WorkPuzzle

Getting Ahead At Work: Three Components To Working Well

Most of you know that I carefully follow the latest research in the fairly new field of Positive Psychology.  You also know by now that Positive Psychology is based on rigorous standardized research that investigates the causes of human flourishing in various domains.  There has been a huge outpouring of research money allocated for this.  The findings are fascinating and can help you, and your organization.

Some of the questions being asked include, "How do people flourish at work"...or "What kind of behavior leads to success?"  Michael Frese, Professor of Organizational Psychology at Germany's University of Giessen, believes he has identified an answer.

What you're about to read may seem obvious, but much of science is studying the obvious and distilling it down to its most intricate core elements, so we can then say, "Of course!"

Frese claims there are certain "active behaviors," that he defines as responsible for the majority of flourishing on the job.  These active behaviors are comprised of three components:

"The first is self-starting behavior; self-starters do things not just because a boss demands it, but because they see those things as being important.

The second component is proactive behavior, or actions that people take when they think of future opportunities and prepare for them now.

The third is persistence in the face of professional obstacles."

Frese says that each of these three things must be consistently in play to lead to positive results and impact.  He goes on to say that, "Every job you can imagine—from blue-collar to starchy white—can be discussed and described in this way."

We often use the term "personal initiative," but now we know just what this means.  We can operationally define it and ask people to take it (initiative that is), not just because it will help the company, but because it will help them.

In a recent article in The US News and World Report, writer Lindsay Lyon reports:

"His studies of employees suggest that people who engage in a high degree of active behavior at work are more successful on the job—they gain more empowerment, meaning they have greater control over their work and their work is more complex; they gain even more personal initiative; and they find new jobs more easily if they become unemployed.  Those findings hold true across many different workplaces and countries, he says.  And active behavior not only pays off for the individual, he's found, but can change the workplace environment for the better, even boosting a firm's income."

This evidence is robust enough to warrant some consideration into ways you can more effectively observe and encourage more "active behaviors" as you coach, critique, and reward your employees.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Job Satisfaction Is Down: What This Means For You

We all remember the Rolling Stones song Satisfaction, which is about getting NO satisfaction.  Well it appears that U.S. workers are getting "no satisfaction" from their jobs, and at the highest rate ever recorded. 

According to a new survey recently released by The Conference Board, only 45 percent of Americans are satisfied with their work.

In a follow-up article titled, Americans' Job Satisfaction Falls To Record Low, Economics Writer, Jeannine Aversa, of the Seattle Times reports:

"That was the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board research group in more than 22 years of studying the issue.  In 2008, 49 percent of those surveyed reported satisfaction with their jobs," and goes on to add: "Worker dissatisfaction has been on the rise for more than two decades."

Linda Barrington, Managing Director of Human Capital at the Conference Board, who helped write the report states:

"It says something troubling about work in America."

Lynn Franco, another author of the report and Director of the Conference Board's Consumer Research Center elaborates:

"What's really disturbing about growing job dissatisfaction is the way it can play into the competitive nature of the U.S. workforce down the road and on the growth of the U.S. economy - all in a negative way."

What's frightening is that if this downward trend in poor job satisfaction isn't reversed, many economists say it could "stifle innovation and hurt America's competitiveness and productivity." (Jeannine Aversa)

Several theories have surfaced regarding why this trend exists.  Aversa theorizes:

"The drop in workers' happiness can be partly blamed on the worst recession since the 1930s, which made it difficult for some people to find challenging and suitable jobs." 

Some blame it on the availability of interesting jobs:

"Workers who find their jobs interesting are more likely to be innovative and to take the calculated risks and the initiative that drive productivity and contribute to economic growth." (Barrington)

Based on my own professional experience, and far more consistent with the research in Positive Psychology, these theories are completely backwards. The research shows that the inverse of that statement is more likely the case:  That workers who are more likely to take calculated risks and initiative are more likely to find an interesting job, and subsequently drive productivity and economic growth.  To say it more bluntly:  More workers now have that "sense of entitlement" attitude, demanding that others make their jobs more interesting, rather than feeling any responsibility to do so themselves.

