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You Can’t Lead if You Can’t Follow

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Catherine Osborne


Being the leader people want to follow requires first that you connect by following. Enlightened leaders can connect through following others by practicing the principle of followership. Followership is a leader’s willingness to listen to those for whom they are responsible.

“Listening to me” is the highest rated attribute for an effective leader by direct reports. Effective listening creates a connection between the leader and the legitimate needs, wants, and desires of the people. Paying attention to followers through active listening, a leader gains insight and information not obtained anywhere else.

Peter Drucker said, “Everybody writes books about leadership. Somebody ought to write a book about followership, because for every leader there are a thousand followers.” Although followership is an age-old concept and several books have been written about it, the concept is still a novelty to many in titled positions of authority. Following your followers enables you as a leader to make positive, emotional connection.

Acquiring the skill of Positive Presence brings with it the ability to ‘tune into’ your personal human energy as well as the energy within your ‘20 square feet’, and by doing so you have the necessary cues for making a positive, emotional connection. Remember, people do not quit their jobs — they quit their leader – the boss.

Ineffective leaders breed ineffective followers, and performance and productivity suffer as a result. With a positive, emotional connection with your people you send a clear message that you are interested and invested in what your people experience on a daily basis. People in general do not follow just anyone or follow out of the goodness of their heart. They need good reasons—a motivation – to follow. You are responsible for giving them those reasons by understanding what they want and need to fulfill their work.

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Are Your People Connections Positive or Negative?

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

What is it that achieves results for organizations to succeed? Is it the methods, tools, technologies, protocols and systems, or is it the people? There is no doubt – it is your people that achieve results. The methods, tools, technologies, protocols and systems, are there only to enhance your peoples’ ability to perform.

It is with people, then, not with processes, that organizational leaders must form a long-lasting connection. This connection is what ultimately determines the success or failure of the leader specifically and the organization as a whole. People buy into their leaders before they buy into the organization’s mission, vision and values.

Employees who feel a connection with their leaders are engaged, cooperative, collaborative, participative, accountable, passionate about their work, and supportive of change. They are motivated to behave according to established skills, and abilities. An organization with such a workforce can dominate any market or industry with consistent, high quality, safety, service, financial, and operational outcomes.

People connection is a strategy that leaders use to demonstrate they care for and understand the needs of their employees. Connection is an expression of leader compassion, trust, security, and hope. You can care for people without leading them. You can never lead people without caring for them. A deep connection between the leader and employees raises everyone’s level of energy, engagement, motivation, and performance.

The principle of connection validates and puts into practice the concepts of self-awareness and collaboration. Self-awareness enables leaders to initiate connections with their employees, while trust and accountability – the imperatives of collaboration – allow leaders to sustain these connections.

Relationships, by their nature, require constant and consistent tending. The quality of care you put into these relationships translates into either a positive or negative experience. That is, the other person perceives every one of your interactions as good or bad. If you choose to behave poorly during an interaction, that experience will be considered negative; conversely, if you conduct yourself well that experience will be considered positive. The more your individual behaviour is seen as negative, the less likely you will be able to develop connections.

Over time, negative experiences erode a leader’s influence. This is particularly true for leaders who give plenty of lip service to forging effective relationships but do nothing to advance the cause. These leaders ignore or do not seek feedback, do not listen to others or share information with them, micromanage their staff, allow their emotions to control them, take accomplishments for granted, and offer more criticism than aid and resources. None of these behaviours is conducive to making and sustaining connections.
So if you want to increase the positive experiences and thus enhance your connections, you must improve your leader behaviour. Positive interactions therefore strengthen influence. This kind of connection achieves the following:
• Improves performance in all areas;
• Boosts morale, quality, and productivity;
• Promotes trust and accountability;
• Creates a culture in which work is meaningful and its performers are valued.

In this environment, the leaders are self-aware and serve as role models of responsible, professional behaviour. The employees, in turn, are highly collaborative; they understand what the organization is trying to achieve and how their behaviour and performance contribute to that bigger picture. Trust and accountability are not just expected, they become the norm.

