Rebecca Bridges takes time out her busy schedule to talk.

Meet Rebecca Bridges. Wife. Mother. Management consultant at FMP Consulting. Rebecca has also been blind from birth. Knowing the unemployment rate is 70% for people who are blind, how could she grow up with the hope of finding a job that she would enjoy? Is it luck or is it something else?

We have all heard the statistics. According to Simon Sinek, author of Leaders Eat Last, 1 in 3 employees seriously consider leaving their jobs. Of that number, only 1.5% of employees actually leave voluntarily. They feel safer with the job they hate then the unknown. With these types of statistics, I wondered how Rebecca found the courage to fulfill her dream.

You Have to Be Better than Anyone Else

Rebecca remembers her Dad giving her advice as a little girl when she complained that being blind wasn’t fair. “Too bad. You just have to be better than everyone else,” he said. That piece of advice stuck. When talking with Rebecca, she comes prepared for everything.

She didn’t have any inkling that she would go to grad school. Then one day, as she browsed around the Web looking for something that her husband might like, she found a program that changed her life: Organization Development and Knowledge Management from George Mason University. It piqued her interest.

“The program description talked about organizational change and transformation, process consultation, and really meeting people where they are and taking them where they need to go,” expressed Rebecca. “I went to the information session and applied the next day. I was so excited because I had found my calling!”

As she went through the program, Rebecca learned a lot about herself. How she dealt with situations both good and bad. How she dealt with conflict. What kind of leadership style made her unique.

“I really enjoyed the courses that I took as part of the program,” Rebecca said. “I wanted to work with organizations and clients to help them achieve results that were even greater than they anticipated. At the end of my program, consulting seemed like a logical step. I started looking and I found FMP Consulting. It seemed like a good match.”

Did I Get the Job?

When Rebecca went to the interview with FMP, she paid close attention to what she wore. She also thought about their perceptions as she crossed the room. It seems as if her Dad’s voice whispered in her ear. “You just have to be better than everyone else.”

“We have to be more prepared than any other person interviewing. We have to show up with our technology and be prepared to answer any of their questions whether we want to or not,” says Rebecca. “It’s a balance because you don’t want to be too defensive, but you also want to show that you are competent and capable because there are questions that they are not supposed to ask you in the interview process.”

When a week-and-a-half went by after her second interview, Rebecca summed up her courage and called the Human Resources Manager. Her heart dropped when he said there were a couple more things they wanted to know.

“The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I thought, Oh no, this is it. They are looking for something to weed me out today,” said Rebecca.

He started asking me about my technology and how I work with applications such as Excel and PowerPoint. She had two ways to go. Rebecca thought about not answering the questions, but took a deep breath and answered them honestly. She needed to elevate the game because, although it might have seemed unfair or felt uncomfortable, it was important that she provide every assurance within reason that she would be a good fit.

“Whether you think it is fair or not, being blind makes it harder because you need to be more skilled than other people in certain areas. You have to demonstrate your competence and ensure to the hiring manager that you are capable of doing the job. Once you have the job, the other challenge is keeping it. There are a lot of things that are still not accessible to us,” commented Rebecca.

Her husband, Eric Bridges, has put accessibility squarely in his sights. Although relatively new to the Executive Director role, he has been working with the American Council of the Blind since 2007, and he had made some significant progress.

Rebecca thinks of her landing a job with FMP as skill and luck. As a consulting firm, they appeared more accessible to her than a Booz Allen Hamilton or Deloitte, who have thousands of employees. With less than 100 on staff, FMP seemed like they could make a difference in their client’s lives. In fact, Rebecca feels like their organization works really hard to do the things they tell their clients to do. The amazing thing? FMP was the only place she interviewed post grad school.

The Most Important Thing In Her Life? Family

When asked about her biggest achievement, Rebecca laughed and said it was her child. She remembered bringing the baby home, holding him in the rocking chair and thinking, “What in the hell am I going to do now.” She says that little Tyler has been the world to her and Eric since he’s entered their lives. Rebecca proudly says that they have full-time jobs, keep a clean house, and have a child who is fully sighted, fully functioning, and just plain awesome. And they’re both blind.

With respect to her work, Rebecca would like to be there for a long time. It’s important to be gainfully employed doing something you love to do. “No one likes to pay taxes,” Rebecca laughs. But it’s clear that she’d gladly pay them than be a burden on society. She is now looking at getting her PMP certification.

“At the end of it all, I want to look back and say that I had jobs doing what I enjoyed and I contributed to the well-being of individuals and organizations,” remarked Rebecca.

So… now I’m wondering. How many more people who are blind are out there looking for work and not finding what they want. Is it because they aren’t as prepared as Rebecca is at being better than her competitors? Or, was she just one of the lucky ones?

In January 2010, we phoned each other after watching a PBS documentary called This Emotional Life. There was one scene where a middle-aged husband was recently fired from his job and on top of this, could barely sleep and rarely connected with his wife because of their difficulties parenting a newborn child. What does psychology have to offer to help a person dealing with so many stressors at one time? In this PBS special, a positive psychology coach taught him to keep a journal so that he could record three bits of daily appreciation. Telling someone who is experiencing hardship to be grateful may or may not be the wisest approach. There is certainly research evidence suggesting that daily gratitude can boost happiness but reframing misfortune as opportunity can also come across as invalidating and Pollyanna-ish. Isn’t there more research that could potentially have informed this particular case? We thought about all of the great scientific research that people ignore because they were not written by academic celebrities who give TED talks, write popular books, and go on public speaking tours. And from this, our book was born…..

Buy on Amazon

We know why some people don’t buy our new book - “The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self – Not Just Your “Good Self” – Drives Success and Fulfillment”

We expose some of the flaws in modern thinking about how to live a fulfilling life and how to become a great leader. We hate to burst the bubble on the happiness industry but human beings cannot will them to happiness. There is no switch to shut off sadness and turn on happiness. There is no dial to turn for feeling less anxious. But even if there was…your desire to turn the dial or flick the switch would cause unintended, new problems.

Consider those moments when you dare greatly:

-  The feeling you get when you see someone being bullied and you commit to say something and put a stop to it.

-  The feeling you get before sending that blog post, doubting where there is any worth to those written words and why the world needs one more voice to add to the chatter.

-  The feeling you get when you stand in line for the high diving board before you are alone staring at the water below.

-  The feeling a public speaker gets between the time they are introduced and the time they go on.

-  The feeling of hugging a disappointed child.

These are not happy moments. And yet, they are some of the most meaningful moments. What you do in response to these feelings and thoughts will determine what you accomplish in your life, how much fulfillment you acquire. No single moment matters. The pattern does. Do you pursue what matters most to you despite the presence of pain? Or will you wait until the anxiety, anger, self-doubt, and sadness disappear?

Negative emotions are not a sign of weakness. Reducing negative emotions or increasing positive emotions should never be the goal of living. Because emotions are signals from the mind and body for what just happened. They offer information about what to do next. Woe to the human being that ignores the intuition offered up to us from tens of thousands of years of evolutionary carving. We ask you to put a moratorium on asking, “how does this make me feel” in hopes of gaining positivity. Instead, consider asking, “what does this do for me?”

