How Well do you Generate Positive Emotions in Others?

Join Jo Bishop by completing four challenges to generate more positive emotion…

How well do you generate positive emotions in others?

Not a question we ask ourselves often enough perhaps…

We’ve all heard various iterations of the message ‘people forget what you say; they remember how you made them feel’. We also know this to be true for ourselves. Maybe we don’t analyze people consciously in this way. However, we do instinctively know who we might want to reach out to, enjoy bumping into or seek out for a quick coffee. And then there are the others, those that drive us to want to hide behind the photocopier.

Frederickson (2009) identifies the ten most common positive emotions as:joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe, and love.

Leaders around the world are continually seeking ways to navigate our stormy VUCA workplace. Striving for the latest tool that will help. Help our resilience, help others to deliver performance, Something that will just help.

Generating positive emotions in others can help. For starters, thinking just about pride, what difference would it make to your team, department, family, school or organisation if you helped to generate a feeling of pride?

Research from the iOpener Institute underpins these suggestions to do just that, by;

Sharing positive experiences and news with clients, customers & stakeholders
Linking evidence of efficacy and efficiency to pride in achievements
Telling stories in an authentic and inspiring way
Connecting achievements of the organisation and team to individual achievements and vice versa

For the next two months I shall be working on one of these points per fortnight, and I need your help…

Challenge 1: We ask you to share positive experiences and news with clients, customers & stakeholders and to let us know the impact.

Tweet @iOpenerIPP with your experiences and don’t forget to #sharepositiveexperiences

I will be joining you. Today I have just shared the positive impact a colleague had on me; adding the impact of their work on our client. Tune in on the 5^th of May to hear the impact my sharing had and to read some of your top tweets.

Jo Bishop

Photo Credit: Tookapic