The Happiness Quotient: Achieving a Positive Mental Attitude at Work

Hf 0404 59

Hf 0404 59Demanding customers … tough competitors … mounting expenses: what an array of challenges in a typical workweek.

And, most of us can add to the list without even trying. No wonder we get the blues once in a while. That's okay. The risk,though, is that we fall into the habit of negative thinking. When we allow unfavorable conditions to affect our overall mood, our performance drops off and our profits go south.

There is, however, a way that can we keep workplace challenges from getting us down: Keep a healthy mental attitude. "Make a decision now that you want to have a positive mental attitude at work," says Sid Smith, president of Achieve Coaching in Portland, Ore. "Until you do this consciously, things will not improve. And when you do take this step, it will have a beneficial effect on your life and relationships."

If you think this is easier said than done, here are some tips for boosting your happiness quotient:

• Talk yourself up.

To get into a positive state of mind, talk yourself into it.

"Self-talk builds your self-image," says Thomas W. Morris, a motivational coach and president of Washington, D.C.-based Morris Associates. "A better self-image, in turn, affects your personal behavior and your work performance. And, better performance stimulates more positive self talk. It all goes around in a big circle."

Your self-talk statements should be realistic as well as positive. Here's one example: "I am doing my best. I am a valued member of a team, and what I do is contributing to the team."

Bonus tip: Self-help books, affirmative action tapes, or small calendars with daily sayings can give you a head start to happiness on the job. Keep them handy and refer to them throughout your day.

• Visualize success.

If you want to achieve a certain goal in business, take the time to visualize yourself reaching that goal.

Morris offers an example of the concept in action: Prior to his participation in the Olympics, track star Jim Thorpe knew he faced a great challenge in the broad jump portion of his performance. During the boat trip to Europe, Thorpe spent a lot of time concentrating on the distance between his deck chair and a chalk line he had drawn on the floor. That distance represented how far he needed to jump. The result was a stunning victory at the Olympics.

"Thorpe was able to achieve success because he got his mind set onhow far he needed to jump," Morris says, noting that the process is very similar to that of a Zen master who has a student archer practice with a bow but no arrows for a full year. During that time, the student keeps drawing back the bow and practices hitting a distant target. At the end of a year the student uses real arrows and hits bull's-eyes.

You, too, can achieve success through visualization. "Coaches and trainers have known for years what makes the difference between gold and bronze medal winners," Morris says. "At the level we are talking about, it's not speed or fitness or training. It's mental attitude."

• Block negative thoughts.

Self-talk and positive images can be the strong walls forming your fortress of success. But, negative thoughts may keep breaching your carefully constructed barrier! To keep this from happening,stay vigilant, says Kim Goad, a Westminster, Md.-based performance improvement consultant specializing in workplace issues. "When you start to hear negative thoughts creep in,stop them in their tracks," she says. "Ask if the problem is worth spending negative energy on. Then reassess the situation to see what you can do instantly to boost your mood."

Making objective evaluations often can turn your mood sour. It's easy to fall into the trap of entertaining negative thoughts. Examples of such thoughts are: "We can't beat the competition" or "Our quality is not up to standards" or "We will never get out of debt." On a more personal level it can be "I am not a good manager" or "People don't like me."

While on the surface these sound like objective evaluations, they are really emotional reactions. Our emotions are triggered by an event. Maybe a customer calls to complain, and that triggers the emotional feeling that expresses itself in a negative statement such as "I am no good." When this happens to you, stop in your tracks and start asking objective questions that address your concern. Here are some examples of questions you can ask:

1) What do I do to help my customers during the day?

2) How is our product quality adjusted to serve the needs of a certain market segment?

3) How are we positioned to serve amarket slightly different from that of our competition?

4) What steps are we taking tor esolve debt issues?

These questions highlight a critical point: We can't control our negative emotions. We can, however, control how we respond to them. "Negative emotions are sure to come whether you want them or not," says Morris. "They arise naturally from events in our daily lives. The problem is that they start to instigate irrational thoughts. You need to capture those irrational thoughts and turn them around with rational questions. Get yourself back into a rational mode."

• Stop worrying.

Rational thinking also can help you escape the worry trap. "Worry is a negative attitude that has gone amuck," says Goad. "It is a condition in which you can't stop thinking about a problem."

Fear of the unknown is a big factor in worry. Goad suggests taking control by eliminating the variables of what might happen. Make the subject of your fear concrete by imagining the worst-case scenario. "When you become aware of what that is, ask if the concern is a realistic one," she says. "Is it something you can do anything about, or are you wasting time and energy on a situation not under your control."

Often, we have more than one worry, and all of them seem to operate as a kind of background noise, interrupting our clear thinking and casting a dark cloud over our day. In this case, a practice called compartmentalization can help.

"Think of your mind as a big chest with lots of drawers," Morris says. "Assign each worry or project to a certain drawer. Then, schedule times to work with each drawer. When it comes time to work on a certain problem, open the drawer, work on what you need, then put the problem back in and close the drawer."

Items that are inside closed drawers are out if your consciousness. If a certain problem or worry pops into your mind during the day, you can dismiss it with authority because you can remind yourself that you have designated a certain time to open that drawer and deal with the problem.

Bonus tip: "Set aside five minutes or so every day as your designated worry time," Goad says. "Try to schedule it for the same time each day. During this time, think about all of the things that are negative." Once you've scheduled your worry time, you will have away to deal with those worries that pop into your mind during the day:Banish them to their respective drawers with authority, reminding yourself that you have already scheduled ablock of time to deal with them.

Remember this: Positive Mental Attitude equals Success. "Positive mental attitude has become central to success,"says Morris. "It all boils down to onequestion: Are you looking at your problems positively. You have to answerthat before you can do anything."

Now that you know some of the steps you can take to look at yourproblems and worries in a positiveway, you can work to develop a positive mental attitude that is a stronghold against all of those negative thoughts that sap energy and affect performance. All it takes is a personal decision and constant vigilance. The reward is a healthier work place, higher profits and a happier life.

Individuals: Take Charge of Your Day

Are you working in a negative environment? Most of us at some time have either found ourselves in a toxic workplace or confronted with occasional negative factors that seem beyond our control. To get beyond this, start with yourself. “As a single person you can’t change your organization, but you can begin to change your own thoughts and ideas,” says Sid Smith, president of Achieve Coaching in Portland, Ore. Here are some examples:

• If everyone else is grumpy in the morning, give a cheerful hello each day when you arrive, and express genuine concern about how each person is doing.

• If people are in the habit of saying bad things about the company, respond in a sympathetic way, then state something like, “We all need to concentrate on the positive aspects of the workplace and take steps to improve things.”

• If you are sometimes given assignments you don’t want to do, consciously choose to cheerfully do what you have been assigned.

• If things are going wrong at work or at home, take time to develop a spirit of gratitude for what is right about your work and your life. “This is not to say you ignore things that are wrong, but your first thoughts should not be about them,” says Smith. “Start by asking yourself, ‘What is working about all this?’ and then build from there.” All of these tips have a common theme: Being proactive about your attitude makes you stronger, happier and more effective. “When confronted with a negative workplace, tell yourself ‘I am not going togo along with this way of doing things,’” Smith says.

Managers: Create a Positive Workplace

As a manager, you have an enormous impact on your workplace. You can start promoting a positive mental attitude for the best employee performance by developing a genuine interest in people. “Positive attitude is not about just saying ‘We can do this,’” says Sid Smith, president of Achieve Coaching in Portland, Ore. “It’s about really caring and having a genuine concern for the people who work at your business.

Really, it’s about leaders leaving their egos at home.” If you have a subordinate with a negative attitude, address the issue, Smith says. “Ask your employee, ‘I really want to support you, but it’s very difficult with the attitude you have. What can I do to help you feel better about your job?’” “We never ask the obvious questions,” Smith says. “If someone is not happy, ask them something like this: ‘What can I do to change things to make this a place where you want to be?’” Smith suggests cultivating an environment of appreciation and praise. Set up a big cork board for performance announcements. “If you see somebody doing something really positive, then write it up on a 3-by-5 card and tack it onto the board so everyone can see,” he says. “Others will start looking for what other people are doing that is really good.”

All of this will shift the focus of your workplace from “I have to make sure I make no mistakes” to “I want to find other people’s strong points and emulate them.”

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