You are vulnerable because you are strong. You are about to enter the arena. You are about to risk failure. You are about to push boundaries. To do anything less is to give up on your personal growth and what makes us feel fully alive.

We love and hate uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Robert and I grew tired of advice to smile more, laugh more, relax more, even when there are reasons to feel somber or frustrated. We grew tired of advice to use strengths more and feel grateful more often, even when there are real obstacles that cannot be ignored such as how to find a new job, how to start tough conversations with a disrespectful romantic partner, and how to raise a baby – because the truth is, nobody knows what they are doing as a first-time parent.

With 15 years of experience as psychologists, Robert and I synthesized decades of work, hundreds of studies, leading to a compelling story about how to become emotionally agile – where we use emotions as tools to work toward goals that are most meaningful to us; socially agile – where we are kind but selective about how we act depending on the situation being confronted; mentally agile – where we recognize that mindfulness and mindlessness are both beneficial and by learning this, we can be better decision-makers, better relationship partners, and more efficient and effective in work, love, and play. We turned scientific knowledge into a series of stories. If you want to follow the breadcrumbs about the science behind the advice, you can turn to the 50 pages of endnotes in the back.

If you want to know how to be happy, engaged, with a sense of meaning and purpose, you cannot prematurely rule out the advantages of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that are uncomfortable and socially undesirable. We all have biases about what we want to feel and how we should behave. We learn this from our parents and friends. We learn this from the culture we identify with. We want to gain approval from other people, so we try to put on a happy face and talk about our kind, selfless motivations. This makes sense. Your relationships and the work you create to improve the world will both be unsatisfactory without the support, knowledge, and wisdom of other people.

But here we offer the simple message that you don’t need to choose between feeling good or bad, being kind or selfish, being mindful or mindless. Your evolutionary birth right is to be psychologically flexible. You were born with a complex personality with various emotional shades for a reason. To get the best possible outcome in a situation, you will have to deviate from positivity (some of the time). To develop the healthiest relationships, you will have to deviate from positivity (some of the time). To create great work that matters, you will have to deviate from positivity (some of the time).

Learn how.
Learn when.
Learn why.

By doing so, you will become bigger, stronger, agile. And as a person that harnesses the different sides of your personality, you will end up becoming whole with a happier, fulfilling life.

Dr. Todd B. Kashdan is a professor of psychology and senior scientist at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being at George Mason University, and Dr. Robert Biswas-Diener is a researcher and trainer, and both authored the new book, “The Upside of Your Dark Side: Why Being Your Whole Self – Not Just Your “Good Self” – Drives Success and Fulfillment”.

 Join our Hacking Creativity Webinar on September 24 at noon EST.  Register here.

I believe everyone has the potential to be creative when given the time, freedom, and autonomy. And, combined witha subtle dose of inspiration,  that creativity may turn into full-blown innovation.

In business, creativity used to be reserved for the designers, marketers, and artistic talent that represented the antidote to buttoned-up organizational cultures. In today’s  increasingly ubiquitous “VUCA” environments, where volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity have seeped across industry verticals, creativity is no longer reserved solely for the hip folk clad in skinny jeans.  The ability to innovate across the corporate value chain – from strategy formulation to go-to-market execution – is a pre-requisite for market competitiveness. Those who do it best relish an ascent up the corporate ladder with increased reputational capital: they are the leadership game-changers.

Armed with this insight, a group of six students from the University of Pennsylvania’s Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) program sought to collide the frontier of positive psychology—or the scientific study of human flourishing—with the science of creativity. The mash-up was an interdisciplinary take on two emergent fields that are garnering increased popularity in the corporate world.   The team learned that at the intersection of positive psychology and creativity emerged some interesting insights that are both actionable and accessible.

For example, consider  Adam Grant’s (2013) research in the best-selling book,  Give and Take.  Grant’s research displays a strong link between collaboration and creative character. A recent study conducted by Baer (2012) found more of the same, suggesting that creativity and implementation are regulated by people’s ability to network and the number of strong relationships they hold. Lucky for the team, collaboration – or rather, relationships at large – is shown to be one of the most important contributors to one’s overall happiness. Here we begin to see a picture emerge where positive psychology and creativity can, indeed, tango together. And this is just the beginning – many more insights continued to unfold, illuminating the commonality between these seemingly disparate fields.

In fact, another example near and dear to a positive psychologists heart is positive emotional states. Fredrickson’s (1998) ground-breaking broaden and build theory posits that positive emotions contribute to an upward spiral of more positive emotions, open-mindedness, increased scope of attention, out-of-the-box thinking, and increased problem solving.  And yet, the plot actually thickens when creativity is examined  further. Negative emotions also have the power to boost creativity. One study of 161 employees found that creativity increased when both positive and negative emotions were running high (George & Zhou, 2007). In short, they appeared to be using the drama in the workplace positively. It turns out that finding ways to turn negative moods from creativity foes to allies can be a deceptively simple strategy: don’t resist the resistance. There is no need to turn that frown upside down after all.

As we stumbled across findings such as these we went right to the creativity core. We coupled the time-tested definition of creativity—the generation of novel and useful ideas (Amabile, 1988; Oldham & Cummings, 1996)—with Einstein’s famous quip that we cannot solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. Putting the two together, and making sure to stay true to the big “A” in MAPP (application),  a sixty- minute webinar was designed, “Hacking Creativity,” that explores the intersection of these fields in an intriguing, insightful, and all together imaginative way.

Baer, M. (2012). Putting creativity to work: the implementation of creative ideas in organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), 1102-1119.

Fredrickson, B. L. (1998). What good are positive emotions?Review of General Psychology, 2, 300-319.

Grant, M. (2013). Give and take: A revolutionary approach to success. New York: Viking Press.

George, J. M., & Zhou, J. (2007). Dual tuning in a supportive context: Joint contributions of positive mood, negative mood, and supervisory behaviors to employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal, 50(3), 605-622.

Oldham, G. R., & Cummings, A. (1996). Employee creativity: Personal and contextual factors at work. Academy of management journal, 39(3), 607-634.

If you are interested in learning what the team discovered, and howto leverage it against creativity-starved challenge, come join us on September 24^th at noon EST.  We look forward to sharing the result of our efforts to concoct a distinctive creativity and happiness tonic.  Go here to register:  https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/119275815.

As a corporate communications trainer I work with many people on a short term basis.  Over a two day session I can see an enormous impact on their personal and professional growth.  Invariably I am always asked, “Does this training really work?”  Aside from the pile of positive evaluations I have received I do not have a scientific answer for them.  Implementing well-being measures can bring scientific rigor to my field and can fine tune the work we do to serve the client in the most effective way possible.

I. Corporate Training

The company we work with has a policy requiring their high performing women, after a selection process, to take part in our training.  It is this training program that I will be evaluating.  We work with high performing women in cohorts of 20-25 at a time.  They are involved in programs that meet approximately three times over the course of the year.  In the interim my company provides individual executive coaching, 360 feedback and on the job assignments.  During our training sessions we help them focus on how to be strategic in their careers, how to become known internally, how to develop business, how to promote their accomplishments, give them interaction with successful role models and how to incorporate the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of executive presence.  We specifically focus on the specific technical skills theater professionals use to project presence.  We look at voice, physicality, word choice, non-verbal communication and energy.  We also focus on how to combat performance anxiety when giving a presentation.

