Ben Dean interviewed Walter Mischel and you can see the interview here.

I had the opportunity to see him live with Angela Duckworth last spring.  Angela, in place of  David Brooks, conducted the interview and did a wonderful job.  He was promoting his new book, The Marshmallow Test:  Why Self Control is the Engine of Success.  While Duckworth secretly wanted to know how to get her daughter to do her math homework, my biggest takeaway was one of Mischel’s strategies for not eating dessert.  He said he imagines a cockroach crawling over the chocolate mousse in the kitchen of the restaurant and that keeps him from ordering it.  Not an appetizing image, but an effective and creative technique.  His research is seminal and I highly recommend the book, The Marshmallow Test. 

After 90 seconds, the initial flood of chemicals has completely dissipated. Dwelling on the situation that caused your feelings in the first place keeps powerful, chemicals flowing and you literally stew in your own juices. It takes a little practice, but rather than stewing, you can hit the ‘reset’ button.

A Relentless Loop

Road Rage offers a prime example of getting stuck in an angry loop. Remember the last person who cut you off? What ran through your head? Did you take it personally, thinking that the other person had done something to you? How long did you hang onto the anger?

Let’s replay that scenario. Someone cuts you off. Maybe you were in their blind spot. Maybe they realized they were about to miss their exit and reacted without thinking or looking in the rear view mirror. Maybe they were distracted by a personal emergency. None of the likely reasons that caused the other driver to cut you off had intent to harm.

That’s the way it is in a lot of situations that trigger anger. We create a story and interpret intent behind the other person’s actions. Most often our stories are wrong. Dwelling on the story keeps the anger churning.

Hit The Reset Button

You can use a number of different techniques to stop the flood of chemicals that keep you stewing. It starts by recognizing you’re in the throes of an amygdala hijack. Clenched jaw. Racing heart. BP spike. When angry or afraid, we take short, panting breaths. To interrupt the amygdala hijack, take a few long, deep breaths from the diaphragm.

Next, acknowledge how you feel. Rather than saying to yourself, “I am angry,” phrase your self-talk as, “I feel anger.” Verbs are small, powerful words that create your reality. The nuance of language actually does make a difference.

Finally, rewrite the story you’re telling yourself. Unless you’re a mind reader, you cannot possibly know what’s going on in another person’s head. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the first story you’ve told yourself is off target.

Self-management Builds Leaders

We know from Daniel Goleman and Annie McKee‘s work that a large component of leadership is the ability to manage your own emotions. Part of communication is the biochemical influence we have on others within our sphere of influence. Communication isn’t constrained to word choice, tone of voice, and body language. The chemicals we release also play a significant role in the communication. Great leaders know how they impact others and have learned when to hit the reset button—an important element of emotional intelligence.

It appears as if social science and neuroscience are coming to the same conclusions about human behavior… at least in some instances.

In a Ted Talk entitled Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are, Amy Cuddy speaks about how adjusting your posture for two minutes will change hormone levels, which will either make you more powerful or less powerful. It’s interesting, because the postures Cuddy highlights are clearly instinctive power or submissive moves. The hormones involved? Testosterone (the dominance hormone) and cortisol (the stress hormone).

As people interact with one another, those hormone levels translate to body language. This has serious consequences personally and professionally. As a leader, one of the most important skills I taught my direct reports was how to interpret body language during interviews. Of course, the skill applied to all interpersonal interactions, but it was really during the job interview where we debriefed about what we saw and how we interpreted subliminal clues.

The Effect of Moderating Body Language

What’s interesting about body language, though, is that we frequently forgot to monitor our own. To turn the tables, then, think about the messages that you send. How do you prepare for a job interview? Or interact with your boss on a regular basis? What posture, or status, do you take—peer, subordinate, or power pose?

Before an important meeting, I prepare by envisioning the optimal path the meeting will take and my behavior under perceived circumstances. (Note: ‘optimal path’ is a relative term here. Some of these discussions have been very challenging.) I am purposely trying to regulate body language and chemistry as a means of improving my own behavior, communication, and effecting positive outcomes.

Through the open loop system described by Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, in Primal Leadership, we know that we subliminally communicate with the people around us through the biochemicals we emit. By training your brain to react to situations in a certain way, you regulate hormones, which in turn regulates your stress responses and interactions with other people.

For example, you can keep a room full of people on a constructive track when working through really tough, even contentious issues if you have trained your brain to resist certain negative stress reactions. The research indicates that thinking about an action fires the neurons in the same manner as performing the action itself. It follows that you can establish and deepen neuropathways that will produce the predominant thought patterns and behaviors you want to embed. At its core, this is mindfulness.

