The year 2012 is here and everyone is scrambling to set New Year resolutions. I remember two good articles – one from the Marshall Memo blog and another from the Harvard Business Review, an intriguing article by Shawn Achor.
Performance is a critical word. While it would be fair to say poor performance is due to a host of factors, in today’s competitive world, non performance or poor performance has severe consequences. Aligning yourself with the organisational goals or finding your purpose with an organisation that is in sync with your goals is important for success. The first step towards success is having a success and happiness mindset.
Happiness precedes success. When we are happy with what we are doing and we have a positive mind set, success is more likely. We are better equipped to deal with anxiety and challenges that are bound to happen in today’s anxiety prone competitive world. Demands, uncertainty and inadequate communications increase anxiety levels and activates the part of the brain that processes threats (amygdale) which steals resources from the problem solving part of the brain (the pre-frontal cortex). Nevertheless when we cultivate positive habits and learn to interact positively with colleagues at the workplace, we start to think about stress in a positive way – eustress rather than distress. We are happy and we increase our chances of succeeding in what we want to do.
Just a look at some corporate success stories and it is inevitable all successes start with an entrepreneur exceptionally passionate about what he or she wants to contribute to the world.
Achor urges managers to take the time and effort to create a more positive culture: “Research shows that when people work with a positive mindset, performance on nearly every level – productivity, creativity, engagement – improves.” And he says that training our brains to be more positive is not very different from training muscles at the gym: specific activities and new habits can literally rewire the brain. Achor’s argument, happiness can become a habit and create a success mindset.
He proposes one of the following activities, to be done every day for three weeks:
• Jot down three things you’re grateful for.
• Write a positive message to someone in your work area.
• Meditate at your desk for two minutes.
• Exercise for ten minutes.
• Take two minutes to describe in a journal the most meaningful experience of the past 24 hours.
I always ask myself one question after watching Steve Jobs – what I would do today if tomorrow was the last day of my life. Just adds so much value to your life.
Another Achor activity I truly valued is the 10/5 way - when they walked within ten feet of another person in the workplace, they were to make eye contact and smile. When they walked within five feet, they were to say hello. Most people complied, and this simple intervention led to measurable improvements in performance and happier employees.
Achor contends that stress is an inevitable part of work – and in fact, it’s often the crucible of personal and professional growth (there’s evidence for this in the biographies of successful people). What’s important is our attitude toward stress.
Achor recommends that the next time we’re feeling overwhelmed, we should make a list of the things that are stressing us out and then sort them into two groups: those we can control and those we can’t. “Choose one stress that you can control and come up with a small, concrete step you can take to reduce it,” he says. “In this way you can nudge your brain back to the positive – and productive – mind-set.”
For more details:
“Positive Intelligence: Three Ways Individuals Can Cultivate Their Own Sense of Well-Being and Set Themselves Up to Succeed” by Shawn Achor in Harvard Business Review, January-February 2012 (Vol. 90, #1-2, p. 100-102). Visit the Marshall Memo blog.
