Making Positive Psychology Work

Michael Steger is the founder and director of the Centre for Meaning and Purpose, and a professor of psychology at Colorado State University. Endlessly curious about learning how to create a life worth living, Michael has spent the better part of two decades studying the vital role that meaning and purpose play in our work, health, relationships, growth, and happiness. His research has been featured in academic and general publications around the world, and he's also written several books on this topic, including Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace. In this week’s episode, we explore how meaning can be found in any job, and how workplaces can help people find the right balance to minimize both boredom and burnout. Connect with Michael Steger:  http://www.michaelfsteger.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:29] - Michael explains why a growing number of workplaces have become interested in helping their people find more meaning in their work. [05:40] - Michael shares what the research is finding when it comes to creating more meaning in our work. [08:04] - Michael explains why meaning is an ongoing process when it comes to our work and some of the simple ways we can find more meaning in what we do each day. [14:19] - Michael offers some tips for leaders and workplaces to help people make their work more meaningful. [20:46] - Michael explains what the research is finding about having too much meaning at work, and how we can keep this in balance. [25:02] - Michael completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Make Your Job a Calling by Brian J. Dik & Ryan D. Duffy Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Michael!

Ethan Kross, a distinguished psychology professor at the University of Michigan, delves into the ways our inner dialogue shapes our well-being. He reveals how falling into a negativity vortex can hinder our work life and offers practical self-distancing techniques to combat it. Discover the transformative power of language in self-reflection and learn simple hacks to boost resilience. Kross also discusses the science behind self-control, providing insights into emotional management and the importance of fostering healthy workplace relationships.

Jeremy Clifton is a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Martin Seligman, who is often regarded as the founder of positive psychology. After an initial career in urban economic development strategy, Jer has spent five years creating a foundational, empirically-derived typology of primal world beliefs, and his research examines many of these variables and their impact on well-being, personality traits and character strengths, professional success, depression, and voting behaviour. In this podcast, we explore how our primal beliefs about the world impact our levels of wellbeing, trust, and success at work. Connect with Jeremy Clifton:  https://myprimals.com/ You’ll Learn: [03:07] - Jer explains what his research is finding out about our primal world beliefs. [05:36] - Jer helps us to understand how primals differ from our other beliefs like growth mindsets. [06:58] - Jer outlines the 26 primal beliefs his research has uncovered. [09:56] - Jer helps us to understand what a ‘good’ primal might mean practically for us when it comes to our work and wellbeing. [12:37] - Jer explains what his research has found to date about the stability or our primal beliefs. [14:45] - Jer explores if our primal beliefs are shaped by nature or nurture. [17:53] - Jer shares his thoughts on whether workplaces should be trying to cultivate higher levels of specific primal beliefs like ‘good’ in order to improve wellbeing and success. [20:52] - Jer explores the potential impact of primals on psychological safety in workplaces. [24:49] - Jeremy completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Jer!

Sigal Barsade is a professor of management at the Wharton School of Business and focusses her research on emotional intelligence, organizational culture, unconscious bias, teamwork, leadership, and organizational change. Having consulted for organizations of all sizes across a myriad of industries, including Cisco, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Google, the NBA, and the United Nations, Sigal’s research has been featured in leading academic research journals and in media outlets around the world. In today’s episode, we explore why loneliness in workplaces is on the rise, how it impacts our wellbeing and performance, and how we can tackle it together. We also learn more about the contagion of loneliness and other emotions in the workplace and how we can manage this better. Connect with Sigal Barsade:  https://mgmt.wharton.upenn.edu/profile/barsade/ You’ll Learn: [02:25] - Sigal explains the impact of loneliness in workplaces on our wellbeing and performance. [08:57] - Sigal helps us understand why loneliness is on the rise in many workplaces. [11:02] - Sigal explains what leaders and organizations can do to address the loneliness epidemic many workplaces are experiencing. [14:20] - Sigal outlines how we can help lonely people help themselves in workplaces. [16:23] - Sigal explores if talking about loneliness in workplaces improves people’s wellbeing or creates further isolation. [18:04] - Sigal explains why loneliness can be contagious and how emotions can spread in workplaces and communities. [19:21] - Sigal shares why leaders are more emotionally contagious in workplaces. [21:39] - Sigal offers some tips for leaders to help manage their moods and how they infect their teams more mindfully at work. [23:32] - Sigal offers some insights for leaders to positive infect the mood in their team. [26:03] - Sigal completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Sigal's talk 'All You Need is Love at Work' Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Sigal!

