The Happiness Advantage Part 1: The Positive Psychology on Productivity
When you look out among your staff and find someone smiling, do you think, “Wow, I’ve got a happy staff!” or do you think, “Clearly they do not have anything to do if they have time to smile!” Researcher and Positive Psychologist expert, Shawn Achor, has found that businesses are overlooking what he has coined “The Happiness Advantage”.
The current mindset of being able to predict productivity among our staff is by calculating work experience, technical skill, and intelligence (based on one’s academic experience.) Unfortunately, only 25% of job success can be determined based on these predictors. Achor says that the mindset has to flip. Chasing after happiness—once I get this promotion I’ll be happy; after I finish my project I’ll be happy; once that person leaves I’ll be productive, if I work harder I’ll be more successful..!” is putting the cart before the horse. The formula needs to read that happiness is what leads to success. By virtue of how our brain functions when we achieve a goal our brain responds, “Next!” so happiness is never achieved. If we change our formula for happiness by changing our mindset about success, you find that happiness spreads, cascading to other people and in turn changing the social norm. We recognize that a negative attitude in a department spreads like wildfire—the same applies to having a positive attitude.
But first, how does Dr. Achor define happiness? It’s not mere pleasure, like the feeling one gets after reading a great book, but is more about “the joy you feel as you are growing into your full potential”. As a manager that is part of our job to help our employees do just that—maximize their full potential. Researchers of Positive Psychology are finding that happiness DOES make for a better work environment, indicating that 75% of your success will be based upon:
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Changing the way stress is viewed, no longer as a threat but as a challenge, -
Raising levels of optimism, and -
Investing/deepening social support connections
So how can managers capitalize on the Happiness Advantage? Come back next month to find out! In the meantime, Dr. Shawn Achor has numerous videos that talk about how we can change our habits so that we can take advantage of The Happiness Advantage! Also, look for our Happiness Advantage training coming in the fall!
Recommended Workshops and Reading Materials
Fall 2015 – HR Training & Development will begin offering Happiness Advantage workshops. If you would like more information about this workshop, contact Maria Fischer-Boothe.
Reading Materials
The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work by Shawn Achor
Our most commonly held formula for success is broken. Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we’ll be happy. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn’t just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work.
A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn’t only about how to become happier at work. It’s about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.
Before Happiness: The 5 Hidden Keys to Achieving Success, Spreading Happiness, and Sustaining Positive Change by Shawn Achor
Why are some people able to make positive change while others remain the same?
In his international bestseller, The Happiness Advantage, Harvard trained researcher Shawn Achor described why happiness is the precursor to greater success. This book is about what comes before both. Because before we can be happy or successful, we need to first develop the ability to see that positive change is possible. Only once we learn to see the world through a more positive lens can we summon all our motivation, emotion, and intelligence to achieve our personal and professional goals.
In Before Happiness, Achor reveals five actionable, proven strategies for changing our lens to positive:
· The Most Valuable Reality: See a broader range of ideas and solutions by changing the details on which your brain chooses to focus
· Success Mapping: Set goals oriented around the things in life that matter to you most, whether career advancement or family or making a difference in the world
· The X-spot: Use success accelerants to propel you more quickly towards those goals, whether finishing a marathon, reaching a sales target, learning a language, or losing 10 pounds
· Noise-Canceling: Boost the signal pointing you to opportunities and possibilities that others miss
· Positive Inception: Transfer these skills to your team, your employees, and everyone around you
By mastering these strategies, you’ll create an renewable source of positivity, motivation, and engagement that will allow you to reach your fullest potential in everything you do.