Positive Leadership

CHAPTER

6

Implementing

Positive

Strategies

O

ne of the most helpful techniques leaders can use to

implement the four strategies of positive leadership is

a technique referred to as the Personal Management

Interview (PMI) program. This technique is applicable in

professional settings with leaders and subordinates, in fami-

lies with parents and children, and in volunteer settings such

as spiritually based organizations or community-service

groups. The PMI program provides a straightforward way to

institutionalize the four positive strategies on an ongoing

basis.

These four strategies are most effectively applied when

specific interactions between leaders and their subordinates

81

are planned and conducted frequently. Whereas leaders usu-

ally have good intentions to facilitate a positive climate, pos-

itive relationships, positive communication, and positive

meaning, the press of everyday problems often drives out the

best of intentions. One attribute of positive leaders, however,

is that they provide others with opportunities to receive regu-

lar feedback, feel supported and bolstered, and be coached,

counseled, and developed. Providing these opportunities is

difficult, of course, because of the time demands most lead-

ers face. One effective technique for implementing the four

strategies leading to positively deviant performance, there-

fore, is to engage in a PMI program.

In research conducted among intact teams—such as

project teams, top management teams, consulting teams,

departmental groups—implementation of a PMI program

significantly improved the performance of these teams on

both subjective factors such as morale, trust, and engage-

ment as well as objective factors such as productivity and

goal accomplishment (Boss, 1983). Teams that imple-

mented a PMI program, for example, significantly im-

proved their performance over time, whereas teams that

did not implement PMI programs remained the same.

Teams that initially implemented PMI programs and then

stopped the program were also found to significantly im-

prove performance until cessation of the PMI program, and

then performance deteriorated.

Figure 6.1, for example, shows the performance of two

matched sets of teams. Each line in the graph represents 5

teams whose performance was measured by a combina-

tion of objective factors (e.g., productivity) and subjective

82 Positive Leadership

factors (e.g., trust). All of the teams were performing at es-

sentially the same level at the outset of the investigation,

and all 10 teams initially implemented a PMI program.

Each team’s performance increased significantly after im-

plementation. Five of the teams continued to implement

PMI and were assessed at 6-month intervals over an 18-

month time frame. Performance increased and stayed high

in these teams. The other 5 teams, on the other hand, ini-

tially implemented PMI and then stopped. At the 6- and

12-month points in time, measured performance had

fallen to previous levels. At the end of the study, the five

Implementing Positive Strategies 83

Performance Level

High

Low

PMI Im

p

lementation Assessments

Before

After

6 months

after

12 months

after

18 months

after

After initial

implementation,

5 teams held PMIs

regularly for 18 months.

After initial

implementation,

5 teams held PMIs

only during the

12- to 18-month period.

FIGURE 6.1 Intact Teams’ Performance Before and After

Implementing PMIs

(SOURCE: Boss, 1983)

teams that ceased PMIs were shown the data—what per-

formance levels they had achieved with PMIs and where

they were performing at the present time. These teams

reimplemented PMI programs and after 6 months had sig-

nificantly improved performance again (Boss, 1983).

Another study compared performance scores—

objective and subjective assessments—in five health-care

organizations (Goodman & Boss, 2002). Organizational

performance scores were significantly higher in each orga-

nization when PMI programs were in place compared to

when they were not. Also important is that individuals in

the organizations were also positively affected by the PMI

programs. Employees were categorized into three groups

according to the extent to which they felt burned out, over-

whelmed, and highly stressed in their work—high,

medium, and low burnout levels. When PMI programs

were in place, a majority of employees experienced little if

any burnout (53 percent had low burnout scores compared

to 29 percent with high burnout scores). When PMI pro-

grams were not in place, the larger percentage of employ-

ees felt overwhelmed (43 percent had high burnout scores

compared to 38 percent with low burnout scores).

The point is that a PMI program appears to have signif-

icant positive impact on team and organizational perfor-

mance as well as on the personal work experience of

individual employees. Empirical evidence suggests that

performance improves when a PMI program is imple-

mented, and individual employees have a more positive ex-

perience at work.

84 Positive Leadership