College of Business and Accountancy

Includes bibliographical references.

1 From Negative to Positive 1 2 Real Positive 7 3 Positive Leaders Drive Positive Cultures 13 Your Most Important Job 16 Culture Beats Strategy 17 Know What You Stand For 19 More than Words 21 Positively Contagious 22 Create a Culture that People Feel 23 Invest in the Root if You Want the Fruit 24 You Must Keep Building Your Culture 26 4 Positive Leaders Create and Share a Positive Vision 29 A North Star 32 A Telescope and Microscope 34 Dabo Swinney s Vision 34 Keep the Vision Alive 38 Make the Vision Come Alive 38 My Vision 40 5 Positive Leaders Lead with Optimism, Positivity, and Belief 45 Believe It and You ll See It 50 If You Don t Have It, You Can t Share it 51 Feed the Positive Dog 51 Talk to Yourself 52 It s All How You See It 53 Tell Yourself a Positive Story 54 Challenge or Opportunity 56 Shark or Goldfish 56 Think Like a Rookie 57 Defeating Murphy 59 Inside Out 59 Distort Reality 60 Leadership Is a Transfer of Belief 61 Lead with Faith Instead of Fear 63 Be an Over-Believer 64 Don t Stop Believing 66 Your Leadership Journey 67 6 Positive Leaders Confront, Transform, and Remove Negativity 69 Your Positivity Must Be Greater than All the Negativity 72 No Energy Vampires Allowed 73 Why Wait? 74 The First Step Is to Transform 75 Start at the Culture Level 75 Remove the Negativity 77 Sooner or Later 77 Lead from Where You Are 79 Implement the No Complaining Rule 79 Michael Phelps s Positive Leadership 82 Don t Be Negative about Negativity 83 7 Positive Leaders Create United and Connected Teams 85 Connection Is the Difference 88 Team Beats Talent When Talent Isn t a Team 91 Dabo Swinney s Seat 93 Collaborate and Facilitate 94 Don t Let Your Reptile Eat Your Positive Dog 95 8 Positive Leaders Build Great Relationships and Teams 99 Love Does 101 Love Is the Greatest Leadership Principle on the Planet 103 Rules without Relationship Lead to Rebellion 104 Communication Builds Trust 104 Where There Is a Void in Communication, Negativity Fills It 106 Leading by Walking Around 108 Listening Is Communicating 110 Enhance Your Positive Communication 110 Be an Encourager 113 Believe in Others More than They Believe in Themselves 114 Help Your Team Become Unstoppable 115 Connect One on One 117 Be Committed 118 Serve to Be Great 119 Doing the Laundry 120 It s Not About You 123 Commit to Coach 124 Commitment Requires Sacrifice 125 When You Help Others Improve, You Improve 126 Elite of the Elite 127 Positive Leaders Care 128 Develop Your Caring Trademark 129 The Sandwich 133 9 Positive Leaders Pursue Excellence 135 Humble and Hungry 137 There Is No Finish Line 139 Demanding without being Demeaning 139 Love and Accountability 140 Love Tough 143 Craftsmen and Craftswomen 144 The One Percent Rule 145 Clarity and Action 146 10 Positive Leaders Lead with Purpose 149 Find and Live Your Purpose 153 Share the Purpose 155 Inspire Others to Live Their Purpose 155 Purpose Driven Goals 156 One Word 159 Life Word 160 Leave a Legacy 161 Give People Great Stories to Tell 162 Life and Death 164 11 Positive Leaders Have Grit 167 Know What You Want 171 Know Your Why 171 Love It 172 Embrace Failure 173 Keep Doing Things the Right Way: Trust the Process 174 Ignore the Critics; Do the Work 175 12 Lead the Way Forward 177 Notes 189 Acknowledgments 191 Bring the Power of Positive Leadership to Your Organization 193 Power of Positive Leadership Resources 194 Other Books by Jon Gordon 195

"Lift your organization from the top with a powerful new leadership approach The Positive Leader is your personal coach for becoming the leader your people deserve. Storyteller Jon Gordon crafts the fables that inspire great leadership: The Energy Bus, The No Complaining Rule, Training Camp, and others have helped hundreds of thousands of people around the world achieve their true leadership potential. In this book, he gathers the insights from all of his bestselling fables to bring you the definitive guide to positive leadership. Great leaders understand that people drive the numbers, not the other way around; to win, you must win with people--and this book shows you how. It all begins with your decision to become a positive leader, and the understanding that leadership is not just about what you can do, but what you can inspire, encourage, and empower others to do. You'll learn to bring out the best in each of your employees by sharing the best within you; instead of running over people to achieve your goals, invite them on board--together, you can achieve more than you ever thought possible. Difficult times call for leaders who are up for the challenge. Results are the byproduct of your culture, teamwork, vision, talent, innovation, execution, and commitment; this book shows you how to bring it all together to become a powerfully positive leader. Discover the true drivers of short- and long-term success Learn what leadership is really about Cultivate the habits and outlook of successful leaders Strengthen your people and let the results speak for themselves Find the right people, invest in them, nurture them, and develop them; as they grow, so do you. The Positive Leader helps you become the person you want to be, and the leader your people need"--

"Challenging times require leaders who can lead others through the challenges. Great leaders realize that it's not the numbers that drive the people, but the people that drive the numbers. While you have to measure results, you must do so with the knowledge that the outcome is simply a by-product of your culture, teamwork, vision, talent, innovation, execution and commitment to your people and process. To win you must win with people. To create true and lasting success you must invite the right people on your bus, take the time to invest in them, develop them, nurture them and when you help them grow they'll help you grow. It all starts with a decision to be a positive leader and the understanding that leadership is not just about what you do but what you can inspire, encourage and empower others to do. When you are a positive leader you bring out the best within each of your employees by sharing the best within you. Instead of running over the people in your organization you invite them on the bus with you and empower them to help you create an amazing and successful ride. The Positive Leader is an essential guide to leading with optimism, enthusiasm and positive energy"-- We are not positive because life is easy. We are positive because life can be hard. As a leader, you will face numerous obstacles, negativity, and tests. There will be times when it seems as if everything in the world is conspiring against you and your vision seems more like a fantasy than a reality.