II. Goals of Well-Being Measures in Training

Because of the number of trainers and the different content of our training, we divide the training sessions that occur in multiple offices all over the country.  But since we only see them one or two times in a year, how do we know the training has had a lasting impact?  The primary goal with incorporating well-being measures would be to determine the impact of these training programs on the participants and what specific elements were the most effective.  Our secondary goal is to discover if adding these skills to their ‘professional tool belt’ added to their level of subjective well-being at work by testing job satisfaction, productivity, resilience and positivity.

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., Schimmack, U., & Helliwell, J. (in press) mention a meta analysis of sixteen studies (as cited in Petty et al., 1984) that examined the association between job satisfaction and job productivity.  In this study they found that the correlation between these two variables was .31. Other studies mentioned had a similar numerical correlation.  Diener again clarifies that a simple correlation does not tell us about the “direction of causality” (in press).  The majority of the studies reviewed by Diener, et al. reveal that job performance affects satisfaction.  If this is the case, then there is a stronger need for the training programs we do.  The better these women perform (i.e. the more efficient they are with managing teams, the more clients they are able to serve, and the more work they sell) the more satisfied they will be which can lead to higher profits for the company (as cited in Harter, Schmidt, & Keyes, 2003).

Diener, et al. (in press) clarify that if there is a causal effect of job satisfaction on performance, it is likely to be confounded with other variables such as the relation between pay and performance and the self-esteem of the employee.  From anecdotal comments I believe that the pay and performance correlation is at a high enough level to be satisfactory for the women, but I would need to evaluate this.  We would also need to include self-esteem measures before and after our training programs to verify the satisfaction to performance connection.  Here I would draw on Dianne Tice’s estimable work in this area (Tice, D., Gailliot, M., 2006).

In addition to retention of skill building and increased job satisfaction, I would like to evaluate resilience after our programs.  These women work incredibly long hours and I believe resilience is the one factor that keeps women at the firm versus stepping off of the work treadmill for jobs that have fewer hours.  This is something that I would like to evaluate.  While we can add facilitating disputation and the ABCDE method to our programs in the future (Reivich, 2003), I would like to evaluate the base level of resilience these women have and if it increases after our programs that are not addressing resilience directly.  In union with this, I would also like to evaluate positivity.  Based on Barbara Fredrickson’s work, I see that positivity also leads to higher functioning teams and to more profitable teams (2009).  If we can test for baseline positivity and compare to the results we find in successful teams, perhaps we can also add a training session on positivity to our programs.

III. Measurements

Currently we have subjective written evaluations after every two day session.  The questions included are:  What worked well in Section A, B, C?  What did not work so well in Sections A, B, C?  What would you improve for next time?  And our one quantitative measure:  Rank the effectiveness of this program on a scale of 1 to 10.  Our goals are not only to analyze the impact of the programs on a subjective level but on an objective level as well.  In addition to the questions we currently ask about the qualitative impact of the programs, we wish to add their level of positivity, their resilience, their level of job satisfaction after these programs (controlling for self-esteem) and to analyze the objective results of well-being measures.

Their resulting job performance can be objectively analyzed in a number of ways.  We currently do measures across the firm to discover the retention and promotion percentage for the women who have gone through our programs.  Job retention, in this instance, is measured by the number of women who stay at the firm from the previous year.  These numbers have grown with each year of the program, which is impressive, but we still need more rigor in order to determine the reliability of our programs.  I would like to add a quantitative measure evaluating profitability for our high level women that records how much business they sell after our programs.

In order to obtain the subjective and objective measures, I propose that we create a scale that covers the subjective measure and is specific to the training and the firm.  I will draw on Diener, et al’s The Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) as a model and adjusting to use with more narrow questions (1985).  We will have to get a baseline before the beginning of the year-long program and follow up with one at the end when we look at the objective measures of success.  In addition, we will design a scale tailored to each specific program to determine the effectiveness of each element of the training session.  And finally, we can obtain self report and 360 feedback at the end of our year long program to assess which training elements were retained over the course of the year.  After obtaining the information about job satisfaction, productivity, resilience and positivity we could then use that information to decide which programs to retain the following year.  If there was one element that particularly resonated with the women we might be able to add on the job assignments or personal coaching around the issue.  In addition, we would have further follow up on the most salient elements to see how we could tailor those programs to the women’s needs.

IV. Objections 

The number of measures proposed above is ambitious.  It will take patience on the part of the participants and a certain amount of our precious training time to have the participants fill out these evaluations.  Email after the session is an option, though with busy schedules it is more effective to capture their information at the training session.  It is also difficult to decipher which exercises or sessions were the most effective for which people.  It would be impractical to give a survey before and after each two hour session.  While resilience and positivity can add to the effectiveness of these professionals alone and in teams, our programming does not specifically address these issues.  An evaluation of these elements might be the basis for designing future programs for the women.  And finally, the objective measures might leave out productivity that cannot be measured in goods and services sold.  The work these women do in mentoring each other and leading teams may or may not lead to an increase in the company’s receivables at the end of the year, but it does add to employee retention which is a major goal of our programs.

V. Conclusion 

Well-being measures can be an effective tool for highlighting what is effective in corporate communications training programs.  To determine what specific sessions impacted our participants in the realms of job satisfaction, job productivity, positivity, resilience, retention and promotion would be a boon not only to our company but to the field of training and development.  Too frequently we have been accused of lacking rigor in our research and our outcomes have been questioned.  In order to combat these accusations and remain effective for our clients we will have to employ both qualitative and quantitative measurements of well-being assessments.

References

Diener, E., Emmons, R., Larson, R. & Griffin, S. (1985). The satisfaction with life scale, Journal of Personality Assessment, 49(1), 71-75.

Diener, E., Lucas, R. E., Schimmack, U., & Helliwell, J. (in press).  Well-Being and Policy, Chapter 4:  Contributions of Well-Being Measures; Chapter 10:  Work, the Economy, and Well-Being: Policy Examples.

Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity: Groundbreaking research reveals how to embrace the hidden strength of positive emotions, overcome negativity, and thrive. New York: Random House.

Reivich, K., Shatte, A.  (2003). The Resilience Factor: 7 keys to finding your inner strength and overcoming life’s hurdles. New York: Broadway Press.

Tice, DM. (2006). How Self-Esteem Relates to the Ills and Triumphs of Society. In Self-esteem   issues and answers: A sourcebook of current perspectives.  (pp. 412-).New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.

Halelly Azulay

“Doing more with less” has become a common phrase in the workplace and often has a negative connotation… but it doesn’t have to. Working within constraints nudges people to look for creative solutions, and thus is the focus of Positive Business DC’s February 11 Meetup featuring Halelly Azulay, author of Employee Development on A Shoestring.

While classroom and online training are popular and first-in-mind development methods, they can be costly and complex. In addition to possibly being out of reach for budgetary and cost-to-productivity reasons, classroom and online training may not be the only or the best way to address learning needs even when they are available.

