WorkPuzzle

Will It Be a "Happy" New Year for You?

Over the last week, you’ve probably had some time to reflect on 2008.   Was it a good year? That depends how you look at it.

If you measure a year by things such as the money you lost or how secure you feel about your business, then for many, it was probably a very bad year. Immersing yourself in mourning the losses will do little to improve your ability to work well or bring you happiness.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be happy. But science tells us that human beings are very poor predictors of what will bring them happiness.   If we really want to be happy, then it is important that we live consistent with what truly brings happiness.

One of the truths that will bring happiness is living according to who you want to become.  This is called your “ideal self.”

The “ideal self” should not be confused with the “ought self”. The “ought self” is the self that other influential people in your life wanted you to become.  For example, your parents may have had strong opinions on what you should do with your life. 

The “ideal self” is also commonly confused with the “ false ideal self.”  The “false ideal self” focuses on false ideals such as acquiring wealth, fame, or security. 

At your core, somewhere, no matter who you are, you have an idea of what kind of person you want to become. And the more you fight against this longing, the more miserable you’ll be.

It’s my belief that this “ideal self” is the self you were created to be. Some fight it more than others.  But that “ideal self” is a self that lives by personal and universal values that guide every action.

Research of happy people tells us that they live by their values. They are in less internal conflict about what is important to them.

In my next article, I’ll outline a simple process for identifying your “ideal self” and give you some guidelines on living by the values you’ve identified.

Gratitude: What Does the Grinch Know About Work?

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

In the spirit of the season, I thought it appropriate to share the research that relates the benefits we can expect from being grateful.

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."

So, regardless of what has happened to our stock portfolios and our balance sheets, perhaps we can remember that the best way to instill well-being to our organizations is to recite the words of George Bailey,

“Hello, Bedford Falls! Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan! Hey! Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter!”

Tapping Your "Best Work"--Part 2

"The fullest representations of humanity show people to be curious, vital, and self-motivated. At their best, they are agentic and inspired, striving to learn; extend themselves; master new skills; and apply their talents responsibly

… Yet it is also clear that the human spirit can be diminished or crushed and that individuals sometimes reject growth and responsibility. Regardless of social strata or cultural origin, examples of both children and adults who are apathetic, alienated and irresponsible are abundant.

Such non-optimal human functioning can be observed not only in our psychological clinics but also among the millions who, for hours a day, sit passively before their televisions, stare blankly from the back of their classrooms, or wait listlessly for the weekend as they go about their jobs."

-Richard M. Ryan and Edward L. Deci

If you read part one of “Tapping your Best Work” and found yourself lacking the desire to do your best work, you’re not alone—millions of people struggle with this problem and want to be reinvigorated.    Fortunately, there is a great deal of science around motivation, personal strengths, and engagement in one’s work.

“Engagement” is another way of referring to that state when we are immersed in work for its own sake. That is, we’re driven to do the work for intrinsic reasons (meaning, contribution, curiosity) rather than solely for extrinsic reasons (pay, recognition).  Understanding engagement, both in yourself and those with whom you interact, is vital in building a foundation of understanding for your role as a recruiter, coach or leader.

We can’t tackle this topic in just two discussions, but I will share a few ideas of how you can start reinvigorating your sense of engagement right away.

Approach critical tasks with methodologies that create “Flow.” 
 
Flow (a term coined by psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi) is the mental state where a person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. Flow exists in any interesting sport, game or work task. Creating flow in any task requires that you have the following conditions:

• The task must be challenging (i.e. not easily obtained or accomplished).

• The task must require a high personal skill level to accomplish.

• The task has must have clear goals and rules of performance.

• The task must be performed in an environment where you have the ability to concentrate and avoid distractions.

• In accomplishing the task, there must be a way to gain ongoing feedback about your progress.

• In accomplishing the task, there must be a way to measure or gauge success.

Think about the tasks that you perform on a daily basis.  Do some of the tasks you perform fit the criteria of producing flow?  If not, then you may need to add some tasks or a project that would allow you to experience more flow in your workday.  At the same time, remove some things from your schedule that have no chance of producing flow.

If you’re a manager, are the people you manage performing tasks and projects that fit the criteria of producing flow?  If you do not know the answer to this question, it’s important that you find out.  By nature, each individual experiences flow differently based on their talents, strengths, and interests.  If an employee is experiencing flow in their day-to-day work, they’ll be engaged and produce their best work.

If you’re a recruiter, are those in your recruiting pipeline experiencing flow in the tasks and projects they are performing in their current jobs?  Most are not.  If you can engage a person in a dialog concerning these issues, you’ll have clearer insight concerning their true motivations for staying in an existing job.  You’ll also better understand the objections and fears of making a change. 

Being able to inspire candidates to consider new roles by indentifying with their deep frustrations will put you on a new footing in the recruitment dialog.   Demonstrating how a candidate could then be experiencing flow in his day-to-day work transforms you from a recruiter into a trusted and credible career counselor. 

