Leadership: Smile and the world smiles with you!
Past research by social scientists around the world confirm that when a leader is in a happy mood, the people around him or her are more cheerful. The collective mood of the group lifts. People with a positive leader are more optimistic, creative, efficient and predisposed to be helpful. Research conducted by Alice Isen at the US’ Cornell University in 1999, for example, found that a upbeat and uplifting environment fosters mental efficiency; people in positive environments tended to be better at absorbing and retaining information, at decision-making, critical analysis, complex reasoning and more flexible in their thinking.
Other research links mood and financial performance. In 1986, for instance, Martin Seligman and Peter Schulman of the University of Pennsylvania established that insurance agents with a “glass half-full” outlook were more successful than their pessimistic peers, because they were able to persist despite rejections.
It appears that mood contagion is a real neurological phenomenon, but not all emotions spread with the same ease. A 1999 study conducted by Sigal Barsade at the Yale School of Management demonstrated that cheerfulness and warmth spread easily among work teams, while irritability caught on less so, and depression least of all.
It’s hardly a surprise that laughter is the most contagious of all emotions. Hearing laughter, we find it almost impossible not to laugh or smile, too. Why? It seems our brains’ open-loop circuits are designed to detect smiles and laughter, ensuring we respond in kind. Scientists hypothesise that our brains were hardwired in this way because smiles and laughter cemented allegiances, thus helping the survival of the species.
The implication for leaders is this: laughter really is the best medicine.
Humour hastens the spread of a positive and progressive environment.
Are you a leader in your family, work environment or social group? How could you be making better use of laughter to inspire and motivate those around you? If you are interested in becoming a better leader we have 14 units specifically tailored to growing you as a leader. If you are interested in more information about the difference improving your leadership skills will make in your life please Contact Us today!