Employee Development on A Shoestring explores other, non-training ways to develop employees on a tight budget. During the Meetup, Azulay will share the pros and cons of various non-training development methods, consider the requirements of three specific employee development ideas, and set a framework that enables attendees to develop a strategy for implementing employee development methods that result in motivated, engaged employees without breaking the bank. Attendees will learn how to:

1. Identify and assess various employee development methods that can be applied outside the classroom and on a tight budget.
2. Analyze three specific examples of non-training employee development methods.
3. Develop a strategy for incorporating new development methods for your employees.

 
The February 11 Meetup will run from 6:30 to 8:30 pm and will be held at the Shirlington Library located at 4200 Campbell Avenue in Arlington, VA. Registration is free. If you have specific questions you would like addressed during the Meetup, you can submit them on the Positive Business DC Meetup site.

In addition to authoring Employee Development on A Shoestring, Azulay is a consultant, facilitator, and speaker with over 20 years of professional experience in the fields of workplace learning and communication in corporate, government, regulatory, nonprofit and academic organizations. She is the president of TalentGrow LLC, a consulting company focused on developing leaders and teams to improve the human side of work. TalentGrow specializes in leadership, communication skills, team building, facilitation, coaching, and emotional intelligence.

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.

On our January 16, 2013 blog, we gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to faulty judgments. So much of positive leadership hinges on good decision making, which, of course, affects company culture and workplace happiness. So, let’s expand the discussion.

In the fourth of our series, I am going to talk about the Anchoring Bias. This bias is the tendency to favor a piece of information and “anchor on” or favor that information when making decisions, even though it may have no logical relevance to the decision at hand. With the Anchoring Bias, the information becomes our reference point to evaluate and make decisions. And, as you might guess, this can lead us astray.

One illustrative example is a series of studies that were done in the Real Estate industry. In these studies, before touring a home, appraisal agents were broken into four groups. Each group of agents were given information about the home including a standard MLS listing sheet and comparable prices of houses in the area. The twist is that each of the four groups saw a completely different listing price. After touring the home, they were asked to write the appraisal and then list the factors that went into their pricing. As you might have guessed, the listing price they saw prior to the tour significantly affected the appraisal price…the higher the listing price, the higher the average appraisal price. And these agents weren’t even generally aware of this effect. When asked to list the factors that were important to them in pricing the property, only 8% said that listing price was a top-three consideration.

So what is a leader to do to minimize the Anchoring Bias?

1. Remember experience is important.  But don’t overestimate historical information as a predictor to a successful outcome. Stop to ask yourself if history is relevant from time to time.
2. Watch out for the classic “business-as-usual attitude” during changing conditions.
3. Stop every once in a while, employ a blank slate, and really look at a problem.
4. Check for anchoring in your budgetary processes. For instance, in new markets, clean slate thinking could help.
5. Expand the team to people who can bring fresh eyes to assess and share their opinions to gain better perspective. This is good for teambuilding as well.

We hope that was helpful.  What did we miss?  We’d love to hear some of your tips to avoid anchoring.

This book is a no-cost, no-permission guide for boosting individual, team, and business performance. Whether you lead three employees or 3,000, this book shows you how to increase productivity, collaboration, and profitability using the simple, yet powerful tools from the new field of Positive Psychology.

Featuring case studies of some of the most forward-thinking and successful companies today – Zappos, Google, and Amazon to name a few – Profit from the Positive provides over two-dozen evidence-based tools that “business schools will be teaching in ten years” (Shawn Achor, New York Times bestselling author of The Happiness Advantage).

Learn how to GET MORE DONE, WITHOUT HAVING TO WORK MORE HOURS by:

1. “Outsourcing” yourself
2. Setting habits instead of goals

Learn how to BEAT YOUR COMPETITION by:

1. Hiring for what’s NOT on the resume
2. Quitting

Learn how to BOOST YOUR TEAM’S PRODUCTIVITY UP TO 40% by:

1. Recognizing the Achoo! effect
2. Previewing—not just reviewing—performance

The best part?  These strategies don’t cost a dime to implement!  You will not need to hire an expensive consulting company or go through internal red tape to secure permission to begin implementing these tools today.  Trained by Dr. Martin Seligman, known as the father of Positive Psychology, Greenberg and Maymin translate the scientific research and finally make it accessible to the business world.

So, what is Positive Psychology?  (If you’ve been reading our blog for a while then you know…but just to clarify….)  First, let’s be clear about what it is not: Positive Psychology is not positive thinking. Positive Psychology researchers have studied topics such as productivity, resilience, motivation, collaboration, and much more.  In short, they seek answers to questions that every business leader wrestles with.

Readers of Malcolm Gladwell, Chip and Dan Heath, Marshall Goldsmith, and Dan Pink will especially enjoy the book.  In fact, Marshall Goldsmith (NY Times best selling author of Mojo and What Got You Here Won’t Get You There) endorsed it, saying: “Put it on your nightstand, bring it on the plane with you—however you do it—read this book. Profit from the Positive gives actionable steps for managers’ biggest burning questions. As a 21^st-century leader, you cannot do without it.”

Profit from the Positive has been endorsed by bestselling authors including Gretchen Rubin, Tony Hsieh, Adam Grant, and Chris Brogan. These no-cost, no-permission tools have been successfully implemented by business leaders, managers, entrepreneurs, executive coaches, and human resource professionals at companies ranging from Google to Aetna.

We only recommend the best here at Positive Business DC.  And we’re happy to know that really good books can help the business world increase their positive practices.  Read it.  Give it to that HR manager you know.  You’ll be glad you did.

For more information, please visit www.ProfitFromThePositive.com.

For interviews, review copies, webinars, or more information, please contact:

Senia Maymin, Coauthor, Profit from the Positive, LLC:  Phone: (415) 480-4190 / senia@profitfromthepositive.com

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

Margaret Greenberg is a sought after executive coach by Fortune 500 companies.  In 1997, after a fifteen year career in corporate HR, she founded The Greenberg Group, a consulting firm dedicated to coaching business leaders and their teams to achieve more than they ever thought possible. A pioneer in the field of positive psychology, Greenberg also designs and leads workshops, webinars, and conferences for business audiences and is an expert on creating strengths-based organizations.  Greenberg’s research has been featured in the popular Gallup Management Journal and she is a regular business contributor at www.PositivePsychologyNews.com.  She has also been interviewed by national media outlets in the US (Entrepreneur Magazine) and Canada (The Globe and Mail).   She holds a BA in Sociology from the University of Hartford, a Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) from the University of Pennsylvania, and is recognized by the International Coach Federation as a professional certified coach.  Greenberg lives in Connecticut with her husband and two dogs. They have two grown daughters.  For more information, visit Greenberg’s website at www.TheGreenbergGroup.org.

Senia Maymin, PhD, has been featured in the media—including PBS’s This Emotional Life, Business Week, Public Radio International, and USA Today—primarily for her work as a positive psychology executive coach.  When entrepreneurs and executives seek far-reaching productivity improvements, they call on Maymin as an executive coach and workshop leader. Maymin founded and is editor in chief of a research news website featuring more than 1,000 articles by over 100 authors.  Additionally, Maymin oversees a network of coaches that specialize in positive psychology methods. She has worked in finance on Wall Street and in technology as cofounder and president of two start-ups. Maymin holds a BA in Math and Economics from Harvard, a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA and PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. She speaks Russian, French, and Japanese. She lives with her family in California.  You can visit the research news website at www.PositivePsychologyNews.com, the coaches network at www.PositiveCoaches.net, and Maymin’s website at www.senia.com.

