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Monday, March 29, 2010When at Work, Can You Leave Your Heart at Home?
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar & Louisa Jewell.
755 words; Reading time: less than 3 minutes.
“You can take a person out of their home, but you can’t take the home life out of the person.”
While employers would like
for employees to leave their problems at home, the reality is that
most people find it difficult to turn off stressors from their
personal life when they get to work. Similarly, research suggests that
employees who enjoy fulfilling home lives are in a better position to make
significant contributions at work. Rather than ignore the
home-life/work-performance connection, we argue that employers who
encourage and support healthy home lives see a better
return on their salary investment.
Are Work and Personal Lives Separate?
Readers of this blog already know that according to research by Diener, Lyubomirsky, and King, happy individuals are successful across multiple life domains, including friendship, marriage, health and work performance. The research suggests that the positive affect engenders success rather than the other way around. So if people are happier at home, can we expect to find a spillover of benefits into their workplace?
That is precisely what the research firm Gallup found. After
studying work environments for 40 years, their results demonstrate
that the most productive
A study published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology in 2007 further explored the importance of studying the relationships between work and home lives in HR policies. The researchers found that employee commitment is particularly high in organizations that support work-life fit practices.
A different study led at
George Mason University further reinforces this finding. This study suggests
that the degree to which job satisfaction varies is explained by
home-life factors, and family-life satisfaction
variation is partially explained by work-related factors.
To that effect, one very interesting finding in this article’s co-author Louisa Jewell’s research at Why Did You Go.com is that when we asked people why they left their previous jobs, the most common reason cited was unsupportive managers. On the other hand, when we asked people who enjoyed their work to report the reasons why, they spoke more about the work being important – that it fulfilled their purpose in life. Our informal research supports the concept that engaging employees is about truly tapping into and supporting the whole person, and allowing them to live in harmony within and outside of the company.
Insight on the Brain
Want even more compelling evidence? Here it is: research published in the Journal
of Cognitive Neuroscience has shown that people solve creative
problems with more insight when in a positive mood. The researchers believe this
enhanced insight occurs because positive affect is conducive to a more
global scope of attention enhancing the brain’s ability to make unusual associations. In an economy increasingly driven by the
creativity and innovativeness of its people (think engineering, bio/medical research, product design, process improvements, advertising,
Should Managers Get Involved?
Organizational leaders typically prefer to steer clear of employees’s personal lives. How to effectively deal with such issues isn’t taught in business school, and not everyone is competent or comfortable with it. There is also the concern that employees may feel it is intrusive, or the fear of being seen as overly touchy-feely.
However, employers can teach employees how to cope with stressors without becoming involved in the issues, which is precisely what the US Army is doing with its resilience training program. Employers can also offer tools to help their workers take better care of their health - an initiative that benefits the bottom line remarkably well. Give employees good tools, encourage participation, support them along the way, and their work performance will improve. It’s a simple equation: build positivity and resilience, get enhanced performance.
In support of this
claim, a two-year longitudinal study published in the Canadian
Journal of Behavioural Science in 2002 found that
psychological well-being reliably predicts job performance. Thus
managers would be wise to work on this.
Employers who strictly see employees as output-producers are missing one of the greatest levers they have: harnessing employee emotions for greater performance. Employees are complete human beings, and managing their full complexity is – in our educated opinion – a more fruitful and productive approach.
Images:
Many emotions courtesy of littledan
Business lady courtesy of coldironjr2003
Going home by alancleaver_2000
References:
Ford, M.T., Heinin, B.A., Langkamer, K.L. (2007). Work and family satisfaction and conflict: a meta-analysis of cross-domain relations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92 (1), 57–80.
Jung-Beeman, M., Bowden, E.M., Haberman, J., Frymiare, J.L.,
Arambel-Liu, S., Greenblatt, R., Reber, P.J., Kounios, J. (2004). Neural
Activity When People Solve Verbal Problems with Insight.
PLOS Biology 2 (4), 0500-0510.
Lourel, M., Ford, M.T., Gamassou, C.E. et al (2009). Negative and positive spillover between work and home Relationship to perceived stress and job satisfaction. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24 (5), 438-449.
Lyubomirsky, S., King, L. & Diener, E. (2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131 (6), 803-855.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths-Based Leadership. New York: Gallup Press.
Subramaniam, K. Kounios, J. Parrish, T.B. & Jung-Beeman, M. (2008). , John Kounios, Todd B. Parrish, A Brain Mechanism for Facilitation of Insight by Positive Affect. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 21 (3), 415–432.
Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R. Denney, P.J. & Moline, G.L. (2002). When a Happy Worker is a Productive Worker: A Preliminary Examination of Three Models. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 2:47:12 PMTop
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Saturday, March 20, 2010Wellness as a Business Process: PHWPC Day 2
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Conference held in Washington, DC on March 5th and 6th gave everyone concrete and reliable evidence to make wellness at work a priority. The conference showed that creating a psychologically healthy workplace means more than promoting good health; it means simultaneously enhancing employee and organizational performance.
Stress in the Workplace
Matthew Grawitch, Ph.D. and David Munz, Ph.D. from Saint-Louis University presented a systematic approach to minimizing stress in the workplace. Citing a 2007 public opinion survey, they explained that:
- 74% of workers report that work is a significant source of stress
- 55% are less productive as a result of stress
- 20% have missed work as a result of stress.
Despite these vivid stats, most organizations ignore prevention initiatives and rely on their employee assistance programs to pick up the pieces once damage is done.
The comprehensive process Grawitch and Munz suggest includes four steps: identifying and reducing stressors, building resilience, facilitating coping, and providing remediation if and when all else has failed. Two of their key messages were the following:
1. The little nagging stresses are often more damaging that than the overarching issues. Reducing stress can therefore be much easier than imagined. It is often a matter of getting the conversation started, and taking proper, simple action.
Their research also demonstrates that lack of sleep is positively correlated with increased work stress – a finding that is no surprise to those of you who have followed my past articles.
Wellness as a Business Strategy
I also had the pleasure to hear from Tonya Vyhlidal, Med, CHPD and Director of Wellness, Safety and Life Enhancement at Lincoln Industries. This manufacturing firm has included the following formal statement in their core business beliefs and drivers:
Wellness and healthy lifestyles are important to our success.
Yes, health is truly an integral part of Lincoln Industries' identity: from employee selection to morning stretching, quarterly check-ups, paid on-the-clock smoking-cessation programs all the way to performance reviews and a yearly mountain climbing trip as an incentive for top performers, this company takes wellness seriously, and has it covered from all angles.
And it pays off. The company spends over $400,000 each year on wellness, and gets a return greater than five times that amount. Says Hank Orme, President of Lincoln Industries: “We’d like to get a return like this in anything that we did because the return is extraordinary!”
Work-Life Balance or Work-Life Fit?
Cali Williams Yost, MBA, led a workshop showing how work-life flexibility is a global strategic success strategy. Reminding us of the numerous snow storms that have reduced the speed of business in the North East of the US over the course of the winter, Yost argued that flexible organizations were least affected because employees were better equipped to accomplish their tasks from home. Work flexibility is a process bringing advantages to employer and employee alike.
As the CEO and Founder of Work+Life Fit, Inc., she insists the term work-life balance is misleading and outdated. More than balance, it is a better fit between the demands of work and those of our home-life reality that we need.
Yost also explained that flexibility is not a concern solely for “mommies-at-work”. In her experience, males and single people have a harder time finding the work-life fit that is right for them than women or married people do. A counter-intuitive finding that is worth thinking about!
Last but not least, Yost insists flexibility should not be a perk that is granted or discontinued at will. “When it is an ongoing conversation with periodical reviews, it is much easier for everyone to understand and accept changes,” she says.
All in all, I found the PHWPC to be a much needed, highly informative, quite inspiring and beautifully realized event. Hope to see you there in 2011!
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 12:21:26 PM
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Monday, March 15, 2010Building the Business Case for Employee Well-Being
This article is © 2010 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar
In my work as a wellness consultant, one of the comments I hear most often is “Wow! I love what you do! This is so important, and so needed ! What kind of ROI can a company expect for its wellness initiatives?”
But not anymore. The Psychologically Healthy Workplace Conference held on March 5th and 6th in Washington, DC gave everyone concrete and reliable evidence to turn the topic from "nice to have" to priority. Organized by Chair David Ballard, Psy.D., MBA, the conference showed that creating a psychologically healthy workplace is about simultaneously enhancing employee and organizational performance. Indeed, organizations that actively promote healthy lifestyles achieve lower health care costs, higher productivity and healthier bottom lines.
Health and Productivity
In the pre-conference session, Nico Pronk, Ph.D., FACSM explained how a work site health promotion program optimally provides practical applications based on existing research, and also is the basis for new research questions and results. As the Vice-President of Journey Well, he has applied this model and found that there is an explicit connection between worker health and business performance. More precisely:
- 4 behaviors cause nearly 40% of all US deaths: tobacco use, poor diet, physical inactivity and alcohol use.
- The greatest opportunity to improve health lies in personal habits (as opposed to social or environmental circumstances)
- The cost of productivity loss (including absenteeism and presenteeism) for employees who have poor diets, are physically inactive, smoke and abuse of alcohol is about 5 times higher than that of employees who adopt the reverse, healthier habits.
