Psychological Capital: Resilience, Efficacy, and Optimism

We discuss psychological capital--these are the resources people use at work that are fundamental to job success, like resilience, optimism, hope, and personal effectiveness. This is an element of business psychology that can really help provide a framework for people to channel their strengths into sustained, successful performance

Transcript

Dr. D.  0:11  
Hello, and welcome to the realm. I'm Dr. D, I bring the strategy.

Dr. K  0:14  
I'm Dr. K, I bring the psychology, we are business psychologists and your guides to the executive round where we bring strategy and psychology together so

Dr. D.  0:22  
you can bring your best to your C suite, your teams and your customers. Today we're talking about psychological capital. In some parlance, it's called psycap. It's abbreviated. These are the resources people use of work that are fundamental to job success, like resilience or optimism, hope and personal effectiveness. This is an element of business psychology that can really help provide a framework for people to channel their strengths and to sustain successful performance. So let's get to work. Dr. K as a leadership coach and a licensed therapist, what is psychological capital? And how do you bring these ideas into your conversations with clients

Dr. K  0:57  
a set of resources a person can use to help improve their performance on the job and their success. It also positive developmental state of an individual, as you just said, the psychological capital is resources of resilience, optimism, whoa, and personal effectiveness all comes from a positive psychology position, what we used to look for was what people were doing wrong, what negative behaviors are people producing or showing or that we noticed with positive psychology, we started looking for people's strengths. As you said earlier, it's a way for people to channel their strengths. And that's what psycap comes from is a positive position of what people can do also what they have the ability to develop to be able to do,

Dr. D.  1:43  
it comes down to a person's ability to self motivate, stay optimistic, look for opportunities, overcome challenges, all of those items are really important to personal success. And anybody who has worked with somebody who is a who I often describe as an ER of an organization, somebody who's perpetually negative, always finding fault with the way the organization works, the people around them work never really seem satisfied, it can kind of be demotivating and demoralizing for the folks around them. But I always wonder what it feels like to live in that headspace to be so overwhelmingly worried about the negative outcomes of any decision and any business transaction or any relationship that it gets in the way of the way that people work.

Dr. K  2:28  
Absolutely. If you are not someone that lives in a more negative space, it is difficult to understand how someone can live in that and see more of the darker side of what is going on around them just like for people that are you know, that do live in a more negative headspace or negative mindset, it is difficult for them to understand how can you be positive about this? How can you see everything with a glass half full, it's very difficult to fully understand what the other person is going through the good thing about psychological capital, it's not always something that's innate. For some people, it isn't me. But the good thing about it is it is something that is able to be developed, our brain can be rewired to some extent, you know, you may have a little bit of pessimism in there. But that doesn't mean that you don't have the ability to gain the optimism or some hope or just because you might have a negative mindset doesn't mean that you don't have resilience within you. And if you have one of the four traits of psychological capital, that is better than having none. And if you have one, it can build and help develop the other ones. Unfortunately,

Dr. D.  3:30  
a negative mental state is self reinforcing. So we've talked about developing neural pathways in previous conversations a couple of times. And if you get into that negative mental state, you're hard wiring into your brain, that negative mental state now skepticism, questioning and critical evaluation of any decision or opportunity or environment is a very useful skill set to have in business, you have to be able to step back and think critically and play the devil's advocate and think about a challenge or a problem or even a potential solution from all angles, look at where it can fail and look at where it can break are and people who approach the world with some level of criticality with some skepticism are really valuable in helping bulletproof your ideas. Because if you can get someone who is really good at picking apart ideas on board with the idea, then that means it's really been thought through from from a robust perspective, but it's not healthy to live in that space. And it's debilitating. It holds people back from achieving their full potential if they can only see the negative if they can only approach the world with a skeptical eye. You have to be able to see opportunity you have to be able to see potential. I like this framework within organizational psychology. I tend to be a fairly positive person I see opportunity everywhere. That doesn't necessarily just because I see opportunity everywhere, it's sometimes presents itself like I'm being negative. So people who see opportunity and they express it as distinct could work better. Some people will perceive that as you're never happy with the way the world works. And it's important to recognize that sometimes even when you have a way of presenting something being opportunistic or being a positive potential, sometimes people perceive that as being negative.

