Making Positive Psychology Work

Today we're talking to Nick Brown, who after more than 30 years of working in IT and management in various countries, completed his masters in applied positive psychology at the University of East London, and is currently working on a PhD in health psychology in the Netherlands and is a part-time personal coach. In this episode, we explore why popular evidence-based findings including the Happiness Pie equation and the Positivity Ratio are being disproven and how we can improve our ability to understand what wellbeing research findings are really telling us. measurement.  Connect with Nick Brown:  Website:  Nick's Google Scholar profile You’ll Learn: [02:08] - Nick explains why the often cited Happiness Pie equation may be flawed when it comes to helping people to improve their wellbeing. [03:27] - Nick shares his recommendations on what we need to more confidently understand and share a formula for happiness. [05:10] - Having helped to disprove the positivity ratio, Nick shares his thoughts on how cultivating heartfelt positivity does and doesn’t improve our wellbeing. [08:26] - Nick provides some simple tips to help improve our ability and confidence to understand what evidence-based research approaches are and aren’t finding. [21:42] - Nick 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 for 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 Nick!

Pat Wadors is the Chief Talent Officer and Chief Human Resource Officer for ServiceNow. Prior to joining ServiceNow, Pat was Senior Vice President, Global Talent organization at LinkedIn, where her focus was on recruiting and developing top talent, driving organizational transformation, supporting a highly engaged workforce, and growing LinkedIn's global footprint. In this episode, we discuss how to build inclusive and diverse workplaces where people feel like they belong so you can create psychological safety, develop people's strengths, and support growth mindsets.  Connect with Pat Wardors:  Website:  https://www.servicenow.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:08] - Pat offers some tips for how we can teach people the skills to help them more confidently feel like they can be authentic, vulnerable and curious at work. [03:27] - Pat explains how sharing gratitude stories can help people improve their relationships with each other at work. [05:10] - Pat shares how she’s been exploring what it looks like to be a great place to work in really healthy ways for employees. [08:26] - Pat explains how treating each other beautifully at work also requires us to know and honor our boundaries. [10:55] - Pat shares why our efforts at diversity and inclusion in workplaces are still often falling short of our goals. [13:54] - Pat explains how we teach managers to help their people uncover and develop their superpowers at work. [16:18] - Pat offers some tips for building psychological safety in workplace teams. [18:57] - Pat shares how the growth mindset methodology has been used at ServiceNow to help people learn from their failures. [20:21] - Pat shares some caveats and cautions for building cultures of belonging. [21:42] - Pat completes the Lightning round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Susan Cain TED Talk - The Power of Introverts 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 for 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 Pat!

Alison Earl is the author of Tripowerment: The Why, the Will and the Way of Breakthrough Change. She works with people and companies around the globe to empower self-directed change as a  guest lecturer in Behavioral Economics at the Harvard School of Public Health and the leader of an academic and commercial think tank dedicated to solving the most complex problems in behavior change. In this episode, we explore why feeling stressed at work isn't always bad for our wellbeing or out performance. Alison explains how our beliefs about stress impact us neurologically and shape the way we think, feel, and act. She also shares the simple steps we can take for ourselves, our teams, and our workplaces to harness more of the positive effects of stress.  Connect with Alison Earl: Website: https://alisonearl.com/ You’ll Learn: [03:51] - Alison explains what the latest research is discovering about the impact stress can have on our wellbeing and performance at work. [07:35] - Alison outlines some of the different stress responses we are each capable of experiencing and how our beliefs about stress can trigger these and impact the way we think, feel, and act. [12:38] - Alison shares how our connections with others can help us to transform stress into courage. [15:19] - Alison offers some practical tips for challenging our stress mindsets in the heat of the moment when stress threatens to hijack us. [18:35] - Alison explains why tackling stress at work needs to be a shared responsibility between workers, teams, leaders, and organizations in order to be truly effective. [21:24] - Alison shares structural approaches teams can put in place to help improve their stress responses. [23:31] - Alison Completes the Lightning round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength by Roy F. Baumeister & John Tierney The Willpower Instinct 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 for 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 Alison!