Engagement and Productivity
Benjamin Schneider, Ph.D., then entertained the conference participants with a presentation relating employee engagement and organizational financial success. He started by exploring how engaged workers are more active than those who are merely satisfied. While the satisfied individuals are happy about and focus on what they get out of their job, the engaged people's happiness takes root in what they contribute to their work environment.
The greater adaptability, focus, persistence, proactivity and enthusiasm of the engaged employees leads to significant financial benefits. A 2005 study of 96 companies indicated that firms whose score was in the top 25% for engagement enjoyed ROAs 12% higher and profitability 11% higher than firms that scored in the bottom 25% on engagement.
For those who now wonder how to foster engagement, Schneider warns that building trust is an essential prerequisite. Your efforts are doomed to failure if your employees feel that all you want is more work for the same pay. On the other hand, if jobs are redesigned to demand and develop more skills, to challenge workers and provide meaningfulness, and if the effort is based on effective cooperation, teamwork and feedback, the initiative is indeed promising.
Getting the Ball Rolling
It is one thing to recognize that wellness is a sound business strategy; it is quite another to have a sound strategy to go about it! Michelle James, MBA of Intel and Fran Melmed, MEd of Context Communication Consulting joined forces to explain how to reach employees with our wellness efforts effectively.
Their advice? Don't try to make it a perfect pretty picture where everyone is expected to fit the same mold. These are real people we are working with. For smaller organizations, see where the employees truly stand, understand what influences the decisions they need to make, and provide support along the way. For larger businesses where individual attention is difficult, think of building multiple mechanisms so employees can experiment and find what works best for them. Newsletters, chat rooms on the intranet, webinars and podcasts are all ways to reach your employees, and help them find support within the organization.
Melmed also cited a recent meta-analysis of the literature on costs and savings associated with workplace wellness programs. The Harvard researchers leading this study found that medical costs fall by about $3.27 for every dollar spent on wellness programs and that absenteeism costs fall by about $2.73 per dollar invested. Equally interesting, employees in healthy workplaces miss on average 1.8 fewer days of work each year. If you have 100 employees, 1.8 fewer sick days per employee translates to 180 extra workdays per year, or the equivalent of 36 weeks of work! How many investments have given you that kind of return last year?
Good Place to Be!
The PHWPC Day 1 closed on a friendly reception where participants were able to mingle with the day’s speakers and other practitioners. I personally enjoyed meaningful conversations and collaboration opportunities. Corporate wellness is a good place to be in 2010 for people involved at all levels.
More reports from Day 2 of the conference in a few days…
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 8:46:31 PM
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Tuesday, October 27, 2009Simple Leadership Tip You Can Use Today
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar.
Are your employees eager to work for you most days of the week? Too few leaders can answer this question with a confident yes. Today’s a tip will help you be one of them.
Many of us envision the "ideal leader" as someone who is physically and mentally strong. Someone who gets things done. Someone who is both invigorated and invigorating, and preferably who succeeds equally well in their personal and professional lives.
When you think about it, that's the portrait of someone who knows how to capitalize on their strengths and who has the mindset of a winner. It implies enough self-respect to cultivate sensible sleep, food and exercise habits, and enough respect for others to give them the opportunity to do the same.
This ideal leader is the opposite of the overstretched, impatient and nothing-but-work mentality that is so typical. Yet, a lot of business people still think of the overstretched attitude as reflective of good business acumen. Revisiting this whole concept is long overdue.
A Leader’s Job Is to Make People the Best They Can Be
How employees perform determines to a large extent whether companies succeed. To produce and maintain first-class performance levels, employees need to be in good mental and physical health. For that reason, positively encouraging staff members to adopt healthy lifestyles is a sound leadership strategy.
And it works. In an address to the International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA), Barbara Fredrickson shared the results of a meditation research she led in a corporate setting. Commenting on her findings, she mentioned that compliance rates amongst participants were higher than ever anticipated. Curious, I asked what accounted for such high compliance rates. Her answer? Employees felt more inclined to stick with the program because it was available through work.
In other words, not only does a healthy workforce render better results, but due to the contractual nature of their relationship with employees, leaders are in a particularly good position to encourage their teams to achieve lifestyle changes.
Concrete Application You Can Use Today
Here’s
a simple yet effective leadership tip to integrate healthy
behaviors with business strategy. Start a new spreadsheet. On the
vertical axis, write down the names of your employees.
