The article of record as published may be found at https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/happiness-drives-performance-103120049

Diener,  Ed

Lester, Paul B.

Seligman, Martin

English

Calhoun, Institutional Archive of the Naval Postgraduate School

Calhoun: The NPS Institutional ArchiveDSpace RepositoryOthers Look at NPS Articles and Reports about NPS (External)2022-02-16Happiness Drives PerformanceLester, Paul B.; Seligman, Martin; Diener,  EdMIT Sloan Management ReviewLester, Paul B., Ed Diener, and Martin Seligman. "Happiness DrivesPerformance." MIT Sloan Management Review 63.3 (2022): 57-61.http://hdl.handle.net/10945/69490This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, UnitedStates Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in theUnited States.Downloaded from NPS Archive: Calhoun1/3markets.businessinsider.comHappiness Drives Performancemarkets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/happiness-drives-performance-1031200492CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Feb. 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- According to new research releasedtoday in MIT Sloan Management Review, employees with high measures of well-being uponstarting a job deliver superior performance at a dramatically higher rate than those with lowermeasures of happiness.Which comes first, succeeding and then being happy, or being happy and then succeeding?Paul Lester, associate professor of management at the Naval Postgraduate School, MartinSeligman, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Positive Psychology Center, and EdDiener, influential American psychologist, followed nearly 1 million U.S. Department ofDefense employees (the single largest employer in the world) for five years, measuring theirrelative happiness and optimism using 25 questions drawn from PANAS and the LifeOrientation Test. The participants spanned across all job functions (infantry soldiers, officeworkers, pilots, engineers, truck drivers, medical professionals, logistics experts, etc.)."While we expected that well-being and optimism would matter to performance, we weretaken aback by just how much they mattered," said Lester, "In short, not only do happinessand optimism matter to employee performance, but they matter a lot, and both predict howemployees will do."Within the workplace, we know that employees with higher formal measures of well-beingare more likely to emerge as leaders, earn higher scores on performance evaluations, andtend to be better teammates.[i] We also know, based on substantial research, that happieremployees are healthier, have lower rates of absenteeism, are highly motivated to succeed,are more creative, have better relationships with peers, and are less likely to leave acompany.[ii] 2/3The results of the research underscore the importance of employee happiness to businessresults and beg the question: "What can leaders do about employee happiness?"Following the science and taking a structured approach to hiring for, promoting, anddeveloping employee happiness, the authors urge leaders to commit to three actions:Measure happiness in both employees and job candidates. "We advocate usingmeasures of happiness and optimism as discriminators, or 'tiebreakers' in the hiring processas the risks are low and benefits can be very important," noted Lester.Develop happiness in the workplace. Training initiatives targeting employee well-beingdo not require a significant time investment, are cost effective, and carry a high ROI.(Examples are included in the article.)Retain employees who are happy. "While organizations should want happy employeesbecause they perform significantly better than those who are unhappy; organizations alsoneed happy employees because happiness is in fact contagious," said Seligman.This research with the Department of Defense over the last decade consistently uncovered afoundational truth: Employee well-being initiatives work best when confident leaders presentthe material and when senior leaders place significant emphasis on the overall effort.[iii] Thus, leaders must be willing to invest their efforts into making the initiatives successful bynot only advocating for them — for example, by securing resources for a program andpromoting positive strategic messaging — but also by participating in the training andincorporating it into their own behaviors.If leaders want to improve employee happiness, then they must model that which is taughtso that it becomes integral to the organization's lexicon and culture.The ResearchThe researchers followed nearly 1 million U.S. Army service members for five years,measuring their relative happiness and optimism using 25 questions drawn fromPANAS and the Life Orientation Test. The questions were included on a larger surveytaken by every Army soldier each year.This well-being measurement combines individuals' own self-assessments and theirreporting on the frequency of positive and negative emotions experienced, to yield theresearchers' measure of happiness.Even after the researchers controlled for previous performance and a range ofdemographic factors, soldiers who were the happiest and most optimistic went on toearn significantly more job performance awards across the next five years comparedwith those who were initially unhappy and pessimistic.The MIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR) article, "Top Performers Have aSuperpower: Happiness" publishes 8 a.m. EST on Feb. 16, 2022.3/3About the AuthorsPaul B. Lester is an associate professor of management at the Naval Postgraduate School.Martin Seligman is the Zellerbach Family Professor of Psychology at the University ofPennsylvania, director of the university's Positive Psychology Center, and a former presidentof the American Psychological Association. He was named by Academic Influence as theworld's most influential psychologist. Ed Diener died in April 2021. He was a professor ofpsychology at the University of Utah and the University of Virginia, the Joseph R. SmileyDistinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois, and a senior scientist for theGallup Organization. He received the American Psychological Association's Award forDistinguished Scientific Contributions in 2012, and his work has been cited more than250,000 times.About MIT Sloan Management ReviewMIT Sloan Management Review (MIT SMR) is an independent, research-based magazineand digital platform for business leaders, published at the MIT Sloan School of Management.MIT SMR explores how leadership and management are transforming in a disruptive world.We help thoughtful leaders capture the exciting opportunities — and face down thechallenges — created as technological, societal, and environmental forces reshape howorganizations operate, compete, and create value.Connect with MIT Sloan Management Review, on:Media Contact: Tess WoodsTess@TessWoodsPR.com617-942-0336 View original content to download multimedia:https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/happiness-drives-performance-301482882.htmlSOURCE MIT Sloan Management Review

Happiness Drives Performance

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Happiness Drives Performance

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Calhoun, Institutional Archive of the Naval Postgraduate School