Is positive leadership the answer to creating happy charities where staff can get on with the jobs they love, and leave the world in a better place?

Working for a charity can be a joy. It can bring us a sense of meaning and purpose, it’s often fulfilling, but it can also be difficult. There’s an often an expectation to do more with less, we see all the things which need to be fixed, the problems in the world which need to be solved, and a result it can feel relentless. Add to that the rates of burnout, the challenges of staff retention, and recruitment and we could consider that the sector is in crisis. And whilst solving the systemic challenges the sector faces isn’t an easy or quick fix (and certainly cannot be achieved by individual leaders), what if I told you there was an evidence-based way to build a positive culture, which could help not only your organisation, but your staff flourish? 

Positive leadership is built on the knowledge that positive emotions are good for us. They are proven to help broaden our thinking (helping us be creative and problem solve – always necessary in charities), help protect us from depression, counteract negative emotions, and help build our resilience (definitely necessary in a charity). They enable us to thrive. 

It’s also essential to remember that positive leadership isn’t about pretending that everything is ok. It’s not about ignoring bullying or poor performance; it’s about having conversations about performance in a constructive way! 

Positive Leadership in Practice  

There are three key elements of positive leadership, and to be able to develop a positive culture in your organisation, as a leader you need to embody them yourself; a growth mindset (what you might consider a learning culture in an organisation); curiosity & positivity. We’ll look at these in turn. 

Growth Mindset 

A growth mindset is one which believes that our skills, abilities, knowledge can grow and change. It is embodied by the statement ‘I can’t do that yet’ - it’s the belief that there is always a chance to learn, to improve, to get better. And most crucially, that mistakes and failures are an opportunity. Developing a growth mind enables us to get comfortable with making mistakes, and we see leaders with a growth mindset get encourage feedback, develop the elusive culture of learning and learning from mistakes in their teams.  

But how we tackle mistakes can be the tricky part in charities, especially those where teams are working directly with the communities they serve. Leaders can be fearful of mistakes and using them as an opportunity for growth, especially if they place colleagues, clients or funding at risk. They fear that this can create a permissive culture, where there aren’t consequences to serious mistakes.  

But it is perfectly possible to ensure that as leaders we encourage a growth mindset when addressing such issues, but it starts before these mistakes occur. It requires a really thorough induction, and setting clear expectations, which not only includes what tasks need to be completed, but the reasoning why it is important, so staff really understand why something needs to happen. It also requires leaders to be approachable, and to listen so staff can ask for help, explain why they are struggling to complete tasks so a real conversation can happen. 

Curiosity 

Positive leaders, and organisations, are curious. Not just in the sense that they ask good questions, but they really want to understand what is happening, not just what is wrong. For those working in charities this can be challenging – there are challenges, inequalities, things that need to be fixed all around us. It’s why we work in the sector, so that we can leave the world a better place. 

But positive leadership requires to look for what is going well as our starting point. What are the strengths of individuals and teams, what is working well, what has been brilliant, and how can we do more of that.  

This means that when we are moving to look at what needs to be fixed or improved (remember our growth mindset, we can’t do that yet), we can draw on the strengths and existing skills in the team to start to create the change we need. To reiterate, this isn’t about ignoring the problems and not addressing them but addressing them from a place of strength. 

Positivity 

Positivity can get a bad rap. That by being positive, or optimistic, we are being unrealistic, that we are ignoring the reality of the systems we are working within. And let's face it, the system that charities are working in isn’t great right now. We’re still reeling from the impact of Covid, the relentless costs of austerity, burnout, the staff retention issues. When we think about it like this, is there any point in what we’re all trying to do? And yet despite this, we see people working so hard to meet the needs of their communities.  

There is a huge amount of evidence that positive emotions are good for us, and so as a positive leader (and organisation) we want to draw on this to build a positive working environment. What this means is a culture where positive emotions are more prevalent than negative (note this isn’t that negative emotions don’t exist – there is always a place for them, but that’s another article). The work of Barbara Fredrickson has shown us that positive emotions create ‘upward spirals towards optimal functioning and enhanced performance’ - in other words, beyond making us feel good in the moment, positive emotions help us to think outside the box, be more creative, build our resilience, buffer us against depression, and help us be better.  

And we know that creating positive cultures does this for the organisation too. So, as a leader, by nurturing a positive culture, you're not only helping yourself, your staff, but your organisation is going to be better able to achieve its goals and meet the needs of the communities you serve.  

Sounds like a win-win. 

Positive leadership is about energising staff, encouraging and empowering them to do the work they love by being curious, encouraging growth, and drawing on the power of positive emotions. As a leader, especially in a charity, this may be hard work, and may require a change in the culture of the organisation. But it gives you the opportunity, to not only help your staff to thrive (in and out of work) but means your even more likely to create the change you want in the world, and leave it in a better place than you found it.