faces while inside, our teeth are gritted and our jaws are clenched. The thing is, all lives are complex – and they involve loss, sickness, and death. You can’t avoid hardship and sadness. Glued-on positivity and pretending to be happy just do more harm than good, both for individuals and organizations.
This book Cameron’s Positively Energizing Leadership offers a different approach. Through empirical evidence, it focuses on the ways that positive energy and light are linked – and how leaders can use both to spark people and groups to flourish.
---
Positive energy helps us take positive action – but conscious effort is needed to tap into its full power.
A 2005 study discovered that pain levels were significantly lower for surgery patients recovering in a sunny room filled with natural light, compared to those placed in an artificially lit room. Similar findings on the restorative traits of light have been found for people suffering from depression.
The ancients knew about the healing properties of light, too. Systematic sun exposure has long been used medicinally by Buddhists as well as in Egyptian, Greek, and Indian cultures.
Light is a form of positive energy – of heliotropic energy, or energy that supports and sustains life. Virtue is another. In fact, light and virtue are deeply intertwined not only metaphorically but also, some scholars argue, biologically.
For example, scientists have found that light is the key to regulating our circadian rhythms, which keep our bodies healthy and balanced. Sunlight keeps our levels of hormones such as melatonin (which controls sleep) and leptin (which controls our ability to feel hunger) in check, while disruptions to our sleep can cause a variety of conditions including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Similarly, virtue is associated with positive physiological effects such as healing, brain activation in children with ADHD, and lower cortisol and pain levels.
But if positive energy is such a powerful thing, why do our lives seem dominated by dark, negative energy? Well, it’s an interesting question. A study by Wang, Galinsky, and Murnighan showed that we spend more time thinking about negative relationships than positive ones – and that we consistently seem to need much less information to confirm a negative trait vs a positive one in other people. But despite this, they also found that our behavior is most powerfully affected by positivity. In other words, while our emotional and psychological reactions tend to be more sensitive to the negative, our behavior is most amenable to change when positive things happen.
What this means is that we don’t need much assistance in internalizing negative energy – but we could all use a little help to focus on pursuing positive, life-affirming energy. After all, it’s through this energy that positive change happens. In the next section, we’ll get started on showing you how you can do this.
---
Generosity and altruism are the foundations of heliotropic energy.
We’ve just learned that virtuous and positive behavior drives physiological healing in individuals. But that’s not all. It also produces positive outcomes for interpersonal and group relations. Simply put, encouragement, recognition, security, and support help people thrive.
Think about it – do you feel motivated to perform better when your boss sends you a harshly worded email listing all the things you did wrong? Or do you try harder when they praise, thank, and highlight what you did right, then gently and tactfully suggest small tweaks to what might be improved? The former tends to degrade relationships, while the latter reflects compassion, generosity, gratitude, and kindness – all of which are essential for maximizing positive impact, performance, and energy.
Even more powerfully, studies show that people who give more positive energy than they receive tend to reap the rewards of heliotropic energy all the more. A study by pioneering social psychologist Jennifer Crocker asked college freshmen to articulate their annual achievement goals. The goals were distinguished between those that were achievement-oriented – such as getting high grades or being popular – and contribution-oriented – such as helping to make a difference. At the end of the year, researchers found that focusing on giving back to the community was a much more powerful predictor of success across multiple areas than more competitive, achievement-oriented goals.
Another study compared two groups of older patients with high blood pressure. One group was instructed to spend $40 a week on others through gifts or charity, and the other was instructed to spend the money on themselves. Two years later, the researchers found that the blood pressure of the first group – the one spending money on others – had gone down much more than that of the group spending money on themselves. What's even more amazing is that it decreased to a degree that matched the effects of medication and prescribed therapies like physical exercise! A similar study found that older adults contributing to others’ lives were able to reduce their mortality risk by a whopping 47 percent.
How can we apply this awesome power to our daily and professional lives? Let’s take the real-life example of a parent who had a young daughter who hated going to school. Each morning, she would cry and cling to her mother’s leg, begging her not to leave. The daughter’s teacher suggested that the mother ask her daughter to tell her the best thing that had happened each day. Things got a little better, but the daughter still resisted going to school.
Then the mother decided to shift the question. She asked, “What’s the best thing you did for someone today?” This small shift made all the difference – instead of throwing a tantrum before school each day, the daughter became excited to report back on the positive impact she’d made.
What can leaders learn from this? That it’s important to create opportunities for employees to mentor or coach others. You could ask an employee to lead a weekly staff meeting on a rotating basis, and to present something they specialize in. This way, employees can both learn something new and get the chance to teach their craft and skill to others. You’ll cultivate heliotropic energy – and you’ll grow the strength, happiness, and skills of your team.