Primal Leadership also describes the role mirror neurons have in our ability to relate to (and lead) others. One interesting take away from Cuddy’s Ted Talk: When power comes into play, the mirroring neurons appear to go into hiding. When one person pulls a power posture, others assume submissive poses. These reactions would then translate to changes in testosterone and cortisol levels.

Posture, Cell Memory, and Hormones

By now, you may have figured out that chemistry is where social science and neuroscience dovetail rather nicely. According to Cuddy, adopting a power stance for as little as two minutes increases testosterone by 20% and decreases cortisol by 25%. A sustained submissive posture produces a 10% decrease in testosterone and a 15% increase in cortisol.

“When you think about power, people tended to think only about testosterone, because that was about dominance. But really, power is also about how you react to stress. So, do you want the high-power leader that’s dominant, high on testosterone, but really stress reactive? Probably not, right? You want the person who’s powerful and assertive and dominant, but not very stress reactive, the person who’s laid back.” —Amy Cuddy

If you’ve read Candace Pert’s work*, then you know that cells have memory. You also know that every cell in the human body has neuroreceptors. It follows, then, that whatever posture you choose to take in an effort to mimic or produce an emotion will naturally change your body chemistry and you will start to feel that emotion. Feelings. Thoughts. Physiology. They’re intertwined and together, they drive behavior and attitude.

As Cuddy puts it, “Fake it ’til you make it”… or really, become whoever it is you’re striving to become. These inner body relationships are something to think about before going to work tomorrow, walking into the next meeting with your boss, and even preparing for your next performance evaluation. Attentively changing your body language can make you a super star… and über promotable.

*Note: Pert was the first neuroscientist to discover neuroreceptors in the brain and wrote Molecules of Emotion.

Disengagement

•  80% of students ‘don’t see how school contributes to their learning and growth’
•  60% of students ‘don’t rank learning as a reason they go to school’

Lack of Fulfillment

•  80% of dropouts would stay in school if learning were project-based rather than drill and kill

Motivation

•  50% of dropouts leave school because they’re bored
•  50% of students spend ‘an hour or less on their schoolwork each week’

More than 1 million American kids drop out of high school every year… that’s a run rate of 25%. How can that be possible? And more importantly, what can we do about it?

The folks at The Future Project conducted an experiment to improve high school students’ levels of engagement last year, and the results are pretty interesting. The program experienced a retention rate of 86%, which exceeded principals’ expectations by 5x. If you’re interested in the program, check out their site to learn more. If you want to try something at home to pique your kids’ curiosity and raise their levels of engagement, you might want to download The Future Project Playbook. It has some interesting exercises that I’m thinking would be good for most everyone to try… regardless of age. The framework provides a step-by-step guide for tapping into your potential.

If your employee makes a mistake, do you accept responsibility?

Fascinated by the discussion thread, I scrolled through all of the comments and got a good sense for what people had to say about responsibility, accountability, and throwing subordinates under the bus. While I didn’t do a tally, it struck me that a rather large percentage of the comments had a strong authoritarian flavor, many with advice on the process and education needed to avoid mistakes in the future. I believe the predominantly negative vibe rather accurately represents prevailing attitudes, which stunt healthy cultural development and frankly, our national economy.

I haven’t been able to shake the negative sensation the comments left me feeling all afternoon, so please indulge me as I share the comment I posted to the discussion group.

Your Thoughts, Please

I’d like to know what the Positive Business DC community thinks of responsibility, accountability, and handling mistakes in the workplace. What percentage of companies allow it to be ‘okay’ to make mistakes? Does the size of the mistake and risk involved matter to how ‘okay’ mistakes are? Is it ever acceptable to shift blame because you weren’t the one who actually made the mistake? Please read… and then comment.

One “Right” Answer Syndrome

The tone of the comments [in the HBR group on LinkedIn] tells a great deal about corporate culture and, I believe, give a good indication as to why we struggle to build innovative businesses on a large scale. A few people have noted the benefit of learning from mistakes and having a learning culture. The majority seem to think mistakes are inherently bad and turn to process, protocol, training, etc. Why are we so afraid to make mistakes? The basic flaw in thinking begins early when we are taught to look for one right answer.

Leaders are responsible for performance. That means, when something happens, a leader accepts responsibility and addresses the issues head on, appropriately, and with the person who made the mistake. And, being responsible for performance, it means leaders also have an obligation to develop the people on their teams… which means that these people will make mistakes. Errors should be expected as a matter of course.

If you’re not helping people develop their talents, try new things, and grow, then you have failed as a leader.