Dr. Dan Diamond is passionate about equipping leaders to make a difference, especially when resources are scarce or times are tough. For example, Dan was the director of the medical triage unit at the New Orleans Convention Center following Hurricane Katrina, he led one of the first medical teams into Haiti following their devastating earthquake and he was deployed to the Philippines following Typhoon Yolanda. Dan has packaged all of this experience into his book Beyond Resilience, Trench-Tested Tools to Thrive When Times Are Tough and its ideas have been featured on CNN and many other media outlets around the world. In this episode, we explore how it's possible to adapt and thrive, even under extreme circumstances at work and in life as Dan explains how tow simple questions can move us towards a thriver mindset that renews us, or a victim, bystander or controller mindset that drains us. Connect with Dan Diamond: Website: dandiamondmd.com You’ll Learn: [02:20] - Dan explains how power and purpose shape a thriver’s mindset and how it can improve our performance and wellbeing at work. [04:23] - Dan shares how our victim, bystander, controller, and thriver mindsets get shaped and how we can free ourselves of mindsets that don’t serve us well. [08:56] - Dan offers some practical steps we can take to move towards a thriver mindset more consistently at work. [15:55] - Dan shares tips for how leaders can help their teams cultivate more thriver mindsets when times are tough. [22.32] - Dan explains how we can be intelligent thrivers who don’t burn ourselves out in an effort to help others. [24:55] - Dan Completes the Lightning round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink 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 for 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 Dan!

Dr. Heidi Wayment is a professor of social psychology at Northern Arizona University, whose research interests include psychological processes related to self-identity, self-evaluation, health behavior, and coping with stressful life events. Heidi is the co-author of Transcending Self-interest: Psychological Explorations of the Quiet Ego and has published nearly a dozen papers related to her research on this topic. In 2018, her work was recognized by a University as the most significant research in scholarly work. In this episode, we explore how our egos shape our relationships, performance, and wellbeing at work. Heidi shares the simple steps we can take to quieten a noisy ego when needed, and how to avoid overplaying our quiet egos at work.  Connect with Heidi Wayment: Website: Heidi Wayment - Northern Arizona University You’ll Learn: [02:20] - Heidi explains the quiet ego and how it can impact our performance and wellbeing at work. [04:23] - Heidi outlines the four characteristics of a quiet ego and how these can be applied in workplaces. [08:56] - Heidi helps us understand how fear, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction can trigger our noisy egos. [12:43] – Heidi explores how self-compassion can help us to quieten our noisy egos. [15:55] - Heidi shares a new approach being taken in the US Military to teach leaders and their teams to quieten their egos when needed. [22.32] - Heidi explores how we can avoid overplaying our quiet egos at work. [24:55] - Heidi Completes the Lightning round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday & Stephen Hanselman 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 for 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 Heidi!

Today’s Guest: Peggy Kern is a senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne’s Graduate School of Education in the Center for Positive Psychology. Originally trained in Social-Personality and Development Psychology, Peggy's research examines the question of who flourishes in life physically, mentally and socially, and she's one of the world's leading researchers on the subject of measuring wellbeing, particularly using the PERMA pillars. In this episode, we explore some side-effects of wellbeing measures in workplaces, and how to avoid them.  Connect with Peggy Kern: Website: http://peggykern.org You’ll Learn: [02:43] - Peggy explains the surprising findings of a new survey on wellbeing across Australian workplaces, and what this might mean for other workplaces. [08:24] - Peggy explores how our current approaches to measuring wellbeing may have unintentionally created more stigma for people who are struggling. [10:58] - Peggy shares her concerns for how wellbeing is being taught in schools and what this could mean for workplaces as well. [12:23] – Peggy suggests workplaces need to embrace wellbeing diversity, just as they are starting embrace neurodiversity. [13:38] - Peggy explains why wellbeing is a not a solo endeavor in workplaces, and how teams and organizations impact people’s wellbeing at work. [17:09] - Peggy shares some practical strategies emerging from the research that workplaces can use to help support their people’s wellbeing. [20:23] - Peggy explains why workplaces shouldn’t be aiming for perfect wellbeing scores, and what they monitor instead to determine the success of their programs. [22:49] - Peggy 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 for 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!

Today we’re talking to Zach Mercurio, whose research, teaching and consulting on how purpose and meaningfulness can help individuals and organizations unleash human potential to produce tangible results, has been applied to transform Fortune 500 companies, non-profits, schools, and universities around the world. Zach is the best selling author of “The Invisible Leader: Transform Your Life, Work, and Organization with the Power of Authentic Purpose,” In this episode, we explore why what’s possible when purpose becomes the boss of our choices in workplaces and the practical steps you, your team and your organization can take to genuinely put meaning and purpose at the heart of what you do each day. Connect with Zach: Website:  https://www.zachmercurio.com/ You’ll Learn: [01:51] - Zach explains why purpose has become a priority in workplaces over the last few years. [03:48] - Zach studies are finding a focus on purpose impacts the bottom-line in workplaces. [06:05] - Zach explains why-washing has become a problem in some workplaces and how we can avoid it. [07:53] - Zach outlines why purpose is a process and the pathway to purpose that workplaces can follow based on his research. [11:38] - Zach explains how leaders can ensure their choices and actions remain aligned to their organization’s purpose even in a dynamic, complex and unpredictable world. [13:53] - Zach provides an example of how leaders can keep the purpose of their organization front-of-mind as they make decisions. [17:07] - Zach explains what we can do practically to be more purpose-focused – no matter what our role - if our organization isn’t yet clear on its purpose. [19:17] - Zach offers some tips to help us deliver on our organization’s purpose more consistently. [24:03] - Zach 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 for 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 Zach!