---
Integrity + Sacrifice = Trust
In 2020, as nation after nation closed up to avoid Covid-19, one country managed to sidestep a full lockdown. Many argued that Sweden avoided a complete lockdown because of its culture of high trust in institutions and civic society. Evidence from other countries would bear this out. In the US, by contrast, where rates of Covid deaths were astronomically high, levels of trust are astonishingly low: only 8 percent of the nation trust political parties, 12 percent trust big companies, 22 percent trust their employers, and 34 percent believe that other citizens can be generally trusted.
Without integrity and trust, positively energizing leadership becomes impossible. Relationships break down, as do institutions and communities.
Trust is instilled from birth by the ways that caregivers nurture their infants. Loving, caring for, and cuddling children sets the foundation for trust to flourish. In contrast, trust can be tarnished by the neglect and withdrawal of caregivers – which, in the case of infants, very literally endangers their ability to survive and thrive.
Nurturing trust requires two chief components. The first ingredient is integrity. Integrity is not simply honesty; it’s also displaying consistent patterns of transparency, accountability, and reliability. Think of a leader who not only speaks with honesty, but also practices what she preaches. For instance, she openly shares potentially dangerous insights into the organization’s finances, risks, or mistakes with the team.
The second ingredient you need to build trust is sacrifice. In this context, sacrifice is when individuals give up something desirable or easy for the good of another. A good way to think about the link between sacrifice and trust is through the metaphor of an emotional bank account. Let’s imagine acts of kindness, like careful listening or expressions of love and gratitude, as deposits. On the other hand, violations of expectations, a lack of courteousness, and criticism can be thought of as withdrawals. In trusting relationships, both parties consistently and regularly deposit emotional energy into the account; even if it’s costly or inconvenient to do so, there are more deposits than withdrawals.
You can apply this metaphor across your personal and professional life. Consciously decide to make more deposits than withdrawals in the relationships that are most important to you – and see what happens! Your life just might change.
---
What to do with someone who exudes negative energy
Remember those terrifying, wraithlike creatures called dementors from Harry Potter? One Hogwarts professor described them as “the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them.” In the story, anyone who gets too close to a dementor is drained of all their happy memories and feelings.
You might know someone in your life or workplace who fits this description – who is toxically divisive, abrasive, and negative to the point that they seem to suck all the light and life out of a room. So what can you do when you’re confronted with them? Here are a few strategies.
First, try to understand their concerns or perspective by listening and responding supportively. If you can, offer descriptive feedback that is authentic and distinguishes the person from their dementor-like behavior. If you approach a conversation with authenticity and good intentions, you’ll avoid making them get defensive, and you'll stand a better chance of sparking a positive relationship.
In some cases, you might want to go a step further than listening and giving gentle feedback by offering them training, coaching, or growth tactics. If that fails, it’s time to move up a gear. Make the individual more marginal in your life or workplace. Isolate the negative virus by narrowing the chance for interaction and spread. Of course, always remember that the objective here is not to punish the individual but rather to distance yourself or the team from the effects of their behavior.
If things don’t improve, the next stage is to terminate the relationship. Again, such acts should not be viewed as punitive. Instead, they’re a gentle nudge that communicates, “If we continue together in this way, neither of us will flourish. Let’s help you find the place where you will thrive.”
---
Stay humble, and be grateful.
Gratitude and humility go together – one necessitates the presence of the other. Both gratitude and humility imply a sense of recognizing and appreciating other people’s strengths and unique abilities. They reflect a willingness to view one’s own contributions – both mistakes and strengths – with accuracy. They also show a tolerance of others’ capacities and weaknesses, and an openness toward feedback and instruction.
And research has revealed a connection between gratitude and evolution. Psychologist Kristin Bonnie and primatologist Frans de Waal discovered that gratitude is universal, across not only languages and cultures but also species. Studying both young children and primates, they found that gratitude is biologically inherent in monkeys as well as human beings.
So what’s the evolutionary basis? Humility and gratitude are correlated with organized patterns – better heart health, increased cognitive processing abilities, improved filtration and absorption functions in our skin tissues and capillaries, and neurological flexibility and creativity. In short, they both boost our health and longevity.
In a series of empirical studies conducted by psychologists Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, college and high school students were told to keep a journal. One group was instructed to write down the best thing that had happened to them or what they were most grateful for that day. Another was instructed to write about events, challenges, and interpersonal interactions they’d experienced. At the end of one semester, the students who’d recorded daily gratitude had higher rates of attention, optimism, energy, focus, and alertness. They also reported fewer colds and headaches; displayed more altruistic behavior; experienced better quality of sleep; and had a greater sense of social connectedness.