If your leadership is all about targets, efficiencies, and execution, you may attain successful outcomes but only through the begrudging efforts of your people. The process of creating a transformational
culture has not changed despite the growing use of social media. Cultivating a high performance culture still requires leaders to build trust through mentoring, face-to-face meetings, vigorous feedback, and performance accountability. In a word, cultivating a high performance culture requires positive leader connection.

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Connection as a Leadership Strategy

Posted on December 4, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

One of the most critical components, in fact, perhaps the most critical component of leadership success is the ability to connect with people. You cannot lead without connecting. Connection is an expression of leader compassion, trust, security, and hope.

You can care for people without leading them.
You can never lead people without caring for them.

If your leadership is all about targets, efficiencies, and execution, you may attain successful outcomes but only through the begrudging efforts of your people. Connection with people is a strategy guaranteed to drive organizational performance. Connection is the linkage experienced by people who share similarities, such as the same friends and associates, interests and concerns, careers, status in life, employers and so on.

Living in the electronic age, communication via social media, texting, email or other electronic means has taken the place of much of our daily interactions. In today’s world we tend to depreciate the value of direct contact more than in the past. Direct contact with other people cannot be replaced or underestimated to create connection, build collaboration, and drive performance. Direct contact with others builds and strengthens connections. People still want and need to create and sustain personal relationships, particularly in the workplace, to define or confirm their personal and professional identity and worth.

A June 2012 Deloitte survey titled “Core Values and Beliefs,” indicates that executives are looking for a quick fix to build greater connection with their workforce. Many executives believe an investment in a new social technology will provide them with the answer they seek in building a more collaborative culture. Employees, on the other hand, are often suspicious of these tools. The survey found employees value intangibles in the workplace — such as candid communication and direct access to management as critical elements of connection— while executives value tangibles, including competitive compensation and financial performance as means to a more productive organization.

Connection increases a leader’s influence among followers. This influence spurs followers to do more – improve their behaviour, develop their skills and talents, work better and harder, seek and participate in collaborations or teams, and achieve greater results. In today’s business climate, where every aspect of our professional life seems vulnerable and in a state of flux, a strong connection between leaders and followers is especially necessary. This bond enables the organization to not only rise above its challenges but to thrive toward new heights of performance excellence.

To perform at their best employees must first feel inspired, engaged, and connected to their leader. Without a highly positive emotional connection to you as a leader, your people will work but without inspiration, motivation, and innovation. Connection needs to be the distinguishing factor in your leadership strategy.

Your personal success and the success of your organization ultimately depend on your ability as a leader to connect. Even if connecting is something you are not good at today, the good news is that because connecting is a behaviour-based skill you can learn how to connect well with people and make it one of your greatest strengths.

The art of connection begins with the skill of Positive Presence, an innovative thought model connecting workplace behaviour to human energy through a systematic, programmatic methodology equipping leaders with the knowledge and understanding necessary for developing and sustaining the mindset and behaviour skills needed for strong and lasting connections.

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What is Your Leader’s Trust Level?

Posted on November 27, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

Trust enables your team not only to perform its daily function but also to rise above conflicts and crises. In today’s fast-paced, complex, ambiguous environment of constant change, conflicts and crises abound within the organization. So in order to succeed, trust is a necessary characteristic of any organization’s culture.

Organizational performance can rise no higher than the collective performance of its people. With the arrival of the knowledge economy, organizations are transitioning on a global scale from a mechanistic environment of linear control, to a systemic environment of complexity. As such, the role of leader has never been more important than it is in today’s world, and individual leader behaviour is the single most important predictor of organizational performance.

Absence of trust almost always brings about negative consequences. As indicated in a study by Deloitte titled “Truth in the Workplaces: 2010 Ethics & Workplace Survey,” both employees and executives who participated in the survey agreed that lack of trust hurts morale. In addition, executives responded that the presence of no trust damages productivity and profitability. Simply stated, low or no trust puts the organization at a competitive and performance disadvantage.

