Martin Seligman, the ‘godfather’ of Positive Psychology, has found that: – optimistic people deliver 35% more sales than pessimists – optimistic people are less likely to quit at the end of the first year than pessimists. (Seligman and Schulman, 1986) The attached LOTR questionnaire provides a measure of your level of optimism. So just how … Continued
Barbara Fredrickson on the link between positive language and business performance: “We go into companies and transcribe every word that is said in their business meetings. We have done this in 60 companies. One third of the companies are flourishing economically, one-third are doing okay and one-third are failing. We code each sentence for positive … Continued
As some of you may know, I’ve started an MSC in Applied Positive Psychology. As part of my reading I came across a very interesting piece of empirical research about goal setting. Of course, being a naive student I forget to footnote it! What was interesting about it was that the research found that the … Continued
During tough times it is often HR who are ‘cut’, that is unless they have particular skills in redundancy. This is particularly true in the ‘interesting’ end of HR – leadership development, OD – the areas in which I predominantly work. Here are 4 ways in which L&D, OD and HR more generally can make … Continued
Of late, much has been written (and spoken) about the level of risk (for instance, that taken on by banks) and what is a ‘healthy’ level of risk for an organisation. The following is a heavily truncated report by the Hay Group which talks about the mismatch between the level of risk organisations are prepared … Continued
Have you ever thought about the best way to get what you want? How is it that others around you seem to get what they want and you don’t? As a leader, what is the best way to get your team to do what you want? There’s a really great way to do this which … Continued
This article appeared in HR magazine recently and made me pause and think, given I’m an advocate of competency based interviewing. Two-thirds of candidates welcome obscure lines of questioning as part of the job interview process, giving businesses the opportunity to shake up their interview processes in the tight war for talent, according to recruitment … Continued
For those who work in HR and, more to the point, leadership development, it is often difficult to quantify the ROI on leadership development. Leading management consulting firm, the Hay Group, recently identified 6 conditions to ensure leadership development initiatives deliver measurable benefits, alongwith 4 common pitfalls. It seems they could be useful for also … Continued
Post Olympics we are left pondering how we can maintain the euphoria and positive good will the Games created (at least until the Paralympics start in a couple of weeks time). For organisations, in today’s climate, it’s incredibly challenging to keep people happy and motivated. People work well (and therefore enjoy their work more), when … Continued
If companies organized more to draw on and fuel enthusiasms, and less to maximize efficiency, the problem of disengagement would be gone forever. The volunteers of the Olympics hint at what an alternative customer experience might look like. And it looks very exciting. Read this HBR blog post by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
Chiswick Consulting