The scientific findings line up with the tenets of all major philosophies and religions. Hubristic pride, competitiveness, arrogance, and self-centeredness are condemned across the board. Humility and acknowledgement of mistakes are universally praised as virtues.
How can we apply the benefits of gratitude, humility, and positive recognition to enhance positive relational energy in the business context? Try beginning your next staff meeting by giving each member one minute to share something that they feel celebratory about – and make it a habit to open gatherings with gratitude and good news.
---
You might have an instinctive allergic reaction to the suggestions outlined here – maybe it feels too saccharine or touchy-feely for the culture of your organization; or irrelevant for the challenges your firm faces; or too expensive. Maybe you think the methods for producing positive energy feel absurdly delusional, or that they’re a distraction from more serious matters.
But the research – specifically, a meta-analysis of 500 empirical studies – shows that positively energized organizations have higher creativity, motivation, health, and self-regulation, along with lower absenteeism and turnover. Mainstream press coverage and the positive practice trend may raise an eyebrow. But even the most challenging circumstances can stand to be greatly boosted by the wide-ranging benefits of positively energizing leadership.
We live in serious times. Society is riddled by fear, mistrust, racial injustice, climate disasters, and the shadow of the Covid-19 pandemic – all of which have sowed a climate of violence, outrage, and conflict. As a result of this culture of despair, the power of positive thinking has mushroomed as an industry. There are thousands of books out there promising to guide you to happiness, and each year more and more are published.
But the problem with what Kim Cameron calls “happiology” is that it encourages us to put a smile on our faces while inside, our teeth are gritted and our jaws are clenched. The thing is, all lives are complex – and they involve loss, sickness, and death. You can’t avoid hardship and sadness. Glued-on positivity and pretending to be happy just do more harm than good, both for individuals and organizations.
This book Cameron’s Positively Energizing Leadership offers a different approach. Through empirical evidence, it focuses on the ways that positive energy and light are linked – and how leaders can use both to spark people and groups to flourish.
---
Positive energy helps us take positive action – but conscious effort is needed to tap into its full power.
A 2005 study discovered that pain levels were significantly lower for surgery patients recovering in a sunny room filled with natural light, compared to those placed in an artificially lit room. Similar findings on the restorative traits of light have been found for people suffering from depression.
The ancients knew about the healing properties of light, too. Systematic sun exposure has long been used medicinally by Buddhists as well as in Egyptian, Greek, and Indian cultures.
Light is a form of positive energy – of heliotropic energy, or energy that supports and sustains life. Virtue is another. In fact, light and virtue are deeply intertwined not only metaphorically but also, some scholars argue, biologically.
For example, scientists have found that light is the key to regulating our circadian rhythms, which keep our bodies healthy and balanced. Sunlight keeps our levels of hormones such as melatonin (which controls sleep) and leptin (which controls our ability to feel hunger) in check, while disruptions to our sleep can cause a variety of conditions including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Similarly, virtue is associated with positive physiological effects such as healing, brain activation in children with ADHD, and lower cortisol and pain levels.
But if positive energy is such a powerful thing, why do our lives seem dominated by dark, negative energy? Well, it’s an interesting question. A study by Wang, Galinsky, and Murnighan showed that we spend more time thinking about negative relationships than positive ones – and that we consistently seem to need much less information to confirm a negative trait vs a positive one in other people. But despite this, they also found that our behavior is most powerfully affected by positivity. In other words, while our emotional and psychological reactions tend to be more sensitive to the negative, our behavior is most amenable to change when positive things happen.
What this means is that we don’t need much assistance in internalizing negative energy – but we could all use a little help to focus on pursuing positive, life-affirming energy. After all, it’s through this energy that positive change happens. In the next section, we’ll get started on showing you how you can do this.
---
Generosity and altruism are the foundations of heliotropic energy.
We’ve just learned that virtuous and positive behavior drives physiological healing in individuals. But that’s not all. It also produces positive outcomes for interpersonal and group relations. Simply put, encouragement, recognition, security, and support help people thrive.
Think about it – do you feel motivated to perform better when your boss sends you a harshly worded email listing all the things you did wrong? Or do you try harder when they praise, thank, and highlight what you did right, then gently and tactfully suggest small tweaks to what might be improved? The former tends to degrade relationships, while the latter reflects compassion, generosity, gratitude, and kindness – all of which are essential for maximizing positive impact, performance, and energy.
Even more powerfully, studies show that people who give more positive energy than they receive tend to reap the rewards of heliotropic energy all the more. A study by pioneering social psychologist Jennifer Crocker asked college freshmen to articulate their annual achievement goals. The goals were distinguished between those that were achievement-oriented – such as getting high grades or being popular – and contribution-oriented – such as helping to make a difference. At the end of the year, researchers found that focusing on giving back to the community was a much more powerful predictor of success across multiple areas than more competitive, achievement-oriented goals.
