Category : PipCorporate

The noise from the drill outside is filling your office … and your head. You are trying to concentrate on the report you have to write for the Board which is due at midday, but your mind keeps skidding off the screen and back to that ghastly noise.

Distraction like this is stressful for most of us – in fact it is a major problem for many people who work in large, open-plan offices, where they are expected to focus while surrounded by the voices of a dozen colleagues. So what can you do about it? Suppose that your boss arranges for a button to be installed on your desk and tells you that when you find yourself feeling stressed by distracting noise, pressing that button will stop it by activating a sound shield around your desk. But the device is expensive to run and you should use it sparingly, she says.

The deadline for another report is looming, and the drill is still growling outside, so you are grateful to have the possibility of getting rid of it. But actually, you find yourself in the flow and so feel less stressed by the distraction – and in a rush, the report is finished. You lean back on your chair and stretch in satisfaction. But actually, your boss was lying.  The button didn’t do anything. She was just giving you the belief that you had potential control over the noise, when in reality, you didn’t have any objective control.

Research consistently shows that perceived control is a considerable stress reliever [1]. And in general people who believe that they have at least some control over their working lives end up happier, healthier and more productive [2]. In general, the more senior you are in an organization, the better is your mental and physical health and the longer you will live on average [3]. Much of this beneficial effect of seniority is because of the increased control that those higher up in the hierarchy have.

Two people in the same office may have exactly the same objective level of control over their working day, which will be lower for more junior employees. But if one believes that he has more control than the other, he will have lower blood pressure and lower stress hormones than the one who believes that he has little control [4]. In practical terms, we can all build in a little more control into our working lives and so reduce the stress. Sound-attenuating earphones can reduce distracting sounds, as can breaking down tasks into sub-goals and rewarding ourselves with a short break when we have achieved it. For example, “right, I will spend 15 minutes all out on this draft then I am going to stretch my legs by going to the water cooler.”

If we chunk our working day in that way we are taking control, to some extent, of our work schedule, and this strengthens a more general feeling of control. And as we have seen, feeling in control has remarkably positive effects on body and mind.

1. Corah, N. and J. Boffa, Perceived control, self-observation, and response to aversive stimulation.
2. Spector, P.E., Interactive effects of perceived control and job stressors on affective reactions and health outcomes for clerical workers. Work & Stress, 1987. 1(2): p. 155-162.
3. Wilkinson, R.G. and M.G. Marmot, Social determinants of health: the solid facts. 2003: World Health Organization.
4. Morrison, C., et al., Effect of socioeconomic group on incidence of, management of, and survival after myocardial infarction and coronary death: analysis of community coronary event register. Bmj, 1997. 314(7080): p. 541.

Ever heard the phrase ‘count your blessings’? If an adult told you this when you were younger you probably rolled your eyes. I hate to tell you though, they were right. Counting your blessings, or being grateful for what you have, is one of the most effective tools you have to boost mood and feel happy.

But how do you go about counting your blessings? Well it really is as it sounds. Researchers in the University of California Davis split students into 3 groups. They asked one group to write down 1-5 things in their lives that they were grateful for each week for 10 weeks. The second group wrote down 1-5 things that annoyed them. The final group wrote down things that had affected them in the past week. They repeated this study with different students 3 times and every time the researchers found that those in the gratitude group were happier, more optimistic and more likely to help other people [1]. The gratitude group were even more likely to exercise than students in the other groups.

An even more potent gratitude intervention was conducted by Dr. Martin Seligman (of learned helplessness fame: link to blog here) in the University of Pennsylvania who asked volunteers to write a letter of gratitude to someone who had been kind to them but had never been properly thanked. The volunteers read the letter out to that person and the researchers measured their mood afterwards. The simple effect of reading the letter out boosted the volunteers’ happiness for up to a month [2]. If you’re not someone who enjoys public displays of emotion then this exercise may make your toes curl but worry not, the University of California Davis listed some of the things that their students were grateful for and they ranged from ‘the generosity of friends’ and ‘wonderful parents’ to ‘waking up this morning’ and ‘the Rolling Stones.’ It doesn’t matter what you’re grateful for, it’s yours to be thankful for and to harness.

