Positive Psychology Training— Why Your Organization Needs an Optimistic Team

“Positive thoughts generate positive feelings and attract positive life experiences” – Mae West

This goes for our individual lives and our workplaces. But not every organization harnesses benefit from an optimistic work culture.

This short Positive Psychology Course Topic will help organizations determine if they require changing their workplace culture and provide ways to help.

In This Article:
Signs Your Organization Needs A Positive Team
More Health Hazard
Evident Disengagement
Shrinking Loyalty
3 Ways to Create a Positive Culture in Your Organization
Training Positive Leaders and Manager
Remove Obstacle To Positivity
Manage Positively

But before you continue you might like to consider our free worksheet on exploring “Manifest Abundance and Plan Your Hustle”. Please download this worksheet here.

Signs Your Organization Needs A Positive Team

I learned from positive psychology programs how it is a common occurrence that workplaces become toxic that it affects employees’ overall physical and mental health. This then incurs hidden expenses for the company that may not be too apparent but affects the overall productivity and environment. There are signs to watch out for and companies should look out for them so they may address their need.

More Health Hazards

Demanding companies were found to be spending on health-care charges by 50% more than other companies. These expenditures accumulate to millions of workdays lost because of doctor visits due to stress (estimated to be 80%) and accidents in the work area (about 60-80%). Stress from work is associated with health disorders ranging from metabolic to cardiovascular. The pressure of fitting and going up in ranks is linked to health problems and sometimes even death like how being in low ranks and having leadership inclinations makes one susceptible to cardiovascular disease or heart attacks.

Evident Disengagement

If your organization has experienced a high rate of absenteeism, accidents, and prominent inaccuracies and deficiencies, then your members must be feeling disengaged. This can cost you lower outputs, lower profitabilities, lower job growths, and lower than average share price over time. Although a culture of fear can ensure engagement in work, some studies show that it can create disengagement in the long term. Engagement of employees is related to the feelings of being valued, secured, supported, and respected— these feelings are unlikely harbored in a high-stress work environment in high-competition industries.

Shrinking Loyalty

A non-optimistic team can bill you costs associated with recruitment, training, low productivity lost proficiency as people may tend to look for better opportunities, refuse promotions, or quit the company altogether. We do know that an employee’s replacement costs approximately 20% of their salary. There are perks offered that boosts employees’ loyalties like work-from-home options, flexitime, office gyms and quarters, etc. But a survey by Gallup showed that work engagement and loyalty are also predicted above and beyond everything else by well-being. Material benefits were found to be only secondary to workplace well-being. Well-being can be simply defined as happiness, so how can well-being be promoted in the workplace? It is by setting up a positive culture in the organization or company.

3 Ways to Create a Positive Culture in Your Organization

To prevent the company or organization to incur costs mentioned above, here are three compact ways to help produce a positive culture for more productivity, engagement, loyalty, and less stress for the employees:

• Training Positive Leaders and Managers
• Remove Obstacles to Positivity
• Manage Positively

Training Positive Leaders and Managers

Leaders are vital in promoting work engagement since they are responsible for the creation of a work environment that would make an employee feel motivated and comfortable. In a Positive Psychology

Training Workshop managers to encourage a positive culture in the company is like hitting two birds with one stone: employees will not feel unhappy while at work and that mood will not tail them going home, thus no stress could affect their well-being. The following were found to be the best traits to develop in your leaders and managers:

1. 1. Consistent Communication Skills

      The Gallup research has found that frequent communication
      — electronically, over calls, and in-person were vital to higher work engagement of the employees. Managers who frequented meetings or talks rather than just having mere transactions were found to make the members more valued, and thus makes them more dedicated to their work.

      Everyday communication is also a way for leaders and managers to get to know their members at a personal level which makes them comfortable. This can be used as a tool for motivation since a feeling of being cared for could build genuine relationships to accommodate each employees’ uniqueness and help them perform better and strive for growth.

      

   2. Hands-on Performance Management EvaluationThe annual performance evaluations might feel insincere, disconnected, and frustrating for employees who do not have a clear goal. But when the assessment is done efficiently, it could encourage productivity, profitability, and creative contributions.A way to do this is having clarity of expectations, helping them know about their basic responsibilities may help them set their vision to the objective. A sense of accountability is not all about the employee though, it also entails the manager of a leader to practice fairness and treating everyone with the same standards.
   3. Building up StrengthsBuilding strengths were found to be more effective than pointing out weaknesses. Building up strengths is also a core topic in positive psychology programs
      and is called character strengths. Practicing a strength-based culture helps employees learn their roles more quickly, induces productivity, and becomes more excited about participating in their work.

      This is the most powerful move that leaders and managers could do for their members as it helps them hone and use their talents and encourages them to enhance their knowledge and skills.

Remove Obstacles to Positivity

Barriers to well-being could hinder your team’s road to productivity and positivity. Employee satisfaction was found to not be a complete opposite of dissatisfaction, thus removal of factors that causes dissatisfaction does not outright mean adding up to satisfaction.

Using Herzberg’s Motivators and Hygiene Factors
managers can help remove the sources of dissatisfaction (“hygiene factors”), and then add the “motivators” that yields satisfaction.

Sources of dissatisfaction could be an inflexible shift, or too much health hazard, etc. When you have now pointed out the sources of dissatisfaction you can mend it by let’s say flexitime shifts, providing safety equipment and training. Then you can add more motivators like training, coaching, or mentorship. Creating a healthy safe workplace with minimal distractions can help your members focus on tasks on hand. It is also necessary to provide means, build needed skills, and have the necessary knowledge and resources to help them get their job done.

Manage Positively

Managing your team positively means you have to learn to do the following:

• • Set a mission and vision to provide a context and a sense of purpose for their hard work so they can be more involved and dedicated
  • Define each member’s role. This provides focus, path, and a certain standard to measure a team’s performance.
  • Align the team’s goals with the organization. This helps everyone be aware that their roles are essential and are of value to the organization. Realistic goals should be set and it is a must that people are acknowledged when goals are achieved, a heartfelt“thank you” is just one of the simple ways to appreciate their efforts.
  • Practice effective communication. Team members should be encouraged to voice opinions and not hinder dialogs, it is by being open and transparent with work-related issues that trust is built to foster worthy relationships in the workplace.
  • Practice Staying in Touch. This entails going around frequently to know the daily challenges and concerns of the different units, this also is a measure to help to ensure that tasks are delegated
  • Encourage positive relationships. Let them know that it is encouraged that they spend time outside work, joining team-building activities and social events of the organization. Encouraging positive relationships also include managing conflict

There are positive psychology programs that can help organizations pick the right intervention to help their workplace and employees enforce optimism that not only benefits their mental and physical health but also

 

If you’re ready to cultivate a more positive and productive culture in your organization, download our free ‘Manifest Abundance and Plan Your Hustle Workbook’ to start implementing strategies for a happier, more engaged team today.