Positive

Psychology
at work
Here is where your presentation begins
 Table of contents
01 Introduction 03 Strength based approach
Importance of Positive
Psychology in the work • principal of strength based
place. approach

• Why employees should opt

strength based approach.
02 Is their any science behind
• Are There Any Disadvantages
Positive Psychology to the Model?
 Table of contents
04 Appreciative Inquiry 05 Employees Developmen
What's not working?
• What is coaching . •
The 5-D cycle •
• Coaching in workplace and it's
Potential pros and cons
importance.
• Types of coaching. •
• coaching vs Counseling in
work and home life work.
06 balance • Mindfulness at work: create
calm and focus in work place.
Ways to create better
work life balance • benefits of mindfulness at
work
 01
Introduction
Importance of Positive Psychology in the
work place.
 The Importance of Positive Relationships in the
Workplace
The workplace retains a central role in many people’s
lives. With lots of people spending more time at work
than on any other daily activity, it is vital that
individuals within any organization feel connected and
supported by peers, subordinates, and leaders.
Psychosocial hazards related to the culture within an
organization, such as poor interpersonal relations and a
lack of policies and practices related to respect for
workers, are significant contributors to workplace stress
(Stoewen, 2016).While prolonged exposure to these
psychosocial hazards is related to increased psychiatric
and physiological health problems, positive social
relationships among employees are how work gets done .
 Whether organizations and their employees
flounder or flourish largely depends on
the quality of the social relationships
therein. This article will take a look at
the science behind positive relationships
at work and the importance of positive
social interactions, and discuss some of
the ways positive employee interaction can
be introduced and encouraged
in the workplace
 02
Is their any science behind
Positive Psychology
The Science Behind Positive Relationships at Work
Psychologists have long identified the desire to feel connected
to others as a basic human need, and interpersonal
relationships have a significant impact on our mental health,
health behavior, physical health, and mortality risk (Umber son
& Montez, 2010). Our physiological systems are highly
responsive to positive social interactions.

Gable and Gosnell (2011) surmised that humans are endowed with
separate reflexive brain networks for social thinking. Close
relationships are linked to health as they build certain
biological systems that may protect against the adverse effects
of stress. Their research found that in response to social
contact, the brain releases oxytocin, a powerful hormone linked
to trustworthiness and motivation to help others in the
workplace.
 Dunbar and Dunbar (1998) suggested that when individuals experience
social pain in the workplace from feeling isolated, for instance,
the region of the brain that is activated is the same as if physical
pain had been experienced.

Conversely, when relationships in the workplace are characterized by

cooperation, trust, and fairness, the reward center of the brain is
activated, which encourages future interactions that promote
employee trust, respect, and confidence, with employees believing
the best in each other and inspiring each other in their performance
(Geue, 2017).
 Positive social interactions at work directly affect the body’s
physiological processes. According to Heaphy and Dutton (2008),
positive social interactions serve to bolster physiological
resourcefulness by fortifying the cardiovascular, immune, and
neuroendocrine systems through immediate and enduring decreases in
cardiovascular reactivity, strengthened immune responses, and
healthier hormonal patterns.

Put simply, when employees experience positive relationships, the

body’s ability to build, maintain, and repair itself is improved
both in and out of the workplace.
 03
Strength based approach
• principal of strength based approach

• Why employees should opt strength based

approach.

• Are There Any Disadvantages to the Model?

Introduction of strength based approach:

