What does being happy actually mean? A shocking one in two people feel more self-doubt than self-love (Body Shop Index of Self Love 2021). Admittedly this statistic is applicable to us all on a general basis rather than purely in the workplace. However, I was interested to learn more and understand the effect of such negativity on ourselves and our business relationships. Plus, I wanted to understand how to measure our happiness levels.
Inspired by attending The Happiness Index conference last month where I was greeted by genuinely happy smiley people who remained authentically so for the whole day, my digging began. The factors behind negativity intrigue me as well as how it can shift the dial on happiness and contentment. I checked in with Chat GPT which informed me that evolution is at play. Emotions are linked to survival. We are naturally more aware of negative feelers or stimuli so we can decide whether to fight or flee. Interesting. Because of this, humans give more weight to negative information than positive, resulting in a negativity bias. This, according to ChatGPT will;
‘Activate the brain’s amygdala, responsible for processing emotions and threats. This “negativity bias” means that negative experiences tend to stick with us longer and affect us more deeply than positive ones.’
Which can also mean that interpretations of verbal and written communication will more likely carry a pessimistic connotation, the repercussions of which will influence relationships as well as decisions. So, what can we do about it? How are we going to evolve into the opposite?
Moving forward happily at work
A little while ago I worked with an HR Director who firmly believed that mentoring leads to happier and more productive people. Why? Because mentees have a safe space to share and shed work frustrations rather than fester on them and mentors feel an increased sense of satisfaction as they can share experiences and make a positive difference to those of the mentee. It is proven that mentoring programmes can breakdown toxic environments alongside many other positive outcomes which include a list of ‘more likely’s’ for example, to be promoted, earn more, increased job satisfaction which all lead to higher retention rates and it goes on.
At The Happiness Index conference, the tech team shared some key findings, and I was happy (!) to see that mentoring programmes were featured in employee requests for increasing their index.
What happens on a mentoring programme?
Mentors and mentees are matched carefully from the wider team based on expertise, characters and requests for areas of support. Both receive support and guidance in roles, responsibilities, typical derailments of a mentoring relationship (and how to resolve them) as well as how to maintain momentum and draw to a close. However, what most people don’t know is that mentoring skills are highly transferable to management manner and the way we behave on a day today basis with an emphasis on awareness of ourselves, others and our working environment. Happiness is measured by asking, checking in on several factors, carried out in a variety of ways. Being happy can be defined as a state of emotional well-being, contentment, or fulfillment where an individual experiences positive feelings, satisfaction, and hopefully joy in their life.
Win, happy win! Plus, there is all the other mentoring good stuff such as Executive Mentoring, Reverse Mentoring, Mentoring Circles and Flash Mentoring. Something for everyone to increase happiness levels. Ask me for a copy of our recently released report “Driving business growth and wellbeing through professional business mentoring”.