Since then, other studies have found that gratitude is not only important for one’s own happiness but also for relationships and in the workplace. People who express gratitude towards their partner are more positive about their partner and feel more comfortable about voicing relationship concerns when they arise [3]. In relation to the workplace another study found that a manager expressing gratitude towards employees was a strong predictor of how the employees felt and performed. Employees working as fundraisers for a public university in the U.S. either did a shift as normal or were given a short speech by their manager before their shift in which she told them how grateful she and the university were for their work. The employees who had been thanked not only felt better about themselves but made an average of 50% more fundraising calls in the week afterwards than those who did the regular shift. There were no incentives to make more calls, their salary was not commission based, but those who had been thanked by the manager felt greater self-worth and therefore exhibited more motivation to do the task [4].

So that’s the benefit of feeling grateful. Count your blessings and thank your employees and both you and the recipients will reap the benefits of gratitude.

1. Emmons, R.A. and M.E. McCullough, Counting blessings versus burdens: an experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life. Journal of personality and social psychology, 2003. 84(2): p. 377.
2. Seligman, M.E., Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being. 2012: Simon and Schuster.
3. Lambert, N.M. and F.D. Fincham, Expressing gratitude to a partner leads to more relationship maintenance behavior. Emotion, 2011. 11(1): p. 52.
4. Grant, A.M. and F. Gino, A little thanks goes a long way: Explaining why gratitude expressions motivate prosocial behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 2010. 98(6): p. 946.

Why do some people feel in control, even in the face of adversity, while others feel depressed and helpless? We can look at three important things: 1) what is currently happening in their lives; 2) how they explain and respond to what is happening; 3) what they have experienced in the past.

One of the most fundamental studies we have for understanding human behaviour was conducted by psychologist Martin Seligman in the 1960s. Seligman was trying to understand if and how past experiences can lead to depression. To do this he conducted a study with dogs. He split the dogs into two groups, one group experienced a mildly painful electric shock but could stop it by pressing a lever. The other group experienced the same shock but could not stop it. Later, all of the dogs were put into another situation in which they received an electric shock but could escape by jumping over a small barrier. The dogs who had previously been able to press a lever to stop the shock quickly learned to leap over the barrier to escape. The dogs who had not had a lever didn’t learn to leap over the barrier, they lay down and gave up. As they previously experienced a situation in which they had no control they learned, falsely, that they would never have control [1]. Seligman and colleagues showed that the same applies to humans. They played an irritating noise to a group of people, some of whom could switch it off by solving a problem and others who could not switch it off. They then put all participants into a second situation in which they heard the irritating noise but this time all of them had the power to switch it off. Only those who had previously had control over the noise tried to stop it. The others did not try to switch it off exhibiting what Seligman called “learned helplessness” [2].

So how does this translate to real life? People can have different levels of learned helplessness depending on what they have experienced but also on what they attribute negative events to. Some people who experience negative uncontrollable events do not develop learned helplessness. Seligman and colleagues have found that people’s level of learned helplessness predicts how successful they will be in the workplace and how likely they will be to quit [3]. The same is true of athletes and of school achievement [4, 5]. Children with high levels of learned helplessness also have more depressed mood [5].

Thankfully, it is possible to change a learned helplessness mindset and interventions exist to do so. Teaching people how to be optimistic and how to reappraise some of the events in their lives helps to change not only how they think about but also how they behave in a situation that seems hopeless at first sight but that may not be on a second look.

