Practicing Positive Leadership; Tools and Techniques That Create Extraordinary Results (BK Business) by Cameron (1-Sep-2013) Paperback

by Kim S. Cameron

Plenty of research has been done on why companies go terribly wrong, but what makes companies go spectacularly right? That’s the question that Kim Cameron asked over a decade ago. Since then, Cameron and his colleagues have uncovered the principles and practices that set extraordinarily effective organizations apart from the merely successful.In his previous book Positive Leadership, Cameron identified four strategies that enable these organizations, and the individuals within them, to creating a positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning. Here he lays out specific tactics for implementing them. These are not feel-good nostrums—study after study (some cited in this book) have proven positive leadership delivers breakthrough bottom-line results. Thanks to Cameron’s concise how-to guide, now any organization can be “positively deviant,” achieving outcomes that far surpass the norm.

Genres: Business, Leadership, Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2013

Reviews

[Karina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good and interesting. It breaks down the concepts in positive institution/organization research into actionable items. However, I just really dislike how business books are written. I find it so soulless and dry. So as much as I also take issue with how academese feels like gatekeeping information between the style and the paywalls of journals, I have much preferred the articles I've read on this topic to this book. BUT, I do think it's a good introduction to the concepts if you either have no interest in or limited access to academic journal articles. Like will I still recommend this book as our book club content at work this fall? Absolutely. But I will complain frequently about how the business mindset brings everything back to money instead of the "goods of the first intent" talked about in chapter 5 🙃

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Cameron's second edition of Positive Leadership, and then compared it with the first...not much of substance appears to have changed. Some examples were updated, and there were some additions, but the overall message was unchanged.

I think it is worth reading, especially for some of the nuggets or takeaways, but the big ideas in the book are not new to anyone who is a student of leadership. The author highlights “four leadership strategies that enable positive deviance " meaning unusually positive results. These include (1) fostering a positive climate, (2) developing positive relationships, (3) engaging in positive communication, and (4) reinforcing positive meaning in leadership efforts. Leaders can and should do such things as regularly express gratitude, communicate in ways that are supportive of their followers, and act in ways that are aligned with their values. He offers several tools for assessment on these attributes, as well as describing tools for action. I particularly appreciated his description and advocacy of PMI - the personal management interview system. Some will object that doing this takes an enormous amount of time, but the truth is that it save much more time (and trouble) in the long run.

Something that makes this book particularly unique compared to most other practitioner-oriented leadership books was the care Cameron took to link his ideas and recommendations back to the evidence from rigorous research. Evidence-based management has become almost a faddishly used phrase, but Cameron does it well.

[Don · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to more concrete actions after reading Positive Leadership. I’d advise those desiring to figure out how to implement to consult Cameron’s colleague, Robert Quinn’s “The Positive Organization.”

[Sean]

if you are into positive leadership or want to learn more about it, this is a great start. Cameron is a master at portraying this topic.

[Seymour Hersh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent insights on the background thru to,execution of positive leadership within an organization.