Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/339857
July/August 2014 23 ees walk within 10 feet of another person in the hospital, they must make eye contact and smile. When they walk within 5 feet, they must say hello. Since the introduction of 10/5, Ochsner has experienced an increase in unique patient visits, a 5 percent increase in patients' likelihood to recommend the organization, and a significant improvement in medical- practice provider scores. Social support appears to lead to not only happier employees but also more-satisfied clients. Change Your Relationship with Stress Stress is another central factor contributing to people's hap- piness at work. Many companies offer training on how to miti- gate stress, focusing on its negative health effects. The problem is people then get stressed-out about being stressed-out. It's important to remember that stress has an upside. When I was working with Pfizer in February 2011, I asked senior managers to list the five experiences that most shaped who they are today. Nearly all the experiences they wrote down involved great stress—after all, few people grow on vacation. Pick any biography and you'll see the same thing: Stress is not just an obstacle to growth; it can be the fuel for it. Your attitude toward stress can dramatically change how it affects you. In a study Alia Crum, Peter Salovey, and I con- ducted at UBS in the midst of the banking crisis and massive restructuring, we asked managers to watch one of two videos, the first depicting stress as debilitating to performance and the second detailing the ways in which stress enhances the human brain and body. When we evaluated the employees six weeks later, we found that the individuals who had viewed the "enhancing" video scored higher on the Stress Mindset Scale— that is, they saw stress as enhancing, rather than diminishing, their performance. And those participants experienced a sig- nificant drop in health problems and a significant increase in happiness at work. Stress is an inevitable part of work. The next time you're feeling overwhelmed, try this exercise: Make a list of the stresses you're under. Place them into two groups—the ones you can control (like a project or your in-box) and those you can't (the stock market, housing prices). Choose one stress that you can control and come up with a small, concrete step you can take to reduce it. In this way you can nudge your brain back to a positive—and productive—mindset. It's clear that increasing your happiness improves your chances of success. Developing new habits, nurturing your coworkers, and thinking positively about stress are good ways to start. "One of the highlights of the meeting was the panel with the young execs," says Convention Chair Jack Lewis. "They had such fresh ideas on attracting new talent to our industry, social media and the future of ecommerce sales." Pictured from left to right are two of the panel participants: Dave Groff of Webstaurant and Ace Mart's Jonathan Gustafson. Words to Grow By The data that your clients have has value. Do not underes- timate that. Who owns the future? It's those who can put that data into meaningful form that has value for other people. Lowell Catlett Never chase the money. Chase the oppor- tunity. Chase the relationships. The money will always come. Chef Jeff Henderson We've become a more sophisticated indus- try but what we have not done is driven payroll down as a percent of revenue in 30 years. We've got to come up with a dif- ferent answer and I have two of them: Get control of your salesforce and think about the operating economics of your business. Al Bates