● When you consider the word “strength,” what comes to mind? For me,
“strength” makes me think of words like “sturdy,” “solid,” and,
conversely, “weak.” I also think of my personal strengths. For example,
a person can believe their strengths are patience, optimism, and
persistence. In this slide, we will be reviewing strength-based
approaches in positive psychology. The strength-based approach focuses
on the positive attributes of a person or a group, rather than the
negative. There are multiple ways the strength-based approach can be
applied, including in leadership, counseling, community and social work,
and pediatrics.
What Is the Strength-Based Approach?
● With its foundation in social work, the strength-based approach is a
“work practice theory” that focuses on an individual’s self-
determination and strength (McCashen, 2005). This type of approach
builds on clients’ strengths, seeing them as resourceful and
resilient when they are in adverse conditions (McCashen, 2005). It is
also client led and centered on outcomes, getting people to affect
change in themselves. The strength-based approach is centered around
the idea that the client is the actor or agent of change. The
approach is highly dependent on how the individual processes their
thoughts and emotions. It allows for open communication, encouraging
individuals to identify value and assemble their strengths and
capacities. The strength-based approach allows a person to see
themselves at their best – the value they bring by just being
themselves. They are encouraged to capitalize on their strengths
rather than focus on negative characteristics
● In addition, the strength-based approach identifies constraints
that might be holding back an individual’s growth. These
constraints might be social, personal, and/or cultural issues
(McCashen, 2016). Strengths-based approach (also known as
strengths-based leadership) is one method by which leaders can
evaluate the strengths of employees and continue to cultivate
and develop them in ways that emphasize those strengths. This
allows employees to perform to the best of their abilities.
Principles of the Strength-Based Approach
● There are nine guiding principles that serve as the foundation of the
strength-based approach (Hammond, 2010).
● •Everyone possesses a uniqueness that helps them evolve and move along their
journey. These characteristics may include potential strengths and
capabilities.
● • receives attention or focus becomes what the client strives for and,
eventually, a reality.
● •Be careful with your words and language. Our language creates our reality.
● •Accept change. Life and our world are ever evolving; don’t resist.
● • others as authentically as you can. You will see that your relationships
are deeper and more meaningful.
● • client is the storyteller of their own story.
● •Build upon what you know and experience to dream of the future. •Capacity
building has multiple facets and organizations. Be flexible. •Be
collaborative. Be adaptive and value differences.
 There are many reasons employers opt to utilize strengths-based
management. Here are a few:

● •Working with people’s strengths can help them feel appreciated.

● • on strengths can help cultivate employees’ skills and allow them to perform
at a higher level. In other words, developing skills employees already have
will allow them to become experts.
● • can help employees feel recognized for their unique abilities and show that
the employer is investing in them in meaningful ways.
● •This approach can help with employee satisfaction and motivation levels, which
can improve retention, as well.
● •Focusing on employee strengths can allow team members to better complement one
another when working on projects, leading to less competition and more
cooperation.
● • employers find that this type of leadership or management style can help
positively influence the workplace culture.
 ● This approach can maximize productivity by allowing
employees to become experts at what they already have a
natural inclination for. Instead of trying to fix
weaknesses or areas where employees have less natural
ability, a strengths-based approach focuses on taking what
is already good and making it better. By doing this, the
organization will have a skilled individual for each aspect
of the job, allowing it to fill in weaknesses. The approach
sees people as creating and rebuilding, rather than broken
or failing. Clients learn how to set goals and
expectations, cope in a healthy way that fosters growth,
and confront rather than avoid challenges
 Examples of a Strength-Based Approach
•In the corporate world, many human resources managers conduct performance reviews.
These reviews hopefully benefit the employees, their supervisors, and the
overall flow of the organization. Some of the key benefits can be improved
performance, communication opportunities, and data on decision-making (Coens &
Jenkins, 2000).

•Each of us encounters difficulty at some point in life. In crisis mode, the last
thing we may want to think about is our strengths. However, when these trying
situations arise, we need help in identifying our strengths. It is vital for
healthcare professionals working with people going through crises to listen and
identify strengths and resources.

•For certain clients, pursuing support and attending an appointment is a big task,
and it should be recognized as a strength. For instance, if you are helping
someone who does not have safe and secure housing, it may be important to
empower them to build strong relationships with their family and friends.
Another great way to empower your clients is to remind them to utilize their
resources, resilience, and strength to tackle any challenges.
● •Positive psychotherapy may include a strength-based approach, where the
practitioner focuses on the strengths and resourcefulness of their
client, rather than their weaknesses, deficits, or failures.

● This helps the client build a mindset focused on positive capacity

building and helps them understand that they are resilient, leading to
more reasonable expectations of themselves and others.