On the horizontal axis, write behaviors you want to
encourage consistently in your staff. For example,
you might want to give recognition more often or remind your team of a
timely priority (current promotion, specific deadline, etc). Other ideas may include expressing trust, or encouraging the use of one’s strengths. Also
as column headers, write healthy behaviors you want to encourage in your
employees (sleeping enough, turning blackberries off during meetings, making time for a nutritious lunch, etc.).
Then each time you encourage an activity for a specific employee, put a check mark in the corresponding box of your spreadsheet. Samantha seems more focused than usual today? Give her kudos, then keep track for yourself on the grid.
Over time, you may notice that you fail to reinforce certain key behaviors. Or you may be really good at giving recognition to certain employees, but not to others. Assuming everyone is deserving of appreciation, this reality check will help direct your attention towards your praise-deprived team members and make it up to them.
This technique will help you adjust your practices so they reinforce the behaviors you want to see, thus making your more of the leader you want to be. Equally important, it keeps you accountable for the behaviors you are encouraging in others, which will improve and enhance your relationships with your staff.
“The leader who exercises power with honor will work from the inside out, starting with himself.” – Blaine Lee
“Be the change you want to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi
Images:
Clock courtesy of Inno’vison
Happy employee courtesy of Edwin Dalorzo
References:
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Address at the International Positive Psychology Association World Congress.
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking Research Reveals How to Embrace the Hidden Strength of Positive Emotions, Overcome Negativity, and Thrive. New York: Crown.
Lee, B. (1998). The Power Principle: Influence with Honor. New York: Fireside.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar @ 5:21:15 PMTop
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Friday, September 25, 2009When Overworking Leads to Underperforming
596 words, 2 minutes reading time
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josée Salvas Shaar.
I was headed to a conference last week and I knew it would be a long drive, so I brought an audio tape. This time I listened to an older one, curious to see if business had changed. The author of the 1985 publication promises to deliver street smarts and to train listeners on “what they don’t teach you at Harvard business school.”
One of his recommendations in particular didn’t shock me because it is somewhat typical, but it really is shameful when considering its full and inadvertent consequences.
This executive declares, “I like it when I call the office at 10 at night and people pick up. I like it when I call on a Sunday afternoon and people are there. I like it when I come to the office on Monday morning and people know the results of sports team in distant parts of the world [his business is sports-related]. To me, this shows commitment.”
Counter-Productive Expectations
Employers still holding such expectations are in for a rude awakening. When individuals are encouraged to work virtually every waking moment, there is little opportunity for them to get a nutritious meal or enjoy a workout – two ingredients that can help boost productivity. No surprise our country is plagued by simultaneous epidemics in obesity, in physical inactivity, bringing along with them a long list of serious diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and atherosclerosis – to name just a few. The US Surgeon general declared that over 300,000 Americans die prematurely each year due to lack of physical activity and poor nutrition.
Being overworked also impedes the ability to get sufficient sleep. According to scientist William Dement, "sleep deprivation is now the most common brain impairment" Hence, when work impedes sleep, the unintended consequence is reduced performance.
Personal lives also suffer from work-life imbalance. Feeling depressed is now so common that the World Health Organization finds depression to be a leading cause of disability. Anti-depressants are now the most common drug prescription. Since we know that psychological well-being is a good predictor of productivity, lack of work-life balance is clearly counter-productive in the long-term.
For the CFOs and other “show me the money” readers, let’s take a look at the numbers. Right now in the US, health care costs are increasing faster than inflation, GDP or average organizational revenues.
Hiring more employees therefore weighs heavier on the wrong side of the
balance sheet and enterprises have a hard time growing as a result. As
if this weren’t enough, Dr. Ron Goetzel, Director of Cornell
University’s Institute for Health and Productivity Studies warns that presenteeism costs can outweigh an employer's medical costs – ever been on Facebook during work hours?
Downward Spiral
With increased costs and reduced productivity, employers are hard-pressed to increase performance, which seems to reinforce the need for long hours. Employees get blackberries so they can respond to email 24/7. Multi-tasking is now the name of the game, but it augments stress more than it does productivity. As anxiety increases, so do our depression rates, our waist lines and, our health care costs.
Now of course overworked employees are not solely responsible for these conditions, and clearly there are times where a little extra push is necessary. But overall, employers would be better served being part of the solution, not the problem.
Sustainable Success
For an organization to be successful and sustainable, contributors at all levels have to thrive long-term. To the extent that everyone’s contribution is necessary, everyone’s physical, emotional, mental and relational energy matters.
Good health is an intrinsic part of good performance. That’s what I’d like to see added to the curriculum of business schools.
Images:
Images are courtesy of Marie-Josée Salvas for one-time use with this article.