It has been estimated that 70 percent of employee development takes place through informal learning, rather than through formal learning events.  Employee Development on a Shoestring by Halelly Azulay, CEO of TalentGrow, offers insights and lessons for leveraging these naturally occurring growth opportunities in developing employees outside the classroom and ‘outside the box’. This hands-on resource delivers specific implementation tools and techniques for developing motivated, engaged employees in today’s “do more with less” business environment. A handy resource for any employee developer, this book provides worksheets, checklists, and detailed implementation guidelines to help managers develop their workforce in a way that is tailored to each employee’s strengths, development needs, and constraints.

Grounded in employee development best practices, Employee Development on a Shoestring provides in-depth descriptions of the how-to specifics of eleven different, easy to implement employee development methods, including:

1. Step-by-step guidance for initial goal-setting and preparation for effective development planning for every employee, for all development methods.
2. Templates, worksheets, checklists, and guidelines to make your employee development efforts effective and sustainable.
3. A discussion of the value of developing employees in ways that leverage and target their individual strengths, learning styles, and development needs.
4. A modular, customized approach to developing employees by tailoring the development method to each employee’s unique needs and each organization’s budget and constraints.
5. Ways to capitalize on self-directed learning ideas that are easy to implement and apply, immediately and cheaply.
6. Insights for using volunteering as a low-cost and low-effort employee development method.
7. Ideas for creating unique immersive learning opportunities by sending employees on a sabbatical.
8. How to leverage the power of mentoring to develop new competencies for both mentors and protégés.
9. The hidden value of job rotation, stretch assignments, and special teams for addressing your employees’ development needs while enhancing organizational results.
10. Ways to multiply your return-on-investment by identifying situations where peer teaching opportunities exist.
11. The secret of turning employee development into fun and engaging games and contests.
12. Tools and techniques for developing employees by encouraging them to capture stories from the frontlines into digital content for everyone’s benefit.
13. Why developing “innovation zones” within your organization may bring huge learning and development rewards.
14. An examination of social learning and the use of multiple collaborative online tools for real time, on-the-job employee development.

When we asked Halelly how she connects her work to positive business practices she had this to say:

“Research shows time and again that feeling they are developing new skills and growing their capacity at a job helps people feel engaged and want to stay with the organization. So a positive business practice is to ensure that your people are able to grow in their current role and see how they can expand their skills sets. BlessingWhite’s 2013 Employee Engagement Research Update Report found that ‘When it comes to drivers of engagement, clarity on the organization’s priorities, getting feedback, having opportunities to use skills, and career development remain at the top of the list for a majority of employees.’ BlessingWhite’s Employee Engagement Research Update 01/13 rev2. C  http://www.blessingwhite.com/content/reports/BlessingWhite_Employee_Engagement_Research_Report_2013.pdf

Also, according to Dan Pink in his book, Drive, one of three key motivators for knowledge workers is developing Mastery, which necessitates lots of practice but also upgrading skills and developing new ones.”

So there you have it.  By offering multiple employee development methods for every learning style and budget, experience-based tips and suggestions, exercises, and input on maximizing the utility and efficacy of your employee development efforts, Halelly Azulay has written a comprehensive tutorial for all managers, supervisors, trainers, human resources (HR) personnel, coaches, and other professionals who are involved in developing employee competence efficiently and cost-effectively.  Here is a vlog about why she wrote the book:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvzsmwS272w&feature=player_embedded.  We hope you’ll check it out.

I have taught resilience to business execs and Army sergeants.  And the same myths come up every time when I ask about their definition of resilience.

1. Resilient people are almost always positive & upbeat.
2. Resilient people know how to go it alone.
3. Resilient people almost never give up.
4. Resilient people tend to be perfectionists.

The reality is that resilient people experience most of the problems that non-resilient people experience. The major difference between a resilient and a non-resilient person is how quickly resilient people recover from failures and setbacks in their life.

If physical fitness is the speed with which you can recover from physical stress, resilience is the speed with which you can bounce back from psychological stress.

Resilient and truly happy people understand the meaning of “good enough”. They know when to stop and enjoy what they have achieved without being disappointed about how they can improve something even better. They use mindfulness as one of their strength to help them enjoy life as it is rather than be disappointed by the ideas that life can be even better sometime in the future.

One research study of POVs from Vietnam who were held captive for over 5 years (who did not develop PTSD) has listed the following 10 critical psychological elements and characteristics of resilience:

1. Optimism.  Those who are extremely optimistic tend to show greater resilience, which has implications for cognitive therapies that enhance a patient’s positive view of his or her options, thereby increasing optimism.
2. Altruism. Those who were resilient often found that helping others was one way to handle extreme stress, which can also be used therapeutically as a recovery tool.
3. Having a moral compass or set of beliefs that cannot be shattered.
4. Faith and spirituality. For some POWs, prayer was a daily ritual, although others were not at all involved or interested in religion.
5. Humor. Know how to reframe situations and experiences. Be able to laugh at your own self.
6. Having a role model. Many people with role models draw strength from this. for treatment, using a role model, role modeling, or helping someone discover a role model can be beneficial.
7. Social supports. Having contact with others who can be trusted, either family or friend, with whom one can share most difficult thoughts was important in recovery.
8. Facing fear (or leaving one’s comfort zone).
9. Having a mission or meaning in life.
10. Training. One can train to become a resilient person or to develop resilience by experience in meeting and overcoming challenges.  (Or in actual resilience training i.e. the Army training mentioned above.)

Update: Although not on the list, physical exercise can also help you develop psychological resilience. Physical exercise helps you improve your health, improve your brain functions, and develop the needed discipline to keep pushing forward when it hurts.

How many of these factors help YOU when going through a stressful time?  We’d love to hear your thoughts…

References:

Rosenbaum, J. & Covino, J. (2005). Stress and Resilience: Implications for Depression and Anxiety. Medscape Today.

Reivich, K. & Shatte, A. (2003). The Resilience Factor:  7 Keys for Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles.

But it will be worth it.  I’ve been to the first two and each time I’m learned as much as going to a graduate level course and made good connections (and gotten jobs) from/with the people I’ve met.

The IPPA website as such press worthy quotes as:  ”Presentations, workshops, and poster sessions will feature leading-edge research, as well as applications of positive psychology in a variety of fields – from business to education to medicine. Attendees will have the opportunity to discuss the latest research, insights, and ideas, and interact with other people who focus on studying what is best in life and how to create more of it. The internationally diverse audience will consist of researchers, clinicians, educators, students, business owners, coaches, consultants – anyone committed to the science and practice of positive psychology.”  Which is all true, actually.  There are a few crazies there, but most are students and consultants and wanna be consultants and some researchers.

Martin Seligman and Shannon Polly

What am I looking forward to?

While talks and discussions will cover a wide range of topics, the Congress will feature a particular emphasis on these five themes:

1. Positive Development across the Lifespan
2. Positive Environments, Sustainability, and Conservation
3. The Healthy Body and the Healthy Mind
4. Work and Well-Being
5. Creativity and Evolution

Featured speakers include Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Richard Davidson, Barbara Fredrickson, Martin Seligman (whom I’m excited to see), and anyone whose written a book you’ve seen on your way through Barnes and Noble.  (Does anyone go to bookstores anymore?)