As we've shared with you in WorkPuzzle, there is a growing movement away from teamwork, hard work, and delayed gratification-- and toward the belief that happiness comes through increasing one's frequency and duration of pleasure.  This way of thinking has been at work since the 60's, and that first generation of the self-obsessed, have now raised their children under the flag of "individual freedom and self-gratification."

As long as our culture promotes this type of thinking and neglects finding our way back to teaching a set of standards that begin with contributing to the group and earning respect through hard work and good character, job dissatisfaction numbers will continue to escalate.

All is not hopeless however.  Over the next two blogs I'll let you know how you and your company can help reverse this trend and attract those who will be the hardest workers and the next generation of innovators.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Inspiring Candidates to Take the Next Step in Their Careers

It has been a few months since I have shared anything from Peter Weddle with you.  As you may recall, Peter is a recruiting expert I admire, and I’ve referenced his work a few times (1, 2) over the last year. 

Last week, Peter wrote an outstanding article that does a lot to answer a question we hear quite often from our clients:  

How do you inspire someone (during an interview) to take the “leap of faith” necessary to change careers?  

...Especially if that change requires them to risk the security and comforts of a stable situation for something that could potentially be more engaging and rewarding in the long run.  Here’s how Peter’s article answers that question: 

“Over the past decade or so, social scientists have been trying to figure out just what happiness is and where it comes from.  While many of us think the answers to such questions are intuitively obvious, it turns out that we may be selling ourselves short.  Humans have the capacity not only to experience happiness, but to experience joy, as well.  And those two states are very different. 

Joy is an emotional state.  It is derived from our relationships with family and friends.  When those interactions engage and satisfy us, when they enable us to be the best of ourselves with the others in our life, we experience joy--one of the human species' greatest gifts. 

Happiness, on the other hand, is a cognitive state.  It occurs when we are tested by meaningful challenges that stimulate us to express and experience our fullest natural potential, our talent.  These challenges can occur anywhere, but they are most prevalent in the workplace.  In other words, our best shot at achieving happiness occurs when we put ourselves in a position to excel at what we love to do.

That is the essence of the American Dream.  It is a personal commitment, a determination to devote our Life and exercise our Liberty to the accomplishment of two tasks:

1. To discovering our natural talent or what we love to do and do best.
2. To working only where we can use that talent to achieve satisfying goals.

The outcome of those tasks will be unique to each of us, but the tasks themselves are the same for all of us.  They represent our right to the Pursuit of happiness.

Those two tasks are also the key to a successful job search and a rewarding career.  Whether we're in transition or currently employed, they enable and empower us to control our destiny, to shape it to an end that is important and fulfilling to us.  It is our right, to be sure, but it is also our responsibility.  For only we can take the first step, only we can decide to set off on our own personal Pursuit of happiness. 

Why should we bother?  Because as wonderful as the joy is in our relationships, we deserve more.  We spend at least one-third of our lives at work, and that experience should offer more than frustration, anxiety and despair.  It should be, it can be a source of profound fulfillment.  Or what the founding fathers called Happiness."

See if you can apply these principles in your next interview.  High-quality people--especially young people--love to be engaged on this level.  

If you can truly help a person discover their natural talents and then paint a picture of how those talents can be used to achieve satisfying goals on your team, you’ll not only win the “most inspiring hiring manager of the year award,” but you’ll also see better results!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Ben Hess.  Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

What Your Science Teacher Should Have Taught You About Thanksgiving

In the spirit of the season, I thought it appropriate to share the research that relates the benefits we can expect from being grateful.  We covered this topic last year, but this is something we all need to be reminded of occasionally.

Did you know that scienctists have something to say about gratitude?  What your parents taught you about being thankful, has been shown to greatly impact the work environment. 

