leadership – Adele Hawkes

Five ways to stay happy at work

adele — Fri, 03 Feb 2023 16:30:52 +0000

Happiness at work means good business. Adele Hawkes shares five ways to keep your employees happy for increased productivity

CREDIT: This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared on Work Life and Practice Business

Understanding how to make people happy at work means great things for businesses; there are plenty of statistics that show just how important work happiness is for employers and for employees.

Research by The Guardian has shown that engaged teams can increase productivity by 20% and reduce staff turnover by a huge 87%. As a result, employees who are happy at work impact the bottom line, generating up to 43% more revenue. Similarly, Forbes reported that employee engagement and wellness can reduce absenteeism by 41%.

Employee happiness should matter to every organisation; here are five ways to make it matter to yours.

Encourage positive emotions

One of the biggest misconceptions about positive psychology is that it focuses so exclusively on the brighter side of life that it ignores the emotional complexity of being human. Recognising that our mental wellbeing is not entirely dependent on eliminating negative emotions is essential – in fact, discomfort, anxiety, fear and the like play a crucial role in our lives by flagging up areas where we feel challenged and signposting what matters to us.

The goal is always about balance, which means not succumbing to our natural negativity bias and acknowledging that positive emotions play an equally important role. Regularly experiencing things like joy, gratitude, hope, inspiration, enthusiasm, pride or fun at work help build psychological reserves that will actually act as a buffer when and if things get tough, helping people to reduce stress, persevere, come up with innovative solutions and cope more effectively.

Boost engagement

Have you ever felt so absorbed in an activity that time seems to disappear? In positive psychology, this is called being in ‘flow’, a state in which people often feel at their most industrious and contented. Unfortunately, without conscious attention, the opportunities for this intense sense of engagement can get swallowed up by the automatic assembly line of life. Perhaps, for example, you started a business because you felt passionately about the service you were able to provide, but most of your day now revolves around admin and chasing new leads. If that’s the case, it’s not surprising that you might start finding motivation hard to come by!

To boost engagement at work, there are three key areas to concentrate on – using your strengths (the things you are naturally good at), managing your emotions (through self and social awareness) and checking that your personal sense of purpose aligns with your employer of choice. This is the way to ensure you feel energetic, enthusiastic and able to optimally perform whatever task you are carrying out.

Build relationships

Positive relationships play a central role in a happy, functional work environment. Friendship, emotional support and connectedness to others are strongly correlated with positive emotions at work, while solid social ties foster a sense of resilience, belonging and even attachment to the organisation you are working for.

Having a collaborative team brings substantial wellbeing benefits, both subjectively (feeling positively about yourself and your life) and psychologically (looking after your mental health). It means you should never consider a quick coffee and chat with a colleague a waste of time; it can dramatically affect your overall satisfaction at work.

Find meaning

In which ways does your work give you purpose? It could be the opportunity to personally grow and develop, the chance to help others in some way and contribute to a higher purpose, or the opportunity to earn money flexibly, allowing you more time to pursue other passions and hobbies.

Connecting with your ‘why’ adds a real sense of value and commitment to your work that, again, can help build your resilience, overcome challenging situations and keep you driven despite tedious tasks or long hours. In short, it is one of the most empowering things you can do. If you are really struggling to identify why you are doing the work you do, it may well be time to start thinking about a change.

Celebrate accomplishments

Setting goals, and celebrating milestones along the way, are the final component to happiness. Taking steps to reach these goals – big or small – can significantly increase our sense of self-efficacy and motivation to keep achieving, especially when we focus on what we did, rather than what we didn’t do.

Remember, this isn’t about getting caught up in a spiral of intense pressure and perfectionism – when you evaluate your unrealistic goals against other people’s achievements, and find yourself lacking (‘comparison is the thief of joy’, after all) – no, this is about progressing and evolving in ways that are personally meaningful to you, and savouring every step of the journey.

You’ll also find that reflecting on your accomplishments gives you a good idea of where your strengths lie; this, in turn, this builds the type of solid inner-confidence and self-reliance that is an essential part of your roadmap to happiness, helping you secure that much coveted, long-lasting, personal and professional success.

Let’s talk about how to be happier!

adele — Fri, 19 Oct 2018 08:30:37 +0000

It’s been my absolute pleasure recently to have spoken to a number of businesses and organisations about how to be happier and why it matters. I love having the chance to share what I’ve learnt in a really practical way, and the feedback I’ve had so far has made me blush!

