WorkPuzzle

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.

Zappos and the Pursuit of Happiness - Part 2

Yesterday, we spent some time learning about Tony Hsieh’s passion for making happiness the central focus of the Zappos culture.  The insight was gained from a recent article published in Inc. Magazine.

When companies think about happiness, particularly as it applies to employees, the attention usually shifts to perks and benefits.  Hsieh seems to know better:

“That single-minded focus on happiness has led to plenty of accolades for the company, which routinely scores high on lists of the best places to work. But Zappos's approach to workplace bliss differs significantly from that of other employee-friendly businesses.

For one thing, Zappos pays salaries that are often below market rates -- the average hourly worker makes just over $23,000 a year. Though the company covers 100 percent of health care costs, employees are not offered perks found at many companies, such as on-site child care, tuition reimbursement, and a 401(k) match.

Zappos does offer free food to its employees, but the pile of cold cuts in the small cafeteria loses its allure faster than you can say Googleplex. Instead of buying his employees' loyalty, Hsieh has managed to design a corporate culture that challenges our conception of that tired phrase.”

As Dave Mashburn often points out in his WorkPuzzle posts:  Every human wants happiness, but we’re very poor at predicting what will make happiness a reality in our own lives.  This is exactly what intrigues Hsieh:

“'I've been doing a lot of research into the science of happiness,' he says. In addition to asking everyone he meets what makes him or her happy, he has also been studying books on the subject, especially Jonathan Haidt's The Happiness Hypothesis, which uses social psychology experiments to evaluate the world's great religions and philosophies and concludes that ancient wisdom and science are both useful tools in the quest for contentment.”

So, what’s he come up with?  Hsieh has concluded that happiness comes from establishing a balance between the following four basic human needs:

1. Perceived Progress:  The perception that you’re further along today than yesterday.

2. Perceived Control:  The perception that you have a direct affect on the outcomes in your life.

3. Relatedness:  Living life in the context of meaningful relationships.

4. Connection to a Larger Vision:  Contributing to something bigger than yourself.

Hsieh admits that he doesn’t have this topic completely figured out yet:

“'I’ve got a few different frameworks and I’m just figuring out how to combine them,' he says without irony or even a smile.  ‘I think I’m pretty close.'”

I find all of this intriguing, particularly because we now have hard-core business leaders addressing issues that previously "belonged" in the realm of philosophy.  Why?  Because these issues have a direct and profound impact on performance. 

If you have the responsibility for coaching and managing others, hopefully you will feel inspired to step into Tony Hsieh's shoes, and view the vast benefits of happiness in a whole new light...

Zappos and the Pursuit of Happiness

About a year ago, I started seeing advertisements in the bottoms of the plastic bins at the security checkpoints at airports – You know, the containers that you put your shoes and other personal items in before they go through the x-ray machine?

The one advertisement that stands out in my mind from routinely using these bins, was placed by a company called Zappos. Unfortunately, the intended brand impact eluded me at the time… I had no idea that Zappos was a very large and successful online shoe retailer, hence the advertisement at the bottom of the shoe bin. How clever!

Inc. Magazine recently ran an article about Zappos that I found insightful. The Zappos story is very inspiring on its own, and worth reading from a human interest perspective. But, what caught my eye was the leadership insight of their CEO, Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay).

Hsieh has received some media attention for the financial success of Zappos (their revenues now exceed $1 Billion per year), but most people are far more interested in the counter-intuitive way he runs the company.

What’s his secret? Happiness. Hsieh has decided to make happiness the central focus of his company:

“But Hsieh has a hard time getting excited about [the financial success of the company]. What he really cares about is making Zappos’s employees and customers feel really, really good. This is not because Hsieh is a nice guy (though he is a very nice guy), but because he has decided that his entire business revolves around one thing: happiness. Everything serves that single end. Other business innovators work with software code or circuit boards or molecular formulas. Hsieh prefers to work with something altogether more complex and volatile: human beings themselves.”

Tomorrow, I’ll discuss some of the principles that Hsieh has uncovered in making happiness the central focus of Zappos. In the meantime, try to find these shoe bin ads the next time you’re at the airport…now you know the story behind them!

What's a Friend Worth?

