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Where's Your Inner HERO? Positivity at Work

The Business Value Of Positive Psychology

Most of us are familiar with the terms “economic capital” and “human capital” — two fundamentals of modern business. But what about the notion of “psychological capital,” and its role in driving individual and organizational performance?

Researchers have been studying the application of Positive Psychology in the workplace, and a growing body of evidence demonstrates that a positive mindset affects our attitudes toward work, as well as the subsequent outcomes. As Dr. Fred Luthans explains in the video at the end of this post, our “psychological capital” can, indeed, have a significant impact upon work and career.

Previously, I’ve discussed how the tenets of positive psychology hold great potential as a guide to help individuals and organizations elevate workplace happiness. Overall, the movement focuses on identifying and building on what is “right” with our work lives — emphasizing our strengths, celebrating smaller successes, expressing gratitude. Central to this theory is the mechanism that helps us build our “psychological resources,” and use this collected energy to digest and cope with our work lives.

Finding Your Workplace “HERO”

To provide a practical framework for this concept, researchers have developed what they aptly call the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) construct. It features various psychological resources (a.k.a. “HERO” resources) that are central to our work life experiences. We combine these resources in various ways to meet the challenges of our daily work lives.

What are HERO resources?

Hope: Belief in the ability to persevere toward goals and find methods to reach them
Efficacy: Confidence that one can put forth the effort to affect outcomes
Resilience: Ability to bounce back in the face of adversity or failure
Optimism: A generally positive view of work and the potential of success

Finding Your Workplace HERO

Notably, studies have established (Avey, Luthans, et al., 2011) a clear positive relationship between PsyCap and multiple desired workplace outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment and psychological well-being. Moreover, the construct correlates negatively with undesirable organizational behaviors, including cynicism, anxiety, stress, and the intention to resign.

If you’re an employer, you’re probably wondering if you can improve the strength of an employee’s HERO resources over time. On a promising note, PsyCap appears to be a “state like” quality that is open to change. This contrasts with traits that tend to be largely stable over time, such as the “Big 5” personality traits — extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.

Assuming that psychological capital can be developed and strengthened over time, there are broad implications for key workplace behavior conventions, such as the nature of performance feedback, modes of learning and development, role design and leadership style.

Do you feel that focusing on PsyCap could enhance your work life or organizational culture? How would you apply this concept in your world of work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTCU80iiaeM

(Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from a LinkedIn Influencer post, with permission.)

(Also Note: To discuss World of Work topics like this with others in the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events every Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome for events, or to join our ongoing Twitter conversation anytime. Learn more…)

Image Credit: CGArtiste (Superman is © DC Comics)

Where’s Your Inner HERO? Positivity at Work

The Business Value Of Positive Psychology

Most of us are familiar with the terms “economic capital” and “human capital” — two fundamentals of modern business. But what about the notion of “psychological capital,” and its role in driving individual and organizational performance?

Researchers have been studying the application of Positive Psychology in the workplace, and a growing body of evidence demonstrates that a positive mindset affects our attitudes toward work, as well as the subsequent outcomes. As Dr. Fred Luthans explains in the video at the end of this post, our “psychological capital” can, indeed, have a significant impact upon work and career.

Previously, I’ve discussed how the tenets of positive psychology hold great potential as a guide to help individuals and organizations elevate workplace happiness. Overall, the movement focuses on identifying and building on what is “right” with our work lives — emphasizing our strengths, celebrating smaller successes, expressing gratitude. Central to this theory is the mechanism that helps us build our “psychological resources,” and use this collected energy to digest and cope with our work lives.

Finding Your Workplace “HERO”

To provide a practical framework for this concept, researchers have developed what they aptly call the Psychological Capital (PsyCap) construct. It features various psychological resources (a.k.a. “HERO” resources) that are central to our work life experiences. We combine these resources in various ways to meet the challenges of our daily work lives.

What are HERO resources?