Selfishness comes naturally to most people.  Wishing for more, rather than being thankful for what we have is a theme portrayed in nearly every classic holiday film or tale.  Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carole, George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, and the Grinch in The Grinch who Stole Christmas were all finally saved from their selfish ambition to recognize and savor the smallest treasures of what they had.  

Gratitude can be simply defined as the acknowledgement and pleasure in having received.  For centuries, the topic was ignored by serious scientists because most believed the concept should be left to the realm of philosophers and theologians.

More recently, as serious researchers began studying gratitude in earnest, they found some surprising benefits for both organizations and individuals.

Gratitude is responsible for significant enhancement of mood, and it increases prosocial behavior (i.e. being kind and doing things for others).

Researcher and professor, Dr. Robert A Emmons, writes in Positive Organizational Scholarship: The Foundations of a New Discipline:

"The cultivation of gratitude may be important in organizations not only because of the direct effects of improving organizational climate, but also because as a cognitive strategy, gratitude can improve individual well-being and lower toxic emotions in the workplace, such as resentment and envy.

…Studies have shown that employees’ happiness and well-being are associated positively with performance, morale, commitment, and can reduce absenteeism and staff turn-over.  The techniques to improve gratitude, a key ingredient in positive emotion, could enhance individual and organizational well-being."

If you're coaching those on your team, or trying to recruit the right people for the future, focus part of your effort on the trait of gratitude.  You'll not only be thankful you did (from a performance and culture perspective), but you'll also find yourself becoming a more appreciative person, yourself.  That's a win for everyone involved.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Resilience Revisited

Six months ago, I described the research around the fascinating topic of resilience.  Since then, I have had the opportunity to witness, first hand, examples of people who are living out, daily, the characteristics of what the research tells us.  It appears that we are headed out of the current economic crisis, but it won’t be the last time that we need to respond resiliently to stressful times.

The research regarding resilience clearly describes “no middle ground” when it comes to peoples' response to stressful situations.  There are only two possible outcomes:  (1) Either you’ll become stronger and more successful, OR (2) You’ll become weaker, less mentally healthy, and less likely to do great things in the future.

Which outcome best describes you and your response to stressful situations?  The answer to this question depends on how you’re able to handle job-related stress, and whether you are capable of becoming a resilient person. 

Management consultants Salvatore Maddi and Deborah Khoshaba conducted a 12-year study of the Illinois Bell Telephone (IBT) company staff, who were enduring almost constant organizational change during the deregulation changes in the telephone industry.

Every year for 12 years, 450 IBT employees (including supervisors, managers and executives) were interviewed, evaluated, given psychological tests, and given medical examinations.  Everyone in the organization was feeling stress, and almost 50% of those sampled lost their jobs at some point during the study.  The purpose of the study was to research how people under job-related stress handled these difficult conditions.

The research revealed that employees reacted to the stress in two distinct ways:

• 65% of the employees suffered additional serious stress-related events in their lives such as divorce, heart attacks, depression, anxiety, and drug/alcohol abuse.
• 35% of the employees actually thrived under the stress. Those who remained at IBT, rose to the top of the heap. Those who left either started companies of their own, or took strategically important employment in other companies.

When the data started to show a distinct difference between the two groups of employees, the researchers then attempted to quantify what caused a person to be part of the second group.

In their book, Resilience at Work, the researchers outlined their findings.  A “resilient person” is someone who possesses and embraces the following: (1) commitment, (2) control, and (3) challenge.

“As times get tough, if you hold these attitudes, you'll believe that it is best to stay involved with the people and events around you (commitment) rather than to pull out, to keep trying to influence the outcomes in which you are involved (control) rather than to give up, and to try to discover how you can grow through the stress (challenge) rather than to bemoan your fate.”

In short, a steadfast commitment allowed resilient employees to engage more fully in the job at hand (or with a new opportunity for those who lost their jobs).  This helped them to understand and interpret the events that were having an impact on them.

