As many of your know, we occasionally address the topic of happiness at work in WorkPuzzle discussions. While it’s a natural topic of interest to most people, it’s especially important if you have the responsibility of coaching agents.
The driving force that causes most individuals to perform is a “pursuit of happiness.”
Here’s the problem: What people believe will bring them happiness and what actually produces happiness are frequently disconnected. As a coach, it’s helpful to consistently address this disparity and point individuals towards the activities that deliver on producing true happiness.
How are you going to know these activities? Positive psychology researchers have been at work over the last 15 years finding answers.
Author and blogger, Davison Westmoreland, recently published a very informative summary of research done on the pursuit of happiness. His summary is not exhaustive, but it does provide a simple framework to focus on during the coaching relationship.
The Components of Happiness
Psychologists typically define happiness as a combination of three things: (1) life satisfaction, (2) the frequency and degree of positive affect, (3) and the relative absence of negative affect.
Researchers have found that we have essentially no control over roughly 50% of our happiness levels. 10% of happiness is determined by life circumstances (money, marriage, etc.) while 40% is determined by daily activities (how you think and what you do) (Lyubomirsky & Sheldon 2005).
In a coaching relationship, it makes sense to focus most of your attention on the “daily activities” component of happiness. While it has the largest impact (of those things that can be controlled), it’s also the most natural and appropriate to address in the workplace.
Activities That Produce Happiness
So what types of activities lead to happiness? Here is a quick list compiled by Westmoreland:
Commit to goals: Committing to and attaining goals is strongly associated with happiness.
Find meaning in your work: People can view their work as a job (a means to an end), a career (a means to an end with advancement), or a calling (find meaning in their job). Those with a calling are most happy.
Spend time with friends and family: Spending time with friends and family is strongly associated with happiness. Also, forgiving others has been shown to increase happiness.
Express kindness: People who perform 5 random acts of kindness a week are significantly happier than those who don’t.
Eat well: People who eat 7 to 8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day are happier than those who don’t.
Exercise: People who exercise are happier than those who don’t. Passive leisure (television and video games) is negatively correlated with happiness.
Spend money on experiences, not things: People gain more happiness from spending money on experiences than spending money on things.
Express gratitude: People who write down five things they are grateful for each week for 10 weeks are 25% happier.
Note: Each of the items on this list are connected to individual research studies and thoroughly cited in Westmoreland’s article. To view the citations and learn more about this topic, take a look at his outstanding work.
As you coach your agents, keep a list of these ideas handy. Since we all struggle with recognizing the connection between activities and happiness, helping your agents zero-in on the right activities is a valuable contribution. It not only helps them, but also makes your team more healthy and productive.
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