THERE’S one on every team, and if you’re really lucky, two — doom-mongering negative types who slam every bright suggestion with the words: “It’ll never work.”

Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Stanford Graduate School of Business, says that being critical is often interpreted as a sign of intelligence in business. “The fastest way for me to seem smart is to cut you down. So you come up with an idea, and I come up with a thousand different reasons why that idea won’t work. Now everyone sees you as dumb and me as smart — and we’ve created an environment where no one wants to come up with ideas.”

Nobody wants to come up with ideas or work with you and if you’re the boss, forget it. As we have learnt in this series, you need a range of soft skills to get on in the world of work, and they become more important the higher you climb on the corporate ladder.

A study by the Centre for Creative Leadership found that “effective leaders . . . blend the softer leadership skills . . . with the tough skills needed to keep an organisation afloat during difficult times”.

The key soft skills used in the workplace are communication, teamwork, adaptability, problem solving, persuasion and integrity. None of which you can even begin to grapple with until you ditch the negative attitude. As Jo Ellen Grzyb, a director of the Impact Factory says, the best way of assessing whether you have the required soft skills to make the grade is to be positive about your successes, skills and attributes. You also need to be positive and enthusiastic about developing yourself — if you lack a particular skill then you need to be able to grab the chances that will allow you to acquire it.

So to recap. The ingredients required by the perfect soft-skilled leader of the future are:

1. Good communication. You will need to empathise, listen, ask questions, and possess positive body language — a smile is always welcome.

2. The ability to work in teams. This includes giving credit for a job well done, listening, communicating, respecting others and sharing resources.

3. Adaptability. You need to be able to seize the opportunities presented by change.

4. Problem-solving finesse. You need to be able to use analysis, experience and intuition to make decisions.

5. Influence. If you can’t persuade anyone to take notice of you then you had best get your coat.

6. Integrity. Do what you say you’ll do.

If you can tick all the boxes you’re made. People want to follow leaders who can walk the walk, adapt, inspire, motivate, influence and be genuine all at the same time. If this all comes naturally then you could be an “authentic leader”, like Richard Branson of Virgin or Bill Gates of Microsoft.

So wise up: those with a negative attitude are authentic losers, not leaders.

CHEER UP

IF BEING gloomy comes more easily than smiling, there are plenty of ways of learning how to redefine half-empty as half-full.

Put yourself on the path to positivity by reading Be Positive: A Guide for Managers, by Phil Clements (Kogan Page, £7.99), or How Full is Your Bucket? by Tom Rath and Donald O. Clifton (Gallup Press, £11.46).

Or log on to www.impactfactory.com and read the article on the Power of Praise and Positive Attitude. If you’re still feeling cynical try reading The Business Case for Positive Attitudes at www.mancrofttraining.co.uk.

Finally you can read more about Professor Pfeffer’s views in his article Why Can’t We Get Anything Done? on www.fastcompany.com.

All together now: “If you’re happy and you know it . . .”

• Next week: a new series on entrepreneurship.

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