Today we’re talking to Tamra Chandler who is the founder and CEO of PeopleFirm, one of Forbes Magazine’s 2018 America’s Best Management Consulting firms. A nationally recognized thought leader, author, and speaker, Tamra has spent most of her thirty-year career developing new and effective ways for people and their organizations to perform at their peak. In 2016, she wrote the acclaimed book, “How Performance Management is Killing Performance and What to Do About It.” In this episode, we explore how existing performance management practices are often not only ineffective but detrimental in workplaces and why leaders hang on to them.  Tamra helps us to explore the alternatives and how focusing on strengths, building our growth mindiset feedback muscles and improving psychological safety with coaching focused development conversations can help people thrive in their roles. Connect with Tamra: Website:  http://www.peoplefirm.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:23] - Tamra explains why she's found that performance management processes are generally killing performance in workplaces. [05:55] - Tamra shares how performance conversations can help people to develop their strengths and improve psychological safety. [08:46] - Tamra explains why despite all the evidence we have about helping people to thrive at work, organizations continue to persist with performance management approaches that are ineffective. [11:49] - Tamra outlines the steps workplaces and leaders can take to improve their performance management processes. [14:42] - Tamra explains why managers struggle to accurately rate most people’s performance at work. [16:05] - Tamra suggests rating how managers feel about their people’s future potential is a better way to assess people’s talent in workplaces and why these conversations should be transparent. [18:17] - Tamra explains why workplaces need to arm people with the courage and capability to seek more feedback on their own. [20:41] - Tamra provides some tips on what leaders can do to improve people’s performance – regardless of their workplace's performance management systems. [23:15] - Tamra 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 for 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 Tamra!

  Today we’re talking to Fred Luthans, who is a distinguished professor of management emirates at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and whose research is focused on what he founded and has turned to positive organizational behavior and psychological capital. A former president of the Academy of Management, Fred has received many awards, edited three top journals, authored several well-known books, and over 250 academic articles and chapters, and lectured in most countries around the world. In this episode, we explore how Fred led the creation of the concept of Psychological Capital, the impact of building the psychological resources of hope, optimism, resilience and efficacy, and how this can be achieved in workplaces. Connect with Fred: Website:  https://business.unl.edu/people/fluthans [free_product_purchase id="34052"] You’ll Learn: [03:14] - Fred explains what psychological capital is and how the concept emerged for improving resilience in workplaces. [08:38] - Fred shares what researchers around the world have been learning about the benefits of building psychological capital in workplaces. [13:18] - Fred shares tips on how psychological capital can be practically developed for people in workplaces. [16:37] - Fred shares how sustainability boosters can help people to build and maintain their levels of psychological capital. [19:47] - Fred explains why PsyCap has been found to have more impact in the United States and in services industries. [23:36] - Fred shares some of the other positive psychological resources that studies have found also impact resilience and wellbeing in the workplace. [25:07] - Fred completes the lightning round. Your Resources: MPPW Podcast on Facebook The Hope Circuit by Martin Seligman Big Potential by Shawn Achors Psychological Capital & Beyong by Fred Luthans 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 for 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 Fred!

Today we’re talking to Peter Bregman who, for the last 30 years, has helped CEO’s and senior leaders to develop their leadership skills, build aligned collaborative teams, and overcome obstacles to drive results for their organizations. The host of the acclaimed Bregman Leadership podcast, Peter’s a regular contributor to the Harvard Business Review and an award-winning, best selling author. His most recent book is Leading with Emotional Courage, How to Have Hard Conversations, Create Accountability and Inspire Action on Your Most Important Work. In this episode, we discuss how to build people’s emotional courage so they can better navigate all of their emotions at work, willingly hold kind and hard conversations, and create more of the outcomes they want. Connect with Peter: Website:  http://bregmanpartners.com/ You’ll Learn: [02:06] - Peter explains why leaders need to understand that emotions are the fuel that energizes our focus at work. [06:22] - Peter explores if hard conversations can also be kind conversations at work. [10:48] - Peter shares how to lead into a kind conversation that’s hard to have with others. [14:14] - Peter explains why reducing our sense of power can help to build trust in our relationships. [19:28] - Peter outlines why reverting to old behaviors can be the best way to become more of who we want to be at work. [25:03] - Peter 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 for 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 Peter!