The workshops (for which they charge a fee) fall under three categories:

• •Master Lecture Series, featuring leading scholars discussing their research
• •Research Methods Workshops, offering the opportunity to learn advanced research techniques relevant to positive psychological science
• •Applied Practice Workshops, featuring best practices for applying positive psychology in a range of disciplines

Mostly I’m looking forward to connecting with the 50+ graduates of the Master of Applied Positive Psychology program at UPenn (there is one in London who is a wee bit jealous of the attention we get).

I want to know what they are doing, how they are doing and what exciting things are happening in their lives.  It’s going to be one big reunion.  But I also want to branch out and meet new people.  I tell my participants that when I do my Networking courses.  And I want to learn.  I want to learn new things and ask questions because I’m curious, not because I want to look good or get noticed.  I’m going to be growth mindset this time.  And I’m going to be present.  And I’ll write some more posts about what I learn (and tweeting when I can).

How about you?  What is a situation where you can just BE this week?

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

When we launched Positive Business DC, Donna, Shannon and I wanted to create a resource to help people raise their level of well-being by providing evidence-based research in positive psychology and neuroleadership. And so, we launched the Well-being in The Workplace speaker series. Last week, I featured Natural Artistry in my weekly column for Modern DC Business magazine. As Meetup members Andrew Murdock, Kimba Green, and Cindy Alderton shared their story, I realized that our Meetups are having a much more profound impact than perhaps we realized.

Andrew is the owner of Natural Artistry Photography in Frederick, MD. His style strays from the conventional by focusing in on moments when people connect on a fundamentally human level. The vulnerability he’s able to capture and the stories his photos tell reach out and grab your attention. He took photos of the October event and generously let us post them. (Personally, I think the camera is super-glued to his hand and he’d have withdrawal symptoms if removed.)

Scratching The Creative Itch for A Purpose

Doug Hensch, our guest speaker at the October Meetup, shared the 5-1/2 Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs. One of Andrew’s takeaways: The desire to find deeper fulfillment in work. After thinking about what that meant to him personally, he decided to give back to the community. Not being handy with a hammer or power tools, Andrew picked up the camera and offered professional quality images of local events. The idea was to provide an alternative to the photos people took with their Smartphones.

This one, seemingly small thing embedded the people from Natural Artistry into the community in a deeper, more meaningful level and business started to skyrocket. 

Big, Hairy, and Audacious

No, not Andrew… but the goals for Natural Artistry. At our second Meetup in January, Caroline Adams Miller shared insights about how setting unrealistic goal relates to happiness and the über success that comes from setting one’s sights really, really high. Andrew brought their marketing guru, Kimba that night. Now, barely more than two months later, the big hairy goal for 2014—becoming a photo agency—is already happening. Cindy Alderton, an exceptional photographer in her own right, has recently joined the team. Natural Artistry plans to continue bringing photographers that share their zest for “anti-business business photography” and quirky sense of humor into the agency. They’re also about to move into a studio with equipment that will enable Natural Artistry to take any shot one can dream up.

Research shows that people who seek fulfillment at work or set unrealistic goals vastly improve their levels of professional success.

So, what about this year’s goal? It’s still in the works. Andrew wants his photos to be published in a national magazine. He’s turned the studio’s business model upside down. Rather than waiting for orders to come in or offering the same services similar to other photographers or studios, Natural Artistry likes to propose ideas that will help clients grow their businesses. In their words, “It becomes a symbiotic relationship, really a partnership of sorts. We share the same business goals, personal beliefs, and values and build upon them by discovering common goals.”

Fulfillment + Goals = Growing, Vibrant Business

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

Offering a service to the community proved to also be a good business practice because it provided unexpected exposure for Natural Artistry’s work. Andrew found the fulfillment he sought by providing community service. While community service may seem like a counterintuitive way to grow a business, positive returns are not an uncommon phenomenon when you do something constructive—and without strings—for others.

To begin, the studios’s goal was simple: Ensure that everyone in Frederick, MD see the Natural Artistry logo at least once a week, whether the shot was of a friend or familiar place. Shooting photos without charging for them gave the photographers full artistic license.

“Other photographers (and businesses) box themselves in. They look at what other people are doing and think that they need to do the same thing. They might be making money at it, but do they really get fulfillment from doing the same thing others are doing? Copying the work of someone else is not rewarding,” notes Andrew. “The people at Natural Artistry have a restless desire to grow. What we’re doing today is not what we’re going to be doing tomorrow. We’re a moving target, so any other photographer who tries to emulate and copy us is in for a shock.” Their attitude, combined with all of the local exposure, had captured the attention of ad agencies and local publications, positioning a small town photo studio into an agency that has the potential to work with national magazines.

If attending the Positive Business DC Meetup has helped you improve your level of well-being, we’d love to hear your story! Please seek Donna, Shannon, or me out at during the networking session at Canvas on April 24. Registration open soon.

On our January 16, 2013 blog, I gave an overview of cognitive bias (our tendency to filter information through our own past experiences, likes, and dislikes) and surmised that it can lead to judgments that are faulty.  So much of positive leadership is about good decision making so we really wanted to expand on different biases. In the second of our series, I am going to talk about Negativity Bias – the tendency to give more weight to negative information than positive information. When I think about the Negativity Bias, I immediately think of the amygdala, which is an almond-shape set of neurons located deep in the brain (specifically, if you happen to be curious, in medial temporal lobe).

The amygdala triggers your emotions faster than your conscious awareness and played a very important role in our past.  Think caveman and a T-Rex  – the amygdala quickly interprets the hints of danger (about 20 milliseconds) and activates the caveman’s sympathetic nervous system….Zog runs and lives another day.  If Zog had waited to become aware (about 300 milliseconds), he would’ve been lunch.

According Rich Hanson, a neuropsychologist, “humans evolved to be fearful — since that helped keep our ancestors alive.” The difference between then and now is that the likelihood of being eaten alive is pretty darn small today in modern times.  So while it helped our ancestors live, for us, it can be a nuisance when we find ourselves overreacting or favoring negative information over positive.  And we really do favor the negative.  We know that negative stimuli produce more neural activity than positive stimuli.   And to add insult to injury, negative information is more quickly stored into long term memory than positive information.

And the result?  We all have negativity bias.  As a species, we give greater weight to negative experiences and information than positive.  (No wonder the old broadcast news adage, “If it bleeds, it leads” has been so popular.)

So, what does this mean in your organization?

• -It means threats are overestimated.  Ever wonder how that untrue rumor of layoffs spread like wildfire in such a short span of time?
• -It means that your whole team, you included, are more inclined to notice mistakes than achievements.
• -It means a bruised (read: scared) ego can run “amuck” when it’s simply not warranted.
• -It means teams can underestimate an opportunity and you can be missing the boat on the next potential target market or product/service.
• -It also means teams can see a resource as scarce causing a more political environment and absence of risk taking.

So what can you do?

• -For starters, be aware of the Negativity Bias. And make your teams aware.
• -Understand that it takes about four pieces of positive information to each negative piece for teams to be happy  – which, by the way, has been proven to lead to productivity.   So share positive information. Bring it to the surface.
• -Dispute negative thinking with the facts.  Ask questions that surface the facts.
• -Don’t ruminate and don’t let your teams ruminate.  Move on rather than going over the same negative information again and again.

