It is easy to understand why happiness is a vital element to a successful business. In what can be best described as mutually beneficial, happy staff enjoy coming to work and are more productive than their saddened colleagues. From a leadership perspective, it is an essential skill that keeps the team focused and enthusiastic. Many have been in situations where business meetings have got out of control, voices raised and the overall mood that the outburst has generated has had a monstrous impact on the office environment. It isn’t constructive, solution focused or professional at any level. It becomes each persons responsibility to ensure that the workplace stays positive and supportive so that negative moods don’t affect the productivity of those sensitive to these outbursts. However, to be consistently upbeat can prove to be not as easy as it sounds, especially when others impose their negative opinions and thoughts upon you.

Negativity is infectious. Recent research at the University of Pennsylvania has done several studies on emotional contagions in professional settings and found that bad moods can easily be transferable. Any one with first hand experience of a company rippling with negativity knows that the ultimate effect is a decline in company culture, increased absenteeism and high staff turnover. The mood also manifests itself in the way your staff ‘appear’ to the outside world. If you’ve ever received a phone call from a flat, unenthusiastic sales person, you’ll know what I mean. If you’ve ever had a hard day and called a friend, only to be asked “What’s wrong?” after your initial few words, then you’ll know what we mean as well.

The ability to take responsibility for your emotions is an essential leadership skill and responsibility. Individually, we’re all responsible for the emotions that we feel; others may provoke a trigger to that emotion however we decide which emotion we’re going to run with. This doesn’t mean that anger should no longer form part of your emotional set. Like all emotions, it has a purpose and a place. However, when the emotion takes over and over rides everything else, it’s effects can be damaging. A study at Fairfield University found that “expressing positive emotions and moods tends to enhance performance at individual, group and organisational levels.” You need to also realise that most peoples actions are not done to deliberately anger you – many are doing the best they can with the resources that they have. When problems arise, you need to 360 the situation to determine what is happening for them to cause that and what can be done to change the outcome and bring it to a more positive place. Remember, if you go looking for bad things, you’ll find them so make sure you go looking for some of the good things at the same time.

So, the question that would come from all this is how do we actually keep ourselves upbeat and positive? We are only human and anger is a real emotion for us, so you need to admit to yourself that you are in a bad mood. What follows is self control – you need to be able to step aside from your mood for a second and think about what the outcome is that you need to achieve and what needs to happen in order to get to that point. If you’re finding that the constant barrage of negativity isn’t getting what you want, repeating it daily is not going to change the result. As the Chinese proverb says, “If we don’t change our direction, we’re likely to end up where we’re heading”. Or, as the definition of insanity states, doing the same thing over and over again whilst expecting a different result.

Managing your thoughts is essential in being able to get an outcome. If you’re at work and your boss gives you a project with a tight deadline, you may spend time in an endless cycle of whining, anger and annoyance, which will only make your desired outcome no closer. If anything, it will become further away! The solution is to bring yourself into the current moment and decide what it is that you need to do get the result you want, whether it be to plan your work load from deadline back, recruit additional help or to talk with your boss about why the deadline is unrealistic and to obtain more time. Remember, you are responsible for your own way of being which can either be productive and positive or a whinging mess who seems to fail making steps forward.

Find a sense of achievement and work from that state of mind. Think about a time when you were truly successful with something and let that state fill your mood – what did you do to become that successful? No one handed you success – you worked and did something for it. That same state of mind is what can drive you into a positive state and to achieve what you need to at work.

Take a deep breath. Moods manifest themselves in our own physiology. If you’re in a bad mood, take a deep breath and let it out. Steven Alper, LSCW, a consultant with the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine who teaches stress-reduction techniques to executives says that “when we perceive a threat, the primitive part of our brain prepares the body to fight, flee or freeze by sending blood to our arms and legs and away from the brain, so you tend to feel more confused.” Slow, deep and rhythmic breathing can dissipate that response. "When you take a deep breath, the message that goes to the brain is, OK, all clear,'" says Alper.

Exercise is also an excellent way to get those bad moods out. If an incident has upset you, take five to ten minutes out of the office to clear your head, collect your thoughts and determine what is going to be the most productive way to get to the outcome that you want from the situation. It eases tension in the muscles, returns energy and allows for a clearer focus.

No one is capable of escaping others with bad moods however we are all capable of determining how we should respond to them. Remember, when you think about it, there is a difference between reactive and responsive. Bring a focus to positive things in the office, ensuring that there is the opportunity and the ability to have some fun in the work place environment. A little bit of silliness doesn’t mean that people don’t take their jobs and responsibilities seriously, but it can make the difference between someone wanting to be there or not. The question is, will you become a leader of having fun and being positive in your work place to make the difference?


What have you done to promote, provoke and put Happiness as pride of place in your work space? Email here to let us know and we'll publish responses in future Xpose.