Why your business could benefit from a positive psychology approach

11.03.2015

Do you ever have those days where nothing you do feels good enough? Where despite your strongest efforts to perform well at your job and exceed expectations, the results are perceived as average and uninspired? On those days, many of us feel like we don’t deserve the role that we fill – like we’re frauds who don’t deserve the opportunities we’ve been granted. It can lead to a downward spiral of low self-esteem and feelings of inadequacy, the consequences of which include decreased work performance, self-seclusion and erratic actions such as sudden resignation.

Nobody wants their employees to feel like this. A depressed and unmotivated workforce means less productivity and therefore less profit. In order to get around the problem of employees feeling like they’re not good enough, a strengths-based coaching approach can be incredibly beneficial. According to Insight’s Business Psychologist Pip Gwynn, applying this positive psychology technique to business helps staff to find their innate skills and strongest attributes, feeling empowered by them instead of chained down by common pitfalls and perceived weaknesses.

“The benefits of happiness are significant and widespread and extend far beyond just feeling good,” explains Pip. “Happier people tend to enjoy better health, live a longer life, have closer friendships, are more creative and productive at work and in life, and achieve greater success.”

Happy people tend to express their gratitude and count their blessings, nurture their relationships with family and friends, practice optimism regarding the future, savour the positive experiences in their lives and commit to meaningful goals. Within the work environment, this translates to appreciation of employers, tact and patience with co-workers, a positive mind-set during potentially challenging scenarios, the ability to put up with less exciting tasks in order to relish the ones they are passionate about and a driven, self-motivated approach to fulfilling personal targets for the good of their organisation.

“Positive psychology is a natural fit with coaching,” says Pip. “Clients seek out coaching for a full range of issues, but underneath all of these issues is a generally unstated desire to increase their overall sense of happiness and well-being. Positive psychology provides important empirical underpinnings to the techniques and strategies that coaches use to help clients realise their goals on the path to greater well-being.”

By bringing a positive psychology approach into your business, you not only improve the long-term well-being of your current staff, but also invest in the positive future of an empowered and productive team. Having more people within your organisation who are able to focus on the enjoyable aspects of work will help to ingrain a positive company culture in your work environment for years to come. Positivity is contagious, so ensuring that key employees are focusing on their strengths and using them to boost their performance means that others are likely to adopt the same approach and pass it on to future colleagues.

“This approach works because it makes people feel good,” Pip enthuses. “In the fast-paced world of work it can be easy to get caught up in a negative spiral, but through a strengths-based approach you can help people to feel better and produce better work.”

To find out more about instilling positivity in your workforce through psychological coaching, drop us an email via hello@insight-hrc.co.uk or call 01633 415 361.