I hope this was interesting and I welcome any comments.  In Part 3 in our “Cognitive Bias and Leadership” Series, I will be exploring Confirmation Bias, which is the tendency to search for or interpret information that confirms what we already think or prefer.

Be sure to stay tuned as we expand on each of the cognitive biases above in this blog series.

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.

Caroline Adams Miller is the expert on the intersection of goals and positive psychology and her book, Creating Your Best Life, is the only book in the field to be completely based in research.

Caroline spoke recently at Positive Business DC’s Well-being in the Workplace series.  She reminded us to focus on the three P’s: Preparation, Perseverance and Passion when setting and achieving goals.  We also learned that most people (80%) do not set high enough goals.  Recent research shows that people who set higher goals are happier than those who don’t.  People who set lower goals so that they can achieve them then compare their achievements to what they could have achieved.

Regret.  It isn’t pretty.  Isn’t there an old adage about how we don’t regret what we did do, we regret what we didn’t do?

It’s always great to hear a good speaker encapsulate some of these ideas.  Here is a great link to Steve Jobs’ 2005 Stanford commencement address that Caroline mentioned.   My favorite quote:  “Remembering you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.”

In recent research, it was discovered that the biggest wishes of the dying were:

1. I wish I hadn’t lived my life for others expectations
2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard
3. I wish I was able to express my feelings
4. I wish I had spent more time with friends
5. I wish I had let myself be happier

The research from positive psychology would say that #4 is particularly important.  It is impossible to get to the highest levels of happiness without close relationships.

I have some quibble with #5 and its wording.  “Letting” oneself be happier makes it sound like if we just gave ourselves permission, bliss would come to us.  It’s much more difficult than this.  We all have a negativity bias and it takes work to counter act that – to find the positive moments in your day.  Barbara Fredrickson, author of Positivity and the new book, Love 2.0 says that increasing your well-being (happiness) is like ‘moving a river’.  It can be done.  It just takes work.  Daily.

Which one of these regrets most resonate with you?  Which ones could you remove from your ‘regret’ list if you set a goal that directly pertained to it?

So think about your New Year’s Resolutions.  And ask yourself this powerful question:  Is there any reason you can’t achieve this goal?

Photo Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography.

The people who attended the January 31 Positive Business DC Meetup at Teqcorner understand why unrealistic goals produce far greater fulfillment than the goals we typically set. Caroline Adams Miller gave several very powerful examples of how unrealistic goals are not only attainable—they also set the stage for achieving remarkable things that change a person’s life in unexpected and ultra rewarding ways. Surprisingly, only 20% of people set challenging goals.

How does Caroline approach goal setting differently from other life coaches? For one thing, she holds a MAPP (Master’s in Applied Positive Psychology) from the University of Pennsylvania. Caroline was one of the first people to go through the program. In doing so, she conducted the foundational research on the intersection of goals and happiness. Caroline discovered that a lot of what we’ve previously been led to believe about goals are, in fact, urban legends. Her scientifically-based work changes the dynamics of personal goal setting in an extraordinary way.

For full disclosure, I’m still working on the exercises in Chapter 1 of Creating Your Best Life: The Ultimate Life List Book. You know what? I’m already motivated to do things differently. For example, I have an opportunity to go to China in 2014 with a colleague and have no clue how to fund the trip. Last week this the trip was on the ‘wish list.’ Now, I’m not only going to make it happen, I’m planning to make it an integral part of where I’m taking my consulting practice. Of course, I still have to figure out how. I expect a difference in attitude will turn my desire to go on this trip from a wish into an experience of a lifetime that will transform the way people view scientific discovery.

We know from the active discussion after the Meetup (and on the site) that several other attendees felt inspired by the ideas Caroline shared. My favorite tidbit of the evening? All success in life is preceded by happiness. What’s yours?

Caroline… A heartfelt ‘thank you’ for coming out to to share your expertise with us and giving us a new perspective. Thank you also to Andrew Murdock for taking photos of the Positive Business DC Meetup. If you’d like to see the photos, please visit Natural Artistry Photography.

Stay tuned for our next Meetup. Our goal is 100 registrants or bust! We can make that goal with your help:-)

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.

The discomfort spurred Shaydac to make a movie about his journey to reconcile core values with personal actions. Ultimately, I AM seeks to answer two fundamental questions:

1. What’s wrong with our world?
2. What can we do about it?

The movie just may have answered one of the burning questions I’ve been pondering for some time now: Why do American business leaders continue to fail to build healthy workplaces? After all, research has long demonstrated that a strengths-based methodology taught by organizations like The Marcus Buckingham Company can create engaging work environments that enable people to dig deep into their potential and find fulfillment on the job.

And yet the vast majority of Americans hate their jobs. Only about 10% of employees achieve a state of deep satisfaction at work. I’ve consistently viewed this phenomena—the seeming inability to kick the authoritarian management style to the curb—as a failure in leadership. Elements within I AM enabled me see that the failure point may, in fact, be more deeply rooted in culture.

Among other things, the movie posits that a culture which values an economic system based on competition for the sake of consumption is inherently flawed. Taken back to its root, then, the way we structure our businesses and encourage people to climb the corporate ladder is also flawed.

Inherently I think we sense this fundamentally false value. Otherwise we would not refer to working in a “dog-eat-dog world.” Or entering the “rat race.” If the majority of our businesses adhered to a healthy model we wouldn’t take such glee in reading Dilbert or watching The Office.

There appears to be no question that we’ve built our economic future on a model that cannot support sustained growth because of its inherent flaws. So it’s time to acknowledge that management as we know it is broken. For now. The good news: We have begun to find ways to formally transition from the old management model to one grounded in the science of positivity and well-being.

While the well-being in the workplace movement is still early stage, there are signs it’s gaining momentum. For example, Positivity and Positive Business DC both launched recently. These, and organizations like them, seek to teach businesses how to create healthy, rewarding environments. (Heightened profitability becomes a byproduct of engaged employees.)

I AM is worth seeing. It covers a range of topics far beyond the scope of this post.

Thank you for Tom Shadyac for challenging people to question basic assumptions about the world around them. Thank you also for taking the time to chat with the audience after Friday night’s viewing. The way you interacted with the audience, especially the kids, inspired us as much as the movie itself.

Finally, thank you to Brad Russell for founding the Washington West Film Festival. You had a terrific turnout for an event just now entering its second year. (It’s important to note that all of this year’s proceeds will go to Hurricane relief.) We can’t wait to see what you cook up for next year!

© 2012. All rights reserved.

Doug Hensch

Doug Hensh, founder of myHappier, revealed the 5½ Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs last Thursday when he kicked off Positive Business DC’s Well-being in The Workplace speaker series. Doug teaches people how to become more resilient and helps businesses develop more engaged, creative, and productive workforces through his expertise in positive psychology.

