Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance [Paperback]

Kim Cameron (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1576756025 | ISBN-13: 978-1576756027 | Publication Date: July 1, 2008

Introducing a new leadership field of the same name, Positive Leadership presents a concise, accessible and practical guide to strategies that can help leaders reach beyond ordinary success to achieve extraordinary effectiveness, spectacular results, and positively deviant performance. Positive Leadership is based on analyses of organizations that have achieved levels of success that are exceptional. For example, the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal closure and cleanup crew completed their assignment 60 years ahead of schedule, $30 billion under budget, and made the area 13 times cleaner than was required by federal standards. This company's achievement far exceeded every knowledgeable expert's predictions of performance--it was abnormally positive. Carefully examining organizations such as this one has helped uncover some atypical leadership strategies that enable levels of performance which exceed expectations, excel beyond the norm, and reach almost impossible levels of excellence.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"This accessible and uplifting book translates years of social science research into actionable guidelines for leaders who wish to make a positive difference in the world."
--Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School

"Kim Cameron provides a sound empirical basis for the link between positive executive behavior and outstanding business performance as well as practical strategies that leaders can apply to achieve extraordinary results through positive performance."
--Thomas Glocer, CEO, Thomson Reuters

"Positive Leadership brilliantly advances the argument for and validation of tangible strategies for creating extraordinary organizations. This work is comprehensive, well-documented, compelling, and insightful and represents a genuine contribution to the field."
--Jim Loehr, EdD, CEO and Chairman, Human Performance Institute

From the Back Cover

Written by senior scholars and internationally known authors, Positive Organizational Scholarship establishes a new field of study in the organizational sciences. While the concept of positive organizational scholarship encompasses the examination of typical and even dysfunctional patterns of behavior, it emphasizes positive deviance from expected patterns. Positive Organizational Scholarship examines the enablers, motivations, and effects associated with remarkably positive phenomena--how they are facilitated, why they work, how they can be identified, and how researchers and managers can capitalize on them. The contributors do not adopt one particular theory or framework but draw from the full spectrum of organizational theories to understand, explain, and predict the occurrence, causes, and consequences of positivity.

Positive Organizational Scholarship rigorously seeks to understand what represents the best of the human condition based on scholarly research and theory. This book invites organizational scholars to build upon and extend the positive organizational phenomena being examined. It provides the definitional, theoretical, and empirical foundations for what will become a cumulative body of enduring work.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 132 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576756025
• ISBN-13: 978-1576756027
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #185,968 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A short, quick read with useful strategies grounded in research, August 10, 2008

By 

Stephanie Biernbaum (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance (Paperback)

I purchased this book with hesitation, assuming it would fit the mold of other leadership fads and would wax poetic mostly using anecdotes and success stories. Happily, I was wrong. Kim Cameron has kept it to the essentials, while linking empirical research to effective leadership strategies - none of which are groundbreakingly new, but useful nonetheless. For anyone who has an interest in Appreciative Inquiry but is put off by it's new-ageiness, Cameron has drawn from similar concepts of Positive Psychology while using straightforward language any business person will find meaningful. If you're looking for more of the academic underpinnings, you may feel drawn to look up several of the studies referenced within the book for continued reading, as I did. If, on the other hand, you prefer a quick read and would appreciate having a cumulative checklist/action plan to help apply the suggested tactics, I strongly recommend this book.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid and recommended reading for anyone in charge of the productivity of others, November 9, 2008

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance (Paperback)

A good leader can make mediocre workers good and good workers great. "Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance" is a leadership manual encouraging managers to inspire and motivate their workers to new levels using the advice and tips contained within. With four principle strategies, he goes over their implementation and also gives advice on motivating oneself along with their employees. "Positive Leadership" is solid and recommended reading for anyone in charge of the productivity of others.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Positive "Deviance" Delivers Amazing Results, April 5, 2009

By 

Susan Stamm "Author, Consultant" (Lancaster, PA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Positive Leadership: Strategies for Extraordinary Performance (Paperback)

Positive Leadership introduces you to `positive deviant performance.' This is performance that is much more than plain old great performance. To use an example from this book, Cameron describes a government contractor who finished a job 60 years sooner than expected and 30 billon dollars cheaper than expected. You begin to envision what this positive deviant performance looks like and how it could transform your team. The good news is that according to Kim Cameron it is possible to achieve in most organizations. This book tells you how. It outlines the characteristics common to organizations producing such results backed up by his extensive research. I'd highly recommend this book, but if you are not sure you can listen to an interview first with Kim Cameron as he discusses this book at: http://www.teamapproach.com/bookends/positiveleadership.asp

Susan Stamm, Author, 42 Rules of Employee Engagement