A Guide to Going beyond Success

Plenty of research has been done on why companies go terribly wrong, but what makes companies go spectacularly right? That’s the question that Kim Cameron asked over a decade ago. Since then, Cameron and his colleagues have uncovered the principles and practices that set extraordinarily effective organizations apart from the merely successful.

In his previous book Positive Leadership, Cameron identified four strategies that enable these organizations, and the individuals within them, to flourish: creating a positive climate, positive relationships, positive communication, and positive meaning. Here he lays out specific tactics for implementing them. These are not feel-good nostrums—study after study (some cited in this book) have proven positive leadership delivers breakthrough bottom-line results. Thanks to Cameron’s concise how-to guide, now any organization can be “positively deviant,” achieving outcomes that far surpass the norm.

The recent emphasis on positive leadership has revolutionized traditional approaches to leading and managing. Producing extraordinarily high performance, generating positively deviant results-results that are dramatically better than normal-and creating remarkable vitality in the workplace are the most frequent consequences of positive leadership. Empirical research by Kim Cameron has confirmed these outcomes, but the lingering question is "how?" What specifically can leaders do to practice positive leadership?

This book provides five proven practices-tools and techniques-for practicing positive leadership. These tools and techniques have been confirmed as highly successful in leading individual employees and organizations to attain extraordinarily high levels of flourishing and effectiveness. They build on and supplement Kim Cameron's previous book, Positive Leadership, which outlined the theory but, in the interest of brevity, omitted details about implementation. Developmental exercises and action activities associated with each positive practice are provided in the book to help the practices become instantly implementable.

“When I learned to apply the techniques of positive leadership my ability to influence others to a common goal increased exponentially. Practicing positive leadership will transform your career and the experience of those you lead!”
—Brent Dunsford, Chief of Staff, Government Business, Humana

“Dr. Cameron's fresh insights and innovative approaches to leadership have given me and my senior managers new ways to inspire and lead our line managers and staff toward producing their best work.”
—Julie Zawisza, Director of Office of Communications, Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. U.S. Food and Drug Administration

“Making the decision to focus my energy on positive situations has led to increased staff morale, higher student achievement, and greater productivity… the impact of positive leadership can change lives.”
—Scot A. Graden, Superintendent, Saline Area Schools, Saline, Michigan