Their sense of control empowered the resilient employees to consider ways that they could proactively influence the changes that were affecting them.  Their less resilient colleagues tended to passively withdraw effort, believing there was little they could do to impact what they believed was their fate.
 
Lastly, the resilient employees interpreted the stressors and changes as a challenge, and tended to search out the potential opportunities that change would bring about.  They took the outlook that change is an inevitable part of life.  It didn’t mean that these people enjoyed the stress, but the positive outlook they embraced positioned them to keep an eye open for new opportunities.

On Wednesday, I’ll reveal the primary coping skills that separated the employees who grew, from those who languished as a result of the immense stress.

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

River People

No, I'm not talking about the guy who lives in a van down by the river (Saturday Night Live).  I'm referring to the type of person we're all capable of becoming; the kind that is typically a much better hire; the kind you need to help develop in your organization.  
 
Over the past 25 years of providing psychotherapy, my chief mission has been to free people from unconscious ruts that control their lives.  This isn't easy.  People rarely see how they have boxed themselves into a view of themselves and a view of the world that limits their perspective, beliefs and actions.

When a person is in a rut, they limit their own movement, growth, vision and freedom to act.  They see the world in a fixed way, and try to convince everyone around them that their "rut trapped" perspective is indeed reality.  The way they lead their life unveils consistent themes, describing their own personal rut repeatedly acted out.

A person who is not stuck in a rut flows like a river, emanating wisdom, humor, and humility even in difficult times.  They may have a long list of things that haven't worked out, but have no regrets for their efforts. 

When things are going well, economically and emotionally, it is much more difficult to differentiate the "rut people" from the "river people."  However, in these difficult times, ruts are bound to surface.  Even the most fluid people can be temporarily thrown into a rut in these extreme circumstances, simply because life isn't familiar or secure.

Losing a job, a home, and plans for the future can certainly appear as an insurmountable rut. "River people" however, don't allow themselves to get stuck there.  They manage to continually pull themselves up and out of the rut, dust themselves off, and move on with life.  I feel fortunate to know many river people.

As leaders, you owe it to yourself and those you coach to help free them from their ruts.  Whether you're coaching or interviewing new candidates, help them find hope and envision the opportunities that can unfold if they exercise the "formula for confidence."  Help them realize their freedom and potential through new ideas, new innovations, new training, new commitments, new values, and perhaps even an entirely new direction.

You'll find that everyone within an organization benefits once the individual tributaries find their "flow," and can contribute their full potential once again.  It's not only practical to encourage this hope, it's the right thing to do.

But, change is difficult - Most healthy, rational people avoid change, preferring instead the security and safety of what is known.  Ironically however, change can produce incredible growth, if responded to effectively.  If you're interviewing new candidates without both empathy around change PLUS the encouragement to change, your missing an incredibly useful and helpful tool. 

Have candidates answer this question:  When have you experienced the most growth in your life?  For most people the answer is when they were undergoing tremendous change, accompanied by uncertainty...perhaps when they were much younger.

It's normal to risk more when we're younger, because we don't have that much to lose.  If you analyze that statement, you will begin to see the problem:  Security and hanging onto what we've acquired becomes paramount for most of us when we're older.  We cling to it and cherish it, without ever reflecting on its inherent value to our well-being.

Of course it's irresponsible to take foolish risks.  But, you can also make the argument that it is foolish to follow a course of action simply because it offers the illusion of security.

For some inspiration on becoming a manager who hires and develops "river people," read and insert the word manager for friend in the below quote:

“A true friend (manager) knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”    -William Arthur Ward

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Confidence Formula

One of our most popular blogs was written around the concept of Coaching for Confidence.  Below, are some of the original findings regarding this fascinating subject, along with some additional findings that help improve our understanding of the topic.

It's no secret that managing and coaching those around us can feel futile if those being coached lack confidence in their ability to succeed.  We've all witnessed talented people lose their spark and confidence, begin to wilt, and eventually begin to drop below performance standards.

