114 – The Science and Practice of Positive Leadership with Craig Dowden

Craig Dowden Ph.D., is a certified positive psychology coach. He is on a mission to share the science and practice of positive leadership. A longtime columnist at the Financial Post and the Huffington Post, and an upcoming column slated for Forbes, Craig combines years of interviewing and coaching top CEOs with his extensive knowledge of business psychology in his new book Do Good to Lead Well: The Science and Practice of Positive Leadership

Top Takeaways: The Science and Practice of Positive Leadership with Craig Dowden

There is an intersection between the personality of people and the personality of organization/business
Empirical data helps understand the intersection
Motivating people and getting them on the same page is a familiar challenge in business
Not just the right thing to do, this is the right thing to do for your business
Incorrect assumption is that a positive environment can lead to slacking and goofing off
Compelling data dispels this – research shows that focus, team synergy and positive leadership have measurable outcomes
Universal choreography – opportunity all around and if we have our eyes open to them
Is there a tradeoff between doing good and being a good leader?”
Existential Crisis for leaders wondering if they do good and are positive, reinforcing and supportive can they still drive business results?
Must you sacrifice your values as a leader to drive performance on the bottom line?
Data shows these go together and make a great combination – doing good = leading well
“ I’m tough on Standards and soft on my people”
Consistency between values and lived behaviors is a critical component to success
Toxic people can impact the entire team and even if they are top performers by themselves the team will collectively do better with them gone
Bridge the gap between what Science knows and what Leaders do
The idea is compelling but how do we do that?
Apologizing leader – how effective is this when leading a team?
Does it make a leader appear weak when giving an authentic apology? Respect/trust returns to baseline and often elevated. Can become a relationship enhancer when used appropriately. Powerful and often under-utilized tool.
Behavior must change based on the apology or it becomes ineffective – articulate what you are sorry for and why it’s important
What causes good people to become bad leaders? Where is the disconnect?
We can have a self-awareness gap – most people believe they are “a people person” but the number 1 reason people leave organizations is due to “people/leadership issues”
Lack of clarity into what “values” “stress” “pressure” means in an organization
Avoid the extremes – if we are falling too far on either end of the spectrum we need to re-evaluate
People have an amazing ability to forgive if given the opportunity
Ego and lack of self-awareness has significant impact on successful leadership and our ability to reach our maximum potential