The fundamental purposes of building and sustaining trust are to accomplish tasks and achieve goals. In this way, trust is an operational and collaborative imperative without which there will be below-average safety, quality, and client satisfaction. It is people – not processes, policies, strategies, tools or methods – that make up the collaboration, and it is trust that is critical in motivating people to do the actual work. Technical mastery, intelligence, personal and professional drive, past accomplishments, and vision are admirable and necessary leadership qualities, but they alone do not inspire long-term trust and collaboration. These qualities must be complemented by interpersonal and behavioural competencies.

A leader’s high degree of credibility is the sum of both behavioural and technical skills, and this credibility is what sustains trust. Trust, in turn, leads followers to support the concept of collaboration at first and then, ultimately, to fully participate in or pursue collaborations. In the absence of credible leaders, people will still perform their tasks and abide by organizational rules. They only do so, however, because they want to keep their jobs, and they perform at the lowest acceptable level possible. Obviously, this response is a narrow perspective that produces superficial results.

A collaboration that is built on trust has a deeper meaning and thus has long lasting power. It energizes, engages and awakens passion and commitment, even in the most complex organizations, such as the healthcare industry where many workers suffer from compassion fatigue – the stress, isolation, pain and apathy felt by caregivers, or the high tech industry where workers commonly suffer from stress-induced illnesses caused by burnout.

Today’s leaders cannot be just passive recipients of trust; they must also be proactive givers of trust. Today’s leaders must view trust as a mutual practice: They work hard to earn and keep it, and they expect and demand others to do the same. By displaying trustworthy behaviour every day, they serve as a model to their followers and other partners.

More to point, today’s executive leadership team must possess this one key ingredient for excellence – trust. If trust is not reflected by the behaviours and actions of top leadership, the negative impact of this deficiency will inevitably ripple throughout the organization and performance will suffer at all levels. When a disparity or misalignment exists between the conviction and values organizational leadership profess and the actual behaviour they exhibit, they create confusion and distrust among team members. Without trust there is no influence, and without influence there is no opportunity to reach superior performance. Trust can only exist in a positive and energized union of human energy and behaviour. Making the connection between human behaviour and human energy lies in the skill of Positive Presence.

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The Eight Behaviours of Trust

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

Trust is a complex and far-reaching concept that pervades our personal and professional pursuits. We cannot bottle trust and sell it. Trust is based on an individual’s mental model that people are generally honorable. Social and ethical theorist Russell Hardin stated that “generalized trust must be a matter of relatively positive expectations of the trustworthiness, cooperativeness, and helpfulness of others.” Generalized trust is just one type of trust. The other type of trust is ‘behavioural’ trust, both of which are intangible imperatives of organizational culture that drive engagement and collaboration.

Trust increases the likelihood that people will communicate openly and adopt cooperative attitudes in order to work in integrated teams with a shared responsibility and shared objectives. Without trust relationships are dysfunctional and work effectiveness and performance suffer. Trust plays a critical role in leadership performance and organizational culture.

The word trust is derived for the German word trost, meaning comfort. This is an appropriate association because when we trust someone, we are comforted by the belief that this person has our best interest at heart and thus will not endanger us or put us at risk. Trust is a critical component in all human interactions, and often bestowed on the basis of how we experience a person’s behaviour toward us. Trust does not come automatically with positions of power. It must be supported by ongoing good behaviour, which then validates our confidence in bestowing our trust in that person.

Trust-earning or trust-building behaviours include:

1. Consistency in manner, words, and actions;
2. Accountability and transparency, including actively listening, sharing information, and taking responsibility instead of blaming;
3. Genuine or sincere interest in and concern for others;
4. Respectful and equal regard for and treatment of others, regardless of rank or position;
5. Focused attention;
6. Principled and evidence based decision making;
7. Dedication to fulfilling (not just making) promises;
8. Willingness to celebrate and reward good and exceptional work.

