I don’t often have a laugh when I’m reading about leadership. But I did smile when I read this paper about leadership that works in the Royal Navy

Leadership_lessons_from_the_Royal_Navy

Andrew St George has been writing the Royal Navy Way of Leadership and one of his findings is that a key aspect of leadership in the Navy is cheerfulness! Did you see that one coming?

He writes,

“No one follows a pessimist, and cheerfulness is a choice. It has long been understood to influence happiness at work and therefore productivity. The cheerful leader in any environment broadcasts confidence and capability, and the Royal Navy instinctively understands this. It is the captain, invariably, who sets the mood of a vessel; a gloomy captain means a gloomy ship. And mood travels fast. Turning up and being cheerful, in other words, has a practical benefit.”

In FED language, you’re going to be much more engaging and have others deliver more when you’re At Your Best and cheerful.

So how do you rate in the cheerfulness stakes? Where and when in your week are you already cheerful? And where and when this week could you practise being more cheerful and so more engaging than usual?

By Steve Radcliffe