If you are a Recruiter or Hiring Manager, you already know that network contacts can be very valuable.  People you know become a repository for new information and new contacts.

While this may be old news for you, the marketing world is just starting to study this topic.  Due to the proliferation of online social networks, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, businesses are starting to put a monetary value on these relationships.

Business Week ran a feature article on this topic last week.  Here are some insights that I picked up:

1.  Most people have many “friends,” but few close contacts:  The average Facebook user with 500 “friends” actively follows the news of 40 of them, communicates with 20, and keeps in close contact with about 10. 

2.  People tend to group other people into one of four categories: 

(a) Closest Friends -- You trade email with these people or have other reciprocal communications.

(b) One-way Relationships -- You send email to these people or post comments on their profile pages (but they don’t respond).

(c) Just Barely in Touch -- You click on something these people post on Facebook or visit their profile page more than twice.

(d) Near Strangers -- You let these people into your network, but you really don’t know or interact with them.

3.  So far, marketers are dismal at figuring out how to manipulate these networks for profit:  It is estimated that Facebook is able to generate less than a dime per member in advertising revenue.  Yes, they have a lot of members, but the end results pale in comparison to traditional advertising venues.  In my hometown of Seattle, radio stations capture about $200M in ad revenue from a population base of $3.2M people.  That’s over $60 per person compared to Facebook’s $0.10 per member.

So, what can we learn from all of this?  First, companies are spending a lot of money trying to crack the code of social marketing.  If it all seems confusing to you, you’re not alone.  Companies like Facebook and Microsoft have bunches of PhDs working on this stuff and they can’t even figure it out! 

Second, some of the traditional techniques you’ve used for networking should not be abandoned.  Most of your results are still going to come from these techniques. 

Lastly, don’t ignore the new tools, but don’t depend on them either.  Spend your extra time endearing yourself to your close contacts rather than adding “near strangers” to your online network.

Why Optimism Matters - Part 2: Optimism and Sport...What it Means for You

On Friday, we took a look at the toll that Optimism (or lack thereof) takes on health.  For those of you who want to apply this to business, the research on Optimism and Sports may be a better transfer of principles:

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"Sports enthusiasts at every level are intuitively aware that the ‘mental’ part of performance can be just as important as the physical.  Gymnastics is often said to be 90% mental and 10% physical.  Other sports see ‘intangible’ factors, such as confidence and a ‘cool’ head under pressure, make up more than 50% of success.

Many will talk about ‘being in the zone’ when they perform at their peak.  Olympic 100- metre gold medalist Linford Christie described his focus on the starting line as being like looking down a long, straight tune.  His ability to blank out other competitors, the roar of the crowd, the flashbulbs, gave him those extra centimeters over his rivals.

In sport, psychology matters – and at every level.  If you go onto the squash court telling yourself that you’ve never beaten Joe before and that you’re not going to beat him today, then the result is very predictable.

Optimism boosts sporting performance, both at team and individual levels.  Research into baseball and basketball teams in the USA revealed that teams have their own explanatory styles.  The explanatory style used by teams after a defeat or when under pressure in the last few minutes of a game will determine future performance, regardless of the quality of the team.  Those who are optimistic in the face of defeat are more likely to be successful in their next game; those who explain setbacks negatively will perform more poorly.  Research into swimmers revealed that the same trend holds for individual athletes.  Quite simply, when under pressure optimistic sportsmen and women try harder – and they recover from defeat more quickly.

After conducting detail study of sports teams and on individual swimmers, Martin Seligman included a list of 'What Every Coach Should Know' in Learned Optimism: _

• Optimism is not something you can know intuitively.  The ASQ (an optimism test developed by Seligman’s team) measures something you can't.  It predicts success beyond experienced coaches' judgments and handicappers' expertise.

• Optimism tells you when to use certain players rather than others.  Consider a crucial relay race.  You have a fast athlete, but he's a pessimist who lost his last individual race.  Substitute.  Use pessimists only after they have done well.
• Optimism tells you who to select and recruit.  If two prospects are close in raw talent, recruit the optimist.  He'll do better in the long run.
• You can train your pessimists to become optimists."

