The Joy of Leadership: How Positive Psychology Can Maximize Your Impact (and Make You Happier) in a Challenging World

He's the author of "Happier" and "Being Happier," among other bestselling books, and his classes at Harvard University on positive psychology and the psychology of leadership are among the most popular in the university's history. You can hear an Expert Interview podcast with Ben-Shahar on the Mind Tools site.

Together, the authors founded the leadership development organization Potentialife, which delivers the program they share with us in this book.

So, keep listening to discover why focusing on your strengths rather than your weaknesses is the key to success, how practicing mindfulness can increase your charisma, and how ice can help you implement the changes you need for joyful leadership.

Part One of the book tells us why we may need to change our leadership styles to fit today's work environment. Expectations in the past were fairly basic. Most people wanted to earn enough for a comfortable life and to feel like they belonged to a respectable organization. Nowadays, we've achieved these basics and we want something more. We want opportunities to grow and to feel fulfilled, and our leaders can either help or hinder us.

Part Two provides us with the authors' framework for optimum leadership that they created after observing the leadership behaviors of highly successful managers. It's called SHARP, which stands for Strengths, Health, Absorption, Relationships, and Purpose. Finally, Part Three tells us how to implement the SHARP framework and make it stick.

When the authors observed managers from around the world, they discovered that some consistently performed well and flourished, while others floundered, despite having similar levels of education, intelligence and experience.

They called the flourishers "10X leaders," and set out to identify their shared behaviors. They describe these behaviors in the book, so that we too can achieve 10X leadership.

In Chapter Four they identify Strengths, the first element of the SHARP strategy. The high-performing leaders the authors observed all spent time and energy developing their strengths, not their weaknesses. Management guru Peter Drucker maintains that this takes far less energy than the reverse, and the results are far superior.

Focusing on your weaknesses could move you to mediocrity at best, whereas focusing on your strengths can catapult you to excellence. What's more, focusing on weaknesses decreases people's confidence and lowers their self-esteem.

Good leaders help individuals recognize their strengths and encourage them to develop what they're good at. They promote strengths-based learning by creating teams where individuals' strengths complement each other.

The authors identify two types of strength: things you're good at, and things you're passionate about. You can be passionate about something like music, but if you can't sing or play an instrument, you're never going to achieve excellence. The key to 10X leadership is finding the things you love doing and that you're good at. When passion and competence overlap, you can attain your peak potential.

Health, which the authors cover in Chapter Five, is next on the 10X leader's list of priorities, and the authors explain how crucial good health and energy are to effective leadership. Their three pillars of good health are a healthy diet, regular physical exercise and rest. Exercise, for example, builds the cellular machinery of the brain, improving alertness, attention and motivation.

Neglecting even moderate levels of fatigue, for example, can impair people to the same extent as being drunk. And we all know that a diet of takeaways and sugary treats will not sustain or energize us long term. It's not rocket science.

But what is eye-opening is how even small changes to diet, exercise and sleep can improve your physical and mental well-being. The authors point out that leaders can make a huge difference to their team members' health by encouraging regular breaks, providing healthy food in the company canteen, and holding more standing or walking meetings.

Mental health is crucial, too. Happy people are more creative, resilient and sociable, and happy leaders have a direct positive effect on everyone around them. Simple actions, such as keeping a journal to record good experiences and things you're grateful for, can help you stay positive and lead to improved well-being and better overall performance.

Let's now take a look at Absorption, the third characteristic of 10X leaders, and the subject of Chapter Six.

Whether they're performing a task or listening to a colleague speak, 10X leaders are engaged in the moment. We've all experienced this state of absorption, when hours seem like minutes and we're oblivious to distractions. This state of "flow" happens when we love what we're doing and we're doing it well, bringing both types of strength together. We're performing at our best.

Flow is clearly beneficial, but a Gallup survey revealed that only about 15 to 20 percent of people across more than 140 countries experienced it daily, while 60 to 70 percent said they experienced it once a week or every few months.

So, how can we attain peak performance through absorption? Father of the concept of "flow", Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, has identified several conditions that can increase our experience of flow, including committing to clearly defined goals and feeling in control of a task.

We can also enhance our ability to achieve flow by filtering out physical and mental distractions. Actions as simple as switching off your email notifications, or moving to a space where you won't be disturbed, will make it easier to get absorbed in what you're doing.

In addition, meditating mindfully for as little as three minutes a day will increase your ability to focus, boost your positivity, and lead to better decision making. You'll find several methods for practicing mindful meditation in this chapter.

The authors discovered that their 10X leaders also had that elusive, highly prized quality called charisma.

You may think that charisma is something certain people are born with, but the authors say we're all capable of becoming charismatic leaders. We just need to listen intently and focus on the other person, and allow your colleague to express his or herself without being interrupted.

People will then feel heard and understood, and experience less stress. They may also like you more – which is linked to the fourth attribute of good leaders: the ability to create and maintain positive relationships. This is covered in Chapter Seven.

