How to Create Positive Emotions for Your Employees

As leaders, we should want to aspire to create positive emotions in employees. The more positive employees feel about work the more likely they are to stay and be dedicated to the tasks they want to accomplish. As you read this, think of ways to inspire your employees to feel these powerful positive emotions while in the work place.

I recently performed an informal survey about what experiences people have which causes them to feel these twelve different emotions. I’ve compiled the results and found significant trends in almost every category.

Joyful

People seem to find the most joy in their lives from watching other people have a good experience. From listen to a virtuoso performance to children playing, to watching friends and colleagues have a wonderful experience. Joy comes from being in the proximity of someone having a great time.

Are you employees joyful at work? Are they getting the chance to experience a friend or colleague delivering a virtuoso performance? How are you providing an environment that encourages joy?

Excitement

People describe being excited when being involved in a winning accomplishment. Either a team victory or a personal “win” gets people pumped up and excited. It’s why people follow sports teams, why they enjoy competition, and why they enjoy trying new tasks because they get the opportunity to demonstrate a winning skill or talent.

How are you giving your employees a chance to experience victory? Do they feel a sense of team and understand what constitutes a win? Are you giving people the opportunity to feel excited about what they do? As rabid as fans are for their sports teams, imagine if you could create that same excitement for their work team?

Pleasure

Experiencing pleasure is simply doing what we love to do. People described pleasure coming from performing their hobbies, to spending time at a favorite location, to experiencing a high in their occupation. Nailing a speech, closing a deal, being recognized for an outstanding performance are all ways people experience pleasure in the workplace.

What opportunities are you creating for your employees to truly feel pleasure from their employment? What culture have you established in your work environment that encourages and fuels the opportunities for people to experience pleasure from a job they love to do?

Anticipation

For children, anticipation is huge the day before Christmas, before a birthday, just before entering into Disney for the first time. For adults anticipation is the same: the preamble to excitement. The preparation for a wonderful time is a type of high energy people enjoy just before “going for it.” It’s why players are jumping around just before storming the football field. It’s the racing of the heart as the speaker is being introduced, it’s the thrill of what positive moment is about to happen.

Great leaders are eager to get to work and get the excitement started. Top attorneys can’t wait to get in the court room to perform, and employees who love what they do are eager to get to the jobs they find exciting. How excited are your employees to get to work? How much positive anticipation do you feel on Sunday night getting prepared for your Monday morning? What model are you demonstrating?

Contentment

Overwhelmingly, people described contentment as something they experienced at the conclusion of a good day. Many tasks accomplished, success achieved, family tucked warm in bed, and a reflection on the positive accomplishments of the day.

What are your final thoughts before sleeping? Are you going over the positives of the day or are you watching televised news about all the negative things going on? Are you recapping your smiles from the day, or are you rehashing that argument you had in the morning meeting? Contentment is a choice we make. It’s also a choice leaders can influence in his or her staff. What last thoughts of the day are you choosing to have? What choices are you encouraging in your employees?

Invigorated

Almost every response to the question of what makes a person feel invigorated came from a physical activity. A gym workout, bike ride, a swim, working in the garden, weekend projects, doing something that makes a person sweat and gets the heart rate up were common in the physical exertion of energy.

As our employment becomes more office, white collar type of jobs, we are not experiencing the physical exertion of labor. (Although we all feel tired at the end of the day, don’t we?) Do you have a workout facility on your grounds? Do you encourage people to take a workout lunch break? Does your wellness program promote some type of invigorating activity during the work day? An invigorated employee doesn’t get the afternoon sleepies and is alive and alert throughout the day. How are you invigorating your employees?

The next blog on Friday will cover the next six positive emotions people experience. True leaders will recognize the benefits to having a consistency of these behaviors in the workplace, and work to find ways to create that type of positive working atmosphere. Give your employees the opportunity experience these emotions while working for you. They will be appreciative and you will benefit as well from the improved results.

How Badly Do You Want It?

The lament of sales people this year has been the down economy. It's also been their excuse for not closing more sales. Is the condition of the economy really the issue? I see people who have developed bad habits, lazy tendencies and lowered expectations. These changes are where they accept their own bad behaviors and consider inactivity as acceptable.

Yesterday I talked with a sales man who made 100 contacts. He never broke for lunch, he stayed on the phone from 8 AM until he hit his 100, and he closed a few deals and lost a few deals. The point is he was a machine at making contacts.

I asked him why he pounded the phones so relentlessly. I loved his response: Because I am a sales machine and I don't live to my standards unless I am closing deals. If I am not putting something in the pipeline every day I am not closing deals every day.

• What is your daily standard of accomplishment?
• What are you doing to drive your business now and later?
• How are you a driving machine in your position?
• How bad do you want what you complain about not having?

Today is the day you start your daily drive to reaching those accomplishments; if you really want it badly enough.

3 Ways to Make a Better Sequel

I Loved Pirates of the Caribbean. Hated the second one. Loved Men in Black. Hated Men in Black II. Loved the Bourne Identity. Surprise, I loved the Bourne Supremacy even more! Then I thought the Bourne Ultimatum was the best yet! Why do most sequels stink? The same reason your customer experiences can get progressively worse – when your motives are wrong.