● Strength-based therapy is a form of talk therapy where the client is the

storyteller. The story may include trauma, pain, and stressors from the
past or present. The practitioner encourages the client to have the
mindset of a survivor rather than a victim. Doing so can give the client
a better understanding of and control over their skills and strengths
These skills and strengths enable them to survive and flourish no matter
how tough life gets
If strength -based management is something you’re interested in
implementing, here are some tips:

•Work with employees individually to uncover their

strengths and interests. These are the areas to
cultivate. Some may be clear from the outset, but
some may take some time and thought to figure out.

•When possible, allow employees to change their career

trajectory to best suit their abilities and
interests.

•Assess what other skills (or other strengths) are

needed that the existing team doesn’t yet possess.
Instead of trying to make the team learn them, hire
people who excel in these areas. This allows members
of the team to complement one another.
•Of course, focusing on strengths doesn’t mean never
learning new things. It simply means that the
general focus of employee development and of task
division or delegation will take into account team
members’ strengths. A greater focus is placed on
developing strengths rather than on what is
lacking.

•Be careful not to limit employees in terms of what

type of development they’re offered. Building on
strengths shouldn’t come at the expense of learning
something employees have a desire to learn. It also
shouldn’t mean that knowledge gaps don’t get
addressed
 Are There Any Disadvantages to the Model?

Some consider the main focus of the strength-based approach to be its

primary disadvantage. Dr. Jason Jones (2017) explains this very well
by asserting that while it’s great to focus on strengths, we should
not utterly neglect weaknesses. If weaknesses are poorly managed,
they may not be monitored, leaving the person less effective. Jones
is not the only one to carefully and constructively point out some
flaws in the method. Other researchers (e.g., McMillen et al., 2004;
Staudt et al., 2001) have claimed that the strength-based approach
is not really offering anything novel, nor is it based on evidence
of efficacy.
 04
Appreciative Inquiry

• The 5-Ds of appreciative inquiry

• Potential pros and cons
• Principals of appreciative inquiry
“We need to discover the root causes of success rather than the root
cause of failure.”

"Appreciative Inquiry is an approach to organizational change that focuses

on strengths rather than on weaknesses. "It is a positive approach to
leadership development and organizational change. The method is used to
boost innovation among organizations. A company might apply appreciative
inquiry to best practices, strategic planning, organizational culture, and
to increase the momentum of initiatives.

When problems present themselves within an organization, an inquiry will

be carried out first to find out what could be the cause of these
problems, and subsequently these problems are solved as positive
potential. In Appreciate Inquiry it is all about the reverse process and
here the emphasis is on positive change. The process of appreciate inquiry
examines what brings out the best in people.
 The 5-Ds of appreciative inquiry

Define – What is the topic of inquiry? – It is important to define the

overall focus of the inquiry (what the system wants more of). The
definition is used to clarify the area of work to be considered. In
spite of being the starting point of the cycle, it’s a recent addition
– the 5Ds were originally the 4Ds, including discover, dream, design
and destiny. Definition defines the project’s purpose, content, and
what needs to be achieved. In this phase, the guiding question is,
“What generative topic do we want to focus on together?”

Discover – Appreciating the best of ‘what is’ – Discovery is based on

a dialogue, as a way of finding ‘what works’. It rediscovers and
remembers the organization or community’s successes, strengths and
periods of excellence.
Dream – Imagining ‘what could be’ – Imagining uses past achievements and successes
identified in the discovery phase to imagine new possibilities and envisage a
preferred future. It allows people to identify their dreams for a community or
organization; having discovered ‘what is best’. They have the chance to project
it into their wishes, hopes and aspirations for the future

Design – Determining ‘what should be’ – Design brings together the stories from
discovery with the imagination and creativity from dream.