Another study compared two groups of older patients with high blood pressure. One group was instructed to spend $40 a week on others through gifts or charity, and the other was instructed to spend the money on themselves. Two years later, the researchers found that the blood pressure of the first group – the one spending money on others – had gone down much more than that of the group spending money on themselves. What's even more amazing is that it decreased to a degree that matched the effects of medication and prescribed therapies like physical exercise! A similar study found that older adults contributing to others’ lives were able to reduce their mortality risk by a whopping 47 percent.
How can we apply this awesome power to our daily and professional lives? Let’s take the real-life example of a parent who had a young daughter who hated going to school. Each morning, she would cry and cling to her mother’s leg, begging her not to leave. The daughter’s teacher suggested that the mother ask her daughter to tell her the best thing that had happened each day. Things got a little better, but the daughter still resisted going to school.
Then the mother decided to shift the question. She asked, “What’s the best thing you did for someone today?” This small shift made all the difference – instead of throwing a tantrum before school each day, the daughter became excited to report back on the positive impact she’d made.
What can leaders learn from this? That it’s important to create opportunities for employees to mentor or coach others. You could ask an employee to lead a weekly staff meeting on a rotating basis, and to present something they specialize in. This way, employees can both learn something new and get the chance to teach their craft and skill to others. You’ll cultivate heliotropic energy – and you’ll grow the strength, happiness, and skills of your team.
---
Integrity + Sacrifice = Trust
In 2020, as nation after nation closed up to avoid Covid-19, one country managed to sidestep a full lockdown. Many argued that Sweden avoided a complete lockdown because of its culture of high trust in institutions and civic society. Evidence from other countries would bear this out. In the US, by contrast, where rates of Covid deaths were astronomically high, levels of trust are astonishingly low: only 8 percent of the nation trust political parties, 12 percent trust big companies, 22 percent trust their employers, and 34 percent believe that other citizens can be generally trusted.
Without integrity and trust, positively energizing leadership becomes impossible. Relationships break down, as do institutions and communities.
Trust is instilled from birth by the ways that caregivers nurture their infants. Loving, caring for, and cuddling children sets the foundation for trust to flourish. In contrast, trust can be tarnished by the neglect and withdrawal of caregivers – which, in the case of infants, very literally endangers their ability to survive and thrive.
Nurturing trust requires two chief components. The first ingredient is integrity. Integrity is not simply honesty; it’s also displaying consistent patterns of transparency, accountability, and reliability. Think of a leader who not only speaks with honesty, but also practices what she preaches. For instance, she openly shares potentially dangerous insights into the organization’s finances, risks, or mistakes with the team.
The second ingredient you need to build trust is sacrifice. In this context, sacrifice is when individuals give up something desirable or easy for the good of another. A good way to think about the link between sacrifice and trust is through the metaphor of an emotional bank account. Let’s imagine acts of kindness, like careful listening or expressions of love and gratitude, as deposits. On the other hand, violations of expectations, a lack of courteousness, and criticism can be thought of as withdrawals. In trusting relationships, both parties consistently and regularly deposit emotional energy into the account; even if it’s costly or inconvenient to do so, there are more deposits than withdrawals.
You can apply this metaphor across your personal and professional life. Consciously decide to make more deposits than withdrawals in the relationships that are most important to you – and see what happens! Your life just might change.
---
What to do with someone who exudes negative energy
Remember those terrifying, wraithlike creatures called dementors from Harry Potter? One Hogwarts professor described them as “the foulest creatures that walk this earth. They infest the darkest, filthiest places, they glory in decay and despair, they drain peace, hope, and happiness out of the air around them.” In the story, anyone who gets too close to a dementor is drained of all their happy memories and feelings.
You might know someone in your life or workplace who fits this description – who is toxically divisive, abrasive, and negative to the point that they seem to suck all the light and life out of a room. So what can you do when you’re confronted with them? Here are a few strategies.
First, try to understand their concerns or perspective by listening and responding supportively. If you can, offer descriptive feedback that is authentic and distinguishes the person from their dementor-like behavior. If you approach a conversation with authenticity and good intentions, you’ll avoid making them get defensive, and you'll stand a better chance of sparking a positive relationship.
In some cases, you might want to go a step further than listening and giving gentle feedback by offering them training, coaching, or growth tactics. If that fails, it’s time to move up a gear. Make the individual more marginal in your life or workplace. Isolate the negative virus by narrowing the chance for interaction and spread. Of course, always remember that the objective here is not to punish the individual but rather to distance yourself or the team from the effects of their behavior.