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, an expert on the subject of confidence explains:

"Confidence consists of positive expectations for favorable outcomes.  Confidence influences the willingness to invest - to commit money, time, reputation, emotional energy, or other resources - or to withhold or hedge investment.  This investment, or its absence, shapes the ability to perform.  In that sense, confidence lies at the heart of civilization.  Everything about an economy, a society, an organization, or a team depend on it.  Every step we take, every investment we make, is based on whether we feel we can count on ourselves and others to accomplish what has been promised.  Confidence determines whether our steps – individually or collectivity – are tiny and tentative or big and bold."  (Confidence: Leadership and the Psychology of Turnarounds, 2004)

Recruiting people is just the first stage of an ongoing process.  It's your job as a coach, manager, and/or mentor, to bring out the best in others, which begins with assessing their confidence.  They must believe that they can succeed in order to succeed.

Carol Craig at the Centre for Confidence and Well-Being claims that she and her colleagues have developed a formula for confidence.  It appears to be quite accurate, with a great deal of research to back it up.  It goes like this:

Confidence = Self-efficacy (the belief you can reach your goals) + Optimism.

So what do these terms mean?

Self-efficacy:

"Self-efficacy is the term that psychologists use to describe the belief a person has that they can reach their goals.  Unlike self-esteem which is more of a global judgment on the self and its worth, self-efficacy specifically isolates the way an individual assesses their competence in relation to achievements, goals and life events.  Self-efficacy expert, Albert Bandura from Stanford University argues that 'ordinary realities are strewn with impediments, adversities, setbacks, frustrations and inequities.'  He therefore claims that people need 'a robust sense of efficacy' to keep trying."

Research on self-esteem suggests that parents (through genes and parenting style) have the biggest influence on a young person’s self-esteem.  However, Bandura and others argue that schools (perhaps even real estate coaching and training...) play a huge role in developing young peoples' feelings of self-efficacy.

Optimism:

"In everyday life we usually use the word optimism to mean feeling positive about life.  Often we refer to someone who is optimistic as seeing ‘the glass as half-full, rather than half-empty.'

In psychology, there are two main ways to define optimism.  Scheier and Carver, the authors of the popular optimism measure – The Life Orientation Test - for example, define optimism as 'the global generalized tendency to believe that one will generally experience good versus bad outcomes in life.'  In everyday language this means 'looking on the bright side of life.'  In such a definition, pessimism is the tendency to believe 'if something can go wrong for me, it will.'  The other main way to define optimism is to use the concept of 'explanatory style.'  This is the approach taken by Professor Martin Seligman, author of Learned Optimism and co-author of The Optimistic Child.  He argues that each of us has our own ‘explanatory style,’ a way of thinking about the causes of things that happen in our lives.  Optimists are those who see adversities as temporary and restricted to one domain of life while pessimists often see problems as permanent and pervasive."  (Carol Craig, Centre for Confidence and Well-being, 2006).

So, what can you do if those you coach lack confidence?  Here are some ideas:

1. Ask them: "Do you believe that you will succeed?"  If they don't, or if they say yes in a tentative manner:

2. Then ask them what they believe the outcome will be if they don't really believe they can achieve their goals?  (Even though my graduate courses were over 23 years ago, I can tell you that those who believed they'd finish and do well, did!  Those who didn't have that confidence, failed!)

3. Once you have them talking about their uncertainty and its impact on their performance:  Ask them to remember a time when they did succeed - big time!  Urge them to remember their attitude going into the situation.  What was their level of confidence?  Did they expect success?  Why?

4. And lastly, remind them that their best confidence will develop as they focus on developing their strengths, and contributing to clients, co-workers and society at large, rather than taking on important tasks and projects only to bolster their ego.  Only under these conditions can one sustain great performance.  Because when things don't go well, it's not about your ego, it's about your contribution!

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Editor's Note:  This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn.  Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.  Comments or questions are welcome.  If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email.  If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Positive Emotions, and Getting Out Alive!