Dr. K  5:15  
If I'm just want to make sure that I clarify when someone comes in and says, Oh, yes, this works, but we, you know, we could look at it this way, and maybe change it here or look at this and add this there. Other people may perceive it as Wow, you're just never satisfied. It's always got to be better. It's always got to be more and then they see that as a negative and not Apos. Absolutely.

Dr. D.  5:33  
Okay. Optimism takes several forms. It just as you can have a lot of ideas, all of those ideas for someone who likes stability and doesn't like change, they see a never ending flow of opportunity and ideas as someone being negative, that they're never happy with the way things are today. Absolutely.

Dr. K  5:50  
I would I would definitely agree with that one of the components of psychological capital is having that self efficacy, that personal effectiveness. And with that, it's looking at your own challenge. Why do I see that this guy, dr. D, always is looking to change things and add that and you want to be able to look at yourself and go, Well, maybe it's because I don't like change. So is this an issue on me? Or is this an issue on him? And with that self efficacy, that's where change can come in with psycap? It's, it's not okay, you have these components. And then that's it's always looking to add to your knowledge. It's always looking to educate yourself, learn from your experiences, learn from other people's experiences, and then change and improve as you move along in your career.

Dr. D.  6:34  
Yeah, so how do you define personal effectiveness? Dr. K, or self efficacy? They're, they're kind of used interchangeably in this model. So just to be clear,

Dr. K  6:42  
yes, for me, especially when I am working with clients, it's it's the ability to some extent motivate yourself, even if that means just, you're in a place where you just don't even want to go to work, but you get your butt to work that is a form of self efficacy. self efficacy is the ability to motivate yourself to identify what is going on. self efficacy is the ability to say I need help for me, I would struggle with doing a spreadsheet. So yes, self efficacy could be me trying to figure out how to do it. It's self motivating, self educating. But if I got to a place where I didn't understand it, where I just I can't get it stuck in my head asking for help. That's self efficacy, that is the ability to recognize where your strengths and weaknesses are and taking care of that. And I

Dr. D.  7:27  
think where some people get hung up is that they believe self efficacy is the ability to do everything on their own. That does not necessarily mean self reliance. It means you rely on yourself and the tools that you have the relationships that you build as social networks, that you have the Curiosity within yourself to be able to reach out and get help where you need help or learn where you need to learn bringing in the resources around you having the humility to recognize that you don't understand everything and surround yourself with people that can fill in the gaps in your ability to lead so that collectively your leadership team is home and with

Dr. K  8:01  
the self efficacy or the personal efficacy, you do want to try to bring yourself out of a negative headspace or if you're having imposter syndrome, it is important to you know, give it your all to try on your own. There's nothing wrong with that. But if you're at a place where again, when I was talking about the spreadsheets, if I just can't figure it out, it's just going out there and saying hey, I need some help. There's a level of perfectionism that has been created within organizations and companies and within individuals. And that level of perfectionism, which we did kind of talk about last week. Yeah, in last week's session, it that level of perfectionism can stop can can hinder actually really learning because we're so busy worrying about the the end result and not looking at the pathway that we're taking or the progress that we're making along the way.

Dr. D.  8:49  
Absolutely. It's a great point. And that that leads me to the idea of resilience. So resilience is an important part of the framework. And it's the ability to overcome whatever those challenges are. So how do you see resilience Dr. K, presenting themselves in the way the way leaders think about themselves, and they see opportunity when they're working through challenges, a

Dr. K  9:08  
lot of psychological capital, something that's important for people to understand is these are personal resources. So the resilience is a lot of resilience, how I perceive it is being able to look back at challenges that you've been through, or challenges that the organization has been through that you were able to get out of, and that doesn't mean like oh, I switched jobs and I was able to get out of it. It's that you were able to work through you're able to recognize, okay, this is our organization is struggling or my team is struggling or I'm struggling and that resilience is to be able to continue working through it or and or acknowledge that you may need, you know, you may need an adult timeout or you may need a break and that resilience also includes recognizing, wow, I made it through that I can make it through anything. It's acknowledging Yes, it was a struggle. Yes, it was stressful and yes I was not getting a whole lot of sleep, I wasn't, you know, maybe eating as appropriate as I should, but I made it through, it didn't bring me down, it's recognizing we're able to or an individual is able to get through the struggles, the rough waters, the you know, the the mud that they feel like they are stuck in. And when you can look back and go, Wow, I was able to do that I made it through, I can get through this next challenge. That's how I see resilience.