One of the things that has been noticeable during these talk is how it’s a topic that really connects with people. There seems to be a real appetite for learning how to take care of your psychological wellbeing in order to enjoy life more fully and become braver with the way we move through the world.

Because being happier isn’t just about that wonderful feeling that life is going your way, and you’re functioning optimally as a person. It’s also about feeling like you have the tools at your disposal to deal with whatever is coming your way. It’s about knowing your strengths and how to use them. It’s also about recognising when you’ve pushed yourself to the limit and need time and space to recharge.

In short, it’s incredibly empowering at work and in life.

If you think your company or organisation would benefit from a short interactive talk containing five potentially life-changing tips, please get in contact for more details.

How curious are you about your strengths?

adele — Tue, 25 Sep 2018 13:43:56 +0000

Using your character strengths as a way to have a ‘life-well-lived’ was a concept that blew me away when I was first introduced to it several years ago. And it remains one of the things that resonates with me most about positive psychology.

It just makes complete sense. Why wouldn’t you use the things you are naturally good at on a day to day basis? And what better way can there be to overcome problems, issues or obstacles than from a position of strength?

Research backs up this logic. According to Martin Seligman, the granddaddy of positive psychology, we can become lastingly happier by using our strengths more often and in different ways. Yet it never ceases to amaze me how few of us really know what our strengths are or how to use them to best advantage.

As I said, not long ago, I was firmly in that camp.

If you are too and want a quick ready-reckoner, you might like to try the Values In Action (VIA) survey. It’s based on 24 positive character traits, drawn up after a review of virtues in major religious and philosophical traditions around the world. All the traits included are considered to be universal, ubiquitous, morally valued and measureable, which makes it an excellent starting point no matter who you are or where you are from.

My own top strength from this survey is curiosity, which came as a bit of a surprise to me. It’s not that I disagreed – far from it. It’s that I’d never considered it an advantageous quality to possess.

This is a point that Erika Anderson makes in her book, ‘Be bad first: Get good at things fast to stay ready for the future’. We often say that curiosity is good (it’s akin to a survival skill in babies and children as they learn about the world), but as adults we’re taught to behave as though it’s not. We learn not to ask too many questions at work, for example, for fear of asking the wrong thing and looking stupid.

I certainly considered my own curiosity in the same negative way – something to be suppressed in case I came across as too intrusive, nosy or eager, rather than something constructive that I could use. But, as Andersen says, it’s not asking questions that is ‘a big problem for us when it comes to learning new things and thriving in this ever-changing world’.

Curious people tend to be good listeners and conversationalists, simply because they are genuinely interested in other people. It’s also a trait associated with intelligence and problem-solving, in part due to the fruitful environment curious people create for themselves by seeking constant input from new people, new things and new ideas. And as creativity is highly correlated with openness to new experiences, it follows that curious people have a propensity towards the creative too.

Andersen also makes the point that really curious people find endless fascination in ‘how things work and what might be possible’ and are therefore willing to do what it takes to find out more, understand, master and become more skilled.

In short, this is a quality that propels us forward and ensures we don’t settle for the status quo.

Suddenly, I saw this trait of mine in a whole new light – it was something of value that I could use to my advantage. Realising this has been a game-changer. For example, I have pretty high levels of motivation when it comes to my work anyway, but on the odd occasion when I’m faced with a project that doesn’t immediately grab me, I’ve found approaching it from a perspective of curiosity – what can I find out about here that I don’t already know? – makes getting started a whole lot easier. I don’t mind telling you that I’m all for taking the path of least resistance when it comes to achieving the things we want, which is why I always take a strengths-based approach with my coaching clients.

Our character strengths tend to be pretty stable over time, but they can change following particular situations and we can also develop and hone them. (There are also risks in under and over-using them, but that’s a topic for another day.) If you’d like to use the strength of curiosity more intentionally and enjoy some of its many benefits, here are some simple ideas to get you started:

· Look around the room you are in right now. What can you notice that you would usually overlook?

· Spend the first 10 minutes after you arrive in work reading about something new in an area that interests you, and then share what you’ve learnt with a colleague

· See how many different routes you can take to and from work, or anywhere else you regularly go

· Read a book or watch a film that you wouldn’t usually gravitate towards

· Take someone at work you find inspirational out for a coffee, and ask them all the questions you want (obviously, check it’s ok with them first!)

· Next time you are working on a project or doing an activity that you don’t much like, try to find three novel things about it and pay attention to them

· Encourage curiosity in your team, company or even family, by simply reminding people that there is no such thing as a silly question