Leaders: Find Your Contagious Positive Energy
Research shows that the most important element of success is an attitude we had when we were five years old.
The best leaders have contagious positive energy, the kind children have with a box of crayons in their hands. Research backs this up, as Emma Seppala and Kim Cameron wrote in Harvard Business Review. They define Positive Relational Energy, or PRE, as "the exchanged energy between people that helps uplift, enthuse and renew them."
PRE is good for business. Research shows that the performance of teams led by positive energizers exceeds industry averages by 4X; they have greater productivity, cohesion, lower turnover, and better engagement.
How do you identify positive energizers? Simply ask what happens when you encounter a person. If your energy goes up, you struck PRE!
Seppala and Cameron compare the PRE effect to the heliotropic effect, which causes plants to turn toward the light; humans do the same thing.
Organizations without PRE are like plants without light. Sarah Pressman found that negative energizers are more detrimental to health than smoking, obesity, or high blood pressure.
Positive energizers inspire, encourage, and drive. They're demanding, too. They live longer, develop more robust immune systems, and have lower rates of anxiety and depression. And in organizations, energizers reproduce themselves.
So as Gapingvoid reminds us, don't let them take away your crayons. Positive relational energy is good for your company, good for your health, and good for your relationships, too.
Emma Seppala Ph.D. is the faculty director of the Yale School of Management’s Women’s Leadership Program and the author of The Happiness Track. She is also the science director of Stanford University’s Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education. Follow her work at www.emmaseppala.com.
Kim Cameron, Ph.D., is the William Russell Kelly Professor of Management and Organizations at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan and the author of Positive Leadership, Practicing Positive Leadership, and Positively Energizing Leadership.
Sarah Pressman is a Professor, Speaker, Stress, Happiness, and Wellness Expert. Read Positive Affect and Health: What Do We Know and Where Next Should We Go? or watch her TED talk, Why Doctors Should Care About Happiness.