Individual leader behaviour is the single most important predictor of organizational performance. Trust-building behaviours make up just a few of the self-awareness traits of leaders who know that their everyday words, actions, and habits can either strengthen or weaken trust. We can all list the outcomes of an unmotivated, disengaged workforce, particularly in high stress and high risk environments. This is why leaders of today must be vigilant to make positive, impactful decisions that build trust in those with whom we work.

Science has proven that trust will not and cannot develop in an environment wrought with negative human energy. The skill of Positive Presence makes the connection for mindset, behaviour and human energy with its innovative thought model using a systematic, programmatic methodology to equip leaders with the knowledge and understanding for developing and sustaining the behaviour skills necessary for a trust-building environment.

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Are You Leading in the Dark? Three Lights of Accountability

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

In a collaborative culture accountability is a visible practice and framework. All team members are clear about their specific responsibilities. They are aware of the organization’s mission, vision, values, and how they personally fit into the framework. They are given measures and tools to use in determining if they are moving forward or falling behind on their objectives. They are empowered to do their job, and they are rewarded for their efforts. The result is a high level of employee engagement with a vested interest in the success of the organization.

Accountability is indispensable in collaboration because the work is interrelated. For example, if one team member makes an error or falls behind schedule, he must report it to the rest of the team to stem the consequences; failure to disclose a problem in one part could potentially damage the entire work. In addition, taking responsibility for errors is easier in a collaborative setting, where the focus is on correction rather than on blame. Thus, fear of retribution is minimal, if it even exists, allowing a more honest exchange among team members.

In a traditional culture with command and control leadership, although management demands and praises the value of accountability, it does not generally provide the resources and environment that enable accountability to flourish. This absence often results in widespread confusion, distrust, and underachievement. Influential leaders are aware of these pit falls and thus behave, and urge others to behave, in a manner that promotes accountability.

Influential leaders lead by modeling effective behaviour. They understand that it is through their own personal behaviour competency that they influence others. They are role models of accountability. They understand that accountability is the obligation to take personal responsibility for ones thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. They understand that accountability is an empowering mental model that puts the person in total control of their thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, and actions. This mental model (what Corporate Harmony refers to as the skill of Positive Presence) is necessary in today’s workplace wrought with complexity, ambiguity, and with fast paced and constant change. This mental model is a requirement for every member of the organization, regardless of title, rank, or employment relationship.

Role-modeling accountability is not difficult, but it does take practice. Here are three ‘lights’ of accountability to practice:

Transparency. One way to role-model accountability is transparency. Influential leaders admit their own mistakes and vulnerabilities in the face of responsibility. For example, the leader can share a story in which he “dropped the ball” on an important project. He can explain the steps he took to recover from this event. The story can then be turned into a teaching moment that may inspire others to change their approach to avoid the negative outcome experienced by the storyteller. The point of this exercise (called power of story), is to show that a lack of accountability has the power to weaken even a strong performer and thus needs to be managed with vigilance.

Ask. Another way leaders can role-model accountability is to always, in any challenging situation or conflict, ask “how did I contribute to this problem?” This simple question must be followed by an actual evaluation of the leader’s role, because just posing the question is as good as screaming, “I didn’t do it!” This show of genuine concern indicates to others that the leader sees herself as accountable not only for the problem but also for the solution.

Move Forward. While accountability is effective in establishing behaviour based expectations for performance, the key is to remain focused on improved and effective behaviour change. Repeating ineffective behaviour through feedback ultimately creates a great deal of damage to any relationship. Acknowledging a mechanism that identifies an effective behaviour as a more productive choice is the key to move out of the past and focus forward.

Today’s organizations should include an accountability criterion in all policies and processes, including employee recruitment and retention, privileging and credentialing, all performance appraisals, contract development and review, and vendor selection. When accountability is a clearly documented and well-communicated expectation, every person who works for and conducts business in the organization is more likely to demonstrate effective behaviour. The person will perform according to established or agreed upon standards and will think twice about assigning blame. Without the use of accountability and feedback you will be leading in the dark.

