Listen to Moments Move Us Season 2 Episode 10: Reflecting on Moments of Connection with Rebecca Coren
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New Podcast Episode: Reflecting on Moments of Connection with Rebecca Coren
My recent brush with burnout left me reeling for a bit but ultimately set me on a path of learning and growth. Funny how our struggles tend to do that! I am fortunate to work for an incredible company that listens and supports its employees. When I went to our CEO to share my struggles and propose my plan (which included creating an entirely new role in the company), she supported me without hesitation. Thank you, Rebecca Metter!
Part of that proposal was obtaining a professional certificate to learn more about the Science of Happiness at Work. I am happily making my way through the excellent curriculum put together by the team at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center. I would like to “pay it forward” by sharing a little of what I have learned so far. I have seen and felt an impact in my daily life, both at work and elsewhere. If you are also interested in fostering deeper connections at work and home, here are some things you can try.
Our grandparents were onto something here! Gratitude is good for us. In sharing thanks and appreciation, we see the good in our lives and acknowledge that the source of that goodness lies outside of ourselves. Expressing gratitude leads people to be happier, healthier, and more optimistic. When we receive gratitude, we feel valued and motivated, and we want to pay it forward by thanking someone else. Gratitude is a superpower we can tap into every day to lower stress and strengthen connections with our families, friends, and colleagues. It is also the beginning of empathy, as it requires that we see the positive intentions and effort in another’s actions.
Try this:
You might be less familiar with this term, but I guarantee you’re familiar with the effects! Dr. Barbara Fredrickson at UNC-Chapel Hill defines positivity resonance as “a synthesis of shared positive affect, mutual care and concern, plus behavioral and biological synchrony.” Or put more simply, those moments of connection when we are with people who just seem to “get us.” Of course, these can be people we know well – our partner, bestie, favorite colleague, etc. But the great thing is that these can also be strangers we are meeting for the first time: the new barista who treats us with kindness and loves Harry Potter as much as we do, a new colleague with a mutual appreciation of apples with peanut butter, the parent at the park who shares our love of slides (or at least watching our kids on the slides). We’ve all had that experience of hitting it off with someone and walking away feeling that life is good. And our body feels it, too. These moments of positive connection impact our health by improving our body’s inflammatory response and immune function.
We can seek out more of these moments with our favorite people and also with strangers. Every new person we meet is an opportunity to experience the glow of positivity resonance, even if just for a moment. All we need to do is look up from our phones and engage.
Sharing gratitude and moments of positivity resonance with others will increase positive emotions and give us the building blocks for an upward spiral of positivity. You’ve probably heard of, and maybe experienced, the downward spiral of negative emotions. The good news is that positive emotions have a similar but opposite effect. When we intentionally cultivate positivity and connection, we impact ourselves and those around us by “paying it forward.”
Relating to others with civility, kindness, empathy, and compassion has a multiplying impact, causing positive emotional contagion. Plus, these are the building blocks for trust and deepened connection.
Fostering connection, and consequently, our sense of belonging is easier than we think. Hopefully, some of the ideas shared here were helpful! Here’s a final thought as you go out to spread positivity: “It is one of the most beautiful compensations of this life that no person can sincerely try to help another without helping themselves.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
As our Product Evangelist, Mel brings over 13 years of experience to support the growth and development of Wambi’s sales team as they seek to help healthcare organizations create cultures of appreciation and kindness. She is committed to helping both her team and Wambi’s clients achieve their business objectives while living Wambi’s values of compassion, imagination, gratitude, fearlessness, and joy. Mel’s sales experience spans healthcare, technology, legal, and academic content solutions. She has been a consistent top performer and is most proud of her work fostering innovation, evolution, and team cohesiveness in each role. Mel grew up in West Michigan, where she still lives and enjoys running through the beautiful wooded dunes. She received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan. When she’s not exercising or spending time with her family, you can find her indulging in her love of learning about anything and everything.