Okay, the title is a little dramatic... I guess I need to stay out of the wilderness for a few weeks.  As I mentioned yesterday, last week my wife and I endured the wet climate in Banff.  Then, over the weekend, I managed to get lost on a hike with my 21 year-old daughter, Katelyn.

Perhaps I've seen too many episodes of Survivorman, but I actually began to ponder if I had wandered into a disastrous situation.  We were hiking a portion of the Pacific Crest Trail, which starts in Mexico and ends at the Canadian border.  On a side note:  We actually ran into a man and his horse who had started on the trek in Mexico, and were two weeks away from the Canadian border.

The mistake I made was going off-trail to find an alpine lake.  We ended up on a trail that dead-ended.  From there, we must have traveled in circles. One's natural tendency is to panic.

We were really never in any trouble, but still, I remembered what research psychologist, Barbara Fredrickson, revealed about staying positive:

"Frederickson has found that while negative emotions narrow people’s perspective and keep them focused on the specific problem in hand (e.g. flight or fight), positive emotions ‘broaden’ people’s likely thoughts and actions as well as their behavior.  In other words, when we are experiencing positive emotions we have more ‘behavioral flexibility’ and this allows us to build ‘intellectual and psychological resources.’  So if we are feeling positive we are more likely to be curious, to learn, to explore and be creative than if we are negative."  (Center for Confidence and Well-Being, 2006)

If we had become panicked, we probably still could have found our way out, but it was more fun, and certainly burned less energy, to stay positive.  We eventually, (two miles or so further) got turned around, found the correct trail, and headed out.
 
Let this story serve as a reminder to keep your team broadening their internal resources of confidence and decisions, by staying positive and developing an atmosphere free from panic and pessimism.  The impact on the brain and it's capacity for creativity is well documented.

As for me... I'll stay in the neighborhood for the next few weeks...

Gratitude - Part 2

In Friday's blog, I described the many benefits to a daily exercise of gratitude. I suspect that had I listed the benefits (even powerful benefits to reaching your goals), without explaining the prescription, many of you would have reached for your wallet to pay for whatever it was that could lead to such great benefits.

But, given that the solution requires some personal daily discipline, and might be seen as kind of corny (especially to the macho types), you might be inclined to blow it off. Much like Rosanne Bar said many years ago: "I'd do absolutely anything to lose weight.... except diet and exercise."

Here's my promise:  I am going to start following the below prescription daily.  If you haven't yet read Friday's blog, please do, so you can learn why I'm so emphatic about building gratitude into my daily life. It is my hope that you (and those whom you manage) will too aspire to improve your outlook on life via a conscious practice of gratitude.   

Beginning a Gratitude Journal: (Modified from How to Keep a Gratitude Journal)

Step 1:  Choose a blank notebook or journal to write in every night.  Consider a spiral-bound journal that opens flat for ease in writing.  Select lined or unlined paper.  Keep this notebook next to the bed with a pen readily available.

Step 2:  Look for things during the day for which you are grateful.  Make mental notes throughout the day, every day.  Notice how the gratitude journal serves as a catalyst in shifting your focus to a more positive outlook over time.

Step 3:  Write five things you're grateful for each night before bedtime.  Review the day and include anything, however small or great, that was a source of gratitude that day.  For example...the morning sun (rare in Seattle), the sound of a Harley, a flower in bloom, your child's laugh, or the smell of a newly cut lawn (...or cinnamon toast).  Make the list personal.  Write a few words about the five benefits or blessings.  Be brief and increase the length as time progresses.

Step #4:  Begin looking every day for the positive angle in all things.  You will begin to view obstacles as opportunities to appreciate.

Step #5:  Focus on the wonderful things in life to attract similar encounters in the course of the day.  Use positive emotions as you interact with others to elicit more positive emotions (There is a lot of research supporting this finding).  Note these attractions in the gratitude journal.

Step #6:  Personalize the gratitude journal.  Expand it with clippings, photos, quotes or verses from magazines or other sources.

