How Well do you Generate Positive Emotions in Others?

Jo Bishop Reviews Challenge 3 and Launches Challenge 4

Reviewing Challenge 3: telling stories in an authentic and inspiring way (#inspiringstories):

Beginning this feels like it takes more confidence than it actually does in practice. As we see in ‘What’s Your Story‘ in the Harvard Business Review, it can be challenging to tell stories coherently and with impact. It’s true that the really great storytellers and raconteurs are well practiced. And we know what they say about practice making perfect…

Working with my team at iOpener generates enormous feelings of pride every single day. And maybe finding time to tell a story every day feels too challenging now. If this is true for you, do one of the other challenges, and save the storytelling to do once a month. Or try using 'analogy'. It’s quick, easy and memorable. Here’s my example; Working with my team at iOpener generates enormous feelings of pride every single day. The wonderful Clemi Collett, working in our iOpener office has been my 'virtual alarm clock and snooze' button. Her gentle reminders helping me to keep to the timeline of this blog, starting slowly, giving me time to ponder, and then ramping up at the 11^th hour just when something needs to happen! Thank you Clemi. The blog wouldn’t have been published on time without you.

Remember that stories can be especially effective when you’d like to

• Motivate others to action
• Build trust
• Build your brand
• Transmit values
• Help others to work well together
• Share knowledge
• Tackle unhelpful rumours
• Create shared visions
• Innovation

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Launching Challenge 4: Connecting achievements of the organization and team to individual achievements, and vice versa

Challenge 4: We ask you to connect achievements of the organization and team to individual achievements, and vice versa

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

Couldn’t we all do with some bursts of positive emotion at work? If you take up this challenge and act upon it, you’ll be doing just that for other people.

Our iOpener research into The Science of Happiness at Work tells us that;

• Short term motivation increases when we know that our work is having a positive impact
• The discretionary effort we make goes up when we feel appreciated and understand our goals
• When we feel these bursts of positive emotion at work it impacts our long-term engagement

All these things matter in an organization…

How to do it :

• Let people know how their individual contribution affected something bigger to the team or organization
• Be specific, “because you got that report to me on time and accurately meant we won the business”

Remember to be genuine, this isn’t a random ‘’you’re so fab!” statement which can wear thin after a while.

Let me know how you get on!

Jo Bishop

Reference: Happiness at Work: Maximising your Psychological Capital for Success – Jessica Pryce-Jones

*The Leaders Guide to Storytelling – Stephen Denning