 | The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work |
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Product Description
Our most commonly held formula for success is broken.
Conventional wisdom holds that if we work hard we will be more successful, and if we are more successful, then we'll be happy. If we can just find that great job, win that next promotion, lose those five pounds, happiness will follow. But recent discoveries in the field of positive psychology have shown that this formula is actually backward: Happiness fuels success, not the other way around. When we are positive, our brains become more engaged, creative, motivated, energetic, resilient, and productive at work. This isn't just an empty mantra. This discovery has been repeatedly borne out by rigorous research in psychology and neuroscience, management studies, and the bottom lines of organizations around the globe.
In The Happiness Advantage, Shawn Achor, who spent over a decade living, researching, and lecturing at Harvard University, draws on his own research—including one of the largest studies of happiness and potential at Harvard and others at companies like UBS and KPMG—to fix this broken formula. Using stories and case studies from his work with thousands of Fortune 500 executives in 42 countries, Achor explains how we can reprogram our brains to become more positive in order to gain a competitive edge at work.
Isolating seven practical, actionable principles that have been tried and tested everywhere from classrooms to boardrooms, stretching from Argentina to Zimbabwe, he shows us how we can capitalize on the Happiness Advantage to improve our performance and maximize our potential. Among the principles he outlines:
• The Tetris Effect: how to retrain our brains to spot patterns of possibility, so we can see—and seize—opportunities wherever we look.
• The Zorro Circle: how to channel our efforts on small, manageable goals, to gain the leverage to gradually conquer bigger and bigger ones.
• Social Investment: how to reap the dividends of investing in one of the greatest predictors of success and happiness—our social support network
A must-read for everyone trying to excel in a world of increasing workloads, stress, and negativity, The Happiness Advantage isn't only about how to become happier at work. It's about how to reap the benefits of a happier and more positive mind-set to achieve the extraordinary in our work and in our lives.
- Amazon Sales Rank: #3380 in Books
- Published on: 2010-09-14
- Released on: 2010-09-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .95" h x 6.50" w x 9.38" l, 1.01 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 256 pages
Features
- ISBN13: 9780307591548
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Review
"Achor transports us to his virtual classroom, a journey along which we glean the seven secrets of happiness. The Happiness Advantage reveals the most important discoveries coming out of modern psychology."
-Rom Brafman, bestselling co-author of Sway and Click
"Shawn Achor is funny, self-deprecating, and devastating to my notions of what his field is all about…. I'm butter to his knife."
-The Boston Globe
" Achor bases his training on a burgeoning body of research on the positive psychology movement, which emphasizes instilling resiliency and positive attitudes…."
-Wall Street Journal
About the Author
SHAWN ACHOR is one of the world's leading experts on human potential, having researched and lectured in 42 countries working to bridge the gap between the science of happiness and performance in our everyday lives. Trained by some of the pioneers in the field of positive psychology, he helped design the famed "happiness" course, the most popular at Harvard at the time. He now serves as the founder and CEO of Aspirant, a research and consulting firm that uses positive psychology to enhance individual achievement and cultivate a more productive workplace. Achor's lectures on the science of happiness and human potential have received attention in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal, and on CNN and NPR. Shawn Achor lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Most helpful customer reviews
36 of 38 people found the following review helpful.
Great information - and fun to read!
By stewart b clifford
I read a lot of business books. Most of them are filled with helpful information. Frankly, most of them are also a little on the dry. "The Happiness Advantage" is different. It is filled with fascinating research and great ideas, and it is also a hoot to read. I found myself laughing out loud as I read the book.
Shawn Achor explains the latest research he and his colleagues in the field of positive psychology have conducted. The results are fascinating:
1) Our brains work better when they are "happy."
2) There are concrete things we can do to make our brains "happier."
3) We can also overcome our inclination to procrastinate and put off these exercises. (I found this section to be particularly interesting since I am a procrastinator).
4) When our brains are at "happy" that positivity will ripple out to others and can raise the productivity.
Give this book a look. The research shows that we (and our colleagues at work) can be more productive. And, if we are "happier" our boss will also perceive us as more positive, trustworthy, sincere and successful. Wow! And who wouldn't want to be happier at work - and at home?
27 of 29 people found the following review helpful.Surprisingly good insights
By Dr Cathy Goodwin
When I was invited to review this book, I must admit I was afraid it would be the standard "happiness" pitch. To my surprise and relief, this book turned out to be truly exceptional, beginning with the author's own story.
To be sure, much of the info in this book will be standard fare for anyone who's familiar with the life coaching industry. However, it's packaged in a way that appeals even to left-brained skeptics like me. The author cites research studies to back up each point. Some of the suggestions were totally new to me, and I thought I was deeply familiar with the field.
Just a few highlights that I enjoyed:
p.55 - Work with a signature strength. This recommendation makes lots of sense to me. The book includes a link to a long online survey; I took the survey and found it surprisingly accurate. I'm a little baffled by the authors suggestion to "use it in a new way each day for a week."
p. 67: I loved the discussion of Ellen Langer's research with "senior" men. Langer asked them to imagine themselves as they'd been 20 years earlier. They improved on physical as well as mental measures.
pp 72-73 - Great discussion of leisure. I really resonated to the notion that we tend to think any non-work activity is worthless. This belief becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
p. 121 - A startling experiment asks people to estimate how "fortunate" they would be if they were wounded in a bank robbery. Great comment about interpretations of Wall Streeters!
p. 139 - Solving small problems can lead to big wins.
p. 163: Add 20 seconds to your day and gain several hours.
Highly recommended. I'm glad I got this book to keep instead of borrowing from the library. I want to read it a few more times.
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.Excellent and Unique
By Stephen Mills
I've read a lot of "happiness" books and frankly when I chose this book I was a little pessimistic about learning anything new. I couldn't have been more wrong. This book, while building on a lot of prior research, is full of new insights and presentation that is refreshingly insightful and helpful. I learned a lot and it was a compelling and convincing read. There is a wealth of useful and practical takeaways from the material. The author works in the real world and doesn't just write from a position in academia and thus has a lot more practical real-world experience than you often find in these types of books mostly written by psychology professors. I consider this one of the best I've read and I highly recommend it.
http://astore.amazon.com/amazon-book-books-20/detail/0307591549
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