Meet Dr. Norma Tirado of Spectrum Health:
“Every leader in any organization is in a position to really impact other people’s lives. So I think every day, when we wake up, we have to decide as to how we’re going to show up as leaders and what kind of impact we want to have on the people we’re working with. Not just to the people that report to us, but to our colleagues and other team members that we have to collaborate with. Helping find other people’s gifts and helping them develop into people they maybe didn’t even know they could be is truly why I get up every morning. It’s my purpose in life. I believe true happiness is found in the positive impact you can have in other people’s lives.”
Listen to hear how Dr. Norma Tirado works to help her employees find their gifts, focus on their strengths, and how other leaders can, too.
Dr. Norma Tirado uses the Wambi value of fearlessness to help encourage others out of their comfort zones so that they may find their gifts.
“To discover your gifts sometimes you have to take risks. You have to do things that you haven’t done before. One time a CEO asked me to lead the IT department of my organization and I didn’t have an IT background. So I had to know that. I needed to take that risk that I’m probably going to get my knees scraped. I’m going to make mistakes, but I’m going to learn from them, and then I found out that, again, leadership was a gift for me. No matter what area of the organization I was leading. And you can always learn some of the technical stuff. So getting uncomfortable, taking risks, asking your leaders a lot of questions, pushing them outside of the boundaries of their comfort is going to help them find their gifts.”
Incredible Businesses Have Incredible Relationships – Relationships bring richness to our lives, and move things forward, faster than anything else. Bring a passionate group of people together who share the same mission, using their ”ikigai”, and watch the profound impact that they have on the world. Find out what “ikigai” means and how to be an incredible business in this blog.
This Gut + Science episode is sponsored by Wambi. Don’t miss out on future episodes; subscribe today!
Employees quit bosses, not their jobs or the brand they represent. Data shows that bad leadership has significant impact on turnover and low engagement. Kris Baird’s research captures the most crucial leadership skills needed to increase engagement, build trust, and create loyal, high-performing teams. Discover the most important actions we can take to drive retention and build workplaces where employees thrive.
1. Train your managers: Selecting and training managers is the responsibility of a good leader. Provide training that will make your managers feel like engagement experts.
2. Define your retention strategy: The top priority has to be on keeping the good people you already have and hiring for fit. What are the qualities most important to your team and align with the values of not only your company, but also department?
3. Create opportunities for interaction and being present: There is a misconception that staff are wallet-driven but engagement is about meaningful connection: it’s about leaders more visible and present among your people.
4. Define your company culture: You must consciously create a culture that aligns with your organization’s vision of the future. This helps your team stay connected to the purpose.
5. Noticing Celebration, Acknowledgment, and recognition are all different: Recognition is more personal. We say recognition should have the three P’s. It should be: Prompt Personal, and Plentiful.
We invite leaders to take a minute to reflect on your strategy and style in order to take the first step in driving retention and reducing burnout. Fill out the Leadership Self-Reflection Assessment today!
Meet Ophelia Byers, VP and Chief Nursing Officer at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital:
“We recognize the impact of stress – general stressors, life stressors, family changes, pressure at work, personal health challenges. Those are things that any human being goes through. Then you think about your employees of color, and you think about the impact of racism on people who are also going through the challenges of just being human. My interest in this is really around understanding the experience of those employees and how workplaces can create actionable frameworks to help support them at work, a place that we spend most of our life and certainly most of our day. It’s really trying to understand how we can retain these employees, engage them, and ensure that the workplace is one of diversity, inclusion, belonging, and ultimately equity.”
Listen to hear how Ophelia and NewYork-Presbyterian weave diversity and inclusion into the entire framework of their organization in order to retain employees and enhance their workplace experience.
Ophelia Byers uses the Wambi value of compassion to remind us that diversity and inclusion is a process, beginning with a self-assessment of our personal limitations.
“There is not always the awareness of what someone’s lived experience is at work. Our obligation is to do some vision correction, and that comes through awareness. It comes through learning and self-study. It comes through a variety of ways, but we have to first recognize that we do not see all and that we really need diverse perspectives from a diverse group of individuals to be able to be more aware.”
Celebrating Black Healthcare Professionals – In our desire to actualize change and celebrate the diversity of mind and thought, we are listening to five Black healthcare professionals who have graciously shared their knowledge and insights on joy, compassion, gratitude, imagination and fearlessness. Watch and listen to our interviews with: