In this TED talk, Shawn Achor makes a case for the link between employee happiness and performance, arguing that 75% of job successes are predicted by our optimism levels, our social support and our ability to see stress as a challenge rather than as a threat.
Most companies follow a formula for success which is: “if I work harder, I’ll be more successful and then I’ll be happy.”
Achor says that this is a backwards way of approaching it because targets for success are always changing and so happiness remains unattainable.
Instead, he argues that we first must be positive (happy) and success will be the outcome.
If you can raise someone’s level of positivity in the present, then their brain experiences what he calls “a happiness advantage”. Your brain at positive performs significantly better than it does at negative, neutral or stressed. Your intelligence rises, your creativity rises and your energy levels rise.
Achor says that every single business outcome improves. And so what he says we need to do is find a way of being more positive in the present. Which means that if we can create a workplace in which our employees are positive, then the impact on business performance will be increased success.
Here are the daily actions he recommends to improve positivity.
Watch the video for his full speech and let us know what you think. Would you be brave enough to trial this in your workplace? Do you think it would work? And how do you think your employees would respond?