Individual performance will not be what it could because you have left a lot of untapped potential on the table. As a result, organizational performance will also be less than it could be because individuals and teams will be artificially constrained by what they [already] know [and do]. You cannot innovate, disrupt markets, or even thrive in saturated markets without the pooled intelligence and interest of an engaged team that relies on complementary talents to move your business forward in a smart way.

What The Research Says…

The neuroscientific research shows that people develop intuition by going through repeated cycles of success and failure. Do something well? Dopamine flows and you feel great! Make a mistake? Uh oh. The flow of dopamine cuts of and you feel bad. Only through these experiences do we develop a ‘gut feeling’ that helps us successfully make decisions in environments where you have only partial information–which is always.

Another interesting tidbit: Although humans like to think they make ‘rational’ decisions, the research shows that 70% of the decisions we make actually come from the emotional brain. When we use the rational brain to override the emotional brain, many times we make the wrong decisions.

A Very Revealing Interview Question

When interviewing, I ask a number of behavioral questions. One of my favorites is, “Tell me about a time when you tried something and failed. What happened?” If the candidate says they never fail, the I know this person does not fit my business philosophy. If s/he tells a whopper of a story (and can follow up with a way s/he resolved it), then I usually give one or two of my own. It leads to great discussion and helps me assess fit like few other questions can.

Finger-pointing—Always A No-no

A final thought: finger-pointing is not acceptable from anyone. Not management. Not employees. Finger-pointing builds a counterproductive culture where trust cannot exist. And that poisons everyone.

Build Trusting Relationships

I have two rules of thumb that have served very well over the past 20 years. 1) You can tell me anything without negative repercussion as long as it is the truth as you know it (and you didn’t break any laws, etc.); 2) If you think you’re going to miss a deadline, tell me as soon as you know.

Keep it simple. Build trusting relationships. And always, always watch your employees’ backs.

Please take your turn to speak up and be heard. Comment below.

Irrational Decisions… Us?

Specifically, classical economic theory says that people look at a set of data (large or small) and make rational decisions. And yet, the Gallup research shows that approximately 70% of economic decision making boils down to emotions. That means only about 30% of the decisions we make line up with the classic economic model.

Neruoscientific evidence supports Gallup’s findings. According to How We Decide,the rational brain maxes out at about 7 pieces of data. As a result, using the rational brain when making complex decisions generally points us in the wrong direction. Here’s why:

Gut Feelings = Knowledge

Humans develop intuition through experience. The cycle of trial and error, trial and success moderates the flow of dopamine, which creates the ‘gut knowledge’ we cannot explain yet know to be right. The people who ignore their gut instincts and rely on the data typically rationalize themselves into poor decisions when faced with complex, multifactorial questions.

“. . . the danger of too much information: it can actually interfere with understanding . . . We are constantly exceeding the capacity of our prefrontal cortexes, feeding them more facts and figures than they can handle . . . When the prefrontal cortex is overwhelmed, a person can no longer make sense of the situation.”
—How We Decide

In other words: Information overload clogs up a person’s decision making ability. Some might call the symptom analysis paralysis. Now let’s think about how that translates to the customer experience—and ultimately whether or not people buy from you or someone else.

Primal Engagement

If all your company talks about is a long list of product features that ‘differentiates’ it from the pack, you’re forcing customers to engage their rational brains during the buying process. Chances are, they’ll walk away. If not now, then most certainly in the future.

We already know that customers base 70% of buying decisions on emotion. A list of features and benefits opens the doors for savvy competitors to engage prospects at a primal level. Car manufacturers know this. What they sell is the convenience of having personal transportation. What people buy is reliability. Or prestige. Or freedom.

You get the drift.

We Make Winning Harder Than It Has To Be

So, what does that mean to your business? Employees want to be part of a winning team. Customers want to own something that gives them status or meets some other primal need. The best way to figure out what will elicit positive employee and customer emotions throughout your company’s lifecycle begins with corporate self-awareness.

Answering the question about your company’s reason for being and using it as the cornerstone for developing corporate self-awareness can increase performance-based business outcomes by 240%.

That is not a typo.

And, it bears repeating. According to Gallup, companies can gain a 240% in performance-based business outcomes if they engage employees and customers. I believe that establishing corporate self-awareness is the cornerstone to engagement for both employees and customers

Deliberately Foster Corporate Emotional Intelligence (CEQ™)

Just as people exhibit emotional intelligence (EQ) in the form of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, we can attribute the same labels to organizational behavior and the underlying systems that enable those behaviors.

Your company’s purpose for being becomes one of the pillars of self-awareness, which enables you to communicate clearly to employees and customers in a very exciting way. Skip this step and you’ll just be another company with a long list of features and benefits to wade through as people try to figure out where to spend their money.

