Positivity is good for your health and good for your relationships. But the benefits of positivity don’t stop there. Positivity is also related to successful performance in many different areas of life. The discovery by Barbara Fredrickson that positivity changes the way your mind works is what led to my excitement about the possibilities of organizational positivity.
Positivity broadens your mind
So what exactly did Barbara discover? She found that positivity works in the opposite way as negativity. Negativity narrows our focus. This helps us to respond rapidly to a threat, like the fight or flight reaction. Positivity, on the other hand, broadens the range of ideas and behaviors that come to mind. It opens us up!
Because positive people are more open, they take in more information, which helps them see multiple solutions to problems and make better decisions. When people experience positive emotions they feel safe and secure, so they can think in more divergent ways without feeling threatened. Thinking outside the box leads to greater creativity. Positive people are also more curious and interested in learning new things.
Positivity impacts performance
The impact of positivity on the way we think influences all kinds of performance. Students do better on standardized tests when they generate positive emotions before taking the test. Doctors who are given a bag of candy to increase their positivity are more likely to make a correct diagnosis. Managers make better decisions and negotiators reach optimal agreements when they are positive.
It gets you thinking about how your company could benefit from increased positivity, doesn’t it? Positivity leads to better decision making, increased creativity, and greater flexibility. It is related to higher levels of job performance, prosocial behavior, supervisory evaluations, perceived customer service, and collaboration.
What are you going to do today to start creating a more positive climate in your organization? Keep checking back here for tips on increasing organizational positivity.
Build Hope by Setting Goals
Did you know that setting goals is one way of increasing positivity? Hope is a positive emotion about the future. People who are hopeful have goals that they want to achieve and they develop plans in order to meet their goals. So setting goals both for yourself and for your organization can increase positivity by increasing hope.
Here are some guidelines that can be followed to maximize the impact that goal setting can have on hope:
- Set stretch goals that are specific and challenging but not impossible.
- Break goals down into subgoals that allow you to see progress and to celebrate small wins along the way.
- Develop at least one alternative pathway for achieving your goal. Knowing that you have a contingency plan in case problems arise is key for instilling hope.
- Recognize when your original plan is not working so that you know when to move on to your alternative pathway.
- Know when to regoal or change your goal. There will be times when achieving a goal is not feasible or when the original goal is no longer desirable. Rather than giving up on a goal, replace the goal with another one that is more worthy of your effort. Hope will remain as you redirect your energy toward the new goal.
A final way to increase positivity through goal setting is to visualize your goals coming to fruition. Visualization activates the same brain areas as actually carrying out those visualized actions. Hope and positivity will rise as you experience the feeling of achieving your goals.
Are you hopeful about the future? You can increase your positivity ratio by setting stretch goals with realistic subgoals, by making sure you have a contingency plan if obstacles are faced, and by recognizing when to replace your original goal with a more appropriate goal. As a leader you can increase organizational positivity in the same way. And don’t forget to visualize achieving your goals and to share your vision with others.
Set Goals and Share them with Others
You haven’t given up on your New Year’s intentions have you? Of course not! I told you an intention is easier to keep than a resolution. Here are two things that will make it even easier to keep your intentions: 1) set specific goals and 2) tell others about your intentions.
Setting specific goals
Goal setting is an amazing motivational tool. Having goals directs your energy and increases your persistence. You are more likely to keep your New Year’s intentions if you identify a subset of specific goals or action steps that will move you closer to your larger goal. These smaller subgoals keep you from feeling overwhelmed and let you celebrate your progress toward achieving your larger objective.
Telling others
Don’t make the mistake of keeping your goals a secret! You are much more likely to achieve your goals if you share them with others. This creates accountability. Knowing that people are going to be asking you about your progress toward your goals is a great incentive for taking action. It is also often the case that others can help you achieve your goals if they know what you are trying to accomplish.
Space travel
Anousheh Ansari dreamed of going into space as a little girl in Iran. After moving to America, earning a degree in engineering, and becoming a successful entrepreneur, she still told anyone who would listen about her dream. Her love of space travel led her to sponsor the Ansari X Prize, which awarded $10 million to the first non-governmental organization to launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice in a two-week period.
Because Anousheh was so outspoken about her goal of traveling into space, she was was chosen to train as a backup astronaut for a trip to the international space station. Knowing that actually going into space on the mission was extremely unlikely, she nevertheless underwent 6 months of intense training. Three weeks before the launch, the person for whom she was the backup developed kidney stones and was unable to make the trip. In September 2006 Anousheh Ansari fulfilled her lifelong dream by becoming the first female private space explorer. It is highly unlikely that Anousheh would have made it into space if she had kept her dream a secret.
