Summary: Paying attention to positive emotions can reduce the impact of stressful situations.

You might not believe paying attention to emotions has much to do with work, but some research studies have shown negative work cultures can impact the functioning and health of families connected to employees. In other words, workers take the stress and negativity they absorb in the office home to their relationships and families.

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, the effect was described: ”A growing body of research confirms that the stress employees experience at work crosses over to and impairs the functioning and well-being of family members, even impacting children’s performance in school.  This chain may unfold as follows: a manager who believes that the best way to manage employees is to “keep them on their toes” habitually makes unreasonable demands, confronts employees publicly, provides little positive feedback, and withholds information. These behaviors cause stress in the employees who are subject to them. When they come home from work at night, the employees are more likely to display anger and impatience. Their spouses’ stress levels rise and marital quality declines.’

The author, Monique Valcour, goes on to say the stress, anger or frustration felt by an adult from her or his job can even impact children, because they don’t experience safety in their own family and so they might choose to stay away from that parent or both parents. Then there would be less closeness in the family and probably poorer communication.

We have choices available to us that can create similar ripple effects – but for good – by focusing on positive emotions, according to positive psychology. Psychologist and researcher Barbara Frederickson has created the broaden and build theory to describe how focusing on positive emotions can make us happier and build our skills for being happier and healthier. The idea is that when we put our attention on them, they can be expanded and reinforced.

So if we are experiencing emotional turbulence, stress or some sense of instability and it is influencing our relationships with co-workers, family and friends negatively, one potential consideration is to put the focus on these positive emotions. Even during the most difficult times there exists the same potential to experience these emotions, though our thoughts may indicate there is no such chance. For example, serenity does not have to come from isolating one’s self from stress, but working with your self by meditating, getting enough sleep, reducing caffeine, exercising, staying socially connected and similar things in order to experience it in the midst of chaos.

The 10 Common Positive Emotions are:

1. Love

2. Serenity

3. Forgiveness

4. Awe

5. Joy

6. Interest

7. Hope

8. Pride

9. Amusement

10. Inspiration

Psychologist Barbara Fredrickson explains how the mind can be trained to grow in helpful ways.

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Summary: Teaching can be a happy profession because it generally is about helping others and is socially well-connected.

Researchers in Britain interviewed 2,000 employees from a range of fields and found that it was the teachers who reported the most happiness with their work. It was making a difference and contributing something positive to society that were tied to their happiness, rather than a singular focus on money. (Almost 300 teachers were included in the study.) The two main struggles associated with teaching were a dearth of perks and the difficulty in career advancement.

In the study, money also took a back seat to employee benefits and how much progress an employee can experience in her or his career growth. About one third of the research subjects said they felt it was being able to make a difference that made them happy. (Recently a different study, this one in America, noted that helping others without any guarantee of being compensated might be one of the greatest untapped sources of motivation.)

A little less than a quarter said it was being able to communicate with others that was tied to their happiness. (Social connectedness has been confirmed by research to be an integral part of human happiness.) Relationships with colleagues was not surprisingly one of the top rated aspects of work happiness in the survey. Another was their holiday allowance. About 35% said an easy commute was important and nearly the same percentage said it was being able to manage their own work load that was a key component. (This is another area where some related research has identified the same scenario, though the terms usually generally are control and autonomy.)

The ten happiest professions in Britain according to the survey were:

Teacher
Secretary
Engineer
Accountant
Driver
Shop Assistant
Caterer
Tradesman
Lawyer/solicitor
Customer care/ Call Center

It would have been engaging if the study results had noted the differences in happiness levels between the professions. Would a call center employee have one quarter of the teacher’s happiness? In the British survey, lawyers were ranked as 9th happiest, but in America lawyers have a relatively high rate of depression.

The post Happiest Workers in Britain are Teachers appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

Image Credit: Victorgrigas

Summary: When work is connected to an altruistic purpose, people may be become highly motivated.

There’s a very interesting article on the Harvard Business Review site (one of many) that describes a beneficial relationship between the happiest people and the most difficult challenges. (This notion is hard to resist, and it may be entirely accurate.) Reforming inner city schools, ending homelessness making drinking water safe – these daunting problems are presented as some of the huge challenges that the most engaged people are trying to address.

