Benefits of positive emotions in the workplace
“You can do it!” “Think positive!” “Yes you CAN!” If the idea of positive thinking makes you cringe or conjures images of a 1980s Tony Robbins seminar, you may be reluctant to read any further. In fact, the cult of positive thinking became so pervasive and irritating that best-selling author and self-proclaimed “intellectual adventurer,” Oliver Burkeman, wrote The Antidote: Happiness for people who can’t stand positive thinking. In it, Burkeman explores the dangers of oversubscribing to positive thinking, including partially blaming it for the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. In many of the most powerful Wall Street firms, people who cautioned against the unethical practices were told to “stay positive,” and were treated as liabilities to the company, which resulted in all warning signs and moral qualms being ignored until it was too late. To counter the negatives of positive thinking, Burkeman encourages “realistic thinking with an optimistic outlook.”
Research has shown that people who regularly experience positive emotions such as optimism, hopefulness and contentment have a reduced risk of heart disease and diabetes (Ref. 1) In a survey of people living in industrial countries, happier people experienced increased longevity of between 7.5 and 10 years, and were even less likely to be the victim of accidents! (Ref. 2)
The benefits of being in a positive emotional state also extend to the workplace. Workers experiencing positive moods are better at creative tasks; they are more likely to have original ideas and generate a greater number of options. They will also experience better clarity of thought as well as improved memory and problem-solving skills. When people are feeling good, they are more likely to engage positively with colleagues, making new connections and strengthening existing bonds. As Dunedin-based resilience and wellbeing expert, Denise Quinlan explains, “If negative emotions are about fight or flight, positive emotions are about approach and learn.”
Cultivating an optimistic mindset is key to accessing and maintaining a positive emotional state. It is also a vital skill in building resilience and maintaining wellbeing, and one that can be learned and strengthened. In fact optimism has been shown to increase resilience by 20% (Ref. 3) We can think of optimism as a way of explaining what happens to us that emphasises the positive aspects of a situation over the negative. It doesn’t ignore or wish away the negatives, but focuses our energy on the hopeful aspects or positive potential in the situation. Whenever something happens to us, our mind tries to make sense of it – explaining to us why it happened, what it means and what might come next. If our car gets a flat tire on the way to work, we could explain it as “Just my luck… this always happens to me… everything I touch goes kaput… the boss is going to be furious,” or we could say “That’s an unfortunate accident… lucky I’ve got a spare in the back/AA call-out…I’m sure my manager will understand.”
People who tend toward optimistic explanations will see bad events as temporary, only impacting one part of their lives, and caused by a number of factors, some of which they can’t control. They can acknowledge how their own actions have led to positive events and see how the positive events permeate many aspects of their lives. By contrast, people who tend toward pessimistic explanations of events blame themselves when bad things happen but credit other people or external circumstances for good events, thus disempowering themselves and minimising their sense of agency. When good things happen, they expect them to be fleeting, and for things to turn bad again pretty soon.
One of the most effective ways to train ourselves towards optimistic explanations of events is to practice positive reframing. In line with our definition of optimism, positive reframing is not about ignoring the negative, it is about acknowledging this, and the accompanying feelings, but asking, “And what else is there?” Imagine looking through a literal picture frame. If you were to hold a picture frame in front of your face and look through it, you would see a part of your surroundings in the frame, but not all of it. If you move the frame, you see things that you didn’t see initially but were always there. For minor setbacks and inconveniences, this process can be almost instant. For major negative events such as redundancy or divorce, there will be a longer period between the event and the time when positive reframing is possible, as negative feelings need to be acknowledged and processed first. Then there comes a point when you are able to consider the questions, “And what else is there?” “What possibilities are present that I couldn’t see before?” Finding positive potential in an initially negative or difficult situation actually impacts our emotional state as we shift from disappointment, annoyance, anger, or grief, toward hope, gratitude, and anticipation.
This is where the link between optimism and resilience becomes obvious. By shifting our focus from the negative aspects of a situation to the positives, our body and mind also experience the benefits of being in a positive emotional state as opposed to a negative. Much research in recent years has uncovered the benefits of positive emotions to our physical and mental wellbeing. It turns out that feeling good is good for us.
Barbara Frederickson’s Broaden and Build Theory proposes that positive emotions help to strengthen our intellectual, physical, social and psychological resources (see inset). Frederickson’s theory has been supported by many studies into health, wealth, business, pain management, success and creativity.