Dr. D.  10:25  
Yeah, interesting. I hadn't considered that reflective nature of resilience, I tend to think of resilience as brave leadership. So recognizing in the face of a challenge, you can pull the right resources, you don't give up, you don't feel you might feel overwhelmed. But you can overcome that sense of overwhelming feeling. But you're right, I think it's a muscle you have to exercise you have to remind yourself of times you have been resilient and you have overcome challenges. But you also have to be able to recognize when you're evaluating a decision that you have to make as a leader, particularly a difficult decision that you have to make as a leader that making that tough decision that's right for your customers, your employees, your organization or your community that you're serving, even if you get some negative blowback or pushback, or people don't really understand why you're making a hard decision that you can overcome the potential negative consequences of making a brave decision just as easily as you overcame those things in the past and reflecting on your past experiences. And your past successes, when you have to have demonstrated resilience can really help give you confidence to make those tough decisions and be a brave leader and stop a project that isn't going in the right way or exit a market at your organization has been in for a long time or a card employee decisions that are sometimes difficult to make

Dr. K  11:48  
no and I would agree, I agree with you that there's a component that I brought in, it's that self reflection, but also the component of the now we have to be able to resilient people are able to adapt to new changes, or they are able to effectively work through stressful situations and how you adapt to the changes or how you effectively work through these stressful situations would be in the now it's not like oh, well, I did this back then. So I know I'll get through it. Well, yes, you may get through it. But you've got to do things to get through it. You can't just sit there and Okay, I'll wait for the change to happen. And then everything will be great. I agree with you that there is a past component to it. But that may be when you just need that little bit of motivation, like okay, this is stressful. But I know I can do this because A, B and C but there is a very big component of the real time of what do I need to do to get through this stressful change or what is whatever is happening at the moment. So I'd agree there's there's multiple components to resilience,

Dr. D.  12:45  
even though we touched on it a bit earlier, that does tie into the ideas of optimism in the now you have to be optimistic that on the other side of whatever decision or whatever challenge you're facing or whatever opportunity you're exploring, it's not always a negative thing. There's always potential that can can demand resilience out of a leader or an employee that optimism is really core to being able to look ahead and say I believe any risk in the decision that I'm taking today will yield some positive outcome tomorrow.

Dr. K  13:16  
And optimism is another component of the psychological capital. So it is a big one. And I being that I work with a lot of clients with negative mindsets within their work or with depression. optimism is a very tough word for people because for some people optimism is they look at it as Oh, this person's looking through rose colored glasses. They're not being realistic.

Dr. D.  13:35  
And so yes, the word the word the pessimists like to use that when you say, oh, why are you so negative? They say I'm not being negative and being realistic?

Dr. K  13:46  
Yes, yes, that's exactly what they say. So optimism is going I think would be out of the four components of psycap. I believe optimism and the other one that we'll get to hope I believe those are going to be the two that people will struggle with more, you know, but optimism doesn't always have to be Oh my god, this is going to work out and it's going to be the best thing ever, but it's looking at it going okay, if this is the decision that we're making, these are the possible outcomes that may happen. And even if that one positive outcome isn't exactly the best thing that's going to make you you know, the number one company in the world, it's still looking at that outcome, okay? This is going to be the best outcome and I'm going to be okay with that. I'm going to be optimistic about that outcome, because that really is the best thing that could happen because then you are being realistic, someone gets, you know, in trouble with the law, and they're like, well, I could go you know, I could go to jail or I could get the best thing that could happen because most likely you're not going to get get off for whatever it is that you did. You know, you could look at it go well, I could just get you know, a fine and then I could also maybe get some probation or something like that. Yes. Do we want that? No, nobody wants to pay a fine nobody wants probation but if that is the most beneficial thing that could are the best thing that could happen. We have To be optimistic that that will happen. Yeah,