A Gallup survey found that people with good relationships at work are better able to cope with stress, and have higher levels of job satisfaction and lower levels of depression. In Denmark and Australia, for example, where there's an emphasis on relationships and strong social support, people are among the happiest in the world.

The first requirement for forging good relationships is to know and be true to yourself. Other people can only truly know you if you show them your authentic self. And, if you're open, they will feel comfortable being open, too.

Fostering a safe environment in which people feel comfortable giving feedback is a crucial part of encouraging good relationships. So, as a leader, be honest about your mistakes, encourage feedback on your own performance, and be sure to act on it.

Another way to build good relationships is to offer praise and recognition. According to a study by the advisory firm Bersin by Deloitte, praise is far more valuable and has more lasting impact than material rewards. In 2012, for example, Jet Blue Airways launched an employee recognition program that allowed people at all levels to give messages of recognition on social media that were accessible to everyone in the organization. Within four months, employee satisfaction increased by 88 percent. Expressing thanks helps colleagues feel valued, and reinforces the channels for positive communication.

Finally, in Chapter Eight, the authors argue that 10X leaders all have a strong sense of purpose. They cite research by Professor Jim Stengel, who tracked the 10-year growth trends of 50,000 consumer brands worldwide. He found that brands that were driven by ideals of improving people's lives grew three times faster than their competitors.

Take the late Anita Roddick, for instance. She based The Body Shop business on ideals such as the protection of animals and the environment, and fair labor practices, thus injecting new meaning into the job of selling cosmetics and toiletries.

A strong sense of purpose can help us prioritize, motivate us, and make us more resilient. People who don't know their purpose, however, tend to do too much, which can lead to stress and fatigue.

The authors make the point that we can all find find meaning in our work, no matter what we do for a living. A hospital janitor who sees his work as an important part of promoting good health, for instance, will likely be happier and more engaged than if he just views it as the simple mopping of floors. Some of us can even reshape our work, to do more of the things we love.

As well as defining a strong sense of purpose, 10X leaders make a long-term commitment to that purpose through action – by rolling their sleeves up and getting on with the job. So, as leaders and individuals, it helps to set goals that align with our greater purpose.

The book presents these five concepts of SHARP to us individually, but the authors point out in Chapter Nine that they've done this for clarity and convenience, not because the concepts stand alone. In order to experience the joys of leadership, we need to integrate Strength, Health, Absorption, Relationships and Purpose.

For instance, if people worked solely on their strengths and became star performers, but didn't work on their relationships, they wouldn't be good team players. They would be what the authors call "brilliant jerks," and many companies would avoid employing them. But when all five components of SHARP are working together, you get a synergy that's greater than the sum of its parts.

In Part Three, we learn how to implement SHARP and maintain these behaviors and practices.

As leaders we can start the process by giving team members the time and resources they need to adapt, and by encouraging a culture where it's it's OK to fail. We also need to remember to praise people's efforts.

The psychologist Kurt Lewin uses the properties of ice to illustrate how we can go on to implement change. First, we need to "melt" the current shape, or behaviors. We can do this by challenging people's tendencies to stay in their comfort zone and focusing on new and potentially better possibilities.

Next, we "remold" or change into the desired shape by identifying and implementing behaviors that are relevant to our new vision. This doesn't come easy, but acting "as if" can work brilliantly.

A 1979 study of men in their seventies proved this. Researcher Ellen Langer asked the men to act as if they were 20 years younger. Then, monitoring them over the five days of the study, she found improvements in dexterity, blood pressure, eyesight, and hearing. It's fascinating to read about these results that suggest we really can "make it if we fake it."

Finally, we "solidify" our "ice" into its new shape by using rituals and reminders, so we don't slip back into old habits. This phase is ongoing, requiring effort and persistence. We can use reminders such as a screensaver image, a daily plan, or a favorite quote above your desk to help – whatever it takes to make the new behavior stick.

Although the title of the book implies that it's aimed at leaders, "The Joy of Leadership" is about how to live a productive and joyful life, and it's relevant to anyone who aspires to that. Whether you're a manager, a student or a retiree, you can benefit from using your strengths for a given purpose, maintaining physical and mental health, and building happy relationships.

The book focuses heavily on justifying the need for the SHARP program, which some readers may find unnecessary. But since the chapter headings are clear and self-explanatory, it's easy to select the sections you want to read and skim the rest. We love that each section ends with a summary and a brief preamble about the following chapter. And the comprehensive notes and index make it easy for readers to explore topics that pique their interest.

The authors set out to provide a framework for healthy, joyful and positive leadership that can be personalized to create lasting change. And with SHARP, they succeed. You just need to put in the thinking and the effort to adapt it to your situation.

You may already be familiar with many of the ideas in the book, but there's value in how the authors bring the concepts here together in a coherent structure. It may even help you find a powerful route to success and happiness.

"The Joy of Leadership: How Positive Psychology Can Maximize Your Impact (and Make You Happier) in a Challenging World," by Tal Ben-Shahar and Angus Ridgway, is published by John Wiley & Sons.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.