References:
Blair, S. (2009). Lecture presented at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Boyle, M.A. & Long, S. (2007). Personal Nutrition, Sixth Edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.
Dement, W. (2000). The
Promise of Sleep: A Pioneer in Sleep Medicine Explores the Vital
Connection Between Health, Happiness, and a Good Night’s Sleep . New York: Random House.
Quote above from p. 231.
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R. Denney, P.J. & Moline, G.L. (2002).
When a Happy Worker is a Productive Worker: A Preliminary Examination
of Three Models. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas @ 3:33:44 PM
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Tuesday, August 25, 2009Training Wheels for Compulsive Multi-Taskers
769 words, 3.5 minutes reading time.
We all know one. Someone whom you are sure to find busy on two phone lines and on email simultaneously whenever you walk into his office. His desk is full of paperwork through which he scrambles furiously when he needs information he can’t remember, which is often since he’s so busy multi-tasking that he may not be able to register much. In case he ever gets bored, a muted flat screen shows the news right in front of his desk, which he checks quickly as he greets you. His typical answer after you’ve announced the reason for your visit is “I’m sorry, I didn’t quite get that. Can you say it one more time for me?”
Exercise Wheel
I’d like to suggest a reality check for such compulsive
multi-taskers. Since the brain can only actively process one source of
information at a time, and 
since switching from one activity to another requires a brief second (sometimes two!), researchers have shown that going back and forth between multiple tasks actually increases the total time needed to perform them.
Equally significant, constant shifting makes no room for real engagement. The compulsive multi-tasker’s main drive is the desire to finish one thing to get on to the next – much like a hamster on an exercise wheel, minus the health benefits. The more we practice this type of mental racing, the better we get at it, and the more difficult continuous focus becomes. Lack of engagement also makes no room for work satisfaction and may drain out energy early in the day.
To top it all off, a compulsive multi-tasker’s brain is like a stress hormone manufacture. With no room for compensating interludes of peacefulness, the steady supply of cortisol and adrenaline can make multi-taskers hyperactive, impatient, irritable and, insensitive to others. Not a pretty picture.
Training Wheels
What if you agree with the disadvantages of multi-tasking, but aren’t sure how to stop. Before the vacation season ends and the rhythm of work accelerates again, perhaps you’ve chosen a good time for a healthy dose of balance and focus. Here are some quick tips – training wheels – for how to start battling compulsive multi-tasking:
1. Address the issue. A lot of multi-taskers think their busyness testifies of how important and successful they are, and they don’t consider it can also signal poor task and energy management skills. Have the present article circulate at your office. People know when a label resonates with them. If you’re asking yourself whether you are compulsive at this, the question itself is a good hint.
2. Remember the benefits of taking breaks. Far from a luxury you can’t afford, breaks help recharge your energies, keep those stress hormones under control, and improve your mood and productivity upon your return.
3. Take a Deep Breath.
The body’s natural response to stress is to contract your muscles, a
reaction that impedes the full expansion of your lungs. Less oxygen
circulating to your brain diminishes your ability to think effectively,
be poised and productive. By voluntarily taking a few deep breaths, you
can replenish your oxygen supply and get back in control.
4. Initiate walk and talk meetings. Walking not only activates your blood flow and breathing, but it also facilitates the production of dopamine and serotonin, the feel-good hormones that fight the negative effects of stress.
5. Practice mindfulness. Let me quote my colleague and PPND author Kirsten Cronlund on this: “mindfulness… enables the practitioner to choose carefully from many possible emotional, intellectual, and circumstantial inputs, to act wisely, and not be ruled by the less adaptive immediate responses that are often triggered during times of stress.”
6. Savor Accomplishments. We are constantly bombarded with new information to process, projects to tackle and clients to call. As a result, we race to the next thing and don’t take the time to experience the satisfaction of closure. To generate a more natural rhythm, initiate a ritual for celebrating accomplishments – it can be the end of each contract, campaign, deadline, even the end of each month. Recognize the importance of periodically looking back to see how much you’ve accomplished.
In New York Times Bestseller The Power of Full Engagement, authors Loehr and Schwartz write: “It is in the spaces between work that love, friendship, depth and dimension are nurtured. Without time for recovery, our lives become a blur of doing unbalanced by much opportunity for being.”
If you are anything like me, you’ll agree that friendship, depth, and dimension are all important characteristics to look for in business partners. Restless, unfocused, and irritable characters, not so much.
Images:
Rights to the pictures were purchased by the author on istockphoto.com for the sole purposes of this article.
References:
Loehr, J. & Schwartz, T. (2003). The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal. New York: Free Press.
Quote from above, p. 34.