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Collaboration as a Performance Improvement Strategy

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

Collaboration is a partnership between people and or groups intended to generate a product or achieve a singular objective that is mutually beneficial to all parties involved. Collaboration tends to move forward any kind of work or goal faster than any other approach because it is powered by skills, knowledge, expertise, experience, and insight of many people, not just one person.

It is particularly critical in public service industries because the needs and demands in these industries are complex, multidimensional, and in industries such as health care, filled with severe risks and often times dire consequences. In a laboratory, for example, a “simple” blood test involves multiple staff, processes, and knowledge areas. All of these units or players must work together not only to deliver the service (blood test) but also to achieve an interdependent goal (accurate and timely test results). A lack of cooperation (an element of collaboration) by team members in any step in this service process results in various negative outcomes, such as patient dissatisfaction, staff frustration, and delay or error in diagnosis or treatment.

More often than not the lack of collaboration stems from ineffective behaviour, not deficiencies in technical knowledge and capacity. At the extreme, ineffective behaviour is dysfunctional and includes poor communication, sabotage (conscious or unconscious) of existing processes, refusal to work with or participate in teams, gossip-mongering, apathy, procrastination and disregard for time frames, constant complaining, argumentativeness, rudeness, and resistance to constructive feedback.

While dysfunctional behaviour is often chalked up to human nature, particularly if it occurs only occasionally, it is nonetheless a signal that a larger problem exists. In other words, when blood results get mixed up in the lab or are lost in transit, the reasons likely have less to do with the technical aspects of the job and more to do with behavioural lapses and inadequacies among the staff. The challenge for leaders and managers is to observe, identify, and amend ineffective and dysfunctional behaviours so that they do not impede true collaboration and high performance outcomes.

Organizations still entrenched in the dated command and control leadership paradigm and “we work alone – rock star” mentality struggle to compete against organizations that embrace a culture of collaboration. Peak performing organizations embrace collaboration creating engaged employees in a culture where the work and goals are interdependent, and the leaders are self-aware, other-centered, and connected in highly effective relationships.

In today’s economy it is imperative, particularly in public service industries, that we adopt collaboration as a key performance strategy. An initiative for collaboration enriches work lives at all organizational levels. Collaboration emphasizes that everyone, no matter your position on the organizational chart, contributes to the goals of the enterprise. When someone asks you to get involved or to help, you feel needed, valued, and an integral part of a larger system. People who feel this way find their work meaningful, and as a result, they willingly contribute their time, talent and energy and are motivated to perform at high levels. Making the connection between collaborative behaviour and positive human energy begins with the skill of Positive Presence — an innovative thought model for equipping leaders with the knowledge and understanding necessary for developing and sustaining the behaviour skills needed for collaboration.

The good news is that we are already seeing a generational shift toward integrated thinking, system oriented problem solving, and objective standards of measurement for performance in our public service organizations. As leaders, using collaboration as the means to build teams, drive performance, share governance and responsibility, and establish accountability for performance, will provide the greatest opportunity for achieving a culture of performance excellence.

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The Feedback Loop of Change

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

Giving and receiving feedback is probably one of life’s greatest challenges both personally and professionally. As leaders, it is critical to continually develop our capacity for both giving and receiving feedback, both positive and negative. Most would agree that giving or receiving positive feedback is relatively simple in comparison to giving or receiving negative feedback. In reality though, negative feedback (the stuff we’re not doing or we need to do better), is essential if we are to learn and grow, and how we behave in the face of feedback is where the learning must begin.

Executive coach and author Marshall Goldsmith describes people’s usual reaction to positive and negative feedback this way. He says that we all tend to accept feedback that is compatible to what we believe to be true and reject feedback that does not match our sense of reality. This concept is akin to pattern recognition or “cognitive dissonance” – that is, our brains gravitate toward information that is known, familiar or concrete. It seems then, that how we react or behave to feedback is in part biological.

For example, if an executive receives feedback that she is a poor listener she may become defensive and deem the comment an insult. After all, she may argue, she did not rise to her current position by not paying attention to others’ needs and wants along the way. Thus, she will ignore the feedback altogether, rendering the process a waste of time and effort. This example could apply to all levels of employees in all kinds of jobs.

