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Making Positive Psychology Work

If you believe as we do that by uncovering tested, practical ways to help people move from functioning to flourishing at work, we can better navigate the incredible challenges and opportunities our world faces, then this podcast is for you. Our goal each week is to give you access to the world’ leading positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship and neuroscience researchers and practitioners to explore their latest research findings on how you can improve wellbeing, develop strengths, nurture positive relationships, make work meaningful and cultivate the grit to accomplish what matters most. If you want evidence-based approaches to bringing out the best in yourself and others at work, then consider this podcast your step-by-step guide.
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Now displaying: August, 2019
Aug 30, 2019

Loretta Breuning is the founder of the Inner Mammal Institute, which helps people manage the ups and downs of their mammal brain. As professor emerita of management at California State University East Bay, Loretta's research explores how people can discover the power of their mammalian operating system. The author of several books, including Habits of a Happy Brain, Loretta had shared her research, and talks all over the world.

In this week’s podcast, we explore our brain’s happy chemicals and how we can create more happy chemicals as we work.

Connect with Loretta Breuning: 

You’ll Learn:

  • [02:11] - Loretta explains how dopamine work and why it is important for us at work.
  • [05:10] - Loretta offers some practical ways to spark more dopamine at work.
  • [06:33] - Loretta outline how endorphins help our brains to perform.
  • [09:00] - Loretta explores if endorphins might help ease social or emotional pain at work.
  • [10:15] - Loretta explains the upside and the downside of oxytocin at work.
  • [13:01] - Loretta explores how oxytocin can help us to build belonging and psychological safety in workplaces.
  • [16:44] - Loretta explains how serotonin shapes our relationships at work.
  • [21:35] - Loretta outlines how we can create happy brain habits to stimulate these chemicals.
  • [23:43] - Loretta completes the Lightning Round.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening! 

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Loretta!

Aug 23, 2019

Michael Steger is the founder and director of the Centre for Meaning and Purpose, and a professor of psychology at Colorado State University. Endlessly curious about learning how to create a life worth living, Michael has spent the better part of two decades studying the vital role that meaning and purpose play in our work, health, relationships, growth, and happiness. His research has been featured in academic and general publications around the world, and he's also written several books on this topic, including Purpose and Meaning in the Workplace.

In this week’s episode, we explore how meaning can be found in any job, and how workplaces can help people find the right balance to minimize both boredom and burnout.

Connect with Michael Steger: 

You’ll Learn:

  • [02:29] - Michael explains why a growing number of workplaces have become interested in helping their people find more meaning in their work.
  • [05:40] - Michael shares what the research is finding when it comes to creating more meaning in our work.
  • [08:04] - Michael explains why meaning is an ongoing process when it comes to our work and some of the simple ways we can find more meaning in what we do each day.
  • [14:19] - Michael offers some tips for leaders and workplaces to help people make their work more meaningful.
  • [20:46] - Michael explains what the research is finding about having too much meaning at work, and how we can keep this in balance.
  • [25:02] - Michael completes the Lightning Round.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening! 

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Michael!

Aug 16, 2019

Ethan Kross is a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan's top-ranked social psychology programme. He's an award-winning scientist and teacher who studies how the conversations people have with themselves impact their health, performance, decisions, and relationships. And his research has been published in academic journals and featured in the New York Times, the Economist and the New Yorker, to name just a few.

In this week’s episode, we explore how we can avoid being sucked into negativity vortex by using self-distancing and other simple hacks to improve our self-regulation at work.