The article is by Rosabeth Moss Kanter. In it she says, ‘In research for my book Evolve!, I identified three primary sources of motivation in high-innovation companies: mastery, membership, and meaning. Another M, money, turned out to be a distant fourth. Money acted as a scorecard, but it did not get people up-and-at ‘em for the daily work, nor did it help people go home every day with a feeling of fulfillment. ‘

Of course, the point she is making about money not being the top motivator for the most engaged workers is well made. There’s another word that may apply in relation to the happiest workers – purpose. So is it the most difficult challenges or societal problems that are connected to the happiest people, or is it more that they identified a purpose they focus upon?

Recently we heard about Adam Grant’s research at the Wharton School of Business into prosocial behavior – essentially helping other people without having to be rewarded – and how it is potentially a very large source of untapped motivation.

Helping people can take many forms, such as the examples of ending  homelessness and reforming troubled schools. However, the underlying intention is simply helping others, and this altruistic activity could be defined as purpose. In the context of helping, purpose is generally described as being an activity and intention to do good in the world – including doing good works on a larger scale. (For example, some non-profits are trying to raise awareness about the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change.)

In his book Drive Daniel Pink wrote that purpose is the third aspect of our most productive motivation – the other two being autonomy and mastery. ‘Autonomous people working toward mastery perform at very high levels. But those who do so in the service of some greater objective can achieve even more.’ (Page 131)

The post The Happiest People Focus on Difficult Challenges appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

by Javier Munoz

Research by Wilhelm Hofmann, Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago, concluded that we spend 25% of the time resisting temptations, and we only succeed 50% of the time. The other 50% of the time, we succumb to the tempting pleasures of chocolate or to the lure of television or social media sites. Modern life brings a sea of distractions that we are constantly trying to resist. Your ability to resist them hinges on how you use your will power to exercise self-control. When psychologists isolate the qualities that more accurately predict your success in life, they consistently find that intelligence and self-control are the main ones. Since Roy Baumeister, co-author of Willpower, conducted experiments that uncovered the real existence of will power, it has been found that cultivating it is certainly an effective way to improve your well-being and prosperity.

In the book Willpower, Baumeister and Tierney mention that most social problems, addictions, violence, depression, anxiety, compulsive behaviors, or poor school or job performance lie in a factor: Lack of self-control. Baumeister determined that lack of self-control is correlated directly with the majority of our traumas: Layoffs, divorce, legal problems, or family conflicts. It is not surprising that the least cited quality by those interviewed in these experiments was self-control, in fact, out of a list of 24 qualities, self-control was the top pick as lacking.

In a well-known research study conducted in 1972 regarding children´s ability to manage immediate gratification, a group of four year old children were presented with one mash-mellow and the option of getting a second one if they resisted the temptation to eat it while waiting alone in a room for 15 minutes. If a child resisted the temptation to eat the first marshmallow, she could have both. Walter Mischel, the researcher who conducted this experiment returned years later to find that children who had resisted the temptation during those long 15 minutes now had significantly more successful lives than those who could not resist.

Similarly, it has been found that employees with greater self-control are highly regarded by their peers and superiors. In fact, such people seem to have a remarkable capacity to nurture healthy constructive relationships with their colleagues. They also have a keen ability to empathize and consider multiple perspectives. Your ability to establish strong connections with other people leads to greater emotional stability with a lower incidence of depression, anxiety, paranoia, conflicts, or other behavioral disorders. Self-control is related to your ability to endure and tolerate differences that may arise, and to calmly visualize the best solution. Over time, control of your impulses allows consistent and predictable behaviors that build trust, and a strong bond between team members.

Your will power and the ability for self-control has a direct impact on the four elements of our Happiness Framework. As such, it is certainly a key fundamental quality to improve our lives.

What actions demonstrate or encourage self-control in your life?