Deliver/Destiny – Creating ‘what will be’ – The fifth stage in the 5Ds process
identifies how the design is delivered, and how it’s embedded into groups,
communities and organizations. In early appreciative inquiry development, it was
called ‘delivery’, based on more traditional organizational development
practice. The term ‘destiny’ is more prevalent now.
 Potential Pros of AI:

First, AI focuses on strengths, which arguably provides organizations with

energy for positive change and innovation (Ludema et al., 2006; Bright, 2009);

Utilizing strengths also allows employees to enhance their proficiency

(Linley et al., 2010);

It encourages a learning culture through collective inquiry and equips people

with the skills to discover for themselves (Conklin & Hartman, 2014);

As such it encourages creative thinking, ideation, and potentially fosters

innovative approaches (Cooperrider & Srivastva, 1987;
Cooperrider et al., 2008);
 ● These, in turn, facilitate organizational adaptability – a
critical competitive advantage in dynamic business environments
(Basadur, 2004);

● A learning culture also encourages sustainable change

(Boyce, 2003);

● By design, it aims to encourage stakeholder participation (Drew

& Wallis, 2014);

● Through participation, it seeks to foster commitment rather than

resistance (Lines, 2004; Drew & Wallis, 2014); and

● The 5D framework, through its structure, allows people to gain

insight into actions (Bright, 2009).
 Potential Cons of AI:
● AI takes considerable time—it’s not a quick fix by any stretch of the imagination
(Drew & Wallis, 2014);

● Large-scale organizational change through AI can be resource-intensive, especially

if participants are geographically dispersed.

● It relies heavily on the extent to which a positive, supportive, and open

environment for sharing can be created (Cooperrider & Whitney, 1999;
Ludema et al., 2003);

● Not all stakeholders can always realistically be involved (Schooley, 2012); and

● If all stakeholders can’t be involved, this raises questions around the ethical
morality of strategizing with what is not, essentially, a democratic consensus
(Schooley, 2012).
 Principles of Appreciative Inquiry
● The constructionist principle: According to this principle, the goal of an inquiry is to come
up with new ideas and possibilities for action. Once people in an organization engage in
inquiry, organizations can come up with feasible ways to make positive changes.

● The principle of simultaneity: According to this principle, the answers to questions in an

inquiry are often found in the questions themselves.

● The poetic principle: Advocates of appreciative inquiry often emphasize an individual's or an

organization's story, or the way in which someone describes what they have done and what they
want to do. According to the poetic principle, an organization's story is always being
written by the people in it. The content or topics within an inquiry can help shape the
organization's story.
 ● The anticipatory principle: According to this principle, having a
positive image of oneself can translate into positive actions that help
shape the future.

● The positive principle: According to this principle, positive changes

within an organization are facilitated by positive traits or
characteristics (e.g., hope, determination, inspiration).
 05
Employees Development
• What is coaching .
• Coaching in workplace and it's importance.
• Types of coaching.
• coaching vs Counseling in work.
• Mindfulness at work: create calm and focus in work
place.
• benefits of mindfulness at work
 What is coaching ?
● Coaching refers to a method
of training, counselling or
instructing an individual or
a group how to develop
skills to enhance their
productivity or overcome a
performance problem.
 Coaching in workplace and it's importance

● Coaching enhances performance. It can benefit anyone, not just

athletes.

● As Bill Gates said: Everyone needs a coach. It doesn’t matter

whether you’re a basketball player, a tennis player, a gymnast or
a bridge player. We all need people who will give us feedback.

● That’s how we improve. Just like athletes, leaders are under

pressure to perform every workday. And just like with athletes,
coaching is the best way to ensure that leaders can perform at a
high level. Workplace coaching is a burgeoning industry with a
growing body of literature to support it.
● Coaching enables leaders to deal with the unknown.

● The workplace is a dynamic environment, characterized by turnover and volatile

market forces. The beauty of coaching is that leaders do not need to know
everything in order to be effective; instead, they need to know how to empower
those around them.

● Coaching can be contrasted with a “command and control” leadership style (Grant,
2017). A command-and-control leader is highly directive, decides without
consultation, rewards performance, and punishes failure (Wheatley, 1997).

● Command and control can be effective in some situations; for instance, when the
task at hand is well defined or the organization is small enough that
micromanaging is possible. Another approach is needed when tasks are ambiguous and
teams are too large to control.

