Have You Ever Considered Hiring a Coach? (5) 

First, let me say that this articles starts discussing teams and ends up discussing "finding your happy".  Stay tuned until the end.  Secondly, we will directly continue the discussion from article 4 in our series and, specifically, our discussion about Team Performance.  For expedience sake, here is the sub point from article 4 upon which we will expound.   It is one of the answers to “what Happy creates in us”.

So, Happy “improves how well teams function which has a direct impact on profitability.  According
to Kaufmann, a series of studies (Losada 1999) found that happy “played a primary role in how well the teams functioned.”  The study measured “every statement” in team meetings and coded them on a scale between positive, “approving/supportive” to negative, “disapproving/critical”.  “The results are remarkably strong and show that the positivity/negativity ratio was the key variable that differentiated team performance. High performance teams have a ratio of 3 to 1 (3 positive emotion or support statements to 1 negative emotion or disapproving/critical statement). The lower the positive [happy] ratio the lower the level of function and effectiveness of the team.”

That Being Said, Can You Be Too Positive? 
Yes.  Research from Losada and Fredrikson refutes the idea that we should be positive all the time.  I should state and we should
note that this does not mean we should be inappropriately angry or abusive or demanding or even negative (as we might commonly think of it).  Let’s call the opposite of positive in our context…healthy or constructive criticism, disagreement or challenge…real honest reaction and interaction.  
 
Losada’s research describes that when “people get really positive team performance levels fall”.  Perhaps, you are asking what is “really positive”. Research indicates that “there is an upper limit on being positive” that can be described in the ratio of 12 positive/supportive comments  to 1 negative (11.6 to 1 to be exact).  Beyond this upper limit of positive to negative, behavior is
unresponsive.  What does this mean for most of us? Two things: One, the key to happiness is not being positive all the time and Two, it means that several positive interactions per day have the ability to create an environment that promotes our personal “happiness”.  Psychologist Carol Kaufman commenting on Fredrikson’s data states, “what bears notice is that the difference between those who are flourishing and those who are languishing was very stable, but quite small…”  

What Does This Have To Do With Hiring A Coach? 
It means that a coach who properly understands the client can “coach” them to create a “positive” environment at work and at home that leads to a very different quality of life.  A good coach will collaboratively find and then strike a balance with their clients
between positive emotion and grounded thinking and its subsequent behavior.  Very few find this balance on their own and there is plenty of social and professional support in our world to accept that “the grind” is normal and there is nothing you can really do about it.  At WindRiver Strategies we believe differently.   We agree with the data that “provides [a] compelling, scientifically informed rationale with empirical support for why coaching, which clients describe as a joyful experience, might have a very positive impact.” 
 

FIND YOUR HAPPY.  Hire a coach from WindRiver Strategies. Register on the “About Us” page for a FREE coaching session.

Don't Miss Any Of This Series
Have You Ever Considered Hiring A Coach? (First in the Series)
Shifting Away From Pain (2)
Coaching Helps You Be Happy...So What? (3)
So What...Are The Advantages Of Being Happy? (4)

 

Have You Ever Considered Hiring a Coach? (3) 
All of us have positive and negative emotions.  The negative emotions like fear, stress, anger, sadness and others tend to support our ability to just survive in this world.  They move us to action when we feel threatened.  They allow us to stay in the game.  They sharpen our focus on a problem that must be urgently solved.  In our society we are skilled at turning these emotions “on” and untrained or sometimes even amateurish at turning them “off”.  
 
Positive emotions, on the other hand, serve a different purpose.  They energize a different set of mental functions. They help us see the big picture, get on board…get inspired. Psychologists, Fredrickson and Branigan wrote in 2005 that positive emotions “broaden people’s momentary thought-action repertoires and build their enduring personal resources, ranging from physical and intellectual resources to social and psychological resources.”  They increase our ability to be effective, to be social, to be our cognitive best and to be so long-term.  They increase our ability to build in ourselves the attributes we desire and to be what every corporation in America would desire of their human resources and leadership teams.