Dr. Kelly McGonigal is a health psychologist and lecturer at Stanford University. As a pioneer in the field of science help, her mission is to translate insights from psychology and neuroscience into practical strategies that support personal wellbeing and strengthen communities. Kelly is the author of several books, including the international bestseller, The Willpower Instinct, The Upside Of Stress, and her upcoming book, The Joy Of Movement. Her TED Talk, How To Make Stress Your Friend, is one of the most viewed TED Talks of all time with over 20 million views. In today’s podcast, we explore how we can tap into our different stress responses to shape our wellbeing and performance at work. Connect with Kelly McGonigal:  http://kellymcgonigal.com/ You’ll Learn: [03:12] - Kelly shares some of the latest research insights on the upside of stress when it comes to our wellbeing and performance at work.] [06:45] - Kelly explains biologically how our fight-or-flight stress response helps us to engage better with life. [07:53] - Kelly shares how a challenge stress response can help us step up in challenging situations. [10:16] - Kelly explains how a social stress response can help us reach for courage and connection during challenging experiences. [14:37] - Kelly outlines how our resilience stress response works to help us learn and grow in the face of difficult or traumatic experiences. [18:46] - Kelly explains how we can trigger the stress responses that will serve us best as we navigate work and life. [21:49] - Kelly recommends some exercises to help build our levels of stress confidence so we can respond in the ways that serve us and others best. [27:24] - Kelly shares her tips on how we can help to shape the conversations about reducing stress in workplaces. [33:38] - Kelly completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook https://storycorps.org/podcast/ Books by Kelly McGonigal Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Kelly!

Dr Peggy Kern who is an associate professor at the Centre for Positive Psychology at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education. Her research is collaborative in nature and draws on a variety of methodologies to examine questions around who thrives in life and why. She is the world’s leading researcher on measuring wellbeing using the PERMAH pillars, and has published 2 books and over 80 peer-reviewed articles and chapters. In today’s episode, we explore how systems informed positive psychology is can help workplaces to think more holistically about their wellbeing strategies and the tools that researchers and practitioners can use to help them take a systems approach. Connect with Peggy Kern:  http://www.peggykern.org/ You’ll Learn: [02:37] - Peggy explains why we need a systems-informed approach when it comes to improving wellbeing in our workplaces. [04:01] - Peggy defines how a systems-informed positive psychology approach makes visible what is invisible. [05:19] - Peggy shares some of the underlying assumptions of positive psychology research and practices that limit our ability to positively impact a system. [07:51] - Peggy offers some tips for helping leaders embrace “simplexity’ when it comes to understanding how to impact wellbeing in their workplace. [09:59] - Peggy explores how we can better understand what is happening across a workplace to create a systems-informed approach for improving wellbeing. [11:28] - Peggy explains how Appreciative Inquiry approaches can be used to help map a system's response for workplaces wanting to improve wellbeing. [15:31] - Peggy shares how mapping energy networks in workplaces can help identify the best people and teams to target for wellbeing interventions in the system. [17:54] - Peggy explains why a systems-informed mindset needs us to let go of the illusion of control and instead learn to dance between order and chaos. [21:26] - Peggy shares why creating feedback loops is an important part of any systems informed strategy to improve wellbeing. [23:41] - Peggy explains how thinking though a systems lens can help us to build our growth mindsets, psychological safety, and self-compassion. [23:41] - Peggy explains why systems are always changing and what this means for our workplace wellbeing strategies. [27:39] - Peggy completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook https://thesystemsthinker.com/ Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Peggy!

Jerry Colonna is the CEO and Co-Founder of reboot.io, an executive coaching and leadership development firm dedicated to the notion that better humans make better leaders. After many years as a partner and founder of private equity firms, Jerry has spent the last 20 years using the knowledge gained as an investor, an executive, and a board member for more than 100 organizations, to help entrepreneurs and others to lead with humanity, resilience, and equanimity to overcome the psychological baggage that has held them back professionally. In his new book 'reboot, leadership and the art of growing up', Jerry captures his unique blend of Buddhism, Jungian therapy and entrepreneurial insight.  In this week’s episode, we explore why better humans make better leaders, and what we can do practically to improve our leadership and resilience skills as we work. Connect with Jerry Colonna:  https://www.reboot.io/ You’ll Learn: [02:37] - Jerry explains why better humans make better leaders. [04:01] - Jerry shares why so many leaders struggle to prioritize becoming better human beings. [05:19] - Jerry outlines why we tend to be fixated on outcomes in workplaces, even when this approach often burns us out. [07:51] - Jerry explains the simple steps we can take to become more effective and resilient leaders who don’t burn ourselves out. [09:59] - Jerry offers some questions to help us create a sense of wellbeing and discover the kind of leaders we are capable of being. [11:28] - Jerry explains how our stories about our past, present, and future shape our belief systems and the outcomes we’re able to achieve. [15:31] - Jerry offers some tips to help leaders challenge the stories that undermine their resilience and effectiveness as leaders. [17:54] - Jerry explains how our willingness to be better humans helps us to build more psychological safety in our workplaces. [21:26] - Jerry explains how why becoming a better human being is an ongoing process and how we can navigate it gracefully. [23:41] - Jerry shares his formula for enhancing leadership and building greater resiliency. [27:39] - Jerry completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer Tim Ferris Podcast On Being Podcast with Krista Tippett Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Jerry!