And who doesn’t want to be part of a big win? Learn the secrets of corporate emotional intelligence (CEQ™), starting with organizational self-awareness.

The Global Impact of A Flawed Model

A concluding thought: If our collective worldview is based on a flawed perspective of economics, then we cannot hope to foster economic recovery without changing the accepted model. For more on applied behavioral economics, check out what the Gallup Organization has learned during the past 30 years.
© 2012. All rights reserved.

In contrast, the Eyeores of the world fence themselves in behind self-imposed limitations—and therefore severely limit their potential.

They say you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. But, the science shows that we can actually improve our positivity factor by adjusting how we react to situations. Over time, you can train yourself to have a more positive emotional response when something ‘bad’ happens.

That’s easy enough to say, but what happens when you experience a toxic work environment? When negativity surrounds you, it’s far too easy to get sucked into a counterproductive energy drain that pulls you down along with everyone else.

Here’s what’s happening. Inc. reports that listening to someone whine for just 30 minutes begins to peel away the neurons in your hippocampus, which hijacks your emotional response system. The hippocampus also plays a role in forming new memories, spatial orientation (think problem solving), and navigation. Hmmm. Apparently a negative emotional hijack causes you to lose your way both figuratively and literally.

Leaders can swing a negative culture around. It starts with role modeling positive behaviors and cutting all gossip and trash talk off at the source. When you hear someone say, “I’m not complaining, but…” it’s time to call people on unacceptable behaviors. In the process, you also have to create a healthy way for people (and the company) to address issues. Finally, require everyone to come with options to resolve the problem, and then give them the power to fix things.

Those small, easy steps in attitude rub off on those around you and rather than having a bunch of complainers on your hands, you develop a motivated, committed team. Those that don’t like the new attitude will leave and share their doom and gloom at another job. That leaves you with an enthusiastic team that has the vision and drive to turn some of those compelling opportunities into deeply satisfying self-fulfilling prophesies.

© 2012. All rights reserved. Original publication date September 26.

Much of our unhappiness stems from the Because I Said So approach, the default setting for a significant number of “leaders.” These managers use their authority to gain compliance rather than treating employees in a manner they’d prefer. Chances are this approach didn’t work for your parents when you were two. Because I Said So doesn’t work any better for employers when you are 42. Unfortunately, the tendency to want to take control starts much earlier than you’d think.

Submit… or Else

According to John Medina, author of Brain Rules, boys establish a pecking order very in early in life. Boys with high status have learned to give orders by the time they enter grade school. Lower status boys obey or get bullied for their insubordination. A rigid hierarchy quickly forms in male groups. Verbal negotiation occurs only as boys with higher status vie for the independence that comes with dominance.

“The beatings will continue
until morale improves.”

Girls also tend to develop hierarchies in grade school, although they do it in a completely different manner. Girls will shun those who try to give orders. They favor collaboration and status comes from inclusion in the right cliques.

We have dragged these styles into the office so perhaps it’s not so surprising that the desire to command still prevails in male dominated corporate America. Only 15 women hold the CEO title in the Fortune 500. It would be interesting to know if these women choose to control or collaborate.

A controlling management style is damaging because it:

• Relies on fear and compliance, which demotivate employees and produces marginal results
• Limits potential to the manager’s strengths and amplifies weaknesses
• Contradicts the economic and social realities of the information age

The authoritarian style may have felt comfortable in the factories of the industrial era. It was, after all, a new way of working and people often came from homes where Dad ruled the roost. But times have changed. We have a diverse, multi-generational workforce that includes women and a vast array of ethnicities. Today’s workforce seeks autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

Follow the Leader

Back to the research. Marcus Buckingham has dedicated his career to uncovering the secrets of productive workplaces. His well documented research on strengths-based leadership, when applied, works brilliantly. So why, then, has this methodology not gained a stronger foothold?

Reading a book or learning theory gives most people the right vocabulary. Application is another thing. We learn more from modeling than from reading. I think that’s why some managers use terminology like ‘empowerment’ while ignoring the talents and contributions of their staff. If you want to change your culture, then change the way you lead your people. You can start by getting a mentor that uses the approach you’d like to adopt. Of course, you can also model by rejecting the behaviors of people for whom you don’t like to work.

The links between giving orders, gaining and maintaining status, and ego develop very early in a male leader’s life. But the desire to control is not limited to boys. I’ve also known a lot of bossy women. We’ll take a look at the personality types that like power and control over the next few weeks. Until then, we’ll weave a tale of micromanagement.

