Positively Energizing Leadership Fuels Work Performance

How can leaders have the greatest impact on others’ performance?

Surprisingly, it’s not about leading with information and influence.

It’s also not about showing up in an overly outgoing or charismatic way, which can sometimes feel inauthentic.

The secret to leadership impact is positive relational energy.

Relational energy is the energy that occurs in interactions between individuals. In business, it is the positive energy a leader creates when interacting with others that renews, uplifts, and energizes them. It results in the recipient feeling vital with increased energy to take action, leading to improved well-being and performance.

Unfortunately, leadership skill development typically doesn’t focus on how leaders can cultivate and share their positive energy. However, there is enormous potential for leaders to increase their leadership impact through building an awareness of positive relational energy.

Kim Cameron, one of the founders of positive leadership, proposed that the most successful leaders energize others. Furthermore, positively energizing others is the most important way to motivate others to positively impact their performance. It is three times more impactful than sharing information and influence. Positive relational energy is also the number one way that highly vital leaders in one of my previous studies shared their energy.

A team of colleagues, including lead author Vicki Cabrera with Christine Keelin, Stewart Donaldson, and myself, collaborated on a recent systematic review of leader positive relational energy. We are all deeply passionate about advancing Kim Cameron’s work and the body of work in energy and leadership energy.

A systematic review is a structured review of the existing literature and evidence on a specific topic. Our systematic review examined the empirical evidence on positive relational energy, utilizing a scale introduced in 2016 that has been applied in several studies. We aimed to determine the key insights from the research now that the scale has been in use for nearly a decade.

Our review examined whether positive leadership generated positive relational energy among direct reports, ultimately enhancing their performance. Note that a leader’s direct reports are defined as followers.

Key research findings

Overall, the research findings show strong empirical support for Cameron’s theory of positively energizing leadership. Positive leadership approaches and characteristics tend to create positive relational energy among followers, leading to their improved work performance.

Three key findings include:

1. Positive leadership behaviors frequently generate positive relational energy among followers.

What it means: The behaviors associated with positive leadership styles are what create positive relational energy in others. Positive leadership characteristics include:

• Servant leadership: Prioritizing the growth, well-being, and empowerment of employees
• Authentic leadership: Focusing on leaders having healthy alignment between their internal core values and their behavior
• Spiritual leadership: Integrating leading with a sense of purpose and creating a positive culture
• Work passion: Leading with enthusiasm, purpose, and a deep commitment to one’s work and team
• Humility: Leading with self-awareness, openness, and a willingness to learn from others
• Humor: Promoting positivity and using playfulness to create a positive work environment
• Trust building: Focusing on creating a culture of trust and psychological safety

2. Higher levels of positive relational energy were associated with higher levels of work performance.

What it means: High levels of positive relational energy improve the follower’s work performance. Most studies looked at the positive relational energy leaders generate. Types of work performance include:

• Job performance
• Task performance
• Service performance
• Creativity
• Customer service engagement

3. Followers’ positive relational energy explains the positive relationship between positive leadership and followers' work performance.

What it means: Positive relational energy explains the relationship of how and why positive leadership approaches and behaviors create better work performance. In summary:

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Positive leadership = positive relational energy = improved work performance

Strategies for leaders to create positive relational energy

Leaders can create positive relational energy first by building awareness about energy levels and next by choosing one positively energizing leadership behavior to demonstrate.

1. Build awareness about energy levels after interactions.

Most of us don’t consider how our interactions impact another’s energy. Additionally, we don’t often realize how interacting with others impacts our energy levels.

Leaders can start by building awareness about their own and others’ energy levels after interactions. They can assess their energy levels by reflecting on the following:

• What interactions feel energizing? When do I feel ready to take action?
• What interactions feel neutral?
• What interactions deplete me?

Additionally, they can notice how others walk away from interactions. Do people look energized and ready to take action? Do they look neutral? Do they look depleted?

When leaders transfer positive relational energy to others, they are uplifted and ready to take action.

2. Demonstrate positively energizing leadership behaviors.

Leaders can gain an understanding of and demonstrate positively energizing leadership behaviors. As explained in the study’s findings, demonstrating positive leadership behaviors is key to creating positive relational energy. Below are eight positively energizing leadership behaviors:

• Actively listen with a focus on the other person.
• Express gratitude to others.
• Be open to feedback and responsive to it.
• Build trust.
• Motivate others to be at their best.
• Celebrate the accomplishments of others.
• Be willing to forgive others.
• Illuminate meaning and purpose.

3. Choose one positively energizing leadership behavior to focus on first.

Review the above list of the eight positively energizing leadership behaviors. What do you want to focus on first? Take small steps each day to practice and reinforce that behavior. Take time to notice and reflect on the positive impact you see by doing that behavior each day. Once that behavior is more ingrained, you can then start focusing on the next behavior.

Conclusion

Our systematic review uncovered strong empirical evidence that supports Cameron’s theory of positively energizing leadership. The findings also highlight the critical role that positive relational energy plays in enhancing work performance. It contributes to a better understanding of how positive leadership behaviors contribute to better work performance.

Ultimately, leaders creating positive relational energy is key to having a positive impact on work performance.