If things don’t improve, the next stage is to terminate the relationship. Again, such acts should not be viewed as punitive. Instead, they’re a gentle nudge that communicates, “If we continue together in this way, neither of us will flourish. Let’s help you find the place where you will thrive.”
---
Stay humble, and be grateful.
Gratitude and humility go together – one necessitates the presence of the other. Both gratitude and humility imply a sense of recognizing and appreciating other people’s strengths and unique abilities. They reflect a willingness to view one’s own contributions – both mistakes and strengths – with accuracy. They also show a tolerance of others’ capacities and weaknesses, and an openness toward feedback and instruction.
And research has revealed a connection between gratitude and evolution. Psychologist Kristin Bonnie and primatologist Frans de Waal discovered that gratitude is universal, across not only languages and cultures but also species. Studying both young children and primates, they found that gratitude is biologically inherent in monkeys as well as human beings.
So what’s the evolutionary basis? Humility and gratitude are correlated with organized patterns – better heart health, increased cognitive processing abilities, improved filtration and absorption functions in our skin tissues and capillaries, and neurological flexibility and creativity. In short, they both boost our health and longevity.
In a series of empirical studies conducted by psychologists Robert A. Emmons of the University of California, Davis, and Michael E. McCullough of the University of Miami, college and high school students were told to keep a journal. One group was instructed to write down the best thing that had happened to them or what they were most grateful for that day. Another was instructed to write about events, challenges, and interpersonal interactions they’d experienced. At the end of one semester, the students who’d recorded daily gratitude had higher rates of attention, optimism, energy, focus, and alertness. They also reported fewer colds and headaches; displayed more altruistic behavior; experienced better quality of sleep; and had a greater sense of social connectedness.
The scientific findings line up with the tenets of all major philosophies and religions. Hubristic pride, competitiveness, arrogance, and self-centeredness are condemned across the board. Humility and acknowledgement of mistakes are universally praised as virtues.
How can we apply the benefits of gratitude, humility, and positive recognition to enhance positive relational energy in the business context? Try beginning your next staff meeting by giving each member one minute to share something that they feel celebratory about – and make it a habit to open gatherings with gratitude and good news.
---
You might have an instinctive allergic reaction to the suggestions outlined here – maybe it feels too saccharine or touchy-feely for the culture of your organization; or irrelevant for the challenges your firm faces; or too expensive. Maybe you think the methods for producing positive energy feel absurdly delusional, or that they’re a distraction from more serious matters.
But the research – specifically, a meta-analysis of 500 empirical studies – shows that positively energized organizations have higher creativity, motivation, health, and self-regulation, along with lower absenteeism and turnover. Mainstream press coverage and the positive practice trend may raise an eyebrow. But even the most challenging circumstances can stand to be greatly boosted by the wide-ranging benefits of positively energizing leadership.
June 27, 2024
Why Positively Energising Leadership is a call for virtues
By Paul Laughlin · August 31, 2022
How often do you think about virtues among the aspects of leadership you seek to develop? Even hearing that use of language I’m aware it can sound outdated. But a new book from Professor Kim Cameron, “Positively Energising Leadership“, remakes the case for why leaders & organisations need to focus on virtues.
When I first received this book, from my ever astute coaching supervisor, I was not encouraged by the cover. It looked to me like a book from a cult or self-improvement commune. How wrong I was. This is a very relevant book for our times. Like the power of Adaptive Leadership in VUCA times (as I’ve shared previously), a virtue-driven Positively Energising Leadership is so needed in our times.
In this book review, I’ll share what you can expect to find in this book. Plus, I’ll share what I learned from it & why I see it as so relevant for organisations today. Finally, I’ll share some thoughts on what else I would have liked to see included. Perhaps pointing to areas for more study, or Kim’s next book.
What’s in Positively Energising Leadership?
The first encouragement I want to share is that this book is a relatively short & easy read. There are plenty of resources to help you follow up or dip into it again for reference. But the main body of the book is only 156 pages, structured into just 6 chapters (plus the introduction & conclusion). As well as an easy-to- navigate structure, expect to come across plenty of research evidence throughout the book. It feels as much like a manifesto or case for funding as a business book. It will certainly help leaders make the case for their organisations to invest in such leadership development.
The six chapters that I mentioned above cover these key parts of the evidence case:
1. Types of energy & Heliotropic effect (scientific evidence for positively energising leadership) 2. Example of positive energy in organisations (case studies demonstrating ROI & how to map it) 3. Attributes of Positively Energising Leaders (what do they do differently & the impact)
4. Developing Positively Energising Leadership (how to use virtues to develop this behaviour)
5. Examples of Positively Energising Leadership (more case studies of leaders who role model this) 6. Handling objections (answers for the most common objections encountered)
The conclusion section also does a good job of summarising the 14 principles from the book & suggestions to act on these. Readers of this blog will also be interested to see the use of a number of data visualization techniques (network maps & bubble charts) to map relationships. Kim demonstrates how this helps bring to light both the most positively energising people in teams & their opposite.
