Positivity is important everywhere. It's probably even more important in the
workplace. This is why. Positivity has been tied to every measurable aspect of
success in the workplace. I love that the research is supporting this now. Because
we've known for years that happiness and success are correlated but for years, we
got it backwards. We made the erroneous assumption that,
"Well then okay, if we're more successful then we'll be more happy." We got it
backwards. Really, if we're more happy then we're more successful. And this is
tied to everything. Well, first of all, think about that. If you're happy, you're
good, right? What else do you want? That's at the end of every argument for why you
would do something. It creates happiness. So, if you're happy, you are successful.
But happiness has also been tied to every other measurable aspect of success.
Including profit and productivity and satisfaction. Let's break this down into
the benefits of positivity to the employer and then to the employee.
Starting with the employer, as we look into what the bottom line is. Now, you
employers get excited when I say the bottom line because what are we talking
about here? We're talking about profit. Positivity increases profit. How can I
say that so boldly? Well, go look at some of the studies around this and you'll
see multiple ways that this is true. First of all, positivity in the workplace
increases productivity. Some great companies like Google and Zappos have
figured out that if they keep their employees happy, engaged, positive. That
that directly Translates into profits for them. One of the
reasons for this is that happier employees translates into happier
customers. Happier customers tend to buy more, have greater loyalty to the company,
they will continue to come back. Happy employees take good care of your
customers. That's why positivity can be so powerful
in terms of elevating the bottom-line. Positivity creates an environment that
leads to a higher retention of your good employees. One of the number one reasons
that people give for leaving a job is that it's a negative work environment.
It's caustic, it's toxic. These are some of the words that we hear describing the
places that people have left. Even though they were getting paid well to be there.
If it's a negative environment, human beings don't want to work there.
Retention is highly affected by a positive work environment. Now, I'm
talking about positivity as if everyone knows what it means. Let's break it down
into two very trainable and measurable aspects of positivity. And I categorized
these as being evaluation and creation. Now, on the evaluation in. Let's say that
you're an employer that you're a manager. You've got a team working for you. You
Have to be able to evaluate how well that team is performing. Now as a leader
or a manager, it's tempting to get into the mode of seeing what they could be
doing better. Acknowledged they could be doing better. Alright? We're getting to
that in just a minute when we. when we switch over to creation. When you're in
evaluation mode, it pays to do a positive evaluation. I'm talking about how you
communicate to your team, to your employees, are
they doing a good enough job? Do you remember how you felt as a kid and you
thought that you could never really please your parents? Most of us have been
there. How are your employees gonna feel if
they think that they can never please you? Let them know that you're pleased.
That they are doing a phenomenal job for you. And get past that little piece of
your brain and saying, "Yeah, but they could be doing better." Of course they
could. When is that ever going to change. That's a permanent condition. In terms of
evaluation, positive evaluation means that you send a message that, "You know
what? This is good. We're doing well. This is awesome."
Pause, this is the power of the pause. And stay in front of your but. It's tempting
to say, "Well, we are doing well but..." Okay, well that just spoiled everything.
Pause, stay in front of the but. With what it what it is that you're saying that's
positive. We are doing well. Now, everybody gets to enjoy the positive energy and
feeling of doing well. Now, let's go to the other component. Creation. Because
we're not staying here, we're moving on to do something, right? What are we going to
do? What if as a manager or as an employer, I were to ask you, "Hey, would you
like to have better production from your team or worse production from your team?"
Which one would you like? Duh! Of course you want better production. Well, we don't
have better production right now, we have the production we have. And it's good.
That's positive evaluation. Now, what do we want?
That's creation. We're moving forward now to something better. Now, when we imagine
that what's coming is worse, we get all anxious and uptight it's like, "Oh no,
we're never going to make our projections, right?" As opposed to
imagining that what's coming is even better than what we've got, that creates
energy and hope." So, that's the tricky balance. We've
got positive evaluation of what it is. And that powers up our employees and the
people that we manage to a place where they can actually move forward and
create something even better and they will naturally do that because of the
energy that we're creating in the positivity. Hopefully that helps you to
see it. Now, let's go to the benefits to the employee. And we're all in that place
sometimes aren't we? Where we're working on a team, where we're employed by someone. Ehat are
the benefits of positivity to us. The first one is so obvious. You get to be
happier. Isn't that a good enough reason to do anything? I think it probably is.
And that goes back to a basic belief that I hold that our whole purpose here
on the planet is to experience joy. We do that through our relationships and
through love and through connection and through positivity. So, that's a pretty
darn good reason to do it. What else does it do for an employee? It increases job
satisfaction, it increases retention, it increases productivity, which leads to
potential for new opportunities or for increases in wages or salaries. Employers
are always looking to promote or give raises to their most positive people.
Their most positive people are the ones who are producing. And sometimes it'll
create opportunities you didn't even expect. Because as you step up and show
up with that positivity, people inside and outside of the organization are
going to notice that and that's when conversations and new opportunities
start to happen. The other thing about positivity, it's not just about the
workplace. Is it? No. It's about you becoming a more positive person which
carries over to every aspect of life. Your relationships, your finances, your
family. Everything that's going on at home now is now better because of your
positive approach. There's so many benefits. You might be
thinking about your own workplace now and how positive it really is there. You
might not be aware that I actually come in and do trainings, for workplace,
positivity. And if that would benefit you, I'd love to have that conversation. Reach
out to me, let's have a talk.