Dr. D.  15:01  
optimism is a tactic. Really, it's not necessarily anything more than that. But optimism is a tactic people use to identify the best path forward. So when you're evaluating a decision, and there are three possible outcomes, depending on what path you take, you really are choosing optimism, what is the most optimistic opportunity that's laying ahead of you, you're evaluating all the risks, the benefits, the challenges that you might face, the cost that it takes to implement a decision, whatever decision you or your organization embark on. That is optimism. It is saying, I have evaluated the world around me and I'm going to take a path that I believe is going to have the best outcome that best outcome is you're optimistic it could change, you might find that there were some hidden risks or unintended consequences, it doesn't mean that your optimism was misplaced. It just meant you miss something, you rely on your resilience to overcome whatever those challenges are along the way. I agree with you that one of the more challenging ones in this model is hope how there are likely a lot of people who think about hope as being that rose colored glasses, very ethereal, intangible items. It's such an emotive descriptor, how does it play into the model? Well,

Dr. K  16:14  
with psycap hope, hope isn't that wishful, I hope this works hope within this model comes with two different components to it. One is that it is there's agency and then the other one is a little bit more of halfway. So the agency part and that's where that self efficacy will come in. Is that okay? I hope to become president of the company. So the agency behind that is I'm going to do these specific things, and I'm going to work towards that goal. And then the pathway is the ability to choose the right path for if you have to do kind of a course correction, because that wasn't the right path, the ability to be able to do that as well. So hope when people have higher hope they are going to look for Okay, I see what this person did to get to this position. So those are the things that I have to do. It's not like oh, well, I don't think I'll be able to do that. It's like, Okay, I see what I have to do, I'm going to make that happen. And that's also where the agency part comes in. People with low hope aren't going to have that belief that they are able to find the pathway or have the agency to go down that pathway. So hope is a little less you know, God, I hope that's not what hope is, in this model. In my understanding of this model. Hope is Oh, I did this because I want this, let's make sure that people see this.

Dr. D.  17:28  
Yeah, the way I equate hope within this framework, we talk about mission all the time mission in my world is what is it that you're doing for the customers? How are you going to add value, bring a new perspective, make something easier, help your customers approach the world in a new way. For me in this model, hope is the same as mission that we talk about all the time. So if you can align your organization around mission, really what you're doing is you're saying I hope that we can get our organization aligned around our mission or the hope is our mission is to be able to deliver great things to our customers, those two for me are the same thing. It's the overriding thing that you're trying to accomplish. If someone works at a not for profit, their hope is being able to feed underprivileged people or get homeless people off the street or deliver health care to underserved communities. All of these things are hopeful statements and your mission is your statement of hope for your organization. No,

Dr. K  18:25  
I you know, in some ways, you added the you know, the agency, these are, you know, if you have a mission of where you want to go or how you want to come the mission of the company, you're going to make pathways to get there, you're gonna bring your team in or the organization in and give them the agency the tools to get down that pathway.

Dr. D.  18:43  
Yeah, absolutely. So to tie all of these things together, your mission of your organization is what you're trying to accomplish, the good you're trying to bring to the world through the services and the products that you offer. Your optimism is finding the right decisions and the right pathways to best bring that mission that hope for your organization forward to reality, your resilience is your ability to overcome what those obstacles might be to get in the way of those and overcome and keep going just keep being persistent at achieving that mission. And your personal effectiveness or self efficacy is each individual's and the team's ability to contribute to the overall success of the organization bringing out the best in each of your team members and in yourself building that connective tissue between your team members that community that teamwork to be able to deliver on your mission. These four things while that feels very ethereal and is a psychological framework within itself. From a tactical perspective, it really is a great way for leadership teams to talk about bringing your mission together, getting your people together and helping people in a positive way work through challenges and have that level of resilience and persistence and being able to achieve