Ratey, J. (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Posted By: Marie-Josée Salvas @ 4:22:26 PMTop
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009Work as a Love Affair
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar.
Love is a universally good thing, right? It is uplifting and empowering. It makes the impossible possible. It creates harmony.
So why is it that we are so fearful to talk about love at the office? As if, when we conjugate the verb between gray walls and busy cubicles, love is suddenly something inappropriate, counter-productive, even foolish.
Let’s explore love at the office as a good thing for a minute, and before you lift your brow, no, I’m not talking about having a love affair at the office. I am rather suggesting that those who experience care and companionship in their work environment have a sustainable, competitive advantage over those who don’t. (See Using the “L” Word in Business).
Here are four reasons that caring at work could lead to a competitive advantage:
1) Love inspires devotion. For workers to fully commit and devote themselves to the company they work for, they have to love it. Since people get attached to organizations through human bonds, “affective bonds go a long way to secure employee satisfaction and efficiency,” explain Isaac and Ora Prilleltensky (2006) from University of Miami. Employees who are recognized at work report more loyalty and commitment to their organizations than those whose contributions go unnoticed.
2) Good relationships enhance win-win scenarios. Barbara Fredrickson (2005) demonstrated that positive emotions are fertile ground for learning and problem-solving. Laura King and colleagues (2006) also found in a series of studies that positive emotions experienced in a day are a strong and consistent predictor of meaning experienced that day. Martin Seligman (2002) argues that meaning increases resilience and facilitates win-win situations. Good relationships at work, therefore, can enhance both problem-solving and win-win solutions, two strategies that can certainly benefit the workplace.
3) Supportive work environments are a source of productivity. Feeling valued and supported helps individuals cope with stress, which is abundant in the workplace. People who have effective coping abilities also miss fewer days of work. There seem to be a relationship between caring co-workers, lower absenteeism, and higher productivity. In their research, Drs. Prilleltensky show that supportive environments are strong predictors of worker well-being, which in turn correlates with higher productivity. (For more info on this, please see my previous article Measuring What Matters.)
4) Friendship at work can boost organizational performance.
Gallup interviewed over 10 million employees and found that those who agree with the statement “My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person” are more productive, contribute to higher profits, and are significantly more likely to stay with the organization long-term. Those who report having not only a friend, but a best friend at work, are 7 times as likely to be fully engaged on the job as those who don’t. In addition to experiencing higher personal engagement, they also foster heightened customer engagement with the brand they represent.
For those of you who are tough-minded devil’s advocates, I’d like to clarify an important point. Friendliness isn’t goofiness, nor is it complacency. We can be focused, thoughtful and friendly at the same time. The opposite of friendliness, on the other hand – behaviors that are cold, shallow, intolerant – leads to distancing, defensiveness, and cognitive dissonance. This type of climate undermines a person’s ability to think outside of the box and motivation to contribute. It can lead to active disengagement, burnout, and even sabotage.
Lee Colan, PhD and author of Passionate Performance, said it right: “When people go to work, they don’t leave their hearts at home.” Most will agree that love is one of the most powerful human motivations. Why not use it productively in the context that occupies most of our waking hours?
Looking forward to reading your thoughts!
Sources:
Colan, L.J. (2004). Passionate Performance. Dallas, TX: CornerStone Leadership Institute.
Fredrickson, B.L. & Losada, M.F. (2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60(7), 678-686.
King, L. A., Hicks, J. A., Krull, J. L., & Del Gaiso, A. K. (2006). Positive affect and the experience of meaning in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90(1), 179-196.
Prilleltensky, I. & Prilleltensky, O. (2006). Promoting Well-Being: Linking Personal, Organizational, and Community Change. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Rath, T. & Conchie, B. (2009). Strengths-Based Leadership. New York: Gallup Press.
Sagiv, L. Roccas, S. & Hazan, O. (2004). Value pathways to well-being: healthy values, valued goal attainment, and environmental congruence. In Linley, P. A. & Joseph, S. (Eds.). Positive Psychology in Practice. (pp. 68-85). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Seligman, Martin (2004), Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment. New York: Free Press.
Images
Heart and Work Colleagues are images whose rights were acquired by the author for this article.
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Friday, January 23, 2009Leaders of the Future
This article is © 2009 PositivePsychologyNews.com - Marie-Josee Salvas Shaar.
Think about the leaders you’ve followed in the past:
- Which one has had the most positive influence in your life?
- What three words best describe what this person contributes to your life?
Understanding true leadership can be quite mind-boggling. In a recent study bringing more clarity on this complex topic, Gallup interviewed over 10,000 people and asked them the two questions you’ve just answered.
