Don's report archive
Wellness in the Headlines
(Don's Report to the World)
Coaching Skills For Improving Performance, Profits, Well-Being And A Little Bit More Happiness At The Workplace (Part Two)
"I have now reigned about 50 years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies, and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure, have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation, I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot. They amount to fourteen."
~Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain (960 C.E.)
Our prospects for happiness might seem less than auspicious, given the sentiments of the once-mighty Abd Er-Rahman III of Spain or even those of Mark Twain, who remarked, "Sanity and happiness are an impossible combination."
However, recent empirical research into the nature and paths to happiness suggests otherwise.
In Part One of this series, I summarized Dr. Grant Donovan's ideas about coaching skills for improved organizational performance and profits. Donovan and I presented at a recent workshop in Vancouver, BC. Besides coaching skills, we described "icantdoit" realities and the case for happiness at the worksite. This essay is focused on the latter.
Recent research in "Positive Psychology" provides new material for coaches interested in promoting happiness as a path to better performance. Modern data collection and analytical procedures, and tools that enable researches to find patterns buried in countless variables, provide a scientific rigor not previously available for studying this elusive mystery about human nature.
Research at leading centers devoted to "hedonic studies" (alternately called "Positive Psychology," "Emotional Intelligence" or "Authentic Happiness") at Harvard and the Universities of Minnesota, Illinois, Pennsylvania and New York (Albany), consistently show three categories of influence on happiness levels:
- Genetics. Studies with twins indicate a configuration of genes contribute significantly to the overall happiness people experience. The literature on happiness puts this category at 50 percent. We have a brain structure, scientists believe, designed to respond within a certain happiness range to life's ups and downs. This "set point" of happiness is programmed, no matter what happens, save extremes either positive or negative.
- Circumstances. Beyond basic thresholds, circumstances such as age, gender, income, education and marital status make little difference, with three exceptions: Older folks tend to be happier than the young, healthier people are happier than those in poor health (hardly a surprise) and people who live in democratic societies with liberal political systems are happier than those who do not. The combined effect of circumstances on happiness is judged between 11 and 12 percent.
- Attitudinal and behavior choices. At least a third of the happiness variation, after accounting for genetics and circumstances, comes from decisions people make. These are the factors that provide the widest scope for change. "People with the greatest sense of satisfaction with work and life are those who consistently pursue self-chosen goals and make progress toward their attainment." (Ken Livingston, "God, Aristotle and the New Science of Happiness," Free Inquiry, Oct/Nov, 2006, p.37.)Â
Finding work that is a good fit with one's talents helps, too. Also, happiness is associated with work that is varied, the better to resist boring routines. Similarly, an ongoing feeling of progress toward a goal is seen as more important to happiness than the attainment of the goal itself. In other words, as Parkinson observed in another context, "to travel hopefully is better than to arrive."
Daniel Gilbert (Stumbling On Happiness: Think You Know What Makes You Happy?), director of the "Hedonic Psychology Lab" at Harvard, believes coaches should view worksite interventions in terms of their "hedonic consequences." Everyone is motivated by a desire to find more happiness. Plato knew this intuitively, and wrote about it: "Are these things good for any other reason except that they end in pleasure, and get rid of and avert pain?"
On our own, we're not good at knowing what will make us happy -- we suffer disinformation passed along by our genes and cultures. We often act to make THEM (genes and culture pressures) happy, but neither is likely to make US happy (for example, having children, consuming goods and services, following dogmas and rules, etc.). A better bet is to make progress fulfilling personally derived aspirations.
We humans are new at sorting out what makes us happy. We've only been at it about three million years, tops. That part of our brain needed to simulate desirable futures is not so well developed, the experts tell us. Most of the time, we greatly "overestimate the hedonic consequences of any event."
Gilbert believes we need better, "more principled ways to calculate and then compare the costs and benefits" of happiness-seeking efforts. We also need better understanding of methods for avoiding unhappiness. Perhaps Theodor Fontane got it right when he said, "Happiness, it seems to me, consists of two things: first, in being where you belong, and second -- and best -- in comfortably going through everyday life, that is, having had a good night's sleep and not being hurt by new shoes."
Can coaches help employees educate their emotions? Develop character? Sense greater meaning in being part of an innovative team with a mission? It seems likely that success at doing so will enable employees to experience greater happiness (and thus better morale, profit and performance) from work judged to be meaningful. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Martin Seligman and other "Positive Psychology" leaders who have been searching for ways to boost happiness believe we "have more freedom, more free time, more knowledge and fewer cultural pressures than at virtually any other time in the past." With some skillful, informed coaching -- and considerable freedom from genetic programming, we might be able to gain more happiness on a more consistent basis, and in the bargain boost profits and productivity of the firms we serve.
Be well. Look on the bright side of life.
Domain: physicalSubdomain: adaptations and challenges
Search other reports in the Don Ardell report archive.
Read about our
Featured Products
my shopping cart
Read Don's latest report or search his report archive to find commentary on what you're interested in.
 |
This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here. |