While Doug made a number of provocative statements that night, none resonated with me more than the following:

“In my experience a person’s greatest weakness is when they overuse their strengths. . . . It feels good to use your strengths. But by focusing too narrowly on your strengths you become less aware of the consequences [of your behavior] and the impact you have on others.”
—Doug Hensch, myHappier.com

As a fan of the Gallup Organization (and Marcus Buckingham‘s work in particular) I can tell you a strengths-based approach to building strong, successful businesses works. In fact, I have repeatedly used their techniques as a basis for transforming organizations with poor morale into companies that excel.

Doug’s observation that an individual’s misapplication of strengths leads to weakness captured my attention because the phenomenon has an organizational corollary. When a strengths-based approach is applied without a structure that enables a company to effectively harness what employees have to offer in a balanced way, performance suffers.

Blinded by Personal Bias

People tend to hire others like themselves. As a result, the recruitment process leads to organizational imbalance unless the hiring manager recognizes and purposely curbs this natural, human bias. Unchecked, the bias spawns an obvious organizational weakness. A company that has too many people with the same strengths unintentionally creates a blind side (or two) and lacks the strength needed to run the distance. Competitors will quickly outdistance this company even though employees may “click” and enjoy working together.

Dilution by Shared Strengths

Doug Hensch presenting the secrets to resilience.

Perhaps a forward-thinking executive has established a safe environment and invites disagreement during discussions because this leader knows that airing differences improves the team’s problem-solving capabilities. If the hiring manager has repeatedly cloned him- or herself, the deck is stacked against the company and the conversation will probably be a short one. This group of people simply will not see a wide enough array of options to enable the company to compete effectively.

Much more subtly, a team comprised of people with too many overlapping strengths dilute those strengths. Even if this group has members with opposing viewpoints and can argue through the issues to develop a sound strategy, I have consistently observed that this team as a whole is less than the sum of its parts. Every time. And that’s just a waste of talent.

Deliberately Blend Corporate DNA

Strong corporate DNA requires a strengths-based focus layered over an existing sense of organizational self-awareness. By using this framework, newly hired employees will share the company’s core values and fit within the corporate culture while being diverse in heritage, gender, age, experience, talent, and strengths. The mix forms a well-balanced team that has the stamina and resilience to keep the company in peak performance during good times and bad.

So, when thinking about developing resilience in your own organization and honing strengths, don’t forget to put systems into place that will ensure that you not only install a well-balanced team, also ensure they have the systems and tools to maximize their efforts.

Join The Well-being Movement

Courtesy of Natural Artistry Photography

Please join Positive Business DC if you’re interested in how science-based disciplines like positive psychology and neuroleadership can improve organizational behaviors, job satisfaction, and overall performance. You can also find us on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn

And, if you live in the Metro DC area, please check out our local events. According to research by Delivering Happiness, Washington DC exhibits the lowest level of happiness (and thus job satisfaction and productivity) in the U.S. With your help we can make working and living and working in the capitol region a more rewarding experience.

Acknowledgments

Thank you, Doug, for a compelling presentation. I have purposely avoided writing about the secrets. If you’re curious to learn what we discovered the other night, please download: 5-1/2 Secrets of Resilient Entrepreneurs.

Thank you also to Andrew Murdock, professional photographer and founder of Natural Artistry Photography, for taking official shots during our first event.

Finally, a heartfelt thank you to Teqcorner for hosting Positive Business DC’s first event. As a tenant, I can tell you Teqcorner works hard to develop and nurture an enabling ecosystem that takes an entrepreneur “from concept to company.”

Originally published by PerformanceArchitect.com on October 27, 2012. All rights reserved.

Doug Hensch, M.Ed

Thursday, Doug Hensch will kick off Positive Business DC’s “Well-being in The Workplace” speaker series when he reveals The 5-1/2 Secrets of Entrepreneurs. As noted in Monday’s post, Low Startup Ratio Causes Economic Stall and Job Deficit, entrepreneurship drives our economic engine—and we are unfortunately in a slump.

According to research by the Gallup Organization, the U.S. needs 2 million new businesses launched each year to create enough jobs to keep the economy healthy. We’re currently running at 20% of the required figure. Gallup proposes we offset the deficit by ensuring that the next generation has the tools and training needed to be successful entrepreneurs. While mentoring the Internet generation may be an effective long-term strategy, we also need to focus on what we can do now to improve the domestic business climate.

DC Places Last on Happiness Scale

Living and working in the Metro DC area insulates us from the effects of a poor national economy. Or does it? The folks at Delivering Happiness (@DHMovement) have determined that Washington, DC exhibits the lowest level of happiness in the country. More than a decade of rigorous scientific research proves that happy employees are more engaged, productive, and creative in the workplace and thus produce better returns for their companies. We need to take action and inject energy into our local communities.

That’s where Positive Business DC comes in. Shannon Polly, MAPP, President of Accentuate Consulting, Donna Hemmert, an Internet executive and serial entrepreneur with whom I’ve had the privilege of working with since the ’90s, and I co-founded the organization to give local business leaders a resource for learning how the science of happiness can help companies improve the bottom line. Each of us approaches the subject from a different angle.

Shannon (@ShannonPolly) is one of only approximately 300 people in world who has received a Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Martin Seligman. She is also the co-author of Does Happiness Really Drive Results? Shannon is passionate about the science that underlies positive psychology as a discipline and how to apply the science in a way that enhances well-being in the workplace.

Donna (@dhemmert) has been fascinated by positivity and its effect on teams, leadership, and companies since she began her career. A natural leader, Donna has honed her abilities and repeatedly created enabling cultures that encourage her teams to consistently produce ‘star quality’ results. Having been on a number of Donna’s teams, I can tell you from personal experience that she’s one of the best in the industry.

And anyone who reads Modern DC Business on a regular basis knows that I (@mmoran76) have a burning interest in the intersection of leadership, culture, entrepreneurship, innovation, and neuroscience. I’ve blended research by the Gallup Organization, Marcus Buckingham, Daniel Golemen, Jim Collins, Steve Blank (to name a few) to transform underperforming teams and companies—some with very toxic cultures—into positive, strengths-based organizations.

Doug Hensch And The ‘Strengths Zone’

We are excited to have Doug Hensch (@DougHensch) lead off the “Well-being in The Workplace” speaker series. Doug brings a wealth of experience and passion to help his clients lead extraordinary businesses and lives. He uses a pragmatic, three-pronged approach: Set meaningful goals; identify strengths; and work regularly in the ‘strengths zone.’

Doug co-founded an investor-backed happiness website that had over 100,000 registered users and was featured on CNN, in the Boston Globe and the L.A. Times. His new website, myhappier.com, helps people increase their well-being and resilience.

The Positive Business DC Charter

People spend more time at work than any other aspect of their lives. We believe it’s time to take a page from science and history to increase well-being in the workforce. Workplace well-being leads to more than just a happy team. Other benefits include increased productivity, lowered attrition, and even increased profitability. Our charter to is inform and inspire DC to take a page from Positive Psychology and lessons learned in business to increase well-being in the workplace.

Positive Business DC plans to conduct its speaker series across the Metro DC area. If you are interested in hosting a future event, please DM @PositiveBizDC. The October 25th Meetup will be held at Teqcorner (1616 Anderson Road, McLean, VA) and includes refreshments.

Join The Well-being Movement

Please follow us on Twitter: @PositiveBizDC and Facebook. And please don’t forget to register to see what the excitement is all about! Space is limited.