1. Seligman, M.E., Learned helplessness. Annual review of medicine, 1972. 23(1): p. 407-412.
2. Hiroto, D.S. and M.E. Seligman, Generality of learned helplessness in man. Journal of personality and social psychology, 1975. 31(2): p. 311.
3. Seligman, M.E. and P. Schulman, Explanatory style as a predictor of productivity and quitting among life insurance sales agents. Journal of personality and social psychology, 1986. 50(4): p. 832.
4. Seligman, M.E., et al., Explanatory style as a mechanism of disappointing athletic performance. Psychological Science, 1990. 1(2): p. 143-146.
5. Nolen-Hoeksema, S., J.S. Girgus, and M.E. Seligman, Learned helplessness in children: A longitudinal study of depression, achievement, and explanatory style. Journal of personality and social psychology, 1986. 51(2): p. 435.

If you fail a test, don’t get a promotion in work or don’t get invited to a social event what do you put it down to? Do you think “I’m not smart”, “I’m not good at my job” and “I’m not a likeable person”? Or do you think “I didn’t prepare enough and I made some mistakes”, “the person who got the promotion is better than me now but I can improve” and “I don’t know the host that well yet but I would like to, I will make an effort to be more sociable.” The first set of thoughts are examples of a fixed mindset while the latter ones are examples of a growth mindset and which one you have can have a huge impact on your success, your stress and your life satisfaction.

Psychologist Carol Dweck has extensively studied fixed vs growth mindsets. A fixed mindset is one in which everything, good or bad, seems predetermined [1]. For example, some people view their intelligence as an innate feature of their person (a fixed mindset) while others view it as a malleable feature that can be grown and fostered with new learning and challenge (a growth mindset). Dweck has shown that the type of mindset you have is a huge predictor of how you fare in school and work, how you succeed in the face of challenge or adversity and even how you make friends and contacts. We wrote about the fixed vs growth mindset for children in an earlier blog (link here) but this mindset is equally important for adults as well.

For example, leaders in business who believe that they are ‘born leaders’ (a fixed mindset) rather than having grown into the role are less likely to succeed and less likely to build a good team around them. This is because for people with a fixed mindset any failure is proof that they are not, in fact, a ‘born leader’. Someone with a growth mindset will instead see a failure as a challenge and a learning experience. If a leader believes that they are a ‘born leader’ they must also see those on their team as being relatively inferior and this creates a culture in which creativity is stifled not fostered [1]. The same is true for sports stars. Athletes who have a growth mindset tend to be more successful than those with a fixed mindset because when they discover a weakness in their performance they do not see it as an attack on their beliefs about their innate ability but something that can be worked on [1].

The good news is that mindset itself is not something that is fixed but something that can be changed. Simply teaching people about mindsets and the effects they have can help people to change theirs and to feel empowered not weakened when they hit a roadblock in life.

1. Dweck, C. (2006). Mindset: The New Psychology of Success. New York: Random House.

You’re working on a project when you hit a bump. It is a problem for which there isn’t an obvious solution and it’s going to set you back at least a few hours, maybe more. How do you react?

1. Throw in the towel and storm off in a bad mood?
2. Put your head in your hands and feel utterly defeated?
3. Take a deep breath, a step back, and try to figure out a solution?

Your first reaction is likely to be one or two but the important question is whether you can then move onto three.

Normal, everyday stress is unavoidable. In fact, with no stress in our lives we would likely be under-stimulated and maybe a little bored. There are other times when stress increases to a point at which you start to feel overwhelmed. While we may not be able to control the stressor, we can try to control how we respond to it.

Normal stress can either be viewed as a threat or a challenge. If you view a task as a threat your heart rate and blood pressure will rise, you may feel out of control and have an urge to run away. If you see a task as a challenge instead your heart rate will still rise but your blood pressure will not, you will feel more in control and will likely take more practical steps to find a solution [1]. A simple difference in reframing stress can make a big difference in how it affects you.

For example, researchers gave golf players instructions on how to complete a putting task. They gave half instructions in which the task was framed as a threat and half in which it was framed as a challenge. Those who received the challenge instructions not only landed more puts but also made more efficient muscle movements while completing them [2]. What about non-sports related tasks? Another researcher made people do a set of horrible tasks including making a speech in front of a group, singing karaoke and doing maths problems.

