Looking back on January……I can say that good choices and positivity has resulted in numerous successes at BarrettClark…. the year has started with a bounce…. a fizz….and a yelp of excitement.
What has been most striking is the results in our business from the work we are doing around positive psychology. I presented the “choice to be positive” to our team on 2nd January and it met with raised eyebrows, nods of interest and generally provoked thought. Since then we have studied the benefits of positive thinking – particularly in business. We discussed strategies and looked at some research, oh and we watched some great Ted Talks (The Happy Secret To Better Work by Shawn Achor is outstanding).
These are not new discoveries; positive psychology was brought into focus by Martin Seligman (past President of the American Psychological Association) in 1998…. but they are discoveries for us and we have seen great results in such a short time. Some highlights of our learning:
The Lens with which you view the world shapes your reality. If we change the lens we can change the outcome.
Body Language can determine the way we think and the way we think will determine the way we are and what we achieve.
Choice of words in our communications can open up rather than close down opportunities.
2.9013 is a number to remember – it’s the ratio of positive to negative interactions necessary to make a corporate team successful. This means it takes about three positive comments, experiences, or expressions to fend off the languishing effects of one negative. Dip below the tipping point and workplace performance quickly suffers.
Belief…. believe you will be successful and there is more likelihood you will be. Capitalise on possibility
So, the long and the short of our work this month is that positive choices will drive happiness, wellbeing and business performance resulting in an upward spiral. Constantly scanning our “world” for the positive enables creativity, reduces stress levels, raises motivation and an ability to accomplish.
I’m going to dig out some more “tools” to help make positive choices and will let you know…..