“When well-being comes from engaging our strengths and virtues, our lives are imbued with authenticity.”
Martin Seligman
As many of you may know, the main goal of most organisations is to increase profitability and employee performance to gain that profitability. This can be difficult if employers are not focusing on the well-being and motivation of the employees. When I was a teenager I worked in a supermarket, and after a year of working there my motivation lacked due to the repetitiveness and boringness of the tasks. Looking back on it now I can see that this lack and unhappiness in my job caused me to be less productive and less willing to go out of my way for customers. This is likely to have had negative impacts on the supermarket’s business.
In line with this, it has been found that employees who are happier are more productive and efficient, which typically leads to growth in the organisation. Using positive psychology at work can ‘cancel out’ the negativities in the workplace and be used as a preventative technique so negative-ness can be resisted. It is important for employees to be engaged and fulfilled in order to generate better performance, and psychologists can help with this. Perhaps if psychology techniques were put in place in my supermarket job then my motivation and productiveness would have increased.
I found an interesting blog by Kira Deutch that mentions four ways to use positive psychology at work. It is interesting in that these things are not that hard to do! These ways are outlined below:
1. Tap into your strengths – think about how you can use the things you love to make you stand out
2. Surprise people with gratitude – you’ll feel happier if you make someone else a little bit happier
3. Put your tasks in perspective – envision how the task will contribute to the greater good
4. Relive the positive parts of your day – going through the positive things in your life makes us want to seek out those things more.
Not only will these techniques help you in the workplace but they will also help you in your everyday life, increasing well-being.