The Sequel Letdown

Movie sequels rarely deliver because the intent is to milk a concept for as much money as the movie companies think it is worth. They try to capitalize on the concept by rushing the writing, making it more mainstream and making sure all the juicy roles of the original get more screen time in the second one. Notice nothing about the movie viewer interests? Nothing about what can be done new that is interesting? Nothing about making it as good as the original. In fact, I think most film makers expect the sequel to be worse than the original.

Sequels are a letdown because the motivation is wrong and the customer is lost in the money making frenzy. You could argue the same thing happened to Microsoft with its Vista operating system. Sequels happen in the business world as well. Businesses that are successful become more focused on the money than what made them successful – no news flash there. (Although, Apple seems not to suffer from that malaise.)

But what makes Apple, The Bourne movie franchise and others who do well in sequels different?

1. Improved not re-created

The Bourne stories build on the previous movie although the story arcs are different and unique. They aren’t trying to make the same movie again. The sequels are essentially a new movie using known characters. Apple creates new technology essentially using tried and true creative methods but intending on creating dramatically different results. Are you re-creating your process expecting better results? Are your customers telling you they like the new ideas?

2. Know your customer

Facebook is experiencing unprecedented growth. Recently, they changed how their pages look and work and the customer backlash is significant. What happened? They listened to designers more than they did their customers. They lost focus of why they exist. “Improvements” don’t always make things better unless the customer agrees. In the midst of the uproar Facebook has an option to go back to the way it was or ride out the complaints hoping the customer base will eventually get used to the changes. What would you do in the face of growing customer dissatisfaction? Apple and the Bourne movies obviously are in touch with the customers’ expectations of quality and demand. That’s why they work.

3. How important is the money?

Once a business becomes more focused on making money or fueling stockholders as the top priority the focus is in the wrong place. Don’t get me wrong I am sure Apple and The Bourne movies want to be profitable and I applaud that. However, that is not the top focus. The top focus is making a great product, delivered in the best way for an audience they fully understand.

When the focus is on quality and the customer, the money will follow. When the focus is on the money, rarely will the customers be pleased with what they receive, and they are then lost.

3 Steps for Regaining Control

We are lazy, not committed and expect someone else to do the heavy lifting. We no longer want to get ahead, we just want to hold steady and coast. We want to keep things the way they are, or were. If you are coasting you are going downhill. If we are waiting on someone else to do the heavy lifting; good news! China and India are glad to take over the burden of being the best economies in the world.

The government isn't going to fix us. The economy isn't going to go back to how it used to be. We have to make the redirection of the economy in this country happen one business at a time, one day at a time. Business is the driving force that has the potential to make this country a strong economic power once again. It’s time for business leaders to take control, and for the rest of the country to hold them accountable and do our part to support this recovery.

Step 1 Me first

Whenever there is a risk to be taken, whenever there is a big effort to be made, whenever there is someone who has to put it all on the line to make something dramatic happen, most people have the same response: you first.

How about “Me first?” We must stop waiting around for someone else to fix things. If I am a business owner or executive I need to accept the position of leadership and take action that may feel risky, that may jeopardize my position, which may seem like a crazy amount of work; but guess what? THAT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!

Leaders are responsible for taking the lead. I am tired of hearing about business leaders not wanting to try new things, not willing to accept needed changes in how a business operates, not willing to invest money in their employees right now. Act like you belong in your position. Act like you want things to change and are willing to take the lead. Take the attitude of “Me first” in leading the economic recovery for your organization.

Step 2 Get over it

When did Chicken Little become the voice of reason for leaders? When did it become acceptable behavior to cry for mommy when things got tough? We want someone to come protect us, to bail us out from the mess we created, to make the boo boos all better. Get over it! Take responsibility for your company. Take responsibility for your job. Take responsibility for cleaning up the mess that has been created and get to work on doing the right things no matter how hard it may be.

If we allow our fears to prevent us from taking the right path to success no matter how hard it is, we will never get employees to follow. In fact, if we wimp out, they will want the same things we want: bail outs, freely eliminated debt with no consequence, and someone else to take the first steps for making a difference. Take action. Silent those fear voices and build your courage to be bold.

Step 3 Believe

The media have been telling the younger generations there is no way they can exceed the lifestyle of their parents. They are telling all of us the glory days of America are behind us because China and India are just going to overwhelm us economically by sheer numbers. Why do we just accept this as fact? Don’t give up!

A person who graduates from college and then moves back in with the parents, which is happening with greater frequency, is not taking the steps to get involved. That’s not taking action to make a difference in the world -- it is a retreat and parents are allowing this back up behavior because “It’s rough out there.” As long as you believe it’s rough, it always will be. How does this retreat make things better? What happened to bold steps of confidence? How did courage become in such short supply?

Fears have people worried they are going to lose their investments, their property, their future. You can listen to the fear mongering or you can do something about changing that prediction of doom and gloom, but it all starts in that 6 inches between your ears. Once you believe, deep down in the core of your being, you can be the best; you then can make a difference. You have the ability to correct the course you are on – then you can get to work making it happen.

Stop letting the media do your thinking for you. Start believing it’s time to regain control and take it, use it, and make the right things happen in your life once again.