About Javier

In 1995, Javier started his first company, a Web design firm in Miami mostly focusing on providing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. To do his job, he found himself asking questions about the founders, about their purpose, vision, values, products and services. In many occasions, he realized the answers to these questions were not clear. So, he found himself coaching customers on how to clearly define the fundamental aspects of their business. He did it even as he realized it was not supposed to be part the job. However, he enjoyed it tremendously! From these humble beginnings, Javier has built a career out of following his passion… helping people, and building tools to simplify their processes and create greater happiness at work.  You can follow Javier on Twitter @justaction!

The post The Will Power of Happiness appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

Image Credit: Shinjiro, Wiki Commons

Summary: Eating lunch outdoors increased worker happiness in a research study.

Key Take Aways

- Getting away from one’s work desk at mid day can be a very effective mood booster.
- Staying at one’s desk during lunch can decrease happiness.

Scientists at the  University of Sussex evaluated happiness levels while various workers ate lunch at several different locations. Word association tests and self-evaluation questionnaires were used to measure happiness and assign scores for each site.

Some of the results were not the least bit surprising. Workers who ate lunch at a beach had the highest happiness increases.  The outdoor locations with the next highest happiness scores (in descending order)  were a public green space, a restaurant, home with family and public transport. People who stayed in and ate at their desks experienced a slight decrease in happiness.

As mentioned, eating at one’s work desk decreased happiness slightly, but it also made the worker’s experience a decrease in happiness associated with their work. So, it might be a good policy to allow employees to eat outdoors on their lunch breaks if they are not, and to encourage them not to eat at their desks.

It isn’t surprising that getting outside the office and walking or eating can boost one’s mood. Research has shown running in a natural setting, with green plants can also be a mood booster. ‘There is evidence that exposure to natural environments improves our quality of life; for instance, jogging in a park is more effective than urban jogging for lowering anxiety and depression. In a workplace, this could translate to the presence of plants, and studies have shown that their presence can improve concentration and remove stress.’ (Source: The British Psychological Society, via Inc.com)

Regular exposure of the skin to sunlight helps generate Vitamin D, which has been thought to be connected to both physical and mental well being for some time. (Caution must also be exercised with sunlight because overexposure is associated with skin cancer and macular degeneration.)

Another thing that could help with happiness is what you eat. Some months ago, a different study found that peak mental well-being was associated with eating seven servings of fresh fruits and vegetables each day.

The post Happiness Increased by Lunching Outside the Office appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

by Javier Munoz

A week ago I published a post regarding the Sharing Economy and its relationship with happiness where we identified how the current trend towards social collaboration in western economies was aligned with recent findings about happiness in positive psychology research. For example, we found reports stating that people that met frequently to share and collaborate reported higher levels of happiness.

As we go deeper into this subject, we find that one of the key factors that enables sharing of goods and services among total strangers is TRUST. As society grows more skeptical of large institutions, we may start to rely more heavily on developing closer one-on-one relationships. It is a sort of reconciliation with the idea of creating real tribal like communities as a new model for modern collaboration bringing back what was usual centuries ago.

Thus, we find that companies will thrive in the future if they continue to strengthen TRUST as a value. When we advise successful companies in the subject of corporate culture and happiness at work, we realize that they list TRUST as a key value in their organization. Conversely, one of the most prevalent issues we find in dysfunctional cultures is lack of trust.

If we look at our Happiness Framework, we see that one of the key factors driving happiness at work is connectedness between employees. This entails more than just creating a nice work atmosphere with parties and team building off-site exercises. It also has to do with the intrinsic factors that make for strong relationships where one of the fundamental pillars is building TRUST.

Robert F. Hurley, professor of Management of the University of Fordham in New York, mentions, in a Harvard Business Review article, that when conducting surveys in his seminars about corporate trust, he asks participants in low trust work environments to describe their experience. The most frequent answers included: Stressful, threatening, divisive, unproductive, and tense. Conversely, when he asked the same question in high trust environments the answers were quite different: Participants experienced a supportive, productive, and fun work environment that was highly motivating. Corporate cultures that motivate trust are indeed the most collaborative.

