How we can lean into Positive Leadership to prepare for the new year

Welcome to the latest edition of my Positive Leadership & You newsletter. 

In November, we focused on nurturing our own strengths, because this is the best way to unlock more achievements, not only for yourself but also for others and the world. 

Looking at the thoughtful messages left by our growing community, I am happy to see how the insights are resonating with you. Thank you to everyone who shared their comments, I love seeing them.

Now, to help us prepare for 2023, I’ve collected some reflections on how we can all improve our practice of positive leadership. I hope this inspires a positive start to your year.

Me: Focusing on our personal growth, wellbeing and being positive with ourselves. 

I think these words really capture where the journey to positive leadership begins: before we can make a positive impact on the world, we must first understand ourselves. What are our strengths, our unique talents, what gets us out of bed in the morning, feeling energized? 

At the end of a long year, many of us can feel drained but for our continued self-care, it’s important to refuel our energy tanks. I spoke to Arianna Huffington about how we can approach this when she joined me on my podcast this time last year. 

To start and end your day well, Arianna uses “micro steps”, which she says are “too small to fail”. For example, before reaching for her phone in the morning, she takes 60 seconds to remember what she’s grateful for. Practicing gratitude is a scientifically proven way of improving your mental and physical health. Arianna then finishes her day by “putting her phone to bed” – literally switching it off to signal the end of her workday. It helps your mind prepare for relaxation and sleep. I find that taking little steps like these are especially effective when I’m feeling low on energy because they are so simple to do. 

The truth is that there are so many ways to re-energize to help us cope with stress and nurture our positive mindset. Looking back on another conversation, I recall what Dr Audrey Tang said to me about building a positivity reservoir and refilling our energy tanks. She suggests taking “screenshots of lovely things or memories or people that you love” to dip into when you are feeling negative. She also recommends taking screenshots when you receive positive feedback from a client or colleague too.

Both Audrey and Arianna have simple and effective micro steps that we can all weave into our daily lives quite effortlessly. You can listen to the episodes with Audrey and Arianna below, for more ideas. 

Me & Others: Connecting with and empowering others to achieve more. 

Embracing a growth mindset is vital for tapping into positive leadership. Learning and staying open to new ideas is a lifelong pursuit that can really illuminate new paths and help us unlock innovative, impactful ideas for others, as well as for ourselves. 

My latest podcast guest, Luc de Brabandere , is one of the world’s leading corporate philosophers, and his professional journey, from civil engineering, to banking, to a PhD in philosophy, completely embodies what it means to continue learning and growing. Now, he uses his learnings and unique way of thinking to help others shift how they see and frame things in the digital world. 

Luc’s distinction between innovation and creativity is interesting. He says that innovation is about changing the world and creativity is about changing how you look at the world. On this note, he shares a fantastic technique for helping leaders unleash creativity and bring more clarity to situations – exactly what we need for starting the new year positively. 

His technique is designed to make us step outside of our comfort zone. First, Luc suggests gathering five words your team uses a lot to talk about a problem that needs a creative solution. Then he challenges us to talk about that problem without using these words, forcing us to come up with different ways to explain and clarify to spark creativity. It’s a really effective way to get to a new solution, or idea.

Empowering others is also about learning how to positively connect with others. The key to this lies in being genuine and emotionally open.

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This idea of leaders being able to share what they authentically feel is something that I explored with Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson last year. 

In her own words, Barbara explained that “micro moments of warm connection with people actually energize and uplift us and help us move through a long schedule in a way that, when that's absent, we're just drained.” 

She calls this “positivity resonance”, which I think captures how we all experience sharing positive feelings with other people. It’s this connection that recharges us, so we have more energy to engage and collaborate. Have a listen to my conversation with Barbara below. You can also read more in her best-selling book: ‘Positivity’.

Me & the World: Having a positive impact on the world. 

I have read and re-read many inspiring books in 2022, with so many fresh perspectives and takeaways that are helping me to grow as an individual and a global citizen. 

I’d like to take this opportunity to share three with you. 

1. Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take by Paul Polman & Andrew Wilson

This wonderful book comes at a moment when the world faces many challenges that demand new ways of thinking. In their book, sustainability gurus Paul and Andrew give us a manifesto for true, sustainable, and responsible business that asks a very simple question: is the world better off because your company is in it? I even had a chance to discuss this question in detail with Paul on my podcast, which you can stream now. 

2. The Urgent Life by Bozoma Saint John

In September, Boz, as she likes to be called, was kind enough to join me for a chat on my podcast, and I found her wisdom and words inspiring. She recently published her memoir, which explores the life experiences that shaped her journey and the lessons she has learned from it. I think her reflections as she navigates love and loss are relatable to everyone. 

3. Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change by Sir Ronald Cohen 

Growing your social and environmental consciousness is one of the nine powers of positive leadership and so it feels right to include this book by Ronnie, who I had the pleasure of talking with on my podcast a couple of months ago. In our conversation, he considers the imperative to make capitalism more impactful for people and how we can do good in the world, while also doing well. Ronnie examines the ways impact investing can help do so in his latest book. 

The end-of-year period is an opportunity to reflect on all the things that spark passion, creativity and purpose with you, and I hope that these recommendations can help you to do so as they did for me. 

And that’s a wrap for the last newsletter of the year. I hope you’ve found something to help you thrive throughout the holiday season (if you celebrate it) and into 2023. 

Before I sign off… please don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already. 

Wishing you a positive end-of-year, I look forward to continuing these monthly reflections in January! 

All the best, 

jp