What does positive leadership look like?
How we lead has such an impact on those we manage and their broader teams, it shapes how they respond to challenges, and how they feel about their work. And even more importantly the ways different leaders behave (and lead) can create completely different workplace experiences and cultures for the teams below them.
Let me tell you a story.
I was in my first service manager role, I’d been a team manager for a year or so, my manager (who was great) had gone on maternity leave, and I was acting up in her role. My new manager was the one of the heads of service, her management style was something new to me, it was as if she expected everything to go wrong.
It was contagious.
I started to worry about everything. If something didn’t go to plan. If there was an incident. The calmness I once had about my work disappeared and was replaced by urgency, and a worry about going to her about anything.
I remember one week she was on holiday, there was an issue I needed to discuss with someone senior (all these years later, I have no idea what it was, which is a good reminder to us all that those work things which feel insurmountable will one day be forgotten), the response from this other head of service could not have been different from what I expected.
She thanked me for telling her. We talked through what I’d done, who else we needed to involve and if there was anything I missed. She told me I’d done a good job, and reminded me not to worry, after all, the situation had been out of our control, it was what it was, and we were doing all we could.
No panic, no urgency, simply holding what had happened in perspective and getting on with it. All with a smile on her face.
With hindsight, I can see that both these leaders were responding in ways which reflected two things:
How they were managing their work, their energy and wellbeing
Their leadership skills and resources
One was stressed, overwhelmed and holding on so tightly to work, they couldn’t find any perspective on their work, the other had the internal resources and ability to care for their work, but see it for what it was. And what a difference this made for their departments, both in terms of their relationships with their staff, and how it created two very different workplace cultures for their teams.
So with this in mind, what behaviours, qualities and skills do we see in leaders to build positive & healthy cultures?
When I’m talking about positive leadership, I’m thinking about an approach to leadership which has been demonstrated to get the best performance from staff, not just make the workplace a pleasant environment.
It is also important to say, that positive leadership doesn’t mean everything is positive and nice, we’re not talking about toxic positivity, we’re talking about an approach to leadership that is grounded in positive psychology.
Here are my 15 key principles
1. They know and use their strengths, and recognise and develop strengths in others
Positive leaders understand what their strengths are and bring these to their work. They also notice the strengths in the people around them and create conditions where those strengths can be used.
Why it matters: Research consistently shows that people who use their strengths at work are more engaged, more productive, and more resilient. A leader who builds a team around strengths rather than trying to fix weaknesses creates a very different culture to one who focuses primarily on gaps and deficits.
2. Growth mindset
Positive leaders approach challenges, setbacks, and mistakes as opportunities to learn rather than evidence of failure. They believe that skills and capabilities can be developed, and they model this belief in how they respond when things go wrong.
Why it matters: A leader with a fixed mindset, who sees capability as fixed and mistakes as threatening, creates a culture where people hide problems and avoid risk. A leader with a growth mindset creates psychological safety, which is the foundation of a healthy culture.
3. They’re flexible and adaptable
Positive leaders can adjust their approach depending on the situation, the person they are working with, and the demands of the moment, when a challenge arises. They don't rely on a single way of leading or responding.
Why it matters: The charity sector is unpredictable and leaders who can only operate in one mode, always directive, or always hands-off, or always in crisis response, will struggle when the context changes. Adaptability is what enables a leader to be effective across a range of circumstances rather than just the ones they are comfortable with.
4. They manage their emotional responses
Positive leaders are not people who don't feel strong emotions, they feel them just as much as anyone else. What distinguishes them is their ability to notice those emotions, take some distance from them, and choose how to respond rather than reacting on autopilot.
Why it matters: Leaders set the emotional tone for their organisations. When a leader panics, the team panics. When a leader responds to difficulty with calm and perspective, the team is more likely to do the same. Emotional regulation is one of the most significant things a leader can model.
5. Resilience: they look after their energy and resources
Positive leaders understand that resilience is not about pushing through regardless. It is about actively managing their energy, knowing their limits, and building in the rest and recovery that enables them to sustain their effectiveness over time.
Why it matters: A leader who is running on empty cannot think clearly, make good decisions, or support their team effectively. And when leaders model relentless overwork, they give their teams permission to do the same, which is one of the fastest routes to a culture of burnout.
6. Self-efficacy: they believe in themselves and their skills
Self-efficacy is the belief that you are capable of doing what the role requires, and that when challenges arise, you have the resources to manage them. It is not arrogance or overconfidence, it is a grounded belief in your own capability, based on evidence of what you have achieved.
Why it matters: Leaders who lack self-efficacy tend to avoid the work which feels challenging, seek reassurance, or become paralysed when things go wrong. Leaders with strong self-efficacy approach challenges with a sense of agency, they believe they can find a way through, which makes them more effective and more steady for their teams.
