Positive Psychology often talks about the benefits that helping others can have on your well-being – you may have come across the phrase ‘random acts of kindness’. Research by Sonja Lyubomirsky and colleagues suggests that doing  a variety of random acts of kindness for other people, such as holding the door open or helping someone carry their shopping, can improve your well-being. Volunteering is also good for depression for example.

New research from Netta Weinstein and Richard Ryan (2010) suggests firstly that you need to be intrinsically motivated to help in order to derive these benefits for yourself, and secondly helping others when you’re extrinsically motivated (e.g. by reward or the fear of reprimand) is worse for their well-being than if you don’t help them at all.

Clearly this has implications for companies where excellent customer service is at the heart of their business. Are your customer service staff intrinsically motivated to help?

My article on Positive Psychology News this month covers this topic in more depth – read it here.

Image courtesy of D3 San Francisco