The Power of a Positive Team: Proven Principles and Practices That Make Great Teams Great

Jon Gordon, a leadership consultant and speaker, draws on decades of experience across sports, business, education, and nonprofit organizations to argue that positive, united teams are essential to achieving great things. Gordon has served on and consulted with teams throughout his career, from playing lacrosse at Cornell University to advising professional and college sports teams, companies, schools, and hospitals. He presents the book as a practical guide designed for teams to read together, built on proven principles gathered from his consulting work and interviews with members of historically successful teams.

Gordon opens by establishing that positivity is not mere feel-good thinking but a measurable competitive advantage. He distinguishes his concept from "Pollyanna positivity," clarifying that positive teams do not ignore challenges but confront reality with genuine optimism, vision, purpose, and unity. He cites research from Duke University professors Manju Puri and David Robinson showing that optimistic people are more likely to succeed in business, sports, and politics, and references relationship expert John Gottman's finding that marriages thrive at a five-to-one ratio of positive to negative interactions. Gordon contends that positivity and winning are not trade-offs: Positive energy creates a feedback loop that elevates entire teams.

The book's first major principle is that positive teams create positive cultures. Gordon defines team culture as the written and unwritten rules governing how a team communicates, thinks, works, and acts, arguing that culture drives expectations, behaviors, habits, and ultimately the future. He uses Apple as an example: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built a culture of challenging the status quo from the company's inception, and that culture continues to influence everything Apple does. He presents contrasting case studies from college tennis. The University of Southern California (USC) men's tennis team won four consecutive national championships from 2009 to 2012 under a culture of love, accountability, and respect. The University of Virginia men's tennis team, despite having talented players for over a decade, could not win a championship until coach Brian Boland shifted his focus from outcomes to culture and process in 2013, after which the team won four of the next five titles. Gordon also argues that every team member's energy is contagious, citing research showing that emotions broadcast outward and affect those nearby. Each person, he contends, must decide to be "Vitamin C" rather than a germ to their team.

Gordon's second principle is that positive teams unite around a shared vision and a greater purpose. He opens with the example of Alan Mulally, who became CEO of Ford in 2006 when the automaker had just posted a $12 billion loss. Mulally created a "One Ford" culture to unite the company around one team, one plan, and one goal, a turnaround Gordon regards as one of the greatest leadership feats in business history. He defines shared vision as a single North Star that moves everyone in the same direction, and greater purpose as a mission beyond oneself that energizes people. He advocates for purpose-driven goals over numerical goals, citing Organic Valley, a dairy company that focused on farmer livelihood, land sustainability, and healthy products rather than sales targets and experienced continuous growth. Gordon encourages teams to keep vision and purpose alive through intentional effort, tangible reminders, and practices such as "One Word," where each team member picks a single word each year to serve as personal inspiration.

The third principle is that positive teams sustain optimism and belief through adversity. Gordon argues that many teams start positive but lose their energy when challenges arise, and the teams that succeed are those that stay positive throughout the journey. He uses the Clemson University football team as a central case study. When Dabo Swinney became head coach, he brought signs reading "Believe" to his first team meeting, drawing on a personal history that included childhood homelessness and walking on at the University of Alabama. During the 2016–17 national championship game, quarterback Deshaun Watson rallied his teammates with two minutes remaining and led a touchdown drive with four seconds left to win. Gordon also highlights Kate Leavell, a high school lacrosse coach in Georgia who shifted from corrections-focused to positivity-focused coaching. Leavell's team mounted comebacks, went on a 12-game winning streak, and finished third in the state. Gordon offers practical frameworks including "Feed the Positive Dog" (choosing to nourish positive thoughts over negative ones), the acronym L.O.S.S. (Learning Opportunity Stay Strong), and choosing faith over fear.

The fourth principle addresses how positive teams confront, transform, and remove internal negativity. Gordon argues that ignoring negativity allows it to breed and eventually sabotage a team. He recounts how Mark Richt, then head football coach at the University of Georgia, committed to eliminating energy vampires, teammates whose negativity drains others' energy and undermines the team, after the team lost its first two games. Richt had an artist draw a large energy vampire on the team meeting room wall, and any player who acted like one had their photo posted there. The team won 10 straight games and reached the Southeastern Conference (SEC) Championship. Gordon advocates addressing negativity at the culture level first and attempting to transform negative individuals through empathy and coaching before removing them. He introduces the "No Complaining Rule," which permits complaints only when accompanied by solutions, and distinguishes destructive negativity from positive conflict, which he considers essential for growth.

The fifth principle is that positive teams communicate and connect. Gordon cites Google's Project Aristotle study, which found that the company's most productive teams were not its groups of top scientists but teams whose members had strong interpersonal connections, empathy, and emotional safety. He identifies busyness and stress as the primary enemies of communication, explaining that stress activates the amygdala, a brain region associated with fear and survival, which overrides the rational, empathetic part of the brain. He uses the 2013–14 University of Florida basketball team as a case study: Coach Billy Donovan invested heavily in connecting his players, and despite having no NBA draft picks, the team reached the Final Four by beating more talented opponents. Gordon introduces the concept of "team grit," arguing that the more connected a team is, the more committed its members become.

The sixth principle is that positive teams commit and care. Gordon shares an account from former Navy SEAL Nick Hays about Hell Week in BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training, where candidates endure extreme physical trials on minimal sleep. Hays explains that most who quit do so early because they focus on their own suffering, while those who survive shift their focus to their boat crew and become more afraid of letting teammates down than of the physical misery. Gordon devotes significant attention to caring, telling the story of Kathy Norton, an insurance adjustor at Gallagher Bassett who, after receiving a terminal cancer diagnosis, continued working and caring for her clients. After Norton's death, her team adopted a commitment to "care more like Kathy Norton" and became a model for the company.

The seventh principle is that positive teams pursue continuous improvement through love, accountability, and difficult conversations. Gordon identifies love and accountability as the two most important keys to team growth, arguing that love must come first because rules without relationships lead to rebellion. He uses the example of Gettysburg College lacrosse coach Hank Janczyk, whose players had strong bonds but made excuses for each other until accountability was added, after which they won 20 straight games. Gordon advocates for "Tell-the-Truth Mondays," a postgame meeting format USC head football coach Pete Carroll used where the team gathered for honest, blame-free review of mistakes and areas for improvement. He emphasizes that teams must establish clear rules of engagement for handling emotionally charged conversations.

Gordon concludes by arguing that people are better together and that teams of all types can find a collective greatness they cannot achieve alone. He closes with the 2017 University of Maryland lacrosse team, coached by his friend and former teammate John Tillman. After losing in the championship game in 2011, 2012, 2015, and 2016, the team committed to playing not for themselves but for fans, past players, their coach whose mother had recently died, and an honorary team member battling cancer. By focusing on "we" instead of "me," they won the championship, embodying the book's core message. Gordon introduces the Greek word meraki, meaning to do something with love, soul, and creativity, and urges readers to gather their teams and begin creating their legacy.