When we understand that cognitive dissonance is in essence a biological reaction to the way feedback is delivered to us, then we are in a much better position to deal with it. If we’re on the receiving end, it takes awareness and preparedness to keep one-self open to what is new and different. When we can do that, the feedback process is said to be constructive and effective. If we’re on the delivery end of the feedback, then we have control of the delivery and an opportunity to ensure that feedback is given with an intention to coach and inform in a positive and familiar manner that will elicit a constructive and effective result.

In today’s world of constant change and ambiguity the essence of feedback must be kept top of mind: Change begins with seeking feedback and diligently applying the lessons learned. As a result, we can move from complacency, fear, and doubt to improved behaviour, creative thought processes, mental toughness, and discipline – all of which help us to shape or re-create our lives and to make optimal life choices. Learning the skill of Positive Presence will create a mindset that connects human energy to productive and strength-building behaviour that will openly accept all feedback – positive and negative.

Feedback has often been called the “breakfast of champions.” All highly successful and peak performing individuals have a mechanism for receiving constant feedback. Most particularly, peak performers, as influential leaders, go outside of themselves for this information. Rarely are they deceived by the cognitive dissonance and distortion of their own perspective and self- analysis. If you are really looking for success at work you must find out how your behaviour is coming across to your colleagues, peers, and clients. Get their feedback, and remember getting this kind of necessary feedback is easy. Dealing with it to change and expand your leadership capacity and influence is hard. The choice is yours.

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Six Questions to Becoming an Influential Leader

Posted on October 23, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

As leaders we must always be pursuing new avenues that can improve or enhance our overall leadership influence. In today’s knowledge economy, we must continually transform our own leadership effectiveness, the performance of our people, and the overall productivity of our organization.

Leader behaviour is the singular most important skill that we must be constantly aware of and continuously developing in order to be effective. What’s more, when it comes to workplace behaviour we are all leaders because it is through our own personal behaviour competency that we influence others. So whether you are in a formal role of leader or not, you are always an influential leader.

Do you know what behaviours you display on a daily basis? Are your behaviour habits bringing you closer to achieving higher levels of performance necessary to make a significant difference in the lives of other people? Is your behaviour impelling the people you lead and those around you to achieve peak performance? For a true reflection of how well you’re doing as a leader, you have to have the courage to ask your followers and your peers.

The questions we ask must be simple and clear, and solicited in an environment of trust and safety. These six simple questions create a good starting point for leader influence:

1. Do I clearly communicate a vision for our team/organization?
2. Do I treat people with courtesy and respect?
3. Do I solicit contrary opinions to my ideas and directives?
4. Do I encourage people to share ideas?
5. Do I actively listen to people in meetings?
6. Do I give people the impression that I am accessible and approachable?

Having the courage to ask these questions shows your people and colleagues that you are committed to self-examination and self-improvement in key behaviours that drive performance and productivity.

Influential leaders understand that how they think and behave affects the way they lead. They must be committed to all kinds of improvement and solicit regular feedback from their colleagues and followers. Influential leaders fully support the organizational mission and vision, and they ensure that their personal values and purpose, and the values and purpose of those they lead, align with those of the organization.

Influential leaders do not bow to their ego. Nor are they concerned with protecting their authority. They believe in and display transparency in everything they do, and getting and soliciting feedback is one means of ensuring that this transparency continues and that self-improvement never ends. German philosopher Johann Goethe said, “Self-knowledge is best learned, not by contemplation but action.”

Do you have the courage to take action? Do you have the courage to solicit feedback from those that matter most?

A word of caution – feedback only tells us what we need to change in our behaviour, not how to do it. I cannot change what I do not mange and I cannot manage what I am unaware of. But when I know how people experience me in my behaviour I am closer to learning what to change, and most importantly, I am that much closer to developing the trust foundation necessary to becoming an influential leader.