Nataly Kogan is the creator of the Happier Method, and an entrepreneur, speaker, and author, whose mission is to help millions of people optimize their emotional health through science-backed practical skills, so they can thrive in work and life. She's the founder of Happier, whose online courses, Happier@Work Training Programmes, and her book Happier Now, have helped more than a million people live their best life. In this week’s episode we explore why happiness is a set of skills that workers can build in any organization, and the small, practical ways this can be incorporated into even the busiest of days. Connect with Nataly Kogan:  https://www.happier.com/ You’ll Learn: [03:11] - Nataly shares the many benefits researchers are finding of having happier employees in workplaces. [05:53] - Nataly offers some tips for helping skeptical leaders discover the value of having happier employees. [09:02] - Nataly explains why our goal shouldn’t be perfecting the skills of happiness if we want to be happier. [11:57] - Nataly explains why measuring people’s levels of confidence and motivation to shape their wellbeing may be a better goal than overall happiness. [13:45] - Nataly explains how we can build our happiness skills at work. [15:46] - Nataly outlines the five key happiness skills every worker needs. [20:23] - Nataly provides some examples of how these happiness skills can be built in practices that take no more than a few minutes as people go about their jobs. [25:40] - Nataly offers some advice on how to help busy leaders embed these happiness skills into the way they work each day. [28:16] - Nataly completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Untethered Soul by Michael Singer The Excellence Dividend by Tom Peters Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Nataly!

Mandy O'Neill is an associate professor of management at the George Mason University School of Business. Mandy's research focuses on how conceptualizing organizational culture as a function of emotions and gender enhances the link between culture and a number of individual teams, organizational processes, and outcomes, including decision making, attitudes, career success, health behavior, corporate strategy, and financial performance. Her research has been featured in journal and media publications all over the world. In this week’s episode, we explore why leaders and teams need to invest in creating healthy emotional cultures and the practical steps they can take based on the latest research in workplaces. Connect with Mandy O'Neill:  https://www.highqconnections.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:54] - Mandy explains what her research has found about the importance and bottom-line value of intentionally, managing the emotional culture of an organization. [04:48] - Mandy outlines what an emotional culture strategy might look like practically in workplaces. [07:21] - Mandy explains why creating a healthy emotional culture doesn't mean leaders should try to eliminate negativity. [10:12] - Mandy shares an example of how a health organization intentionally improved their emotional culture. [13:09] - Mandy offers guidance on the best ways to measure a workplace’s emotional culture. [17:03] - Mandy provides some tips for how we can practically improve the emotional culture of our workplaces and create more affection, caring, and concern for each other. 21:45] - Mandy offers some suggestions for navigating more uncomfortable conversations with each other. [25:20] - Mandy completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/ Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Mandy!

Chris Myers is an assistant professor in the management and organization discipline, the academic director of executive education at the John Hopkins University Carey Business School and holds a joint appointment in anesthesiology at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine. Chris' research and teaching focuses on individual learning, leadership development and innovation with particular attention to how people learn vicariously and share knowledge and his work has been recognized with several scholarly awards and has been featured in a range of leading academic journals and popular media articles and outlets. In this week’s podcast, we explore why focusing on learning opportunities can help workers to manage their levels of stress and how opportunities for coactive vicarious learning ensures there are no passive observers to the learning process.   Connect with Chris Myers:  http://christophergmyers.net/ You’ll Learn: [02:53] - Chris explains why focusing on learning opportunities, rather than gritting our teeth, grinding through or taking a break, can be a more effective way of dealing with stress at work. [05:59] - Chris offers some tips to help us reach for learning opportunities during moments of stress. [07:56] - Chris shares some examples of how workplaces are encouraging their workers to reach for more learning opportunities. [09:34] - Chris explains why when teams engage together in learning behaviour, they report significantly lower levels of burnout. [11:08] - Chris outlines how learning together in teams helps to improve workers growth mindsets and their levels of psychological safety. [12:07] - Chris explains why the process of vicarious learning has been found to be one of the most effective ways for teams to learn together. [13:53] - Chris walks us through how coactive vicarious learning takes our ability to learn together a step further, by ensuring there are no passive observers to the learning process. [18:19] - Chris provides some tips on how the process of coactive vicarious learning could be used to amplify the use of wellbeing strategies in workplaces. [20:20] - Chris offers some caveats and cautions for supporting coactive vicarious learning in your workplace. [22:58] - Chris completes the Lightning Round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook WorkLife Podcast by Adam Grant   Thanks for listening!  Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post. Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free! You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing. Until next time, take care!  Thank you Chris!