Why is this book so relevant for leaders today?
Because of the need for more than superficial virtue signalling. If the curse of the last generation of organisations was meaningless mission statements, the curse of this one is surely shallow “washing” to
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Why Positively Energising Leadership is a call for virtues
appear on message with societal changes. From concerns about bias in terms of race, gender, sexuality, disabilities, representation or environmental impact, much has been done to make logos & brand advertising look right. But all too often little is done to actually improve the experience of everyone working in an organisation in a practical & sustainable way.
This book drills deeper. It gets into the psychology of why our interactions with some people leave us feeling energised & happy, whilst others leave us drained & sad/frustrated. It also dares to identify that the drivers of being a positively energising leader are virtues. Yes, it’s that unpopular word again. This book helps leaders not work on their spin, gravitas or other externals – but actually treat people better. Kim also shows that this is much deeper & more practical than superficial positivity.
There is more to this in the book, but here are the 15 virtuous behaviours seen in energisers:
Help other people flourish without expecting payback Express gratitude & humility
Instil confidence & self-efficacy in others
Smile frequently
Forgive weakness in others
Invest in developing personal relationships
Share plum assignments & recognise others
Listen actively & empathetically
Solve problems
Mostly see opportunities
Clarify meaningfulness & inspire others
Are trusting & trustworthy
Are genuine & authentic
Motivate others to exceed performance standards Mobilise positive energisers who can motivate others
So what more do you want in a book?
Let me pause first and say I do recommend this book. It shines a light on an important aspect of leadership & makes the case for the development of virtuous behaviours to energise others very well. It also contains some very helpful resources at the end of the book. These include how to survey & map your organisation, plus some activities & practices to try with your team.
Yet, I was still left wanting more. Two things struck me as needed in addition to what is contained in this book. Firstly, more on how to develop a desire for & ease with each of the virtues outlined. Most people need to work on being more generous, gracious, humble, forgiving, trusting, open & inspiring. By halfway through this book I was convinced by the evidence & wanted more of a shift to practically how. As a coach, I recognise that the answer is more than just some new meetings or ways of working. A follow-up or longer version might helpfully share more on how to nurture the virtues that work so well.
That leads to my second point. Given the evidence for the power of virtues in leaders, I would like more acknowledgement of the role of religion here. Obviously, this is not for everyone. But as a person of faith
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Book Reviews to cross post to Amazon & Goodreads
Why Positively Energising Leadership is a call for virtues
myself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make the case for learning from millennia of wisdom. The major faiths encourage such virtues. Many help believers nurture and practice such virtues in their lives (including in workplaces). Including more on this would also address another often overlooked aspect of diversity. Valuing people of faith in secular organisations and working with them to allow them to be themselves at work and collaborate to nurture virtues. This book has so much evidence to make the case for such a focus. I pray there could be progress on that inclusion too.
How could you nurture virtues in your organisation?
I hope you feel inspired to look into Positively Energising Leadership. There are more resources and information available on this at the University of Michigan Centre for Positive Organisations. I recommend taking a look & perhaps checking out one of Kim Cameron’s YouTube videos or TEDx talk.
Now, what about you? Are you a positive energiser of those around you? Do you recognise the role of virtuous behaviours to achieve such a release of positive energy & better relationships? How are you nurturing your own virtues to sustain such behaviour? Does an active faith help you? If not, what else do you find nurtures and develops you in the virtues which can empower your leadership?
By Paul Laughlin · August 31, 2022
How often do you think about virtues among the aspects of leadership you seek to develop? Even hearing that use of language I’m aware it can sound outdated. But a new book from Professor Kim Cameron, “Positively Energising Leadership“, remakes the case for why leaders & organisations need to focus on virtues.
When I first received this book, from my ever astute coaching supervisor, I was not encouraged by the cover. It looked to me like a book from a cult or self-improvement commune. How wrong I was. This is a very relevant book for our times. Like the power of Adaptive Leadership in VUCA times (as I’ve shared previously), a virtue-driven Positively Energising Leadership is so needed in our times.
In this book review, I’ll share what you can expect to find in this book. Plus, I’ll share what I learned from it & why I see it as so relevant for organisations today. Finally, I’ll share some thoughts on what else I would have liked to see included. Perhaps pointing to areas for more study, or Kim’s next book.
What’s in Positively Energising Leadership?