About Javier

In 1995, Javier started his first company, a Web design firm in Miami mostly focusing on providing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. To do his job, he found himself asking questions about the founders, about their purpose, vision, values, products and services. In many occasions, he realized the answers to these questions were not clear. So, he found himself coaching customers on how to clearly define the fundamental aspects of their business. He did it even as he realized it was not supposed to be part the job. However, he enjoyed it tremendously! From these humble beginnings, Javier has built a career out of following his passion… helping people, and building tools to simplify their processes and create greater happiness at work.  You can follow Javier on Twitter @justaction!

The post Social Collaboration and the Sharing Economy appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

Image Credit: Say Cheese/Public Domain

Summary: The current ways of doing business may be nothing more than old habits that didn’t work particularly well in the first place.

This is hard to believe, but apparently a technology company called NextJump has a policy that does not allow firing their employees. (NextJump manages employee rewards programs for scores of Fortune 1,000 companies and they say they have at least 100 million users.) Their no-fire policy is in alignment with their goals to make the world a better place for their customers and their own employees.

So, what do they do with employees who are not performing well? They try to help them do better, or assist them to find a different job. The people who don’t fit well choose to leave.

The impact of implementing the no-fire policy was dramatic: the percentage of employees who said they love their jobs went to 90 from 20, and employee turnover went from 40% to 0.

Another positive development was that employees opened up in evaluation discussions like annual reviews, because they no longer could be fired, so they didn’t perceive evaluations as a potential threat to their employment. The more open discussions allow better dialogue about problems employees are having and how the company could help address them.

NextJump CEO Charlie Kim revealed these benefits and insights in a recent interview. His company takes employee culture very seriously. In fact, they reportedly will pay for half of an employee’s vacation. More importantly, they focus strongly on mentoring employees to help them improve, through coaching and peer communication.

Some of these employee benefits might sound radical, but probably only because standard business practices have been in place so long it appears to be very odd to change them. The fact they have existed unchallenged for decades does not mean they were ever the best ways of working with employees. They simply have become deeply engrained habits.

Zappos pays unhappy employees to quit their jobs, because they can damage company culture enough and drag down productivity far more than the cost of paying them to leave. Tony Hsieh has said bad hires have cost Zappos $100 million.

The post A Company that Fires No One appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

by Alex Jekowsky

Summary: 

How can we still find happiness after striking out on life’s curve balls? What can we control?

Key Take Aways:

Ask yourself what elements of your life you can and cannot control.

• Physical limitations?
• Work Life?
• Work Environment?
• Health?
• Mental State?
• Relationships?

Q: How can you become the CHO of your life, your company?

A: What in the world is a CHO? It is not a financial, economic, or operating officer, no, it is much more important. You need to become your own Chief Happiness Officer of your life. There are no Ivy league degrees, application, standardized testing or, and no prerequisite necessary, all you need is to make a simple choice every day, to be happy.As CEO of Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh believes a happy culture at work makes more than happy employees. As CHO of your life, YOU NEED to believe that a happy culture will make your work more successful and your life more content.

Being happy is easier said than done however. It is truly difficult to be happy when going through a maze misfortune. For me it is a potentially career ending injury to my throwing arm for baseball. Trust me I know, I am stuck in this maze. For 15 years I have been playing to hope that one day I will make it to the Big Leagues and now that dream is vanishing. Recently I realized that I cannot control my shoulder. I cannot control my injury. But, I can control how I react to it with the thinking that when one door closes another door opens.

My favorite Jewish storyteller, Joel Ben Izzy says that, “What seems like a curse may be a blessing and what seems like a blessing may be a curse.” No matter what happens in life, realize that there is more, continue on and be a successful CHO in your life.

*Term CHO was coined by Tony Hsieh

About Alex

Alex Jekowsky is a high school senior and avid baseball player. After years of struggling with not meeting his potential, he had an “aha” moment and has changed his life to follow his passion and find happiness. He  is currently a shortstop on the Under Armour National Baseball Team. You can read more about Alex on his personal page: http://payoffpitch.org/payoffpitch/Batters_Box.html, or at his blog: http://www.imindstrong.tumblr.com/.

The post Happiness on the Field of Life appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

Image Credit: Diego Grez, Wiki Commons

Summary: Social interaction and relaxation were the biggest parts of the perfect happy day for a number of people surveyed in a study.