Tapping Your "Best Work" - Part 1

Ask yourself the following question and answer honestly:

"Am I resistant to becoming great at what I do?”

Whether it’s recruiting, coaching or any other work performance, there is great work, mediocre work and lousy work. If you’re not compelled to do your very best everyday, you need to address the underlying problem.
 
Winning in life and winning in business is really not that complex. It only becomes complex when we lose our motivation. Many people are frustrated by our current economic circumstances, and they let this frustration sap their motivation.  But the keys to winning are the same in every economic environment.

One of the keys is Desire. You could call it energy, liveliness, or “get-up-and-go.” No matter what you call it, we've all felt it at some point in our lives.
 
Each of us is born with a natural desire to do things well. As children, we worked hard to walk, talk, run, jump and discover new treasures. We all, at least to begin with, experienced the world as an endless landscape of new possibilities.

As we grew, our interests and talents became even more apparent, and we began to specialize in our endeavors. The key here is that there was a willingness to venture beyond one's comfort zone and try something totally new.
 
That's where life is exciting. And it's when we experience that excitement that every other facet of our lives tends to fall into place. Almost every great thing that has ever happened to anyone has happened when they stepped outside of their usual comfort level and found something that reinvigorated that excitement.

Doing one’s best almost always includes having a difficult goal to strive towards. Every game worth playing, war worth fighting, or task worth completing has a goal. In fact, every great leader has the ability to tell people where the flag is (usually in a difficult to reach spot) and create a desire in the team to go get it.

Do a quick survey of your own life to this point and pinpoint when you had the most momentum, felt like you were tapping the best of your talents, and “hit it out of the park.” I guarantee that it was when you had a difficult goal and then rose to the challenge.

 

About WorkPuzzle

David Mashburn, Ph.D.   

Dr. Mashburn received his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1986, and has over 25 years of experience as a psychologist, assessment consultant, psychotherapist, and speaker.

In addition, Dr. Mashburn had the pleasure of serving as adjunct faculty member of Seattle Pacific Universities School of Business and Economics, teaching Leadership and Management and Chapman College graduate psychology program, teaching psychological assessment and measurement.

He has completed extensive post-doctoral work through the Masterson Institute, and is a graduate of the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara (Individual and Organizational Systems). He has also conducted research on the characteristics affecting spiritual well-being and relationship satisfaction.

Dr. Mashburn currently serves as Director of Research and Development for Tidemark Inc., operates his Clinical Practice, and continues to serve as an assessment consultant to both federal and state governments. He resides in the Seattle area, has been married for 30 years and has three grown children.

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Ben Hess  

Ben was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and served two tours in Japan as a Naval Officer administering more than $200M in construction contracts on behalf of the US government.  Ben was awarded two Navy Commendation Medals and two Navy Achievement medals for his work in Japan.

After completing his Naval Service, Ben became a top sales and marketing manager for Tektronix, a publicly-traded electronic equipment manufacturer, where he grew sales by more than 50% among the most strategic accounts in Washington state.  In 2000, he founded PlateSpinner, a work-life balance software company focused on giving Fortune 1000 companies innovative strategies for retaining Gen X employees.   In 2002, Ben founded BirchTree Capital, a financial software distribution company focused on equipping high net-worth investors to diversify into the commodities markets.

Ben currently serves as the Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and resides in the Seattle area.  He has been married for 20 years and has six children.

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Lisa Sykes   

Lisa graduated cum laude from Western Washington University in 1993, with a Bachelor of Science in Sociology, and a minor in Psychology.  Her undergraduate work included research and detailed content analysis in the area of missing children in the Department of Sociology.

Her background is in Human Resources recruiting, training, employee relations, and policy development and revision.  She was previously employed by the City of Vancouver, WA recruiting for Police, Fire, and Public Works Departments.  She additionally served as Project Manager for select city programs, wrote and edited company policies and procedures, coordinated all City training modules, and assisted closely in the City’s movement toward self-directed work teams.  Lisa has received recognition and awards for exceptional customer service and demonstrated sales achievement in her career.

Lisa currently serves as Marketing Assistant and Chief Editor at Tidemark, Inc. and resides in the Seattle area.  She has been married for 17 years and has two children. 

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Lee Gray

Lee earned her B.A. in Political Science and Criminal Justice from the University of Wisconsin in 1993.  She served as a legislative intern in the state Senate for the majority of her senior year.  During that time, she drafted the “Manner of Dress” bill that was later voted into law in the state of Wisconsin.

Prior to coming to Tidemark, the majority of Lee’s experience was in the non-profit world.  Starting out as a case manager for Big Brothers/Big Sisters, she later joined a start up non-profit organization that focused on drug and alcohol treatment and prevention for adolescents, and moved into program development and implementation for at-risk youth and homeless families.  Lee also served on the board of two non-profit organizations dedicated to feeding and supporting low-income/homeless families.

Lee moved from New Hampshire to the Seattle area with her husband of 17 years and two sons, and currently serves as the Senior Account Manager for Tidemark Inc.