Andrew Badham 2019-02-25 15:51:15
Which came first?
There are many “chicken or the egg” scenarios when it comes to examining human behaviour. One that is of particular interest to many is the happiness/success correlation. Which came first, or more to the point, which caused which? One might think that it doesn’t really matter which one causes which considering happiness and success are both wonderful things to have. So, who cares which one you get first if they ultimately lead to both? Well, simply put, if happiness leads to success then working so hard it makes you miserable is not going to work out for you. If success leads to happiness then finding a career you’re “passionate” about won’t work either. Of course, the answer could just as easily be both. Perhaps happiness and success feed off each other in a cyclical relationship. Whatever the case may be, it is a valuable area for inquiry.
What makes us happy?
The subject of happiness is something we touch on in a couple of courses, but perhaps most strongly in our Leading with Emotional Intelligence course. We refer to the work of Positive psychologist Martin Seligman and his PERMA acronym:
- Positivity
- Engagement
- Relationships
- Meaning
- Accomplishments
The five factors refer to his research on happy people and what they seem to have that others don’t. What we’re talking about now are just two of them, positivity and accomplishments. So which one does Seligman think is more important, or which one leads to the other. He never specifically addresses that idea but does note that companies, where there were twice as many positive to negative comments in meetings, were more likely to succeed. So it seems like that might imply the positivity might be the causal factor here, but we’re still not certain. Surely successful companies are more likely to have positive staff? Perhaps. What we would need to find is how positivity creates success.
How positivity helps.
That is a very difficult thing to pin down. Human interactions are notoriously complicated, so isolating any one factor is extremely difficult. Nevertheless, smarter people than me have tried and believe they’ve noticed a couple of things. One is the choking effect. Most sports people/fans are familiar with choking. Once a team reaches a crucial stage they somehow fall apart. They focus on what they are worried could go wrong as opposed to their (sometimes literal) goal. Their negative focus often leads them to perform the very action they are trying to avoid.
The next key observation is on a more interpersonal level, negotiations. It turns out, people in a positive mood are better negotiators. They tend to be less confrontational, understand and accommodate the other person’s needs, and are more likely to seek win-win scenarios. Now, if you think that’s not relevant to you because your job doesn’t involve negotiations, you’d be wrong. Everyone negotiates. If you need a higher salary, if you’re assigning resources to departments, deciding on project specs, organizing a meeting, or any other number of normal, social activities, you are negotiating.
So it seems in these two cases that positivity precedes productivity. That doesn’t mean it’s magic though. You aren’t more successful because the universe likes your attitude; you’re more successful because the positivity embellished skills you already had. So, if you’re looking to improve your results and feel good about it at the same time, kick that positive cycle into gear by starting with the way that you feel about the situation. If you’re new to the idea, remember: there is a momentum to this. It takes a while to get it going, but once it’s going it’s much easier to maintain.
Image by RobinHiggins on Pixabay