I tell people I have become slightly more positive over time
as I've been focusing on StrengthsFinder. Positivity is not one of my themes, but
it's certainly a theme that I appreciate.I want to as we
usually do, give you what I call "the overture";
an overview of this theme. Then we'll get the real expert on this,
somebody who has it , come
in and talk with us about it. Positivity is a theme that really has to
do with, what I would say, emotional influence. You may recall that
we've talked about WOO and we've talked about Communication.
I think those three themes often track together and WOO is about
people who have this natural social influence.
People with Communication are people that have this natural verbal
influence, and I think Positivity brings people who are
emotionally influential and they do this by their natural
optimism and enthusiasm. That natural optimism and enthusiasm stimulates
the energy and lifts the hopes (of others). So these really
are people who know how to make other people feel good.
They're people who know how to lift the spirits and lighten the loads of other
people and they just
really have an overall positive effect on the emotional
environment of a situation, of a team, a family,
an organization. This is
in the Relationship Building domain; it's where we find it so obviously it
plays a role in building relationships.
And relationships are so important
whether you're a leader, whether you're a
manager, whether you're a salesperson, whether you're a parent.
Relationships are very important. Some of the
words that I think might be meaningful to people who have this theme
are words like: energizer, optimist,
encourager, cheerleader,
influencer, celebrator,
recognizer, enthusiast, promoter;
lots of different words. And I often like to let people choose the word
that fits them best. They're all kind of positive words.
Some adjectives that I think that go with this theme,
and some of them are the same: fun, optimistic,
hopeful, generous, happy,
enthusiastic, energetic, joyful,
influential, dramatic might be one,
lighthearted and positive minded. So
there's lots of different ways that people can kind of
contribute to that emotional,
positive environment. In terms of the
barrier labels, the basement, how
Positivity can sometimes be misunderstood
or maybe even misused is
words that kind of described that. Sometimes a person with
Positivity might be
perceived and in fact could be somewhat naive,
or maybe they might be
someone that has kind of a Pollyanna view of life,
or maybe they wear rose-colored glasses or they might be called someone
who's a spin-doctor; you know, trying to put a positive spin
on everything. I think there are certain themes that kind of
intensify Positivity. I think themes, if you have Positivity and you have
Maximizer,
I think it's kind of like one plus one equals three. Or maybe Positivity with
Futuristic,
there's this kind of idealistic dreaming
that kind of goes with it. Themes that
might temper Positivity a bit, I think
it could be a theme like Command. Obviously if a person had Positively and
Command, that would
feel different. Positivity and Restorative, those would be more
unlikely kind of pairs. In fact statistically
the theme that most frequently goes with Positivity
is WOO. That is the theme, if a person has Positivity, there's a 31
percent chance that they are also going to have WOO. Those two
don't just go together conceptually in my conceptual package, but statistically
WOO and Positivity are kind of like
they're joined at the hip.
In many people they go together.
I think I like to think about themes also
with regards to what this looks like kind of in it's raw version.
I think sometimes when Positivity is raw,
it might sound like this:
Unhappy people can make me unhappy so I avoid them.
That might be what Positivity might look like in its raw kind of uninformed,
inexperienced kind of version.
I think here's what mature Positivity
sounds like: I can make unhappy people happy
so I approach them. I think
more mature Positivity runs toward people.
More immature Positivity runs away from
unhappy people because obviously
not everybody's going to be happy. But this ability
to kind of lift people's spirits
and to kind of lighten the mood.
I often say that people with Positivity can be
these extremes. They can look very different.
In some ways, and I don't know if Luke or Jim,
both of you have
Positivity, if you were ever perceived as this, the
class clown. Jim, you're shaking your head.
You're the person who can kind of get people laughing
when maybe just by what they said.
On the other hand, there's a more subtle version of Positivity.
I say these are people who bring food to work;
their subtly trying to get a celebration started.
So there's a whole range of ways that this particular theme,
but I think its key part is the social and emotional
effect that these people can have on the
environments that they work in. And I always like it when
I'm leading programs to have some people in the room
that have some Positivity because it makes life more fun, it makes it more
enjoyable, and I think when people feel better
they often do better.