The first encouragement I want to share is that this book is a relatively short & easy read. There are plenty of resources to help you follow up or dip into it again for reference. But the main body of the book is only 156 pages, structured into just 6 chapters (plus the introduction & conclusion). As well as an easy-to- navigate structure, expect to come across plenty of research evidence throughout the book. It feels as much like a manifesto or case for funding as a business book. It will certainly help leaders make the case for their organisations to invest in such leadership development.
The six chapters that I mentioned above cover these key parts of the evidence case:
1. Types of energy & Heliotropic effect (scientific evidence for positively energising leadership) 2. Example of positive energy in organisations (case studies demonstrating ROI & how to map it) 3. Attributes of Positively Energising Leaders (what do they do differently & the impact)
4. Developing Positively Energising Leadership (how to use virtues to develop this behaviour)
5. Examples of Positively Energising Leadership (more case studies of leaders who role model this) 6. Handling objections (answers for the most common objections encountered)
The conclusion section also does a good job of summarising the 14 principles from the book & suggestions to act on these. Readers of this blog will also be interested to see the use of a number of data visualization techniques (network maps & bubble charts) to map relationships. Kim demonstrates how this helps bring to light both the most positively energising people in teams & their opposite.
Why is this book so relevant for leaders today?
Because of the need for more than superficial virtue signalling. If the curse of the last generation of organisations was meaningless mission statements, the curse of this one is surely shallow “washing” to
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appear on message with societal changes. From concerns about bias in terms of race, gender, sexuality, disabilities, representation or environmental impact, much has been done to make logos & brand advertising look right. But all too often little is done to actually improve the experience of everyone working in an organisation in a practical & sustainable way.
This book drills deeper. It gets into the psychology of why our interactions with some people leave us feeling energised & happy, whilst others leave us drained & sad/frustrated. It also dares to identify that the drivers of being a positively energising leader are virtues. Yes, it’s that unpopular word again. This book helps leaders not work on their spin, gravitas or other externals – but actually treat people better. Kim also shows that this is much deeper & more practical than superficial positivity.
There is more to this in the book, but here are the 15 virtuous behaviours seen in energisers:
Help other people flourish without expecting payback Express gratitude & humility
Instil confidence & self-efficacy in others
Smile frequently
Forgive weakness in others
Invest in developing personal relationships
Share plum assignments & recognise others
Listen actively & empathetically
Solve problems
Mostly see opportunities
Clarify meaningfulness & inspire others
Are trusting & trustworthy
Are genuine & authentic
Motivate others to exceed performance standards Mobilise positive energisers who can motivate others
So what more do you want in a book?
Let me pause first and say I do recommend this book. It shines a light on an important aspect of leadership & makes the case for the development of virtuous behaviours to energise others very well. It also contains some very helpful resources at the end of the book. These include how to survey & map your organisation, plus some activities & practices to try with your team.
Yet, I was still left wanting more. Two things struck me as needed in addition to what is contained in this book. Firstly, more on how to develop a desire for & ease with each of the virtues outlined. Most people need to work on being more generous, gracious, humble, forgiving, trusting, open & inspiring. By halfway through this book I was convinced by the evidence & wanted more of a shift to practically how. As a coach, I recognise that the answer is more than just some new meetings or ways of working. A follow-up or longer version might helpfully share more on how to nurture the virtues that work so well.
That leads to my second point. Given the evidence for the power of virtues in leaders, I would like more acknowledgement of the role of religion here. Obviously, this is not for everyone. But as a person of faith
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myself, I’d be remiss if I didn’t make the case for learning from millennia of wisdom. The major faiths encourage such virtues. Many help believers nurture and practice such virtues in their lives (including in workplaces). Including more on this would also address another often overlooked aspect of diversity. Valuing people of faith in secular organisations and working with them to allow them to be themselves at work and collaborate to nurture virtues. This book has so much evidence to make the case for such a focus. I pray there could be progress on that inclusion too.
How could you nurture virtues in your organisation?
I hope you feel inspired to look into Positively Energising Leadership. There are more resources and information available on this at the University of Michigan Centre for Positive Organisations. I recommend taking a look & perhaps checking out one of Kim Cameron’s YouTube videos or TEDx talk.
Now, what about you? Are you a positive energiser of those around you? Do you recognise the role of virtuous behaviours to achieve such a release of positive energy & better relationships? How are you nurturing your own virtues to sustain such behaviour? Does an active faith help you? If not, what else do you find nurtures and develops you in the virtues which can empower your leadership?
