Dana Arakawa & Margaret Greenberg

Objectives: Executive coaches are often involved in working with executive managers. The objective of this study is to investigate whether teams are more engaged and productive when led by an optimistic manager. Furthermore, we hypothesise that optimistic managers embody positive leadership - employing a strengthsbased approach, maintaining a positive perspective, and frequently providing recognition and encouragement - which increases the engagement and productivity of their employees.
Design: The study used a cross-sectional survey design at two time points.
Method: The researchers developed a survey to measure this concept of positive leadership. In addition, two measures were used: the Life Orientation Test Revised (LOT-R) to measure optimism and the Gallup Organisation’s Q12 to measure engagement.
Results: In a cross-sectional study of 86 employees and 17 managers in an Information Technology (IT) organisation, positive leadership correlated with employee optimism, engagement, and project performance. When we looked at a subset of this data prospectively, with 39 employees and 14 managers, manager optimism predicted project performance.
Conclusions: Our data support the claim that positive leadership is correlated with employee engagement and performance, and further extends the importance of optimism in the workplace. Coaching implications are also discussed, in terms of exploring how coaching psychologists can work with executives to develop their managerial style.

Full article: Volume 2, Issue 1 pages 78 - 89