For most of us, this seems like such a stretch -- It seems like something Oprah would do (As I recall, I believe she actually does keep a gratitude journal...). Nevertheless, the benefits are clear and profound. 

While researchers are stating their findings loud and clear, religious leaders have been emphasizing the benefits of gratitude for thousands of years.  I invite (challenge?) you to join me in this endeavor, and post your results.  I think you'll be surprised how much you will gain from this exercise.... 

Goal Attainment and Gratitude

You are probably wondering what Goal Attainment and Gratitude have in common.  If you've been reading this blog for awhile, you might be able to figure it out.  I've been following the research on gratitude over the last few years and have been trying to find a way to make it applicable to our WorkPuzzle readers.  I believe I finally have.  First, some background information regarding gratitude:

You see, gratitude has only recently been put under the microscope from a scientific research perspective.  Prior to the last 15 years, the subject was left to philosophers and religious leaders as the appropriate experts to extol its benefits.  However, once scientists began studying gratitude, they were so impressed by the findings, that research in this area has exploded.

The benefit of gratitude that I predict most of you will be interested in (at least initially), is the finding that gratitude is linked to significantly improved personal goal attainment.  In one study, participants in one group kept gratitude lists (more on this next blog).  This group ended up more likely to have made progress toward important personal goals (academic, interpersonal and health-based) over a two-month period than subjects in the control group, who underwent other exercises toward goal attainment.

However, a Research Project on Gratitude and Thankfulness confirms that goal attainment is not the only benefit to be gained from a practice of gratitude.  Check out the paraphrased list below for additional benefits a consistent discipline of practicing gratitude can bring:

1.  Studies show that those who keep gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercise more regularly, report fewer physical symptoms, feel better about their lives as a whole, and are more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who record hassles or neutral life events (Emmons & McCullough, 2003).

2.  Young adults who are taught self-guided exercises for daily gratitude report higher levels of the positive states of alertness, enthusiasm, determination, attentiveness and energy compared to other groups, who tend to focus on hassles or a downward social comparison (ways in which participants think they are better off than others). 

3.  Study participants practicing gratitude are more likely to report having helped someone with a personal problem or having offered emotional support to someone, compared to a group focused on hassles or social comparison condition.

4.  In a sample of adults with neuromuscular disease, a 21-day gratitude intervention resulted in greater amounts of high-energy, positive moods; a greater sense of connectedness to others; more optimistic ratings of one’s life; and better sleep duration and sleep quality, relative to a control group.

5.  Children who practice grateful thinking have more positive attitudes toward school and their families (Froh, Sefick, & Emmons, 2008).

6.  Grateful people report higher levels of positive emotions, life satisfaction, vitality, and optimism.  In addition, they report lower levels of depression and stress.  The disposition toward gratitude appears to enhance pleasant feeling states more than it diminishes unpleasant emotions.  Grateful people do not deny or ignore the negative aspects of life.

7.  Prosociality:  People with a strong disposition toward gratitude have the capacity to be empathetic and to view the perspective of others.  They are rated as more generous and more helpful by people in their social networks (McCullough, Emmons, & Tsang, 2002).

8.  Spirituality:  Those who regularly attend religious services and engage in religious activities, such as prayer reading, are more likely to be grateful.  Grateful people are more likely to acknowledge a belief in the interconnectedness of all life, and a commitment to, and responsibility to others (McCullough et. al., 2002). Gratitude does not require religious faith, but faith enhances the ability to be grateful.

9.  Materialism:  Grateful individuals place less importance on material goods; they are less likely to judge their own and others' success in terms of possessions accumulated; they are less envious of others; and are more likely to share their possessions with others, relative to less grateful persons.

If that isn't a good enough list of benefits to spur most of us to develop our own discipline of gratitude, I don't know what will!

In Monday's blog I'll show you how you can begin to develop your own gratitude practice, and how to teach gratitude to those you coach and mentor.