7. Realistic optimism: they find the most hopeful but honest assessment of a situation
Realistic optimism is not positive thinking, and it is not pessimism. It is the ability to consider the range of possible outcomes, including the worst case scenario, and find the most positive outcome that is achievable given the circumstances. The second manager in my story at the start of this piece was a perfect example of this. No panic, no false reassurance, just clear-eyed perspective and a belief that the situation was manageable.
Why it matters: Leaders who default to pessimism create anxious, risk-averse teams. Leaders who are blindly positive create teams that don't trust them when things are hard. Realistic optimism builds genuine trust, teams know that when their leader says things are okay, they mean it, and when they raise a concern, it is real.
8. They cultivate positive, energising networks beyond the organisation
Positive leaders invest in relationships outside their own organisation, with peers, with sector networks, with mentors and colleagues who challenge and energise them. They understand that their effectiveness is partly dependent on having a life and a perspective beyond the charity.
Why it matters: Leaders who only look inward become isolated, lose perspective, and have no buffer when things are difficult. External networks provide support, fresh thinking, and the reminder that the challenges they are facing are not unique to them, which is itself supportive.
9. They find meaning in their work, and outside it
Positive leaders are motivated by the purpose of their work, but they do not allow it to become their whole identity. They have a sense of meaning and connection beyond the role, in their relationships, their interests, and their life outside work, which more broadly supports their wellbeing & resilience, enabling them to maintain other resources (such as find perspective, realistic optimism, flexibility & self-efficacy).
Why it matters: Leaders who derive all their meaning from the work are more likely to overwork, to struggle to say no, and to model an unsustainable way of working to their teams. Leaders who hold the work as important but not everything are more able to protect their own wellbeing, and in doing so, give their teams permission to do the same.
10. They are clear on the purpose and vision of their role, and can translate this into practice for themselves and their teams
Positive leaders know what they are there to do, not just operationally, but strategically. They can articulate where the organisation is going, how their role contributes to that, and how each member of their team's work connects to the bigger picture.
Why it matters: Clarity of purpose is one of the strongest protective factors against disengagement and burnout. When people understand why their work matters and how it connects to the mission, they are more motivated, more resilient, and more able to prioritise effectively. When they don't, everything feels equally urgent and equally meaningless.
11. They prioritise health and wellbeing for themselves and their teams
Positive leaders treat wellbeing as a strategic priority, not a nice to have. They understand that a team's capacity to deliver depends on its members being well, physically, mentally, and emotionally, and they make decisions with that in mind.
Why it matters: Leaders who say wellbeing matters but don't act on it create cynicism. Leaders who model and actively support wellbeing create cultures where people feel genuinely cared for, which is one of the strongest drivers of engagement, retention, and performance.
12. They intentionally create healthy cultures and model this
Positive leaders understand that culture is not built through policy documents, it is built through behaviour. They are intentional about what they model, what they reward, and what they challenge, because they know their teams are watching and taking their cues from what they see.
Why it matters: Culture is set from the top, whether leaders intend it or not. Every time a leader sends an email at 10pm, praises the person who worked all weekend, or fails to challenge presenteeism, they are sending a message about what is expected and valued.
13. They consider what is workable, sustainable, and within their control
Positive leaders are clear about the difference between what they can influence and what they cannot. Rather than expending energy on things outside their control, they focus their attention on what is within it, which makes them more effective and less exhausted.
Why it matters: Leaders who try to control everything, or who catastrophise about things they cannot change, model anxiety and create anxious cultures. Leaders who are clear about their sphere of influence model a kind of purposeful calm that is genuinely sustaining for the people around them.
14. They build connection throughout the organisation and cultivate high-quality relationships
Positive leaders invest in the quality of their relationships at every level, not just with their immediate team, but across the organisation. They understand that connection is not a soft extra, it is what enables trust, collaboration, and honest communication.
Why it matters: Organisations where people feel genuinely connected to each other and to their leader are more resilient, more collaborative, and more able to have the honest conversations that healthy cultures depend on. Connection is the infrastructure that everything else runs on.
15. They facilitate positive conflict: honest, respectful discussion and debate
Positive leaders actively create space for different perspectives, honest disagreement, and constructive challenge. They understand that a team where everyone agrees all the time is not a healthy team, it is a team where people don't feel safe enough to say what they really think.
Why it matters: The absence of honest debate is one of the most common signs of an unhealthy culture. When leaders welcome challenge and model how to disagree respectfully, they create the conditions for better decisions, more creative solutions, and a team that trusts each other enough to be honest.
These principles are all skills, qualities or internal resources which as leaders we can learn or develop. They’re not something we do or don’t have, but they may simply be things we haven’t accessed for some time because of how we’ve been working or how our organisation works.
The good news is that there are small, intentional behaviours we can take to develop these skills. Over the coming weeks I’ll explore how you can put these into practice.
And if you’d like to talk about how you could put this into practice in your organisation let’s talk.