● Coaching allows the leader to elicit the strengths and knowledge of the people
they are leading. This frees leaders to focus on the big picture, prevents
micromanaging, and gives employees the opportunity to prove their competency.
 Types of coaching
● Two prominent types of workplace coaching are executive coaching and
team coaching.

● Executive coaching is a helping relationship between a consultant and

a client with managerial authority and responsibility in an
organization (Kilburg, 1996). Executive coaching occurs for many
reasons, including integration into a new role, performance issues,
or consultation on strategy. It is often performed by an external
coach.

● Team coaching is a coaching engagement with an entire team, to help

team members coordinate efforts and use their resources more
effectively (Traylor, Stahr, & Salas, 2020). Team coaching often
occurs internally, with the team leader adopting a coaching
leadership style.
The different coaching styles
● Directive coaching is akin to mentoring, when a manager with years of
experience tells a younger employee what to do. This style comes easily
to many managers.

● Laissez-faire coaching involves leaving employees to do their work. This

style is appropriate when team members are highly effective. On-
directive coaching draws wisdom, insight, and creativity out of others
through listening, questioning, and withholding judgment. It does not
come easily to most managers.

● Situational coaching involves balancing directive and non-directive

coaching. The authors recommend that managers first practice non-
directive coaching and then alternate between leadership coaching styles
depending on the context.
 Coaching vs Counseling in work.
● To distinguish between coaching and counseling, it is important to look at the
root of these approaches.

● Coaching is usually done to bolster an existing skillset. In the above studies,

coaching was provided to executives who were already performing at a high
level. In short, coaching is usually done to help people excel at something
that they are already doing well.

● Counseling, on the other hand, is remedial. It may be recommended for an

employee who has just received a disappointing performance review. Here,
counseling would involve more fundamental work, listening to the employee,
figuring out the problem, and then addressing the situation using a similar set
of tasks to coaching.

● Although similar skills are required for each, what the work is called is very
important. Top performers are unlikely to engage in workplace counseling but
may engage in coaching.
 Mindfulness at work: create calm and focus in
work place.

Put very simply, workplace mindfulness is the degree to which individuals

are mindful in their work setting (Dane & Brummel, 2013). What, then, does
it mean to be mindful? Well, like so many constructs in positive
psychology, mindfulness is not easily defined.

However, most definitions, such as the one described by Hyland, Lee and
Mills (2015) share three elements.

Mindfulness can be described as a ‘present-focused consciousness’ (Hyland,

Lee & Mills, 2015). In other words, a mindful individual is not ruminating
bout the past or worrying about the future; they are simply “being” in the
here and now.

● Secondly, mindfulness includes paying close attention to both

internal and external stimuli (Hyland et al., 2015). Finally, as well
as simply paying attention to stimuli, mindfulness involves doing
this in an open and accepting way (Hyland et al., 2015).
 Mindfulness involves noticing what is happening without evaluating, analyzing or
reflecting upon it – it is therefore said that mindful information processing is ‘pre-
conceptual’ (Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt & Lang, 2013).

Thus, a mindful employee will take in what is happening in the workplace and not react
to it, rather, simply taking in information from their surrounds. They will non-
judgmentally approach their work and their relations with other colleagues and
management.

● Although the majority of research into individual differences in mindfulness see

it as a trait, many researchers now consider mindfulness to be a psychological
state that varies from moment-to-moment within individuals (Hülsheger et al.,
2013)
● Furthermore, mindfulness has been described as a natural human
capacity, which varies in regard to strength across both situations
and persons (Hülsheger et al., 2013). What does this look like in the
workplace? Well, it means that throughout the working day, at any one
time, employees’ mindfulness is variable; they may be closely paying
attention, non-judgmentally, in a meeting – focused on whatever the
presenter is talking about. Or, perhaps, later in the day they are
less mindful and are sitting staring at the computer wondering what
to cook for dinner. So, the person has the capacity to be mindful,
however their mindfulness at any one time is variable.
 benefits of mindfulness at work
● Mindfulness has a multitude of benefits for workplaces
and businesses.