December 21, 2023
This isn't my sort of book at all, as I have all sorts of problems with "leadership" is a topic of analysis or as a teachable skill set in the first place. And even beyond those problems, there are genuine criticisms of the author's conclusions and framings--which, to his credit, he takes the time to respectfully list and respond to in the book--that I find more persuasive than I do his thesis. And yet...this book kind of haunts me. It's basically confronting me with a question that my youngest daughter once asked me: can there really ever be something like an entirely selfless act? Cameron is telling us, and supplying all sorts of research in support of his claim that, acting virtuously (which he defines, simplistically but perhaps, all the same, seriously, as forgiveness, tolerance, kindness, etc.) creates positive energy, and that positive energy generates the same among others, which means that the best, most profitable, most appreciated, most successful organizations are those with virtuous leaders. And...maybe that's true? Maybe you should be good, because being good is a good thing, and also will bring material goods back to you? This isn't any heavy work of philosophy, but none the less it stuck with me, and it's something I'm going to have to think more about.
August 3, 2021
This is a different type of business leadership book. Based in studies, it presents a positive energy leadership style.
The book has many good ideas and positive practices. There only real issue I have is the insistence that people are all basically good and just need direction. There are examples of virtuousness, but no real definition, as it is almost impossible define virtuousness without a common basis for what is virtuous.
A solid book, and if you can work past the strain of all people are good and can all work together, the book has much to commend it.
Recommended.
The book has many good ideas and positive practices. There only real issue I have is the insistence that people are all basically good and just need direction. There are examples of virtuousness, but no real definition, as it is almost impossible define virtuousness without a common basis for what is virtuous.
A solid book, and if you can work past the strain of all people are good and can all work together, the book has much to commend it.
Recommended.
March 6, 2023
Positively Energizing Leadership (2022) offers organization leaders and workers a practical guide to understanding and harnessing the power of positively energizing characteristics and interpersonal approaches. With empirical data and how-to advice, it aims to boost innovation, profits, and compassion in the workplace and at home.
“Happyology”
All lives are complex.
Positive energy helps us take positive action – but conscious effort is needed to tap into its full power.
“Happyology”
All lives are complex.
Positive energy helps us take positive action – but conscious effort is needed to tap into its full power.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 25, 2024
I was expecting a lot from this book, however, it fluctuates on two extremes from being very, very generic and being extremely prescriptive
The book details out Various aspects such as stories, examples, factual data and even scientific theory, But fails to capture your attention throughout the book. you could read some book on empathetic leadership, and it will cover most of the topics covered here. This book is worth skipping.
The book details out Various aspects such as stories, examples, factual data and even scientific theory, But fails to capture your attention throughout the book. you could read some book on empathetic leadership, and it will cover most of the topics covered here. This book is worth skipping.
August 20, 2021
Virtuous behavior has its own reward.
Virtuous behavior, pursued for its own benefit, also produces organizational changes in productivity and people's sense of belonging.
Cameron backs up his argument with abundant data from research projects to support his thesis.
If you espouse and practice servant leadership, this will reinforce you beliefs.
Virtuous behavior, pursued for its own benefit, also produces organizational changes in productivity and people's sense of belonging.
Cameron backs up his argument with abundant data from research projects to support his thesis.
If you espouse and practice servant leadership, this will reinforce you beliefs.
September 6, 2021
An interesting look at virtuous leadership and the positive effect it has on people and organizations. As a student of leadership and a researcher of the dark side of leadership I found this text highly engaging and well researched but not written in an overly technical manner. Worth the time to read and instill lessons in your life
December 19, 2021
This book is great as a beginners guide to positive psychology and positive leadership. It has a good mix of research, including meta analysis, and real world examples. It even lists resources and activities to help you on your way to a more positive organization.
September 15, 2025
My company read through the book together. It has some good principles that could help someone lead and organization. Much of it seems like common sense. Also the hard part is projecting a “non fake” attitude.
January 26, 2022
Fairly easy read with good flow. A good balance of practice and application. This book provides a healthy argument for implementation of positive practices and virtuous actions.
April 17, 2022
I loved this book as it seems a total enhancement of Positive Leadership written by Cameron in 2013. The nod to the virtuous is remarkable and I will keep this book available as reference.
August 4, 2021
I liked this book, but I’m an easy sell when it comes to creating positive energy in an organization. Cameron’s book makes a great case for why being a positively energizing leader makes sense and how it affects the impact these leaders make in the workplace. The data supports that creating positive energy in people will create higher performing employees, which in turn creates higher performing organizations. It doesn’t take manipulation and deception to do it. The qualities that create this energy can be boiled down to being genuine, acting with integrity, and displaying virtuous behavior. He uses good examples that show this isn’t some wacky, far-out thing where everyone joins hands and sings Kumbaya. Those examples highlight how positively energizing leadership has been developed across the globe and even explains the challenges leaders faced because of their cultural norms. There’s a resource-filled appendix you can adapt for your organization. All in all, it’s a quick read that makes a case that giving in relationships is more important than receiving. I received an advance copy for review.
September 5, 2022
A tool I will continue to go to in striving to be a thoughtful leader.
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