# 205: BOOK OF THE WEEK — “Profit from the Positive”
Story behind the Book Choice
On some Sundays, I just know that I cannot make it through an entire novel or biography. This is when I choose non-fiction, particularly management and leadership literature. I still read the entire book — which is insane as most people might say — but I am way faster than when reading a novel. Thanks to my Sunday practice, my reading speed is picking up again. It is not where it once was yet but I am getting there. Someone shocked me last week by telling me that reading ten pages in a week would be way too much. I just had to hold my breath. I do not know if this is just “normal” but I am simply happy that some people still can and like to read more than ten pages easily.
Profit from the Positive has been sitting on my shelf not for too long. I must have bought it one or two years ago when I came across new literature on positive psychology. And making research on positive psychology accessible for a wider audience is actually one of the major aims of the authors. As they share in the introduction, they met at the MAPP (Master of Applied Positive Psychology) program at the University of Pennsylvnia. The program was founded as the first program of this kind in the U.S. by the field’s pioneer Martin Seligman. When I studied at Penn, I had no idea about this program because I was in the Political Science Deparmtent. But later I repeatedly thought about doing the degree. My advantage, however, is that I am familiar and able to access and read the original scholarly journals. That is not the case for the general audience and this is also what motivates the authors. As they share:
“We translate findings from the new sicence of positive psychology into succinct, actionable tools that can be applied immediately without spending a dime or hiring and expansice consulting company.
Positive psychology is the study of what constitutes excellence in individuals, communities, and workplaces. It incorporates the study of productivity, resilience, motivation, emotions, strengths, team dynamics, and more…
Many of the findings from positive psychology are not yet readily available to the public. Research is published mostly in academic journals , and the practical implications have not fully been tested.” — Greenberg and Maymin xviii-xix.
As you know, this is the mission that I also pursue. We need to get our knowledge across in a way that it becomes accessible and easily understandable for people in practice. This not only applies to the “hard” sciences such as psychology. It also applies to all other fields. (It basically applies to anybody who has something to share that is difficutl to get at for others, not just ‘academics’). Since some fields still have a long way to go to get there, it is refreshing to read that the authors pursue this particular mission. And as far as I can tell, they do achieve this. At times, I was a bit frustrated because many of the findings are not necessarily outcomes of positive psychology research only. However, that might just be my look at it, caused by my overconsumption of leadership research. This book for sure offers some helpful tools for those leaders who take their job seriously — whether leadership is their passion or merely something they have ended up doing to earn a living.
My Learnings
1. Asking Questions
Everything who knows me also knows that there is basically no ending to the flow of questions coming out of my mouth. I always have a question about anything I see because I want to understand what is behind it. That is really disturbing and nerve-wracking for most people. In the case of leadership (at least), however, it is the path to pursue. Everyone with a coaching education knows about the power of questions. Questions, if they are open and asked on eye-level, do not run the risk of violating the personal space of people. They invite people to think and to reflect. And we make sure that learning takes place this way. Only if you think for yourself, your brain will establish new connections that will enable you to change your behavior — even your habits — in the future. Just listening to someone else’s well-intended teachings or opintions will not, unless there is someone really bringing in a very different and new perspective.
2. Ripple Effect
A few weeks ago, a friend told me I could cause a ripple effect. He meant it in a positive way, i.e., that I could bring about change that would have the potential to spread to others. This is when I first paid attention to that concept. When I just checked for the ripple effect online, I just saw that the first definitions that turned up were negative in the sense that some disturbance in a system gets bigger and bigger. This is exactly where positive psychology can make a difference. You always start with the positive, the potential, the resources that are there and available to be turned into something that creates value.
What I like so much about this passage in the chapter about powerful teams, is that the ripple effect is used in a positive way — in a way that I can very much identify with. When I say identify, I mean the personal contribution that human beings can make, including myself but also you, the person reading this. Quite often, I doubt my behavior, the way I create impact on others, on groups. Someone called me a “free radical” some weeks ago. I kind of liked it because it is true. But I also wondered whether or not this would be causing more harm than good. And that was actually a turn away from “profiting from the positive.” My biggest strength is the energy that I can pass on to people, the curiority, the ability to come up with creative solutions, no matter how difficult the situation. That is a strength, without any self-praise. Period. And that takes us to the last point for today.
3. Know your strengths
This is a tough one. It takes an entire life, I think, to really figure out yourself. It is especially challenging if you believe in personality as a dynamic concept, something that can change. But after all, I have found out that there are some things about onself that will not change. In general, we call these things: values and personality. Both are very different but to a certain extent, both share that they are unchangeable; at least more static than most other things in people’s lives. Something similar applies to strengths, defined mostly in the sense of skills. Because skills depend on practice, there is usually a point when your strengths have been trained to an extent where you will always be ahead in that field, no matter which other things you do.
Of course, calling strengths strengths is a very subjective evaluation. If you really want to see them clearly, you need the assistance of others — their feedback and their comparisons. Surely, that might not be the full picture. There are strengths that might be fairly hidden because you do not dare displaying them, i.e., showing them to others. That in and of itself is a matter of personal growth. Learnig about your own strengths and standing up for them, no matter what other people say, is something that does not come easily to all people. This is also why learning it can turn into a strength itself. Knowing who you are and what you stand for and then even opening your mouth.
What I just want to underline with all these complex and convoluted thoughts about finding out your strengths is that leadership requires self-knowledge. If there is one thing a leader can and should provide his/her people with, it is orientation and a certain level of stability. It is my deepest belief that this responsibility can only be met in a satisfying way if that leader knows him/herself well — this includes kowing the strengths and the weaknesses. This, however, is only the first step. The second one then is to accept both and to respond in a way that allows you to “profit from the positive.” That means you say “yes, weaknesses, I know you are there and I embrace you. But in order to move forward and to do the best for my people, I am going to shift my focus towards my strengths.”
Are you ready to profit from the positive?
Reflection Questions
1) Would you say that you tend to see the glass half full or half empty? What would be the very first step toward bringing in more balance?
2) What is your biggest strength? What are you doing to strengthen it?
3) If you were to give a recommendation to someone as to how to learn more about oneself, what would you suggest him/her to do?