Gallup-Healthways has recently issued details of their Well-being Index – a survey of over 100,000 Americans which shows that employees who are unhappy at work take, on average, an extra 15 days sick leave a year. Yes, that’s right, an extra 15 days a year.

The survey assesses well-being at work by asking employees about

i) job satisfaction,
ii) whether their boss is authoritative or collaborative,
iii) whether there is openness and trust in the workplace and
iv) whether their individual strengths are recognised.

Just over a fifth of full-time employees apparently reported working in a negative environment. Even if only a half of those surveyed are full-time, this still equates to an enormous amount of lost productivity.

Clearly this has significant cost implications for business and for the economy in general; so any organisation, profit-making or otherwise, which doesn’t take employee well-being seriously should probably think again.

A few weeks ago I wrote about the role of Leadership, Positive Psychology and Creativity. Here’s some more “Boardroom Poetry”, this time from Ralph Windle, a.k.a. Bertie Ramsbottom. I particularly liked the boardroom ballad called ‘The Business Consultant‘ and his profile of Sir John Harvey-Jones**, ‘Born Again‘. Plus it was a joy to re-read Betjeman’s ‘ A Subaltern’s Love Song* which it parodies.

* Incidentally, while I was googling Betjeman, I came across many other spoofs, this one celebrating York University’s 40th Anniversary in 2003.

** 11/01/08 Sadly now the late Sir John Harvey-Jones. It’d be interesting to revisit his Troubleshooter TV series from the 90s, to see what became of the companies who were brave enough to call him in…..

In our MAPP class today we were fortunate enough to have Mark Templeton, O2s Director of Organisation Development, present to us on the positive psychology approach to leadership development that he has implemented with great success over the past year.

One thing that really intrigued me was the mention of David Whyte, a.k.a the “Corporate Poet”. I’m a huge fan of using creative approaches in the workplace, ever since I took the fantastic Open University Business School B822 course in Creative Management (now called Creativity, Innovation and Change).

So I followed this up, to see what David Whyte had to say about using poetry in a corporate setting:

“Every worthwhile organization is asking for qualities of adaptability, vitality and creativity. And none of these qualities can be legislated, none of them can be coerced out of people. You cannot invite anyone into your office and say I want a 9 percent increase in your creativity quotient this week. The request is absurd because there is no lever inside that person that they can pull to turn on their creativity. If there was one, they surely would have pulled it years ago.

The only thing you can do is to create a conversation in the workplace that will be invitational to those great qualities of creativity that have long been associated with the soul, with a person’s sense of belonging. The main task of leadership is no longer strategic management, though this will always have importance, but of creating imaginative and participative conversations that bring out the best in themselves and others“.

I couldn’t agree more – what Whyte says here fits exactly with positive psychology approaches to developing leadership and positive organisations.

Photo Credit: Cygnoir, San Francisco

Regrets, I’ve had a few: How finding the silver lining contributes to happiness and maturity

This article on yesterday’s Positive Psychology News Daily looks at research into regret which suggests that it’s about more than learning from experience, it’s beneficial for the process of psychological maturity itself, and that the accommodation of regret has profound implications for human development, and ultimate happiness.

Image: Orbitcast

How to Use Your Top 5 Character Strengths in New Ways – Part 3. If you’ve just completed the VIA-IS online survey and are wondering what to do with your Top 5 Strengths, read on…

There’s increasing research to show that focusing on your strengths at work rather than on your weaknesses brings huge benefits, not just to yourself but also to your organisation. As mentioned in one of our previous posts, companies like Norwich Union are using strengths-based approaches successfully in the business, for example in recruitment. Other organisations are focusing on strengths for personal development, using them as the basis for the Annual Appraisal, for example. It gives employees a boost of confidence and really helps them feel good about themselves, in a way that leads to further performance improvements.

In the last couple of posts we’ve looked at new ways of applying strengths (from the VIA-IS online survey, not from the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which actually measures talents). Today we continue on this theme with six more strengths. Try picking one activity from one of your Top 5, and stick with it for a couple of weeks. If you find it isn’t working after a day or so, try something else.

LEADERSHIP:
i) Organise a social get-together for your team or department
ii) Go out of your way to make a new colleague feel welcome
iii) Take responsibility for an unpleasant task at work and make sure it gets done

GRATITUDE:
i) At the end of the day write down three things that went well
ii) Write and send a gratitude letter
iii) Keep track of how many times you say thank you during the day and increase the number every day for a week.

PERSPECTIVE / WISDOM:
i) Think of the wisest person you know and try to live one day as if you were them
ii) Resolve a dispute between two work colleagues, or two family members
iii) Don’t give advice unless asked, and then do so as thoughtfully as possible

FORGIVENESS:
i) Let a grudge go every day
ii) Write a forgiveness letter, do not send it, but read it every day for a week.
iii) When someone does something you don’t understand, stand in their shoes and try to work out their positive intention

TEAMWORK / CITIZENSHIP:
i) Pick up litter that you see on the ground
ii) Volunteer your time to a charity, community group, Parent-Teacher Association, Parish Council etc
iii) Organize a team / department dinner
iv) Act as a facilitator

BRAVERY:
i) Speak up for an unpopular idea in a group
ii) Stand up for someone even if you disagree with them
iii) Protest to the appropriate authorities about an injustice that you observe

These are just some examples of activities, you can of course adapt them to suit your circumstances.

We’d be delighted to hear your experience of using some of these activities in practice, or if you have any ideas for new ones, so please send us your comments.

We’ll cover the remaining 7 Character Strengths in future posts.

Thanks to Professor Jonathan Haidt , author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and the students in his psychology class at the University of Virginia and Chris Peterson for many of the suggested activities.