The Power of Positive Leadership

Chapter 7Positive Leaders Create United and Connected Teams

It's the leader's ability to unite and connect people that truly creates great teams and organizations.

Positive leaders unite instead of divide. They are able to get everyone on the bus and moving in the right direction. They are able to create unity, which is the difference between a great team and an average team. The more united and connected a team and organization is, the more they are able to accomplish together. A vision and North Star are important to point people in the right direction, but it's the leader's ability to unite and connect people that truly creates great teams and organizations. When Alan Mulally took over as the CEO of Ford, he learned that they were regionalized and acted like they were a number of different companies instead of one company. Mulally created a One Ford plan to unite everyone in the company and come together as one team working on one plan to achieve one goal. He created an entire plan and management system designed to have everyone work together as one united and connected team. He held meetings every Thursday at 7AM, where every leader from every division in the company would come together, review the business plan (he called it a BPR—Business Plan Review meeting), and work together to achieve it. He fostered trust, generated transparency and honesty, simplified the business model, brought clarity to their mission and purpose, and, through what many people say is one of the ...