The only difference in participants was whether they had been told to say ‘I am anxious’ or ‘I am excited’ before the tasks. Those who said ‘I am excited’ were better able to do the tasks, felt more confident and viewed them as opportunities not threats. This latter group had reframed the stressful task in front of them and reinterpreted the physical symptoms they were feeling as excitement not anxiety. After all, a pounding heart and butterflies in the stomach are signs of both stress and excitement. The only difference is how you interpret them.

So next time you hit a problem go ahead and throw things, storm out, slam doors and/or have a little cry but don’t let that be your final response. Try to take a break, go back with a fresh head and see this bump as a challenge not a threat.

1. Blascovich, J., et al., Predicting athletic performance from cardiovascular indexes of challenge and threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 2004. 40(5): p. 683-688.
2. Moore, L.J., et al., The effect of challenge and threat states on performance: An examination of potential mechanisms. Psychophysiology, 2012. 49(10): p. 1417-1425.
3. Brooks, A.W., Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 2014. 143(3): p. 1144.

In our last instalment we discussed the effect of stress on decision making abilities (link here). We have also previously written about the positive effects of resilience when it comes to reducing stress and making good decisions (link here). This week we talk about some other important factors to consider to improve decision-making.

Breaks. Decision fatigue is the phenomenon whereby the more decisions you make the harder it is to make more and the more likely you are to just give up [1]. In a now famous study researchers compared how often judges granted parole before and after lunch. They found that judges were more likely to grant parole after lunch and other breaks than at other times of the day [2]. We don’t know whether granting parole was the right or wrong decision but it is concerning that something as important as that was affected by something as simple as taking a break. Decision fatigue results in depletions to self-control whereby people are more likely to give up on a task early. If an important decision has to be made make sure you and your team take breaks so that fatigue doesn’t drive the outcome.

Understanding your body. Soldiers and naval officers face some of the most stressful work conditions out there. If they don’t make the right decision in a high pressure situation their own or someone else’s life could be on the line. A lot of research therefore has gone into finding out how to reduce mistakes in decision making. One intervention found that giving personnel information about the challenges they would face and, importantly, about how their body would react in a stressful situation allowed them to make more accurate decisions [3]. Understanding how your body responds to stress and understanding how you can settle yourself or counteract it are important tools in making sure emotional stress doesn’t dictate the decisions you make.

Being mindful. We’ve all heard that mindfulness can help us refocus, destress and be more positive but did you know it can help decision-making as well? Researchers found that people who practised mindfulness-based stress reduction were more likely to make ethical decisions when faced with problems than those who were not [4]. In addition, another set of researchers found that individuals who think more mindfully are less likely to cheat when presented with an opportunity to do so [5].

Stress isn’t always bad, in fact it can sometimes help sharpen your mental functions when faced with a difficult decision. However recognising that when stress is overwhelming it can negatively affect the decisions you and your employees make, and knowing how to counteract that, is a useful weapon to make sure bad decision-making doesn’t have lasting effects on your workplace.

1. Vohs, K. D., Baumeister, R. F., Schmeichel, B. J., Twenge, J. M., Nelson, N. M., & Tice, D. M. (2014). Making choices impairs subsequent self-control: a limited-resource account of decision making, self-regulation, and active initiative.
2. Danziger, S., Levav, J., & Avnaim-Pesso, L. (2011). Extraneous factors in judicial decisions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(17), 6889-6892.
3. Inzana, C. M., Driskell, J. E., Salas, E., & Johnston, J. H. (1996). Effects of preparatory information on enhancing performance under stress. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(4), 429.
4. Shapiro, S. L., Jazaieri, H., & Goldin, P. R. (2012). Mindfulness-based stress reduction effects on moral reasoning and decision making. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 7(6), 504-515.
5. Ruedy, N. E., & Schweitzer, M. E. (2010). In the moment: The effect of mindfulness on ethical decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 95(1), 73-87.