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on June 4, 2012. All rights reserved.

Courtesy of Yuri Arcurs – Fotolia

I recently ran across a Forbes post “Why Companies are Terrible at Selecting, Retaining and Motivating Their Talent.” Contributor Eric Jacskson identifies 10 common pitfalls companies experience when attracting and retaining the “assets [that] go down the elevator at night.”

Hmmm. It’s true that managers commonly refer to employees as assets. And yet, the word asset rings hollow. Using that terminology turns employees into things. You buy and manage assets. You compensate and lead people. There’s a difference. Let’s add the following five points to Jackson’s original list.

1. The most effective leaders demonstrate a high degree of emotional intelligence. They understand and mentor others. Positive role modeling flows downhill.
2. A strengths-based recruitment philosophy and professional development help fulfill employees’ needs for mastery and growth. You can establish career paths based on aspirations and talent.
3. Respect and recognition tell people you value them… and their contributions. Employees are less likely to disengage and leave when you don’t take them for granted.
4. Understanding human motivation is a critical success factor. Intrinsic rewards work; extrinsic rewards produce diminishing returns. And yet, we base most rewards on external factors that employees come to view as entitlements.
5. Chemistry matters. So do style and fit. When we recruit for skills only, we suggest that people are interchangeable. They’re not.

The organizations that earn the 100 Best Companies to Work For designation know that employment is relational, not transactional. You can buy employees’ time. You cannot buy their spirit and passion. You’ll get better results across the board when you stop thinking of employees as assets.

Written by Marcia Moran and originally published by Modern DC Business on June 22, 2012. All rights reserved.

Lively discussion at Positive Business DC’s October 2102 Meetup.

A recent article by Forbes about the behavioral differences between introverts and extroverts states, “. . . brainstorming results in lower quality ideas and the more vocally assertive extroverts are the most likely be heard.” Forbes based its article on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. Although other sources have made similar claims, it appears as if  brainstorming has gotten a bum rap.

“Decades of research have consistently shown that brainstorming groups think of far fewer ideas than the same number of people who work alone and later pool their ideas.”
—Keith Sawyer, Psychologist, Washington University

Rather than blaming a tool or process for shortcomings, we need to look at how the tool is being applied… and testing methodologies that underlie the research.

Is Brainstorming Really Counterproductive?

Yale conducted the first empirical test on brainstorming in 1958. A group of 48 male undergrads were split into 12 groups and given a set of puzzles and instructions for how to brainstorm. The control [group] consisted of 48 students (each of whom worked independently to solve the same set of puzzles). The students who worked alone generated twice as many ideas as the brainstorming groups. ‘Experts’ deemed the ideas generated by individuals to be more creative and feasible that those developed by the groups. As the Forbes article demonstrates, these outcomes have stuck.

The Yale study overlooked some basic group dynamics. Teams that include both men and women outperform teams comprised solely of men. In addition, the terms ‘group’ and ‘team’ are not synonymous. Researchers simply cannot put a bunch of people who don’t know each other in a room and expect them to work together effectively. A safe environment and trusting relationships underlie effective teamwork. As a result, studies like the one from Yale fall short of predicting real-world results.

Cultural Freedom to Disagree

The Yale study also learned that the groups instructed to debate during the brainstorming session increased the number of ideas by 25%, although most of the extra ideas came after the group disbanded. That makes sense because people build off the creativity of others.

Tips for Effective Brainstorming

For leaders, the trick to getting the most out of brainstorming and other activities used to stimulate creative problem solving starts by establishing a safe, respectful culture that:

1. Cultivates and values diversity
2. Ignores the weight usually attributed to title
3. Encourages each person to speak up
4. Refrains from ridicule and personal attacks
5. Accepts input without judgement or punishment
6. Provides constructive feedback on a daily basis
7. Works passionately toward common vision and goals
8. Purposely facilitates strong relationships and communication
9. Lets its hair down

Evidence shows that people share emotions. Even though people often view disagreement as a negative, the ability to laugh at ourselves and have fun at work helps keep things on a positive track. You can creatively solve sticky issues without destroying relationships or morale.

Establish Equal Footing

Leaders get the best results by using visual and behavioral clues that put them on equal footing with other members of the team. Select a chair along the side of the table. Come prepared with questions instead of answers. Invite participation from everyone in the room. Speak last to avoid coloring others’ opinions.

Except in times of crisis leading through a collaborative, democratic process does not make a leader look weak—as long as s/he can make decisions in a timely manner. The ability for people in all positions and experience levels to have a voice and participate in problem solving builds vibrant companies.

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on October 4, 2012. All rights reserved.