Hope: Belief in the ability to persevere toward goals and find methods to reach them
Efficacy: Confidence that one can put forth the effort to affect outcomes
Resilience: Ability to bounce back in the face of adversity or failure
Optimism: A generally positive view of work and the potential of success

Finding Your Workplace HERO

Notably, studies have established (Avey, Luthans, et al., 2011) a clear positive relationship between PsyCap and multiple desired workplace outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment and psychological well-being. Moreover, the construct correlates negatively with undesirable organizational behaviors, including cynicism, anxiety, stress, and the intention to resign.

If you’re an employer, you’re probably wondering if you can improve the strength of an employee’s HERO resources over time. On a promising note, PsyCap appears to be a “state like” quality that is open to change. This contrasts with traits that tend to be largely stable over time, such as the “Big 5” personality traits — extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness.

Assuming that psychological capital can be developed and strengthened over time, there are broad implications for key workplace behavior conventions, such as the nature of performance feedback, modes of learning and development, role design and leadership style.

Do you feel that focusing on PsyCap could enhance your work life or organizational culture? How would you apply this concept in your world of work?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTCU80iiaeM

(Editor’s Note: This article is adapted from a LinkedIn Influencer post, with permission.)

(Also Note: To discuss World of Work topics like this with others in the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events every Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome for events, or to join our ongoing Twitter conversation anytime. Learn more…)

Image Credit: CGArtiste (Superman is © DC Comics)

So Much for the Job Have Nots: #TChat Recap

“All I know is that sometimes you have to be wary
Of a miracle too good to be true
All I know is that sometimes the truth is contrary
Everything in life you thought you knew…”

–Neil Peart

They sat in the front pews listening to our advice. The air conditioning didn’t work, so fans swirled warm air from back and forth between the open doors and windows, like restless dreams of the unknown. They listened with guarded optimism, looking tired, a little lost.

We talked about résumé best practices and where to look for jobs and how to optimize and leverage online professional profiles and where to find freelance and project work. We talked about volunteering and getting involved in your local community, not only to give back, but to exchange with one another via networking reciprocity; we never know where our next opportunity could come from. At one point toward the end of my segment, I forced a smile, thinking of my own career path, the highs and lows and mediocre in-betweens. I wiped my sweaty brow and looked toward the windows, already somewhat regretting my metaphorical cliche.

“Keep all those windows of opportunity open you find throughout your careers,” I said. “You never know when you’ll need them.”

These were the job have nots — working-class to middle-class folk who have lost their jobs, whose careers have ground to a halt, whose personal lives have gotten in the way of their professional ones. This was also my latest experience volunteering with Hirewire, a local organization to help job seekers in Santa Cruz County with career development and job search advice.

Consider one of the Hirewire attendees, an aerospace engineer in his late 50s out of work for nearly three years, struggling to fill the hole in his résumé and remain relevant and to again become employable.

Consider another of the Hirewire attendees, a service delivery professional in his early 40s out of work for over a year, struggling to find value in the local employment office workshops and counseling sessions.

Consider my best friend from college. In 1987 he wanted to be an airline pilot. He finished his college degree, flew hundreds of hours, finished all his flying certifications and — wallah — he became an airline pilot, first flying for a commuter airline and then for a global transport airline. But then just last month — wallah — he was out of a job, laid off due to the continued economic ice age.

Consider the thousands of men and women given highly skilled training to defend us near and abroad, to then find themselves again as civillians drowning in double-digit unemployment.

Consider the millions of high school graduates (and many more of those who didn’t graduate) who fight for a finite number of low-wage jobs while being shuffled to and fro from social service to social service and then told to look ahead, figure it out and find a job.

Figure what out, exactly? Sometimes the truth is contrary for the job have nots. And sometimes it’s a breath of fresh air, like the note I recently received from another friend of mine:

All is moving along for me…I’m doing some interesting work with companies both inside and outside of the HR space which is keeping things fresh. And still managing to find (some) balance in life by following your advice from the last time we spoke about “keeping all the windows open.”

Ah, so much for metaphorical clichés — so much is needed to warm the world of work again. So much has been lost during the darkest of modern economic winters. So much needs to be reinvented and reinvested.

So much for the job have nots.

Thank you for joining us yesterday. Your tweets couldn’t have come at a better time for the job have nots. If you missed the preview, click here.