During the second lockdown in the UK during 2020 and when we could visit our local library, I unexpectedly (for me) started reading books about the Holocaust. I lost myself in the most powerful and incredibly harrowing tales of the survivors of some of the most unimaginable experiences.
Surprisingly, this made me feel so much better than I could have expected. From all this reading about history, I was left with the feeling that hope is one of the most important strengths we have.
Image: Austin Schmid, unsplash
As I’ve now started reading Victor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’, it got me thinking about why hope matters so much, especially for organisations and the people in them. What difference can hope really make?
The science gives us clues
There has been a lot of research about hope and the benefits it brings. At a personal level and according to psychologists, most hopeful people share three key attributes – goals and vision (something for us to hope for), agency (the motivation that drives us to achieve our goals) and pathways (the plan we have to achieve our goal).
So, as you can guess, hope is linked with setting and achieving goals and the more hopeful you are, you’re more likely to be happier, more resilient and healthier.
And it’s the same in the workplace…
Studies have shown that “employees who frequently apply the happiness strengths of hope, zest, gratitude, love and curiosity at work report higher levels of various aspects of work-related wellbeing like work engagement and sense of meaning.” (The Routledge Companion to Happiness at Work).
And, in 2013 research, hope accounted for 14% of productivity in the workplace, According to psychologist Shane Lopez, author of the 2013 book, ‘Making Hope Happen’, "Basically, a hopeful person does one day a week more work than a less hopeful person in a seven-day work week,"
So… do you still have that woo woo feeling about hope that I could sense you might have had at the start of this post?
“A leader is a dealer in hope”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Believe you can make things better
Whether you’re looking at hope from an individual or organisation perspective, the anticipation of a future positive outcome offered by hope can support us with the feeling that this will pass.
It helps us feel like we have some control and motivation, even when we’re facing ambiguity - just as we are right now.
In my next post, I’ll be exploring practical ways that leaders can develop and practice greater hope inside their organisations, as they face increasing levels of uncertainty.
“…ultimately, freedom requires hope, which I define in two ways: the awareness that suffering, however terrible, is temporary; and the curiosity to discover what happens next.”
Edith Eger
Read more…
Shane J Lopez, Making Hope Happen
Edith Eger, The Choice, Embrace the Possible
Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Cilka’s Journey