Positive psychology is about making the lives of people more productive and fulfilling by identifying and nurturing their highest talents—not about treating mental illness like traditional psychology.  It’s a new branch of study that was championed by Martin Seligman, who is often referred to as the father of positive psychology.

So, why should we business leaders be interested?  Because we can add to the bottom line while creating a company with a culture that is more enjoyable for all, including management.  A study conducted by Alex Edmans of the Wharton School of Business has shown that corporations listed in Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” have equity returns that are 3.5% per year higher than others.  Put simply, employee satisfaction directly correlates with returns to shareholders. Likewise, as a result of decades of clinical trials, we now know that feeling happy reduces workplace errors, increases productivity, and reduces employee turnover and absenteeism—all of which positively impact the bottom line.

“Our brains are literally hardwired to perform at their best not when they are negative or even neutral, but when they are positive, ” says Shawn Archor in his book, The Happiness Advantage: the Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work.  Biologically, when we release dopamine and serotonin, the learning centers in the brain perform well, better organize new information, retain new information in the brain longer, and retrieve it faster.

Barbara L. Fredrickson, professor of psychology at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, discovered that humans are most creative when our minds are flooded with a stay-and-create chemical—quite possibly dopamine—the opposite of the well-known “fight or flight” response. The “stay-and-create” chemical makes us more receptive to new ideas, more likely to explore, more flexible, and more likely to deepen relationships. This, as one might imagine, results in greater teamwork and mutual respect.  Fredrickson’s theory is that “fight or flight” historically helped us avoid being eaten alive, but that civilizations were created via a more enlightened “broaden-and-build” state of mind.

5 Elements of Well-being

According to Seligman, the goal of positive psychology is well being. Well-being is described as having the following five main elements.

1. Positive emotion.  This one is self explanatory—It’s simply feeling good.
2. Engagement. Also called “flow.”  Flow is when you feel one with your work.   It is also called “being in the zone,” and is characterized by losing all track of time. Those who achieve flow will say they have a strong purpose and a love for what they do.  Getting into the flow is best served by using our “Signature Strengths,” explained below.
3. Meaning.  Having a purpose in life—this happens when we belong to or serve something that we think is bigger than ourselves.
4. Accomplishment.  The mastery and achieving of goals for the sake of the accomplishment.  It involves grit, or stick-to-it-ness, which has been found to guide accomplishment even more than intelligence.  According to Seligman, studies show “self-discipline counts for twice as much variance as IQ” in accomplishment.
5. Relationships.  Relationships bring a sense of community and a sense of connectedness to others.

What are Signature Strengths?  In the workplace, studies have shown that human strength—not the absence of weaknesses—are the keys to productivity, increased job satisfaction, and reduced turnover.  Signature strengths are our top innate strengths, and are likely the signature by which we are known. Examples of signature strengths are: perseverance, integrity, critical thinking, kindness, and ingenuity.  Feelings that might signify we are using a signature strength might include feeling like “this is the real me,” having a feeling of excitement when using that strength, or experiencing a sense of inevitability while using it.  When people capitalize on their signature strengths, they tend to be happier and more satisfied.  Gallup Studies have shown that companies whose employees are encouraged to use their strongest skills are the most successful.

The Growth of Positive Psychology:  Positive psychology is now making its way into many different fields, such as the Military, education, law, medicine, politics, engineering, the arts, and business.  Many universities offer courses in positive psychology, and several offer degrees specializing in positive psychology including the University of Pennsylvania, Claremont University, and the University of East London.  The University of Pennsylvania, where Seligman is currently the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology and Director of the Positive Psychology Center, offers a Masters of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP degree).  60% of alumni with MAPP degrees return to their original area of work, spreading positive psychology into different fields.

Zappos

A great example of positive psychology in the corporation is Zappos, international shoe and apparel eTailer. I am a big fan of Zappos, and according to Business Week and Forbes, they are one of the best places to work.  Tony Hsieh, CEO, used positive psychology to make Zappos such a wonderful place to be employed.