I’ll share the results of their study in a moment, but first, let’s look at how the modern world has evolved in the past couple decades. Before we can understand what makes a good leader great, we must understand the followers’ perspective.
Left Brain
The modern era has been largely shaped by left-brain thinking. The left brain is mainly a logical and rational thinker. It’s the one who loves to know the facts and analyze the stats. It is comfortable with if-then reasoning and step-by step processes. It sees the world through binary lenses – things are either black or white, on or off, adequate or not.
This thinking style has led to large progress in our businesses and economy. From cost-reducing procedures to time-saving strategies, left-brain thinking has brought us material abundance.
With abundance comes choice and consumers are no longer happy with functionality alone. We now want a value-added experience. For example, if you can choose between any bland-looking toothpaste tube versus one that may be thirty cents more expensive, but that comes in an attractive package, that fights tartar, plaque and gingivitis, that is doctor-recommended and that promises to whiten your teeth and give you a fresher breath when you wake up in the morning, which one would you pick?
So left brain thinking has brought us abundance, and with it, we are looking for beauty, emotion, meaning, quality of life. In other words, we want the right-brain stuff.
Right Brain
The right brain is the creative part of us. This one sees the forest rather than the trees. It loves art and understands human emotions. It is intuitive. It pursues connection and higher values. Once discredited as overly touchy-feely, it is now in high demand.
Daniel Pink, influential author of bestseller A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, predicts right-brain skills to be the driving force shaping our future economy. As consumer demand changes, supply adapts, which further reinforces change in demand and so on. To keep up with all the change, job descriptions are evolving too.
Let’s go back to the toothpaste example. Some job analysts say that workers involved with the research, production, packaging, and marketing of the branded toothpaste have more creative assignments than workers involved with the generic brand. Since most consumers are more sensitive to all the added benefits of the second branded option than they are to the thirty cents increase in price, over time demand for the cheaper brand will decline, and its producers will have to adapt to the new market conditions – and recruit more creative employees.
Workers of the new economy are no longer those who can manipulate massive quantities of information. This job is increasingly delegated to computers. For proof, raise your hand if you plan to use TurboTax or any other software to file your 2008 declaration. See? Rather, the skills of the future are those that come from the right side of the brain.
Leadership
We have come a long way since Ford’s all black Model T, and the consequences are not only felt in manufacturing plants, but more importantly on the job market. The Federal Reserve Bank in Dallas examined employment trends for the last decade and found that the fastest growing job categories are those that require people skills and emotional intelligence.
So change is coming. To be successful, business leaders need to nurture the right-brain abilities of their staff. It seems that those who can move away from the purely factual leadership style that characterized the information age will flourish and lead the future. Just as it seems that those who hold-on tight to the Model T philosophy won’t.
It is now time to reveal the results of Gallup’s study. The over 10,000 surveyed employees came up with a clear answer. The most influential leaders of their lives were those who built trust, stability, compassion, and hope. They were the right-brain oriented ones.
Images:
Leadership, functional toothpaste, value-added toothpaste, nurturing the right brain.
Sources:
Pink, D.H. (2005). A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. NY: Riverhead Books.
Gallup Inc. & The Gallup Poll (2008). Why People Follow. Washington, DC: Gallup Press.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008Measuring What Matters
Have you ever noticed that individuals are more innovative, energetic, stimulating, and engaging than most corporations? That is because the systems in place at most companies are not conducive to developing human potential
.
Let’s take a closer look at one such system: companies spend considerable amounts of money surveying their employees through some unbiased third-party services to find out about job satisfaction. Yet, this may not be the best measurement to use. To date, only weak evidence relates job satisfaction to work productivity while much stronger evidence shows a positive correlation between psychological well-being and work performance. To cite a few:
- In a two-year longitudinal study published in the Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science in July 2002, it was found that while there was no clear correlation between job satisfaction and productivity, psychological well-being did predict job performance.
- Ed Diener’s research shows that workers who report higher psychological well-being also get higher performance reviews.
- Empirical studies conducted by Martin Seligmanet al show that using our signature strengths increases psychological well-being. Further studies conducted at Gallupalso demonstrate that using our strengths at work increases engagement and results, thus positively correlating the two. As Marcus Buckinghamputs it, “our strengths are what Mother Nature gave us to make us competitive and successful.”
- In an article titled Toughness published in the Handbook of Positive Psychology,authors Richard Dienstbier and Lisa Pytlik Zilling explain that toughening interventions – such as aerobic exercise – improve the central nervous system’s resistance to depletion under stress. Toughness corresponds positively to performance in challenging tasks, enhanced learning abilities, and positive physical and psychological health – so performance and psychological health are again related.
