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There are many leadership styles in the business world and what works for one leader may not work for another. Leaders must be aware of how they interact with people, especially their subordinates, and continuously monitor how people react to their personal style. Most people, when asked about the characteristics of an effective leader, mention the following traits or skills: ability to communicate, ability to motivate, ability to establish a vision, create high energy within a team, trustworthiness, passion, dedication, ability to work effectively with people, and so on. These characteristics are, in many ways synonymous with leadership and are essential to forming a positive atmosphere among teams and organizations.

In my search for information about leadership, I found something else that can have a significant impact on the people who report to leaders: The PNR or positive to negative ratio. The PNR is described in an article entitled “The Impact of Positive Leadership” by Tom Rath, co-author of the book “How Full is Your Bucket?” The article focuses on the typical positive and negative interactions an employee may encounter on any given day. The PNR is the ratio of bad or unpleasant interactions to the good or positive interactions. An unbalanced ratio can lead to the loss of key employees. The manager should therefore be aware of his or her contribution to the PNR. As Tom Rath states, “ Unless you are actively working, today and every day, to make sure your employee has more positive interactions, you may soon have a disengaged employee on your hands—or worse, you could lose one of your best people.

For the project manager, the PNR is also a factor that must be considered. Take a good look at your style and how you interact with your project team. How does your style affect the way the team performs? Can you honestly say that the team responds well to your style and that you have established a pleasant and mostly positive environment? What is the PNR of your team? Consider the first hour of work yesterday or today. How many of your interactions were positive and how many were negative? Here’s an example of a negative interaction: You have a meeting scheduled for 9pm. One of your key project team members is ten minutes late, and when he arrives and takes his seat you make a comment like, “Well, I guess we can get started now” or “Don’t you have a watch?” This is definitely a negative interaction. How often do you do this? Here’s another: You review a report from a team member and it isn’t exactly what you wanted, so you make the following statement: “I guess you weren’t listening when I gave you my instructions or “Is this the best you can do?” Sound familiar? As Scott Berkun says in his book “The Art Of Project Management” – O’Reilly Publications, “If you stay calm and break problems down into pieces, you can handle many difficult situations. He also states that “people respond to pressure in different ways. Be observant and open in how you help the team deal with different kinds of pressure.

What about positive interactions? How about starting a meeting off with “Great to see you all again” or “Nice work team; we are really making progress” or “I appreciate the work you do.” It doesn’t take much effort to create a positive environment even when there are problems and issues to address. It is extremely important to maintain an awareness of the PNR and tip the scales in favor of the positive side.

The Magic Ratio

According to the Tom Rath article, studies indicate that teams with a PNR greater than 3:1 were significantly more productive than teams that did not reach this ratio. Another interesting fact is that teams that had achieved a very high PNR and exceeded the upper limit of 14:1 became less productive and annoying to each other. Too much blind optimism, insincere behavior, overly polite people, extensive mutual admiration, can create some problems. Studies show that reaching the upper limit is rare among work teams so managers shouldn’t worry too much about the impact on the team at that level. If the team starts to reach the upper limit, start looking for signs of changes in team behavior. Remember, some conflict is actually good for a team. Lack of conflict can result in complacency and indifference. Managers should focus more on reaching the 3:1 PNR. I think it’s important for project managers to begin to track their PNR and to look for ways to improve the ratio. This will increase self awareness about leadership styles, communications skills, and other factors that have an impact on the team. The “magic ratio” may be slightly different for each project team but a target ratio of 4:1 or 5:1 may be something to aim for.

Keep in mind that a bit of human error is tolerable so avoid displaying your bad mood, grouchiness or rage that may result from a team member’s mistake. Channel your energy into some positive thinking about how to use the lessons learned from the mistake to elevate the skill of the team member. It will have a profound effect on PNR.

The Impact of Positive leadership

Considering the PNR and the influence the leader has on the team, I think it can be safely stated that the positive leaders (those who have created a favorable PNR) increase the productivity of their teams and create a very favorable esprit de corps within their teams or within their entire organization. Positive leaders make the difference in an organization. According to the Tom Rath article, positive leaders deliberately increase the flow of positive emotions within their organization. They choose to do this because it leads to a measurable increase in performance. Leaders who share positive emotions will establish work groups or project teams with:

A more positive mood and working environment
Enhanced job satisfaction and greater team support
Increased engagement among employees and team members
Improved productivity and overall performance
A greater willingness to be cooperative
An ability to deal with stress more effectively
A willingness to accept challenges and work cohesively to develop solutions
A willingness to accept responsibility for situations, regardless of who caused them, to expedite resolving the issue
A more creative group that generates new ideas and uses innovation to improve overall performance

Positive emotions and a positive work environment hold clear benefits for the project team and an organization as a whole. Leaders who observe the PNR of their teams and take steps to maintain a supportive culture will undoubtedly create a more loyal, committed team than those who resort to negative tactics. A study by Fredrickson and Losada published in an article in American Psychologist in 2005 indicated that PNR ratios above 3:1 and below 11:1 are what humans need to flourish. The PNR may not be something you find listed in the work performance measures in the PMBOK ® Guide but the savvy leader knows that maintaining a positive approach, even during the most difficult times and challenges can mean the difference between success and failure.

“What differentiates positive leaders from the rest? Instead of being concerned with what they can get out of their employees, positive leaders search for opportunities to invest in everyone who works for them. They view each interaction with another person as an opportunity to increase his or her positive emotions.” Tom Rath – Gallup Management Journal.

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