So how is selling shoes online meaningful?  For Hsieh, it’s not about shoes—it’s about delivering happiness to customers and employees. He delivers happiness to his customers in the form of amazing customer service. Zappos employees strive to deliver “Wow!” and are trusted to do the right thing with customers in regard to making decisions to please each customer. Uniquely, if you call Zappos, you will be talking to a person without scripts – they are trusted to use their best judgment to fulfill the charter for best customer service.  Zappos delivers an acclaimed culture and work environment to its employees.  Hsieh integrated elements of positive psychology into his culture and operationally in a way that is enviable.  Here’s a short peek into Zappos:

Working at Zappos feels purposeful. Delivering happiness is big and it’s bold. The company has values that are more than lip service or, as Hsieh puts it, not “just a plaque in the lobby” but values that have been operationally and culturally integrated.  Here are their values:

1. Deliver WOW through Service
2. Embrace and Drive Change
3. Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
4. Be Adventurous, Creative, and Open-minded
5. Pursue Growth and Learning
6. Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
7. Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
8. Do More with Less
9. Be Passionate and Determined
10. Be Humble

Social interaction is increased in many ways. For example, before employees can log into their computers in the morning, they must identify the “mystery employee” whose photo is displayed on their computer screens. Everyone gets to be that mystery employee at some time. In this way workers get to know the names and the faces other employees whom they may not meet otherwise. In addition, there is only one entrance at headquarters.  The other entrances in the building have been turned into emergency exits.  All employees entering through the same door greatly increases happenstance interactions between employees.
These are just a few of many Zappos examples.  I highly recommend reading, Delivering Happiness, A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, and checking out the The Zappos Family 2010 Culture Book (which you can order for free at from culturebook.org).

With the success of the book, Delivering Happiness has now evolved into its own company, with the sole purpose to grow a global movement to spread and inspire happiness at work, in communities and everyday life.

If you want to learn even more strategies to use for your own business, Zappos recently created a whole new branch of their organization, Zappos Insights and DH@work, which can be found at www.zapposinsights.com and deliveringhappiness.com.  Through these programs, they are sharing with the world the secret sauce that makes Zappos a great place to work, and ways other companies can successfully apply happiness as a business model.  Already, the program has helped many businesses, which report an increase in sales and morale almost immediately.

Happiness Myths

As much as we are learning about ways that we can be happier, we also have many beliefs regarding ways we can be happier that simply aren’t true.  Here are a few widespread myths about achieving happiness.

Getting the best will make me happy.

One of the most persistent myths of happiness is that getting the “best,” will make us happier.  Barry Schwartz, in his book The Paradox of Choice, points out that there are two types of decision makers—Satisficers (someone who attempts to meet a decision criteria for adequacy) and Maximizers.  Maximizers try to make the best decision every time—they look for the best mate, the best job, and so on. Satisficers make a decision once they satisfy their criteria.  They are satisfied if they find a restaurant that has the qualities they want, instead of searching for the #1 restaurant available.  But while Maximizers are paralyzed and can’t make a decision until they have thoroughly examined every option, Satisficers have eaten a delicious meal and are happily moving along to the next big thing.

More money will make me happy.

When we do not have enough money to pay the bills, we know and studies show our sense of well-being decreases.  But once bills are paid and there is a margin of disposable income, people in general (and those who are very wealthy) actually fare about the same on the happiness scale.  Clearly, money plays a serious role to the negative—that is, if we seriously lack money we are less happy—but it’s much less impactful to the positive.  A good example of this can be found in the behavior of lottery winners.  Studies have shown that their happiness spikes when they first win, but months later their happiness levels are similar to where they were prior to winning.  In other words, we tend to return to our usual happiness level in a matter of months regardless of the amount of winnings.

I will be happy as soon as I _________.

You fill in the blank.  I will be happy when I meet Mr. (or Ms.) Wonderful.  I will be happy when I make law partner.  I will be happy when I wear a size 4.  In Arrival Fantasy, Tal Ben-Shahar explains that the “arrival fallacy” is a fallacy because the arriving actually rarely makes you as happy as you expect.

Happiness Tips

Now for the nitty gritty.  How can you bring happiness to our company and to your culture?