Dr. K  19:57  
for some people. Some of these words might sound a little hokey, or as we talked about, when we were talking about emotional intelligence, it might be like, Oh, that's so soft, and you're bringing in this like emotional component to it. However, with that being said in this, some of these will have an emotional component to it, there has been evidence supporting the positiveness of psychological capital, that ability to measure it, the ability to use it to bring about, you know, changes within an organization. So it might not be as hokey as people may feel that it could be

Dr. D.  20:27  
absolutely. And for every person where the emotional language feels hokey, there are an equal number of people in an organization where that emotional language is inspiring to that and brings a perspective that doesn't feel so clinical, because the opposite of folks who emotional folks who like the emotional language, de look at folks who don't like emotional language as being probably more clinical or more analytical around the role, and they equally don't understand folks who don't respond to that emotional labor. What an interesting discussion. So Dr. Kay, With all of that said, What can someone take away from this discussion?

Dr. K  21:03  
Well, we want to remember what psycap involves. So it's the acronym was hero. So it's hope, efficacy, resilience and optimism. What I often will tell people is individualize that to you. It doesn't have to be textbook perfect. It has to be how you individualize the hero acronym and how you can use it as an individual which then leads to positive outcomes for an organization all together. And as leaders, I believe that using the hope and the efficacy and the resilience and the optimism to develop and encourage your team to lead towards the mission that your organization is trying to accomplish. Also, with psycap, it can be developed, it does not always have to be innate in someone it can be changed, it can be developed, remember, our brain is malleable, it can be developed, it can be rewired. And that is important to remember. So if people are feeling like I don't really have that it is possible to develop it over time. The one thing that is really important is this is measurable, there are measures out there that we can use, you can measure it individually, you can measure it as a team, which with measures you can see where there are certain areas that are a little bit lower, and those can be developed, whether again, it can be it needs to be developed individually or as a team or as an organization as a whole. One of the components to remember is that if someone has one component of sigh cat, whether someone has a lot of resiliency that is in itself has positive effects for the individual or for the team or the organization. The one good thing though, is that having one component other components can also be influenced and can be developed or encouraged along the way. So that's important and having one can develop into more remember, psycap is used to focus on the strengths of a person making the lives of people more productive, and helping them to actualize their potential.

Dr. D.  22:54  
I'm glad that we talked about the measurable nature of this, we didn't talk a lot about what measurement looks like here. But in a future episode, we'll talk quite a bit about different instruments in different ways to get actual measurement of these kinds of principles and some of the other principles that we've talked about in past episodes, we'll have a whole conversation about how organizations can bring measurement of the psychological principles into their organization, I

Dr. K  23:18  
think that would actually be a really cool, yeah, and actually really cool episode to, hey, we spoke about these five things. Here's all the measures that a company can either bring in or get, you know, specialists in people that specialize in it and bring that in. So I think that is actually going to be a really cool episode should be fun. All right. So dr. D, what is on tap for next week? Well,

Dr. D.  23:38  
next week, we'll be talking about mastering the strategic planning process, bringing the right people together and finding the best path forward in your organization. Strategic Planning often feels very overwhelming and is at such a high level, the strategic planning process and should bring in a lot more of your leadership and diversity in leadership across your organization, which most organizations don't do today. It's often high level senior executives go away for a couple of weeks develop a strategic plan. Most people in the organization don't know what that looks like. They don't experience that for themselves. The best organizations bring strategy at multiple levels in the organization. So I'm excited about that concept. Yeah,

Dr. K  24:17  
me too. Yeah, especially that's that's would be where, you know, I would struggle a little bit to some extent and learning about it more, but also bringing in the psychology part of the strategic planning, because there is a component of putting things together and how people will, like you said, bringing the right people together. Yeah,

Dr. D.  24:34  
there is a psychological component to that. And the strategic planning process is really about aligning your organization into the future so that everyone in the organization knows how you're going to achieve your mission. So it very much is a psychological exercise within an organization very much looking forward to that conversation. And to all of you joining us on this journey to the realm Thank you so much. I am dr. D. And

Dr. K  24:59  
I'm Dr. Okay and we are looking forward to your next visit to the Executive Realm.