Have You Ever Considered Hiring A Coach? (First in the Series)
Shifting Away From Pain (2)

The Challenge
We are a quick fix, politically opportunistic, deadline driven, short term focused, “what can you do for me now” world and our corporations are typically not interested in something that is not driving the bottom line this month or quarter.  Investing in our culture and people’s happiness does not top the list. Most would say it is important but have an internal narrative that carries some thematic dialogue like “if we let off the accelerator to focus on the softer issues we will get behind or miss our goals.”  
 
So, for all of we goal oriented folks…change the goal.  Let the goal have a birthday so that it can grow up, too.  Maintain the focus of “hitting the numbers” and add as a simultaneous outcome a discovery process that enables the construction of a positive,
synergistic, collaborative and innovative family that is “our company”.  Why must deadlines compromise “happy”?  Why does one idea have to exclude the other?  It doesn’t and the science of success is continually proving it.  Ask the question, “if we were a high functioning, genuinely happy family at work” what would it look like?  (There is more coming in the next post, “So What….Are the Advantages of Being Happy?”)

The heart of coaching at WindRiver Strategies lies in the choice we make to shift away from pathology and pain and direct it to clear intentional concentration on strengths, vision and dreams.  Frequently and the upside here is that the exact same skill set used to create our habits of anxiety (as one example) can be used to defeat it.  The challenge is that most of our personal narrative and even our own psychological language has been long ago planted and is now firmly rooted in identifying problems. As a result, we are immersed in a culture that is most often unaware of how “negative” and “self-limiting” it is. The dynamic of learning how to frame your life with a vision versus understanding of “what’s wrong or what you don’t want” alone provides new found energy to seek your life’s dream.  In short, coaching would affirm that developing a personal visionary language lays a footing of strength upon which most anyone can build.
 
Ever Considered Hiring A Coach? (1)
Coaching Helps You Be Happy...So What? (3)
 
So…What’s Different?
People who have established a vision and can state what they want to create with their life (even if over time that vision changes) develop a profoundly different decision making process than those who are “what’s wrong” or fear based.  In fact, their
orientation towards what is a “problem” most likely will change.  What was once viewed as a problem may not even register as difficulty any more.  A quick example: if we believe that communicating at work is like going to war (a problem or “what’s wrong view) then our mood, enjoyment, energy and language will reflect it.  We might say or think things like: “the demands made on me are indefensible”, “my ideas always get shot down”, “defend yourself if you want to win” or “if you say that he will wipe you out”.  
 
On the other hand, if communication at work is more like a dance (the vision of what you would like it to be...perhaps) then and again, our mood, enjoyment, energy and language will reflect it…over time. You might reframe your thinking in questions like “are we demolishing arguments or learning to keep in step with each other”, “are we combatants of performers” or “are we defeating our enemy or learning to perform in a balanced and pleasing way”.  In this way of engaging communication at work, even your expectations adjust.  A problem oriented approach might inspire us to say, “We should not be having communication problems like this” and anger or frustration or both may be the emotional response.  However, if communication is a dance, then we expect there to be some missteps because we all make mistakes even people “who should know better.”

Register for FREE Coaching Session

The WindRiver Strategies' Coaching Approach
For many years traditional psychology has focused on how to make ill people well by finding clinically validated methods to help “fix us”.  I have immense respect for this field and those who have dedicated their lives to helping others in this way.  I am continually in their debt.  That being said, the WindRiver Strategies’ life, executive and business coaching approach is built around theories of
optimal functioning to improve the lives of ordinary and extraordinary people.  As a coach, I do not
diagnose “what is wrong” with someone and, in fact, have no need to do so. 
 
If someone is dissatisfied with some aspect of their life be it personal or professional (most frequently both), then I resist inclinations to immediately center on client skill deficits or search for the historical basis for depression, anger or anxiety.   Instead, I engage in a collaborative process that enables my clients to use their existing strengths to understand who they are, to identify a clear and meaningful vision and to create a “I’m a work in progress” plan to turn a dream into reality. In short,  we work together to shift from a trail of tears and fears caused by some level of pain to a trail of dreams cleared by what energizes and pulls us forward. 

Shifting Away From Pain (Part 2)
Coaching Helps You Be Happy...So What? (Part 3)