1. Find a larger purpose that your company can rally around.  Zappos isn’t simply selling shoes—they deliver happiness.
2. Create an environment that inspires, and motivation will follow.  Build your culture and your brand around what stand for, and integrate it into your operations.  Take every opportunity to speak about your culture and brand within—and outside of—your company.  Then live it.  As one worker in an enviable work environment said, “I would have come in as a dishwasher to be in this environment.”  Now that’s inspiration.
3. Foster a strong sense of community and a deep belief in your people.
4. Hire for strengths—and screen for strengths during the recruitment process.
5. Let employees be themselves as much as possible.
6. Find ways to apply existing strengths in new ways. Move employees if necessary.
7. Ask employees for ideas about positive changes. What do they want to do?  In what environment do they feel most comfortable and happy?  What ideas do they have for the company?  How can they bring the most value to the company?
8. Read Tribal Leadership, Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization. Being part of a “tribe” and having a shared purpose—propelled by values across your company and employees—is big.  It helps strengthen relationships and fulfill the need to be part of something important.
9. Have fun. Southwest Airline’s CEO and cofounder, Herb Kelleher, built a company where celebrations are a normal part of business. Southwest—in the meantime—grew revenue by almost 400% in the last decade.  Celebrations can be small, spontaneous, or all-out affairs.  In another Zappos example, it is commonplace for a department to have impromptu parades.  That may not be appropriate for every company’s culture, but adding more fun to your culture—in your own way—adds to positive feelings and camaraderie.
10. Look for Positive Deviance. Find pockets of individual successes where a problem is being solved differently and employ more widely.
11. Start all meetings positively. Ask managers and participants the three things that are going well in their departments.
12. Use teamwork. In the past decade, business has seen large growth in productivity because of teamwork, which has taken larger hold in business.  This is primarily driven by the technology business that requires teams at every stage of development.  This shift has been followed by many other business sectors, as well. When working in teams, weaknesses do not matter nearly as much as they do when someone is working as an individual because the team can still function effectively.  Also, working in teams makes people happy.
13. Be more positive than negative. Sure, there are negative things we need to focus on, but change the ratio.  Several recent studies have shown that negative occurrences are more powerful than positive.  You need to outnumber the “bad” with the “good.”  Marcial Losada calculated that the tipping point need for positive feelings and experiences is 2.9013 positive interactions/occurrences for every negative one, coined the “Losada Line.” And, for workgroups, the research shows that a ratio of 6 to 1 is where teams produce their very best work.  You don’t have to ignore the negative, but remembering to note the positive will shift morale.
14. Give employees chances to succeed and achieve. Consider followings Zappo’s lead on this one.  They used to promote their merchandise assistants to assistant buyers every 18 months, as long as they met all the requirements to qualify.  Currently, after gaining more understanding of human nature, they give smaller promotions every six months with a large promotion occurring at the 18-month mark.  The result is the same in terms of training, certification, and pay, but employees are happier because there have an ongoing sense of progress.

Still Unconvinced?  Here’s More Science.

Happiness can actually be seen—in the form of brain-scanning technology, which has confirmed the effect of positive psychology exercises in studies.

“The adage that we become what we think is more than an expression – it’s a scientific fact,” says Kristi Hedges, leadership coach and author, Power of Presence: Unlock Your Potential to Influence and Engage Others.  Hedges explains that neuroscience has shown that what we consistently think creates synaptic connections that become a veritable path of least resistance in the brain. This has tremendous implications for people, and deserves to be taken seriously and developed strategically.  There’s even an entire field dubbed neuroleadership that’s emerged.

In Hedges’ book, she discusses that in the corporate world we have tended to delegitimize positive conceptualization or self-talk as a New Age indulgence. But think of athletes. We admire their ability to visualize a successful outcome and to mentally propel themselves to achieve. The reason positive thinking works for them is the reason it works for all of us. If we think we can win, we’ll embody that thought and change our actions. And each time we are actually creating neural pathways and eventually, with repetition, they become the path of least resistance.

The trick for changing your brain, and subsequent behavior, is to approach positive thoughts with focus and deliberation. For most of us, this requires structural changes and systems to keep the ideas top of mind. This can be as simple as scheduling five minutes each morning to reflect on the tone you want to set for your day, or as involved as meeting with a coach or mentor regularly. Feedback can be a valuable catalyst to test and refine a person’s thinking.

Need a Bit of Help to Get Going?

Leadership is critical to a positive work environment and is essential to bringing out the strengths of the workforce.  If you want a jumpstart, you may consider getting some outside expertise.  There are many good coaching and consulting companies that are specifically trained to help you or your employees increase happiness and shift culture. Coaches who are trained in such things can often facilitate change more quickly.

Local Washington DC Coach/Trainer, Shannon Polly, a graduate of the MAPP program at the University of Pennsylvania, offers a suite of workshops for companies to achieve optimal performance using positive psychology techniques.   One workshop Polly led for Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort and Spa incorporated the strengths research of Dr. Martin Seligman and Dr. Chris Peterson, as well as Appreciative Inquiry (AI), which is a change management technique created by Dr. David Cooperrider in the 1980s.  The workshop for the Westin Savannah had 100 employees for a day, and the process guided attendees to discover their strengths so they could leverage them and envision the future they wanted to create.  The hotel manager was amazed at the level of engagement from the part-time employees, especially.

Finding a coach/consultant that can have such an effect on your business is not difficult.  Search online or use the International Coach Federation’s referral service of credentialed coaches at coachfederation.org.  And, Of course, Kristi Hedges and Shannon Polly, mentioned above, are also local DC coaches.   Either way, good luck on your path to delivering happiness and increasing your company’s success.