Towards a Positive Psychology for Leaders
Kaplan, R.E., & Kaiser, R.B. (2010). Towards a positive psychology for leaders. In A. P. Linley, S. Harrington, & N. Page (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work (pp. 107-117). New York: Oxford University Press.
For the past fifteen years we have practiced a positive psychology for leaders—without calling it that. We have learned that the work of positive psychology is not just to affirm leaders for their strengths but to call out which of those strengths they overplay; that therefore a leaders’ strengths cannot easily be separated from their weaknesses; that frequently leaders overuse their strengths because they worry that they aren’t strong enough; that a good way to allay that anxiety is to administer a potent dose of positive feedback; and, finally, that the work of positive psychology is to deal with their resistance to that feedback.
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