What kinds of positive psychology interventions do you
find people to be initially resistant to, but when they dive in,
the light goes on and there is a shift in their perspective?
RBD: You can take, for example, something like gratitude. If I go
into a company and say, “Everyone should be grateful, so we are going
to teach mindfulness skills and appreciation skills and have a
hug-a-thon,” it will raise more than a few eyebrows and it would
not be a good fit for a lot of organizational cultures. But if I go in
and say, “You probably already have some type of employee recognition
program, which is essentially gratitude. We are going to
evaluate what that employee recognition is and think about ways
that we might improve it based on the science of gratitude or positive
psychological science.” This is a much stronger message and
better fit.
Where do you feel the field needs to go next?
RBD: I believe one of the main trappings of positive psychology
is the almost exclusive focus on increasing happiness. Although
this is a valuable endeavour, I think we need to widen our outcomes
from happiness to trust, appropriate risk-taking, creativity,
etc. to move the field forward. For example, if I could show you
eight interventions that would raise trust, that seems every bit as
important to me as eight interventions that would raise happiness.
What advice would you have for HR executives who are
exploring engaging with someone for positive psychology
coaching or positive psychology interventions?
RBD: It comes down to being a smart consumer. If I were going
to advise a leader, I would say what you want is to look for sophistication.
One place that you can find sophistication is how much
a potential coach attends to negative psychology. Are these people
only saying that we should be happy all the time? That we can only
manage around strengths? Or are these people saying that there
is a time for happiness as well as a time for frustration or anxiety?
When you hear this balanced message, you know these people
will likely bring interventions to the table that are more natural,
because negativity is a part of life and probably will fit with your
personal experience of life as a leader. n
Craig Dowden is president and founder of Craig Dowden & Associates.
STRENGTHS PSYCHOLOGY IS ABOUT CAPITALIZING
ON PEOPLE’S NATURAL PASSIONS AND TALENTS.
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