Helping employees “live their purpose” may do more to rejuvenate stressed employees than giving them more days off, says best-selling author Daniel Goleman.

What is happiness? Aristotle pondered it, our country’s founders encouraged its pursuit, but only now—thanks to the thriving field of Positive Psychology—have we learned more precisely how to attain and sustain it. In thousands of studies in the last two decades, researchers have watched babies share crackers, put Tibetan monks in brain scanners, asked college students to do kind deeds and explored databases, among other strategies. A major finding has emerged: Happiness is, to a great degree, in our own hands—or more exactly, our own minds.

Since the pandemic began, there’s been a call for managers to be understanding and lenient with employees as they navigate the stressors the global crisis has brought on. Now that restrictions are lifting in many parts of the world, some managers are wondering how to continue to balance compassion for the people on their team and accountability for getting work done.

New research suggests that gratitude plays an indirect role in improving our health.

Being grateful seems to have a lot of positive effects on our lives. In fact, grateful people may have better sleep, healthier hearts, and fewer aches and pains.

We all know what happened last year.

Suddenly, everything turned on a dime. Organizations across all industries — including L&D — had to figure out how to adapt and fast.

12 Driving Forces are personal drivers or motivators; the “why” someone does what they do. Created by TTI Success Insights, 12 Driving Forces helps to uncover and explain a person’s motivating factors. Motivators/ drivers can be thought of as the areas of life that a person is passionate about or things perceived by an individual as important. A person's drivers provide their purpose and direction in life.

How is the issue of personal accountability viewed in your organization? Seasoned workers have undoubtedly seen their share of finger-pointing, dishonesty, and “CYOA.” However, personal accountability is a critical step toward improving leadership. When people are accountable for their own decisions, work, and results, the effectiveness of an organization can greatly increase.

Nic spent most of her childhood avoiding people. She was raised by a volatile father and a mother who transferred much of the trauma she’d experienced onto her daughter. The combination left Nic fearful and isolated. “My primitive brain was programmed to be afraid of everybody, because everybody’s evil and they’re gonna hurt you,” she told me. (Nic asked to be referred to by only her first name to protect her privacy.)

We are often asked into organizations to present workshops on “building resilience” — giving managers the tools to help their employees manage anxiety and improve their ability to respond to change and recover from challenges. Perhaps, as a learning and development (L&D) professional, you have been tasked with developing a similar program for your organization or clients.

The TTI SI research team is always hard at work to uncover the industry insights and patterns of behavior that you need to know. Our latest Research Cliffnotes is called What Assessments Revealed About Gender & Skills Development in University Students.

The people who come to you for training have many reasons for doing so, but there is one thing they all need, and that is for you to be grounded, clear and fully present. When you are, that gives them the emotional and energetic space to tap into their own sense of psychological safety and truly absorb the lessons and learning you make available to them.

Over the course of my five-year “Rich Habits” study, I got to know 233 millionaires, who had an average net worth of $4.3 million, and learned about their origin stories, their value systems, their career trajectories, and how they approach their money.