● Speaking very generally, there are some mindfulness-

based processes that are thought to affect employee
performance and wellbeing. These include response
flexibility, decreased rumination, empathy, affect
regulations, increased self-determination and
persistence, improved working memory and more accurate
affective forecasting (Glomb, Duffy, Bono, & Yang,
2012).

● Benefits of mindfulness in the workplace also include

improvements in task commitment, and enjoyment of work
(Hyland et al., 2015). In the workplace, resiliency is
at the face of interpersonal or task-related stressors,
and is also a vital part of optimal work functioning.
 ● Enhanced task performance

Mindfulness also improves task performance. The way that

mindfulness is implicated in workplace performance is dependent on
the nature of the task, and the contextual factors of the work…
some mindfulness processes will beneficially affect a variety of
types of job, whereas others are more specific (for example, for
jobs with a lot of emotional content, decreased rumination and
improved affective regulation may hold the key to performance)
(Glomb et al., 2012).It has also been found that mindfulness is
associated with fewer cognitive failures (such as forgetting,
distraction and blunders) – which suggests that mindfulness may
therefore lead to improved workplace performance and fewer
accidents (Glomb et al., 2012).
 ● Improved intuition
● Mindfulness also promotes an awareness of ‘gut
feelings’ and it has been suggested that tapping
into these intuitions may facilitate improved
task performance when the level of expertise is
high (Glomb et al., 2012).Furthermore,
mindfulness is also thought to promote better
decision making, with decision biases being less
likely due to attention to internal and external
stimuli, and reduced heuristic processing. As you
can see, the benefits of mindfulness in the
workplace are many and varied.
 Examples of Mindfulness in the Workplace
● 1.‘Be consciously present’ (Alidina, 2018).Rather than simply behaving quite
unconsciously, being mindful at work involves paying attention to what is
going on around you, and also what is going on for you internally. Being
mindful at work involves being consciously present in the task you are doing –
for example, if writing a report, being mindful means that you give that task
your full attention.

● 2. ‘Be a single-tasker’ (Alidina, 2018).In other words, an example of being

mindful at work is to only do one thing at a time. Nobody can actually multi-
task. It is also very inefficient. Need help to stop multi-tasking? One
suggestion by Alidina (2018) is to keep a time journal. In it, write what is
achieved in a block of time, and then look at when you’re ‘single tasking’ and
when you’re ‘multi-tasking’. Then, reflect on how mindful you were and what
you achieved.
● 3. ‘Slow down to speed up’ (Alidina, 2018).Slowing down, or even
stopping, can help workers become more efficient, productive,
happier, resilient, and healthy at work. In other words, the
mindful way of working is to slow down and reflect. It is somewhat
counter-intuitive, but slowing right down actually makes us more
productive and efficient.

● 4. ‘Feel gratitude’ (Alidina, 2018).An example of mindfulness is

to be grateful. Being mindful of the things that are going well at
work can also help develop resilience too. Be grateful for the
little things, and even the challenges that come with the inherent
nature of work.
 06
work and home life balance

Ways to create better work life balance

● Fulfillment: People who successfully balance their personal and
professional lives report feeling fulfilled and pleased with their
lives. Health: Maintaining a healthy work-life balance will lower
the chance of developing major heart, hypertension, stress, or
lifestyle-related diseases. Greater work-life balance will
increase employee productivity, which will boost their success at
work. Relationship Strengthening: Collaboration in both
professional and personal relationships is facilitated by work-
life balance. When there is a balance between the two, conflicts
can be dealt with or resolved more effectively.
References :-
● https://positivepsychology.com/

● https://positivitystrategist.org/appreciative-inquiry/

● 1. C. Rapp (1988) The Strengths Model: Case Management with

People Suffering Severe and Persistent Mental Illness, New York:
Oxford Press.

● 2. W. McCashen (2008) The Strengths Approach, Victoria: St.

Luke's Innovative Resources.

● Kumar, U., Archana, & Prakash, V. (2015). Positive psychology –

Applications in work, health
● and well-being. Delhi & Chennai, India: Pearson.
Thank
You Group members:-
TUSHAR KHATTAR
HARSH MALIK
NEERAJ RANA
OMKAR SONAR
JATIN
JAI