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If you're interested, you and your team can go to http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx and take the Optimism Test to see where you rank.  But keep in mind...your entire team can’t be optimists.  Decisions would be far too impulsive. 

Why Optimism Matters

Over the course of the last 23 years of Consulting and providing Psychotherapy Services to countless individuals, I can tell you that the role of Optimism is a concept that is greatly misunderstood. 

It seems that there are two extremes when it comes to Optimism:  One extreme people experience is a Fear of Hope, usually due to having been burned several times previously, where feelings were severely hurt and all hope was shattered.  The other extreme is Endless, (and somewhat) Baseless Hope -  Hope built on nothing but hope alone (In other words, optimism without substance and hard work).

In following the research on Optimism, I found this great summary article called "Why Optimism Matters" that is helpful in realizing the impact that Optimism can have on every aspect of our lives, including business: 

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"More than 100 studies have been conducted to measure the impact of optimism and pessimism on people's lives.

One of the key factors is that pessimism can be very insidious, pervading all parts of people’s lives, causing them to lose heart and to give up. Research shows that people who have a pessimistic explanatory style are:

• more susceptible to depression when things go wrong 

• more likely to underachieve 

• prone to passivity or helplessness when confronted with a stressful situation, such as a new job or leaving home for university 

• liable to under-perform at sport when faced with stress or defeat on the field of play 

• more likely to die from a heart attack following an initial coronary event, compared with people who have an optimistic explanatory style.

One of the reasons why optimists tend to be healthier than pessimists is that depression weakens certain hormones in the brain, sparking off a chain reaction that suppresses the immune system.

Optimists also pay more attention than pessimists to information that will help them reduce health risks.  A study by Dr Lisa Aspinwall, associate professor at the University of Utah, found that when subjects were given information about cancer and serious health issues, optimists spent more time than pessimists reading the severe risk material and they remembered more of it. It is because they are optimistic that they are prepared to bite the bullet and spend time attending to major health risks.

There is a simple explanation for the link between our explanatory style and the things that happen in our lives. Reivich points out that if you are a 50 year old man who smokes, drinks a lot of alcohol, eats a lot of red meat and has had a first coronary episode, then his explanatory style will have a big impact on the outcome. Pessimists will tend to behave passive in the face of this bad news, rather than spurred into action to change their lifestyle and improve their health.

'The doctor says "you need to quit smoking, quit drinking and change your diet". As a pessimist, you'll most likely say to yourself something like "it’s in my genes, my father died of a heart attack, his father died of a heart attack, I’m just destined for this".  And if that’s your belief then that’s going to dictate your behavior, and you’re going to be less likely to follow doctor’s orders.  So there’s nothing magical about the pathway through which explanatory style leads to real world outcome, explanatory style drives behaviour – and behaviour is what leads to outcomes.' 

'These are people,' says Aspinwall, 'who aren’t sitting around wishing things were different. They believe in a better outcome, and that whatever measures they take will help them to heal.'

Research led by Dr Mika Kivimaki in Finland concluded that optimism may reduce the risk of health problems and actually help a person recover after experiencing a serious life-changing event, such as death of a spouse or child. Following a major life crisis, pessimists tend to take more time off work than optimists. 

'Pessimists frequently distance themselves from emotional events and this coping strategy may be less effective than using active problem-focused coping immediately after an uncontrollable severe event such as death of a family member', said Kivimaki.

Pessimistic people face the real risk of giving up in the face of adversity, of passively accepting that they were born to draw the short straw in life. But we don’t need to live like this. When bad things happen we should take action by striving to find the explanations and thought patterns that give us hope, instead of the 'This happpens to me' 'all the time', 'no matter what'.

For some people it could mean the difference between life and death."

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On Monday, I'll share some examples and analogies within the sports arena that you can relate to your team and business competition practices.

Predicting Who Will Make a Job Change

Recruiting is a time consuming process.  Nothing is more frustrating than spending time and effort pursuing a candidate who is not willing to make a change.  You not only lose the time you spent trying to dislodge someone who is stuck, but you also forfeit the opportunity of engaging someone else who might have a higher propensity to change jobs.

With the susceptibility for such waste, it makes sense to put some thought into the inclination a person has for change at an early stage in the recruiting process.

