Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say, and Do

Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Say, and Do Author: Kathryn D. Cramer Josey-Bass Kindle Edition $15.49, 2014In Lead Positive: What Highly Effective Leaders See, Do, and Say, author Kathryn Cramer teaches us about the value of focusing our thoughts and energies on the positive aspects of a given situation or challenge. She teaches the fundamentals of Asset Based Thinking (ABT) and how, if practiced effectively, it can change the way we approach difficult and challenging situations both at work and home. In the beginning of the book she explains how humans have developed the tendency to be more focused on the negative than the positive. While focusing on the negative aspect of a problem can allow us to solve the problem at the same time it truly prevents us from seeing the opportunities that often exist when facing a challenging situation. The book uses findings from the scientific fields of neuroscience and cognitive and social psychology to explain how our thoughts direct our actions and stimulate specific regions of our brain. When you perform a leadership act, the same neurons fire in your brains as in your team members. This truly put in perspective for me the importance of positive thinking.Per the title, the book is broken down into 3 primary areas of focus:What Highly Effective Leaders SeeWhat Highly Effective Leaders SayWhat Highly Effective Leaders DoThe book Lead Positive is definitely not just for leaders; it is for anyone who truly wants to expand on their ability to take on life's challenges from a new perspective. The author explains how we see with our brain not with our eyes. People follow people not ideas. This book, for me, has become an instruction manual for how to inspire and lead through my thoughts, my words, and my actions. The first example of ABT in action had me captivated to the point where I could not put the book down and anticipated each page with excitement. Right from the start, Cramer shows us an example of ABT during a press conference given by New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. At the start of the conference the Mayor was asked how many people were killed. He responded by stating "I don't think we want to speculate on the number of casualties. The effort now has to be to save as many people as possible." Within two hours he had more volunteers show up than they could handle and had to turn some people away. …