A research study conducted by Christian Kroll of  Jacobs University in Germany and Sebastian Pokutta of Georgia Tech found that a group of people surveyed indicated in order to experience a maximum of happiness in a day it would be necessary to work  and commute less. They surveyed people about the typical activities in their daily routines and asked them to indicate how much time they would envision spent on each one. (Unusual activities such as sky-diving were not included).

The results were fascinating in a number ways. The two activities the research subjects gave the most time were intimate relations and social interaction, which were assigned 106 and 82 minutes respectively. Interestingly, they are both social interaction, which means the research subjects prioritized interacting with others as most important for their maximally happy day.

The next three activities were alloted about the same amounts of time. Relaxing was given 78, while eating was pegged at 75 and praying or meditating was at 73. Relaxation is clearly associated with praying and meditation, so you could say the research subjects indicated that a little over 150 minutes or about 2.5 hours in a day were tied to being relaxed for their most happy day.

Exercise was next on the list with 68 minutes, and it too is associated with relaxation, because it is one of the best stress-reducers and anti-depressants.Talking on the phone scored eleven minutes less at 57, and this is obviously a form of social interaction so it could be lumped together with the first two – intimate relations and social interaction. The next activity, shopping, came in behind phone time at 56 minutes. Watching TV came right after that with 55 minutes.

Coming on the heels of TV watching were a number of home-related activities: preparing food 50, computer time 48, housework 47, napping 46, and child care 46. Napping could be grouped with relaxing and praying or meditating and exercise because they all tend be calming. If that were the case, a most happy day would include about 4 hours of activities related to calming or stress-reduction.

Work and commuting were assigned the least amount of time – 36 and 33  minutes. While this tiny portion of the day for work and commuting might seem odd, it seems the people in the study were demonstrating their ideal happy day was probably on a weekend, holiday or vacation. Their perfect happy day was filled mainly with social interaction and relaxation.

The post More Happiness Linked to Working and Commuting Less appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.

by Javier Munoz

It is not a coincidence that both the Sharing Economy and the concept of Collaborative Consumption are converging tendencies supported by our Happiness Framework, and in general, by what positive psychologist report as key factors for driving happiness.

The Sharing Economy was born as a necessity to respond to the dire consequences of an extended recession which points to a fundamental paradigm shift in how humanity is to create value in the future. As in other occasions in history, together we are finding ways to withstand adversity creating new means to meet our needs.

Technology is surely bringing about a new generation of solutions. It almost seems a new sharing platform is born every day. You can now share your car, office, travel accomodations, text books, children clothing, parking spots, gardens, camera lenses, luxury bags, household items, and a lot more. It is all about sharing goods and resources for the common good.

Additional trends are converging to further motivate this sharing phenomena: (1) The need to reduce the environmental impact of our insatiable consumer society (2) The need to save natural resources while looking for a sustainable growth model (3) The new found efficiencies now possible with the advent of ever more sophisticated information technologies creating new product and service markets.

As society widely adopts these trends, they will shape a new lifestyle not as a solution to an economic crisis, but as a way to guarantee our future overall prosperity. What is most thrilling about these trends is that Positive Psychology research has found that we are indeed happier when we are part of a group that meets frequently to share and contribute to each other. Our ability to connect meaningfully with other people to contribute and to receive help is the key to succeed and be happy. The fact that all these tendencies are converging in finding means for our holistic well-being is a sign that those of us committed to such a journey are in fact headed in the right direction.

About Javier

In 1995, Javier started his first company, a Web design firm in Miami mostly focusing on providing services to small businesses and entrepreneurs. To do his job, he found himself asking questions about the founders, about their purpose, vision, values, products and services. In many occasions, he realized the answers to these questions were not clear. So, he found himself coaching customers on how to clearly define the fundamental aspects of their business. He did it even as he realized it was not supposed to be part the job. However, he enjoyed it tremendously! From these humble beginnings, Javier has built a career out of following his passion… helping people, and building tools to simplify their processes and create greater happiness at work.  You can follow Javier on Twitter @justaction!

The post Happiness and the Sharing Economy appeared first on Delivering Happiness at Work.