Many years ago, Steve Hieman, the co-founder of the sales training company Miller-Heiman, developed a model for thinking about change.  The model was built to help salespeople understand how decision-makers would potentially react to sales proposals.

Heiman observed that people generally fall into one of four modes depending upon their perception of reality:

1.  Growth Mode:  The perception that there is a hopeful difference between today’s reality and the potential for short-term gains.  Something needs to be done to reach the potential.

2.  Trouble Mode:  The perception that today's reality will soon deteriate.  A person in this mode has anxiety about the difficulty looming on the horizon.  Something needs to be done to avoid the trouble ahead.

3.  Even Keel Mode:  The perception that that there is no difference between today’s reality and what will actually be accomplished in the months ahead.  “Rocking the boat” is risky and unnecessary.

4.  Overconfident Mode:  The perception that growth and prosperity are inevitable.

If you think about these concepts from a recruiting perspective, the definitions apply.  Each candidate tends to have a perception of reality that matches one of these modes. 

It’s not hard to figure out a candidate’s mode during a conversation.  The questions that get a candidate to reveal his/her perception of reality are natural and easy to ask.  Once you’ve made this assessment, you have some insight into the candidate’s propensity to change.

Candidates who are in a Growth Mode or Trouble Mode have a high likelihood of making changes.   Candidates who are in an Even Keel Mode have a much lower chance of making a change.  And candidates who are Overconfident have very little chance of making a change.

In working with a candidate in your talent pipeline, those in the Growth or Trouble Mode are going to be much more open to direct conversations about making a job change.

Those who are in an Even Keel Mode will most likely need to percolate over time.  As a recruiter, staying in touch and being seen as an indirect resource is the best way to spend your time while you wait for an external event to dislodge them from the Even Keel mode.

Those who are Overconfident will not be responsive until they “crash and burn.”   It’s a waste of time to try to engage them until their arrogance causes them to enter the Trouble Mode themselves.

Try making these assessments with the people you work with this week -- See how quickly you can become adept at assessing their modes.  With this knowledge, you’ll be more focused on the activities that produce results.

Coaching for Focus, Attention, and Success

On Friday, I described the neuroscience regarding the importance of maintaining focus.  Brain research confirms that we can shape how our brains operate and perform by training them to focus intently on the desired end-result.  To do this with the most positive results, we must help the brain stop doing what its oldest parts are trying to do-- keep us alive!

You see, above all else, the brain's primary purpose is to keep us from dying.  How?  The brain does this by focusing on what can go wrong; by focusing on the dangers; by focusing on the obstacles; by focusing on the negative.  This is the brain's default position.

But, unlike other animals, we have this enormous cerebral cortex that surrounds the oldest part of the brain (the lymbic system).  If we always give in to the danger signals that the lymbic system is sending out, we'd rarely take chances, innovate, face rejection, or progress in our development.

Here's an example of how performance can be enhanced by training the brain to filter out obstacles and focus on the goal at hand:

I've been mountain biking for the past 14 years.  I'm by no means an expert, but I get by.  The first thing anyone learns in mountain biking technique 101, is that your bike will go where your eyes are looking.  If your eyes are looking at a tree, you'll hit the tree.  If you're looking at a rock, you'll hit the rock.

Now, your brain actually wants to look at the rock... it's literally screaming at you... "There's a rock you idiot!  You'd better look at it...and while you're at it, slow down for crying out loud!" 

There are some people who will never progress in single track mountain biking, because they can't train their minds to not look at the rock.  The people who become proficient bikers, are able to train their brain, over time, to focus ahead, around the upcoming curve, toward the open trail...to where they really want to go. 

This task takes discipline and repetition.  Soon your brain has realized, "I am not only staying alive by looking beyond the trees and rocks, I'm having pleasure and success by doing it this way!"

I've heard this same principle applies to race car driving.  At those speeds, you can't look at the wall.  If you do, you're dead!

Success for you and those you manage is no different.  If your team is constantly looking at the obstacles, you'll inevitably hit them, head-on.  Likewise, if you're constantly looking at the "bad market," you'll be dragged down by it. 