- Earlier this week, during an International Positive Psychology Association (IPPA) conference call, Dr. Ruut Veenhovencited reliable experimental evidence that happiness activates people and makes them more creative and independent. Whether these advantages translate into work results depends on whether employees use creativity and independence to benefit their boss or not. In other words, a good employer is more likely to stimulate a productive staff member.
For employees to meet today’s performance challenges, they must be treated as human beings; not just as workers. I am not suggesting here that staff members should be pampered everyday of the week, but I am suggesting that managers need to cultivate stamina – that includes appropriate concern for employees’ minds, bodies, and emotions.
This is not fluffy stuff. This is The Future of Management, and the direction about 75% of the largest US companies have already headed. So ask yourself: is your company fit for developing human potential? Maybe it’s time to let go of the narrow job satisfaction approach and integrate psychological well-being measurements in your enterprise.
Images: employee survey, cyclist racing, performance review
References:
Breen, B. & Hamel, G. (2007). The Future of Management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Buckingham, M (2007). Go Put Your Strengths to Work. NY: Free Press
Diener, E. (2008). Conference call for the International Positive Psychology Association.
Dienstbier, R. & Pytlik Zillig, L.M. (2005). Toughness. In Snyder, C. R., & Lopez, S. J. (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 515-527). New York: Oxford University Press.
Rath, T. (2007). Strengths Finder 2.0. NY: Gallup Press.
Seligman, M.E.P., Steen, T., Park, N. & Peterson, C. (2005). Positive Psychology Progress. Empirical Validation of Interventions. American Psychologist, 60, 5, 410–421.
Veenhoven, R. (2008). Conference call for the International Positive Psychology Association.
Wright, T.A., Cropanzano, R. Denney, P.J. & Moline, G.L. (2002). When a Happy Worker is a Productive Worker: A Preliminary Examination of Three Models. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science
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Thursday, August 14, 2008Manage Your Team's Energy, Not Just the Work
Germs and colds aren’t the only things we spread in the workplace. Our emotions, both positive and negative, are just as contagious. Have you ever walked into a meeting and felt so much tension that you became tense, too? Conversely, have you ever walked into someone’s office and felt so much openness that you started to feel more open and welcoming as well? This spreading of emotions from one person to the next is what psychologists call Social Contagion Theory. Here’s how it works.
Human beings are hard-wired to mimic the facial expressions and moods of those we come in contact with. Sigal Barsade, associate management professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, claims we can unconsciously “catch” both good and bad moods. And you can “catch” these emotions in a matter of milliseconds according to Elaine Hatfield, psychology professor at the University of Hawaii and co-author of Emotional Contagion.
Researchers at Uppsala Universityin Sweden showed people pictures of both happy and angry faces for a fraction of a second and observed how people reacted. When participants looked at pictures of happy faces, their own facial expressions mirrored the picture – they responded with a smile. Similarly when participants viewed pictures of angry faces, they responded with a frown.
According to Hatfield, incremental muscle movements, like the smile or the frown, actually trigger the brain to feel that emotion. For example, when we feel happy our brain sends us a message: smile. But it works the other way, too. When we see someone else smile our brain sends us another message: smile. This very act of smiling sends another message to our brain, telling us to feel happy. So maybe our mothers were really on to something when they told us to quit mopping around and “put on a happy face.”
So what does this have to do with managing your team’s energy? Your own emotions have more influence over your team’s energy level and subsequent productivity than perhaps you realize.
Carlos arrives at the office at 7:45 sharp every day. Two of his employees, Rachel and Mike, like to get in around 7:00 so they can grab a cup of coffee, catch up on emails, and get ready for the day ahead. Every morning they look up from their desks as Carlos walks in. Rachel and Mike have an inside joke:
“We can tell what kind of day it’s going to be around here by Carlos’ morning expression. If he smiles and says ‘good morning’ we know it’s going to be a good day, and we can get on with our work. If his head is down and doesn’t even acknowledge us, we know it’s going to be a bad day and we better be ready to jump at a moment’s notice. When our teammates arrive around 8:00, they stop by our desks and ask, ‘So what kind of day is it going to be?’ and they’re not talking about the weather.”
Researchers at the University of Michiganfound that when business leaders were in a good mood, their team members experienced more positive and fewer negative moods. Additionally, if the boss is in a good mood, the team finds it much easier to accomplish their tasks. Remember if you manage or lead others, your moods are even more contagious! Think of it this way: a manager’s negative moods are like spreading a cold, maybe even a flu, in the office. Do you really want people at work feeling lousy and having declining productivity? Or do you want to pay attention to your non-verbal behavior, and be aware of how people “catch” your emotions?
Images: germs, faces smiling, angry, smiling.
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