Gordon lays out the first principle in his framework for enhancing leadership capacities in Chapter 3, “Positive Leaders Drive Positive Cultures.” By placing the creation of a positive culture first in his framework, he emphasizes its significance: Creating a positive culture is a leader’s most important job. In addition to fostering motivation and cooperation, it helps communicate the organization’s values. In a metaphor to which Gordon returns often, culture is like the root of a fruit-bearing tree: Leaders should not focus solely on outcomes (the “fruit”) but must also nourish culture (the “root”).

To a large extent, the rest of the book elaborates on this basic idea, identifying various components of organizational culture and providing strategies for cultivating them. For instance, a positive organizational culture starts with a leader’s vision, which in turn requires knowing what the group stands for and what it wants to be known for. Once a vision is established, the leader must communicate it clearly to their team. For instance, Alan Mulally printed his vision of “One Ford,” a commitment to company teamwork across many regional entities, on T-shirts. The vision must be articulated clearly and often since it is the foundation for the plan that moves the vision forward.