Success comes to those who can train their team (self included) to look toward the vision, the goals, and the opportunities.  A culture built on this mind-set, is one that will survive and thrive, while the "others" out there will continue to hit trees...  

The Neuroscience of Change

One of our readers recently sent me a very good article titled, "The Neuroscience of Leadership," by David Rock and Jeffrey Schwartz.

Although it certainly pertains to leadership on some level, it is really more about change.  The authors did an excellent job synthesizing a good deal of brain research into understandable applications around some of the challenges of producing change in organizations.

Here are some tidbits:

1. Change is pain.  Organizational change is unexpectedly difficult because it provokes sensations of physiological discomfort.

2. Behaviorism doesn’t work.  Change efforts based on incentive and threat (the carrot and the stick) rarely succeed in the long run.

3. Humanism is overrated.  In practice, the conventional empathic approach of connection and persuasion doesn’t sufficiently engage people.

4. Focus is power.  The act of paying attention creates chemical and physical changes in the brain.

5. Expectation shapes reality.  People's preconceptions have a significant impact on what they perceive.

6. Attention density shapes identity.  Repeated, purposeful, and focused attention can lead to long-lasting personal evolution.

Points four and six are most interesting to me – Focus is power and Attention density shapes identity:

"Concentrating attention on your mental experience, whether a thought, an insight, a picture in your mind’s eye, or a fear, maintains the brain state arising in association with that experience.  Over time, paying enough attention to any specific brain connection keeps the relevant circuitry open and dynamically alive.  These circuits can then eventually become not just chemical links but stable, physical changes in the brain’s structure.

Cognitive scientists have known for 20 years that the brain is capable of significant internal change in response to environmental changes, a dramatic finding when it was first made.  We now also know that the brain changes as a function of where an individual puts his or her attention.  The power is in the focus.  Attention continually reshapes the patterns of the brain.

The greater the concentration on a specific idea or mental experience, the higher the attention density.  With enough attention density, individual thoughts and acts of the mind can become an intrinsic part of an individual’s identity:  Who one is, how one perceives the world, and how one’s brain works.  The neuroscientist’s term for this is self-directed neuroplasticity."

This is exciting information to me.  I have seen this research in various forms, coming out of all avenues of science.  Additionally, I have seen first hand the impact of people falling into old (safe) patterns of thinking based on old experiences, simply because it's what they've known and focused on previously.

I have also seen the subsequent life change that occurs when attention shifts to a new way of thinking or feeling.  Ask yourself... "Where am I stuck?"... "What am I focused on that is keeping me there?"... and "What should I focus on to get where I'd like to be?"

GIT-R-DONE Discipline

Yesterday, my favorite morning radio program featured "Larry the Cable Guy."  He was live on the air for about ten of the funniest minutes I've ever experienced.  I've never really given the guy a chance, quickly changing the channel whenever coming across him on T.V.  I have to admit, however, he had me in stitches during the entire show.

In listening to the interview, it became apparent that  he'd been on this radio program before, typically to promote an upcoming performance in the Seattle area. 

Near the end of the interview, the host mentioned that every time Larry is a guest on the show, he seems to have brand new material.  The host was curious about how he managed to keep his act so fresh and not repeat any old material.

For the first time in the interview, Larry became very serious and replied:

"For the past several years, I have disciplined myself to write comedy bits for two hours every day."

He went on to describe how he frequently has to force himself to find time to write.  Even on those days when there seems to be no time... he "forces" himself just the same.  He credits his great success to holding steadfast to this discipline, and believes that he wouldn't have lasted in the competitive world of comedy without it.

The lessons here are so clear:

1. What appears effortless, usually takes an incredible amount of diligence and hard work behind the scenes.
2. Any success that lasts, is built on hard work and consistent discipline.
3. There are no short-cuts to success.
4. Your success is up to you.  No pointing fingers.
5. You've got to have a system!

No matter what you do, without a system and accountability to that system, you probably won't accomplish what you intend to.  For example, if recruiting is part of your job, you can't be flying by the seat of your pants.  You must set aside a certain period of time every day to recruit within the parameters of a system.  Only by doing this day-in and day-out, without fail, will you succeed.

"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving:  To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it, but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor." (Oliver Wendell Holmes)