14 Apr Workplace Positivity: Why is Optimism at Work Beneficial?
With the push to take more care of mental health, people make it a personal goal to bring optimism to their daily lives. But what about work? Much like the benefits of maintaining a positive outlook during your day-to-day life, retaining positivity at work has many advantages.
What Does It Mean to Bring Positivity to Work?
Contrary to what it suggests, being positive at work doesn’t mean always being happy, smiley, and overly enthusiastic the entire day. Of course, taking the extra step to ensure you’re putting on a happier persona is definitely helpful. But it’s not everything.
Being positive at work goes hand-in-hand with just not being pessimistic. Thinking about things on a lighter note—or taking things at their base value rather than reacting emotionally/negatively—is one way that you can maintain workplace positivity. Believe it or not, retaining an unrealistically happy or enthusiastic front can cause more issues if it’s not who you truly are.
So, take a moment to see what it means to be positive for you.
The Benefits of Workplace Positivity
Maintaining positivity in the workplace has a lot of benefits. Truly, a positive attitude can change the sense of your workload from overbearing to something enjoyable. It brings both individual and group benefits—meaning that it will not only be helpful for you, but also for those that work around you.
Boosts Motivation / Productivity
If you’re keeping a positive outlook at work, you’ll likely feel more motivated to get things done. Being positive helps strengthen your brain, increase your energy levels, and make you more capable of carrying out tasks.
And who doesn’t love to get things done? Especially getting things done correctly the first time and getting a good response for it. In a roundabout way, positivity will nurture more positivity through your motivation and productivity.
Reduces Stress
It’s been proven that high levels and prolonged exposure to stress can have a negative impact on you mentally and physically. Well, what if we said positivity can help lessen the effects of stress? This means that you’ll not only feel less of that high tension, but your body and mental well-being will finally be able to relax.
Holding onto positivity through stressful situations can help lower the impact they have. It helps you keep a clearer head and not react emotionally—which ultimately helps make stressful situations less stressful.
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Increases Resilience
While positivity might decrease your stress levels, it won’t completely get rid of stressful situations. We all experience setbacks and standstills at work. They’re stressful, they’re hard to get through, and they can put a damper on your motivation. Unfortunately, there’s no magic trick to get these situations to disappear. Instead, you need to change how you respond to them.
Positivity helps increase your ability and willingness to get through stressful situations.
Improves Problem-Solving
Much like the last point, positivity can be the most helpful during stressful situations. There’s no way to avoid problems at work, but there are ways to work through them.
Workplace positivity keeps you thinking logically and gets those problems worked out quicker. If you work in a team, positivity will allow more room for everyone to figure out solutions. It’s said that optimistic people are more likely to view multiple options and various solutions. On the other hand, negativity makes you more narrow-minded. So, stay positive (or at least try to).
Enhances Collaboration
We have all worked with that one person who just never could get off their negative parade. They dragged the whole team down by only looking at worst-case scenarios and made it hard to work through things.
Don’t be that person.
Positivity can help prevent that. People are generally more attracted to those who exude a certain positive aura, they want to be around those that won’t dampen the mood. This goes with people at work, too. Maintaining a positive outlook makes it much easier to get work done and to work with others.
How to Bring Positivity to Work
As mentioned before, being positive doesn’t necessarily mean that you are overly enthusiastic or smiling all of the time. If that’s just not your personality, then forcing it will create more stress for you on an individual level. There are plenty of other ways to bring positivity to work.
Here are five simple ones you can start implementing:
1. Celebrate Small Successes
No, we don’t mean to throw a party for each little task completed. Instead, small rewards at the time can be majorly beneficial in the long run. As you work through little steps for each project, give yourself a moment to pat yourself on the back. Realize that you have completed another step and be proud of that. It will make completing the next steps much easier.
2. Be Realistic (about everything)
When things go wrong at work, the best step to take is to realize where exactly things are now. Figure out what went wrong, detail what things look like, and plan what you can do about it. Being overly positive about a situation—i.e., saying things are 100% fine when they are not—can be just as harmful as negative thoughts. Be realistic about things, and you will find that it’s easier to get through them.
If you oversee people, it’s also beneficial to be realistic in your goals, feedback, and disappointments. Make sure your workers know exactly what you—or the company—are working toward and what their individual parts are. Being realistic about their setbacks and their successes can smooth out any issues. Give credit where it is due and supply helpful feedback when it is needed—and try not to be rude about things. This will help boost workplace positivity as a whole and enhance productivity.
3. Do Not Let Negativity Run Wild
We mentioned this in an earlier section, but it needs to be repeated. Do not let negativity rule all of your thoughts.
Stressful situations will always appear. Positivity in these situations does not always mean “looking on the bright side.” Sometimes, there is no bright side. Rather, take it as “don’t look on the bad side.” Look at the situation as an outsider, lay out what happened, and figure out a plan to get through it.
Try to refrain from thinking negative thoughts such as “We will never finish on time” or “We cannot fix this.” Think about it this way: “What do we know we are able to fix and what steps can we take?” Focusing on negative outcomes before you even set up a plan to get through things will always be the greatest downfall. Don’t let it stop you.
4. Show Gratitude — Practice Thankfulness
Everyone enjoys recognition. Further, it’s always nice to know that someone is grateful for the things you do. At work, there are many different reasons that someone might be grateful for something you have done or you for something they have done. Make sure you show this gratitude.
If you work in a collaborative environment, expressing your thankfulness for team members will have long-lasting effects on your projects. It helps people feel more positive about work and pushes them to higher motivation. Overall, this could increase the work being done and improve the quality of the work.
Remember, positivity brings more positivity. If you start showing more gratitude to those around you, they will likely start showing you the same level of gratitude in return.
5. Develop Relationships — Be a Team Player
Very similar to the previous point, our last tip for harboring workplace positivity is just to be a team player. Having relationships—even simple ones that don’t go deeper than what happens during work—will bring positivity to your every day.
Further, being a good team player and doing your part at work will increase these relationships. Your coworkers will trust you to get your part done and will be less likely to put you under stressful deadlines or strict monitoring.
Workplace Positivity at the Right Job
Though positivity can help make a stressful job easier to handle, it won’t always be the solution for you. If you’ve tried to bring positivity to your current workplace but find that things are still stressful, it might be because that work environment just isn’t for you. It might be time to start looking for something else before you hit burnout.
At The Jonus Group, we offer multiple career services to assist you on your journey. From resume assistance and LinkedIn optimizations to mock interviews and career coaching, we can help you find that perfect job.
To learn more, let’s set up a time to talk! Click here to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation with our certified career service professionals.