Connect with Ethan Kross: 

You’ll Learn:

  • [02:03] - Ethan outlines the consequences of becoming stuck in a negativity vortex at work.
  • [03:38] - Ethan explains how the practice of self-distancing can help us to avoid the negativity vortex.
  • [05:14] - Ethan provides examples of how the language we use can help us to self-distance during moments of rumination.
  • [07:27] - Ethan shares some tips for practicing self-distancing successfully.
  • [08:47] - Ethan explains how self-distancing can be taught in workplaces.
  • [10:41] - Ethan shares some other simple hacks to help us avoid the vortex of negativity at work.
  • [13:48] - Ethan offers some insight into the current evidence-based debates on how self-control and willpower works.
  • [16:05] - Ethan explains how to avoid co-rumination when it comes to our relationships at work and instead be an effective supporter of others.
  • [19:37] - Ethan provides some cautions on using distancing wisely and not as an avoidance strategy.
  • [21:33] - Ethan completes the Lightning Round.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening! 

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Ethan!

Aug 9, 2019

Jeremy Clifton is a doctoral candidate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Martin Seligman, who is often regarded as the founder of positive psychology. After an initial career in urban economic development strategy, Jer has spent five years creating a foundational, empirically-derived typology of primal world beliefs, and his research examines many of these variables and their impact on well-being, personality traits and character strengths, professional success, depression, and voting behaviour.

In this podcast, we explore how our primal beliefs about the world impact our levels of wellbeing, trust, and success at work.

Connect with Jeremy Clifton: 

You’ll Learn:

  • [03:07] - Jer explains what his research is finding out about our primal world beliefs.
  • [05:36] - Jer helps us to understand how primals differ from our other beliefs like growth mindsets.
  • [06:58] - Jer outlines the 26 primal beliefs his research has uncovered.
  • [09:56] - Jer helps us to understand what a ‘good’ primal might mean practically for us when it comes to our work and wellbeing.
  • [12:37] - Jer explains what his research has found to date about the stability or our primal beliefs.
  • [14:45] - Jer explores if our primal beliefs are shaped by nature or nurture.
  • [17:53] - Jer shares his thoughts on whether workplaces should be trying to cultivate higher levels of specific primal beliefs like ‘good’ in order to improve wellbeing and success.
  • [20:52] - Jer explores the potential impact of primals on psychological safety in workplaces.
  • [24:49] - Jeremy completes the Lightning Round.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening! 

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Jer!

Aug 2, 2019

Sigal Barsade is a professor of management at the Wharton School of Business and focusses her research on emotional intelligence, organizational culture, unconscious bias, teamwork, leadership, and organizational change. Having consulted for organizations of all sizes across a myriad of industries, including Cisco, Coca Cola, Deloitte, Google, the NBA, and the United Nations, Sigal’s research has been featured in leading academic research journals and in media outlets around the world.

In today’s episode, we explore why loneliness in workplaces is on the rise, how it impacts our wellbeing and performance, and how we can tackle it together. We also learn more about the contagion of loneliness and other emotions in the workplace and how we can manage this better.

Connect with Sigal Barsade: 

You’ll Learn:

  • [02:25] - Sigal explains the impact of loneliness in workplaces on our wellbeing and performance.
  • [08:57] - Sigal helps us understand why loneliness is on the rise in many workplaces.
  • [11:02] - Sigal explains what leaders and organizations can do to address the loneliness epidemic many workplaces are experiencing.
  • [14:20] - Sigal outlines how we can help lonely people help themselves in workplaces.
  • [16:23] - Sigal explores if talking about loneliness in workplaces improves people’s wellbeing or creates further isolation.
  • [18:04] - Sigal explains why loneliness can be contagious and how emotions can spread in workplaces and communities.
  • [19:21] - Sigal shares why leaders are more emotionally contagious in workplaces.
  • [21:39] - Sigal offers some tips for leaders to help manage their moods and how they infect their teams more mindfully at work.
  • [23:32] - Sigal offers some insights for leaders to positive infect the mood in their team.
  • [26:03] - Sigal completes the Lightning Round.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening! 

Thanks so much for joining me again this week.  If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

Please leave an honest review of the Making Positive Psychology Work Podcast on iTunes. Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated. They do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.  And don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes to get automatic updates. It’s free!

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!  Thank you Sigal!

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