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.
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.