When you are ready to change, start with the skill of Positive Presence, an innovative thought model connecting workplace behaviour to human energy and provides a systematic, programmatic methodology for equipping leaders with the knowledge and understanding necessary for developing and sustaining the behaviour skills needed for influential leadership.

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The Key to Collaboration: Cooperative Attitude

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Catherine Osborne

A cooperative attitude is performance power. And a cooperative attitude is critical to building strong, sustainable teams. We know that when teams are engaged by their leadership in a cooperative environment not only is there in an increase in employee morale but increased productivity, and improved safety and quality with fewer incidents of error and rework.

Cooperation is the act of participating, contributing, or helping to advance or accomplish a goal. It is similar to collaboration in that cooperation requires the input of many people. It is different from collaboration in that those involved in cooperation do not necessarily have to be members of the collaboration, and as such these individuals or groups can have their own agendas but still contribute to the work of collaboration. For example collaboration between hospital executives and physicians benefits from the cooperation of nurses, other caregivers and support staff.

Collaboration cannot occur without cooperation, but cooperation can occur without formal collaboration. A cooperative attitude is a mental model. It influences a person’s desire and willingness to cooperate and produces an emotional response. For example, if an organization’s vice president is convinced that cooperation creates more work but yields no advantage for himself and his department, he will not volunteer his skills and knowledge to the effort; if required to cooperate he will perform with half effort, constantly question the necessity of the process and harbor resentment. This behaviour, in turn, negatively impacts his staff and anyone with whom he has contact.

Conversely, an executive with a positive attitude about cooperation will do what they can to help and will feel honored to be a contributor. Her attitude then inspires and encourages her staff and associates to change their cooperation mind-set. Since a cooperative attitude is critical to true collaboration, leaders must work to change their own mental model and guide their followers to do the same. Learning the skill of Positive Presence to hone a cooperative attitude is a surefire place to start.

Cooperation is the new, constructive competition. A cooperative attitude inhibits destructive competition. While competition among teams can be healthy in that it brings out personal and team bests, energy and commitment to work, it can quickly lead to negative or dysfunctional behaviour. Competition can turn some people into fanatics, so single minded in their pursuit that they become blind to the consequences of their actions. They desire to win at all costs, so they turn to unfair practices, manipulate or alienate those around them and ignore rules or stated guidelines. In addition, destructive competition can impact workers in ways a boss might not anticipate. Destructive competitive behaviour has no place in a cooperative and collaborative work environment. Organizations with teams that cooperate gain greater rewards than those who compete.

“Is it not enough that I am good at my job?” The simple and short answer to this question is, “no!” In 1627, English poet, John Donne, wrote that “no man is an island unto himself.” No matter where we are in our given profession we are not islands unto ourselves, especially in today’s digitally-connected organizations. It is imperative that we learn to avoid relying and depending upon the ability of any one person to simply “do my job.” We must begin to trust in and place value on the ability to connect, cooperate, and work positively and harmoniously with other people.

Organizational success is based on how well people connect emotionally with their leadership and with those around them in their work teams. What’s more, workers must emotionally connect with a leader in a positive and energized manner before they buy into the leader’s vision. Some surveys show that as many as half of workers feel low levels of work engagement stemming in part from poor leadership. If any one person, regardless of technical ability, cannot connect and cooperate with other people, their technical expertise will not advance the goals and objectives of the team.

A cooperative attitude is a behaviour skill that is part of what creates effective collaborations and highly functional teams. Without a cooperative attitude, disruptive competition and conflict reign – two conditions in which errors are highly likely, staff morale and motivation are low, performance is inconsistent and unreliable, communication and cooperation are nonexistent, and everyone has a secret agenda. Does any of this sound like a place you really want to work?

A corporative attitude begins with the skill of Positive Presence. Positive Presence is a new and deliberate way of thinking and behaving that makes the connection between human energy and behaviour and is easily practiced and developed right on the job. For many, it is just a lot of common sense, but for others it is a slow and gentle process that requires the help of both team mates and leaders.

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