I encourage you to write down a list of specific steps that you need to take in order to achieve your goals. And follow Anousheh’s example by sharing your goals with others. Why not start by telling us about your intentions in the Comments?
Positivity is Good for your Health
Many of the most popular New Year’s resolutions have to do with our health. Some people resolve to eat healthier, others to exercise more, to reduce stress, or to drink less alcohol. All of these are important steps that can be taken in order to improve your health, but another way to be healthier and to live longer is to increase your positivity. Sounds too good to be true, but it’s not!
Health benefits of positivity
Positivity is related in many ways to better physical health. Positive people have lower blood pressure, lower heart rate, lower levels of stress hormones, and stronger immune systems. Positivity lowers the probability of hypertension, diabetes, and stroke. Positive people sleep better and report experiencing less pain than negative people. And since positive people are healthier, they can live up to 10 years longer than negative people!
New Year’s intention
I prefer to set a New Year’s intention rather than a resolution. An intention is an attitude that you have toward your thoughts or actions. People keep less than 5% of their New Year’s resolutions. An intention is easier to keep than a resolution. You aren’t making it to the gym 4 days a week – resolution broken, but you haven’t lost your intention to get in better shape, so you can keep trying!
Why not set an intention for 2010 to improve your health not only by eating better and exercising more, but also by being more positive?
Positivity is Good for Relationships
Most of us are fortunate enough to spend the holidays with friends and family. I feel blessed to be writing this blog from my parent’s home! Since many of us will be with others who are near and dear to us this season, I thought I would share with you some of the many benefits of positivity for relationships.
Positivity leads to high-quality relationships. People feel closer and more connected to others when they experience positive emotions. When people are in positive moods they make favorable judgments of others, which increases liking. Liking leads people to be more sociable and to cooperate and help others more readily, all of which strengthen relationships.
Personal relationships benefit from positivity
Positive people have more close relationships and they have stronger marriages. A psychologist named John Gottman videotaped 15-minute conversations between husbands and wives. He then counted the number of positive and negative interactions and used the ratio of positive to negative interactions to predict whether each couple would stay together or divorce. Ten years later he checked back with the couples and he had predicted divorce with 94% accuracy!
Work relationships benefit from positivity
Positivity at work leads to high-quality connections, which are related to personal growth, creativity, and motivation. Closer relationships increase the exchange of information and the quality of interactions, leading to better coordination. People’s positivity energizes those around them. The relationships that result from positivity at work lead to increased effectiveness and to social support that can be turned to in times of need.
Increasing positivity to strengthen relationships
Why not make it a goal to increase your positivity ratio this holiday season? Doing so can strengthen your personal and professional relationships. Try the following strategies for increasing positivity:
- Savor the moment – Positive emotions can be increased by savoring what is good in your life. Take time to stop in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the season and just be. Look around you and appreciate what is good in your life.
- Express gratitude – Think of someone to whom you are thankful. You can choose to either write a letter to that person to express your gratitude or tell them directly how thankful you are. It will make you both feel great!
How has positivity strengthened your relationships? Do you take time to savor the moment and express gratitude?
Positive psychology
In 1998 when Martin Seligman was the president of the American Psychological Association he pointed out that the field of psychology was overly focused on human problems and how to solve them. He called for more research to be done on positive emotions, positive traits, and positive institutions in order to correct this imbalance. Since then a significant amount of research has been dedicated to exploring positive aspects of individuals and of organizations. The results of this research are positively thrilling!
The benefits of positivity
We now have a great deal of scientific evidence showing the benefits of positivity. Experiencing frequent positive emotions leads to better health and longevity, stronger social relationships, more effective coping skills in times of difficulty, and improved performance in multiple life domains.
Positivity in the workplace
As an organizational psychologist, I have spent my career doing research to identify ways of increasing desirable employee behaviors and attitudes. What are the drivers of satisfaction, motivation, commitment, and productivity? Based on the research that has been done in positive psychology, I am convinced that the key to employee engagement and effectiveness is organizational positivity!
Positive employees make better decisions, are more creative and more productive, and have better interpersonal skills. Because of this, positivity in the workplace leads to higher levels of employee engagement, cooperation and job performance and to lower levels of burnout, counterproductive behaviors and intention to quit.
Blogging about organizational positivity
I have created this blog to share the power of positivity with others. Positivity can do wonders for your personal life and you will find ideas here to help increase your positivity ratio. However, my real aim is to offer information and strategies that can be used by companies big and small to reap the amazing benefits of organizational positivity.
I’d love to hear your stories about positivity in the workplace! Please share them in the Comments or send them to me at: beth@cabrerainsights.com.
