Thriving at Work: The Science of Positive Psychology
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This presentation covers the most pertinent research from the field of positive psychology related to both being successful and happy in the workplace. It highlights the positive organizational culture that LinkedIn embodies and offers ways for individuals to further elevate their daily work lives. It includes an overview of the field, summarizes meaningful research studies, and offers interventions that an individual can use in their daily working lives. Questions? Feedback? Please don't hesitate to reach out on LinkedIn!
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Thriving at Work: The Science of Positive Psychology
- 1. The science of positive psychology … and how it can be applied in your work life Stephanie Harrison Master of Applied Positive Psychology University of Pennsylvania
- 2. Questions we will be exploring What is positive psychology? What can positive psychology teach me about thriving at work? What can I do differently today to help me to thrive at work?
- 3. What is happiness or well-being? How is it defined and measured? What does it mean to live a good life? Can I improve my own well-being? Can organizations and societies enable well-being?
- 4. 4 My Research Focus Individual cultivates well-being Organization enables well-being Positive change in the world
- 6. 6 One Theory of Well Being P: Positive emotions E: Engagement R: Positive relationships M: Meaning A: Achievement P E R M A (Seligman, 2011)
- 8. 8 Can organizations enable individual well-being?
- 9. 9 Let’s remember how lucky we are Having a harsh boss is linked to heart problems in employees Disengaged workers have 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects In organizations with low employee engagement scores, they experienced 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. Three quarters of the global workforce are not engaged at work Workplace stress leads to an increase of almost 50% in voluntary turnover – and the turnover costs associated with recruiting, training, lowered productivity, lost expertise, etc. are estimated to be 20% of an employee’s salary
- 10. 10 • If you believe you have emotional support in the workplace, you are 2.4 times more likely to live (over a 20 year period) than people who do not have emotional support • Impact of lack of social integration on health is as significant a risk factor as smoking, excessive alcohol and lack of physical activity (Shirom, Toker, Alkalay, Jacobsen and Balicer, 2011) (Holt-Lupstad. Smith and Layton, 2010)
- 11. 11 What do positive organizations look like? Positive Organizations Kindness Trust Respect Inspiration
- 13. 13
- 15. SuccessHappiness
- 16. 16 What does the intersection look like? More satisfied with their jobs Greater autonomy Better performance on assigned and objective tasks Likely to take on extra-role tasks Receive more social support More invested and involved in their jobs Describe their jobs as meaningful Physically healthier (Boehm & Lyubomirsky, 2008)
- 17. 17 What can you do to live at the intersection? Positive organizational culture has six core characteristics: • Caring for, being interested in, and maintaining responsibility for colleagues as friends. #relationshipsmatter • Providing support for one another, including offering kindness and compassion when others are struggling. #compassionateleadership • Avoiding blame and forgive mistakes. #consciousbusiness • Inspiring one another at work. #demandexcellence • Emphasizing the meaningfulness of the work. #economicgraph • Treating one another with respect, gratitude, trust, and integrity. #integrity Who is someone in your work life who embodies one of these characteristics? How might you be this person for someone else? (Cameron, Mora, Leutscher, & Calarco, 2011)
- 18. 18 How can you handle tough external situations at work? Sense of meaning or purpose Personal connection Competence and autonomy Impact Self- empowerment Which one of these comes naturally to you? What specific area might you focus on to further empower yourself? (Spreitzer, 1995)
- 19. Daily Interventions 19 Empower yourself through meaning or purpose Sense of meaning or purpose • Every night or every week, write down three things that went well and why they happened. This exercise has been shown to increase positive emotion and sense of meaning • Consider your purpose, or mission in life. What unique strengths, values, passions and talents do you offer to positively influence others and the world at large? Consider these criteria below. Then, write your mission in 10 words or less. • A purpose provides "an ultimate aim toward which one can make progress.“ • Your purpose is meaningful to you; in other words, you are the driving force behind your purpose, not your friends or parents or teachers. • Your purpose is also meaningful to others; it is different from other kinds of meaning in that it seeks to benefit not just you but others as well. (Seligman, 2011)
- 20. Daily Interventions 20 Empower yourself through meaning or purpose • Stressed about something? Quick – find the nearest person who needs help and offer it to them. Giving to others helps you to cope with your mental stress and boost your positive emotions • Be present in conversations with others. The mere presence of a cell phone in an interaction can lessen the quality of an in-person conversation – even if you’re not using it. • Make time for your relationships, just as you would make time for exercise or for work. Consider how you might make that time more valuable – such as by expressing gratitude or appreciation, capitalizing on their good news, and hug each other a lot! Personal connection (Lyubomirsky, 2007)
- 21. Daily Interventions 21 Empower yourself through meaning or purpose Competence and autonomy • Choose, define and commit to your important goals. Keep them SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time bound. Research has shown that when major change is broken down into goals or sub-goals that are specific and difficult (but still attainable), the highest results are achieved. In addition, you are more likely to succeed if you publicly commit to goals (such as telling your manager or coworker that you will do something). • What are you absolutely best at? Find and uncover your signature strengths. In a longitudinal study, strengths use was found to be an important predictor of well-being and led to less stress and increased positive affect, vitality, and self-esteem at 3-month and 6-month follow-up (Wood et al., 2011). You can take the “VIA Survey of Character Strengths” here: https://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/ (Locke, 1996)
- 22. Daily Interventions 22 Empower yourself through meaning or purpose Competence and autonomy (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)
- 23. Daily Interventions 23 Empower yourself through meaning or purpose Impact • Envision your future best self. Choose a period of time in the future and imagine that at that point in time, you are expressing your best possible self strongly. Imagine it in close detail. What will this look like at work? In other domains of your life? Write down the details. Afterwards, you can look at ways of starting to move towards this vision. (Lyubomirsky, 2007)
- 24. 24 Back To Our Theory of Well Being P: Positive emotions E: Engagement R: Positive relationships M: Meaning A: Achievement P E R M A (Seligman, 2011)
- 25. 25 Positive Emotions • Negative emotions narrow our action urges and positive emotions broaden them • Positive emotions ---> broaden awareness ---> build resources --> some of the resources that are built come back and yield/amplify positive emotions • What are some ways you might cultivate positive emotion? P E R M A (Fredrickson, 2009)
- 26. 26 Engagement • We create engagement when we are fully present, mindful and creating opportunities for flow • Be present in the moment: mindfulness, savoring, experiencing awe • Lose yourself: use your signature strengths to enter into flow • When was the last time that you felt the sensation of flow? P E R M A (Csikszentmihalyi, 2009) (Brown & Ryan, 2003) (Bryant et. al, 2005)
- 27. 27 Relationships • Positive social connections, promoting social integration and social support, have been linked to positive health behaviors and positive emotional states like feelings of belonging and purpose. • How do you currently build positive relationships? P E R M A (Seligman, 2011)
- 28. 28 Meaning • “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” – Robert Byrne • It is possible to craft your job into a calling by leveraging your strengths, values and goals P E R M A (Wrzesniewski, McCauley, Rozin, Schwartz, 1997)
- 29. 29 Achievement • Many of us strive to better ourselves in some way, whether we're seeking to master a skill, achieve a valuable goal, or win in some competitive event • Set goals that are challenging but achievable • Savor your successes! • Be compassionate towards yourself when you experience setbacks through 1) self-kindness, 2) sense of common humanity, and 3) mindfulness P E R M A (Seligman, 2011) (Locke, 1996) (Neff, 2011)
- 31. People’s happiness depends on the happiness of others with whom they are connected. In LinkedIn terms: Your happiness influences your third-degree connection’s happiness. (Christakis & Fowler, 2008)
- 32. 32 Core messages of today’s presentation • Your environment matters… but your own actions matter too • Pursuing your own happiness is a smart career move, an act of service to those around you, and a way to drive meaningful change within our organization and the world • Thriving at work is absolutely, positively possible! Any other takeaways you’d like to share?