Key To Leadership Is The Management Of Positives

One of the salient features of our education is our increased obsession and orientation towards ‘problem solving’. The psyche that we develop in our education is to ‘correct a mistake’, ‘solve a problem’, ‘identify gaps’ et.al.

Leadership is one of most written and discussed top-ics in management. In the management books, there is information regarding the subject’s thoughts, frameworks and approaches. We have gleaned history, geography and even the sciences to clearly understand the subject. The purpose of this short article is to remind us one aspect of leadership we tend to neglect –the power of the positives and the ability to leverage and build on strengths!

One of the salient features of our education is our increased obsession and orientation towards ‘problem solving’. The psyche that we develop in our education is to ‘correct a mistake’, ‘solve a problem’, ‘identify gaps’ et.al. This also creates a mind-set for us to not just calculate for results, but also identify the ‘unpleasant’ or the negatives. This approach often creates an overbearing propensity to delve on negatives. This also creates a bias towards the ‘problem solvers’. We regularly and continuously reward our ‘fixers’ as they grow and build flourishing careers.

What gets missed out in this thought process, is the need to identify opportunities. We often neglect to proactively seek opportunities. Do note that opportunities need a mind-set of the possible and an eternal optimism in ideas. This is not to say that we do not want nay- Sayers in organisations. We want risk analysis done and the occasional warning from the devil’s advocate. But, that can’t be the thinking guideline in meetings and brain storming sessions our there or in your mind.