“I have always believed that hope is that stubborn thing inside us that insists, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that something better awaits us so long as we have the courage to keep reaching, to keep working, to keep fighting.” – Barack Obama
Good morning dear readers. Whatever your political persuasion, I want to share a quote from our President’s speech of last night – I was struck specifically when he talked about hope.
When we look at great leadership and how we develop resilience in ourselves, on our teams, and in our organizations, one of our top jobs is instilling a sense of hope and possibility, even during times of stress.
According to the cutting edge research being done on Psychological Capital in the workplace by Luthans, Avolio, Youseff (authors of the book Psychological Capital from Oxford University Press), and others in the field, this is a definition of hope at work:
Hope – Is defined as a positive motivational state where two basic elements – successful feeling of agency (or goal oriented determination) and pathways (or planning to achieve those goals) interact.
Hope is one of four components of Psychological Capital that makes for effective organizations. What are the outcomes we see when our people are more confident, hopeful, optimistic and resilient? Research has found that employees with high Psychological Capital:
Perform better
Have higher levels of engagement
Create more stable organizational growth
Have less absenteeism
Are more effective at leading or participating in organizational change
How are you creating a hopeful, optimistic environment in your workplace?