Should Your Language Be More Positive? with Linda Robson

10/26/17 • 28 min

Linda Robson is a scholar practitioner, blending work in executive education with consulting and coaching around the elevation of organizations and the individuals who work within them. Linda received her Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University. She studied with David Cooperrider and Ron Frey. She is an advisor at the Fowler Center for Sustainable Value. Linda also helped write The Flourishing Enterprise: The New Spirit of Business.

In this conversation, you will hear Linda share her fascinating research on the language used by high performing teams and why the words we speak impact the results we are able to achieve particularly in organizational change programs. Linda also shares while simply being more positive is not enough, why we need to acknowledge the sense of loss that any change in our workplaces can bring and the practical things leaders can do to use language to improve people's wellbeing at work.

Connect with Linda Robson:

Email - [email protected]

You’ll Learn:

[02:20] - Linda explains why Professor David Cooperrider believes her research will be so influential in helping organizations navigate change.
[04:23] - Linda defines and describes mirror flourishing.
[06:55] - Linda shares why language plays such a large role in our interactions with each other and our willingness to embrace and act upon change.
[07:48] - Linda talks about what positive and negative language sounds like, in the workplace.
[09:07] - Linda explains that the use of positive language is a missed opportunity.
[12:18] - Linda shares what we can do to help leaders be more strategic in their language.
[14:40] - Linda talks about the idea of some forms of negative language being helpful with change in workplaces.
[20:20] - Linda explains what a flourishing enterprise looks like.
[22:56] - The Lightning Round with Linda Robson.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

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You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!

Connect with Linda Robson:

Email - [email protected]

You’ll Learn:

[02:20] - Linda explains why Professor David Cooperrider believes her research will be so influential in helping organizations navigate change.
[04:23] - Linda defines and describes mirror flourishing.
[06:55] - Linda shares why language plays such a large role in our interactions with each other and our willingness to embrace and act upon change.
[07:48] - Linda talks about what positive and negative language sounds like, in the workplace.
[09:07] - Linda explains that the use of positive language is a missed opportunity.
[12:18] - Linda shares what we can do to help leaders be more strategic in their language.
[14:40] - Linda talks about the idea of some forms of negative language being helpful with change in workplaces.
[20:20] - Linda explains what a flourishing enterprise looks like.
[22:56] - The Lightning Round with Linda Robson.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!

Previous Episode

Can Story-Telling Improve Your Wellbeing? with Anna Box

Anna Box is a psychologist, story strategist, and founder of Screen and Soul, where she delivers film and thriving workshops, designed to deliver evidence-based well-being and performance psychology, all while feeling like a day at the movies. In all she does, Anna mashes the art of story with the science of thriving.

Connect with Anna Box:

Anna Box on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/annabox/

You’ll Learn:

[02:55] - Anna explains how to fuse storytelling and thriving in workplaces.
[04:45] - Anna talks about the role of Joseph Campbell’s “Hero's Journey Approach” in storytelling.
[06:05] - Anna describes how she’s teaching leaders to improve thriving in workplaces by helping them understand more about the hero’s journey.
[10:30] - Anna shares cautions about using film to teach wellbeing and how to protect from those things.
[17:02] - Anna shares that the neuroscience of stories work.
[18:14] - Anna discusses teaching leaders how to tell stories that might help to improve their people’s wellbeing.
[20:12] - The Lightning Round with Anna Box.

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!

Next Episode

Are You Under Using Your Strengths? with Robert McGrath

Robert McGrath is Professor of Psychology at Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is also a Senior Scientist at the VIA Institute on Character, program evaluator for Thriving Learning Community, a character development program implemented in fifty middle schools around the United States, and Director of Integrated Care for the Underserved of Northeast New Jersey.

In this conversation, you will hear Robert talk about the exciting work he is doing with various assessments at the VIA Institute. He shares the latest tools and insights to assess and understand character strengths and explains how these can help you to bring out the best in yourself and others at work.

Connect with Robert McGrath:

Website: http://fdu-psych.com/mcgrath

You’ll Learn:

[01:53] -Bob explains how you can use your character strengths at work.
[04:53] - Bob shares how understand the rankings of their character strengths in the VIA survey and what this means practically for developing our strengths.
[9:01] - Bob talks about the recent research on the overuse and underuse of our strengths and how this impacts our ability to flourish at work.
[10:44] - Bob shares how character strengths are being used to assist in clinical diagnosis.
[13:20] - Bob talks about the new Global Assessment of Character Strengths and how this can help people to identify the strengths they find essential to their identity.
[18:00] - Bob shares the new Signature Strengths Survey and talks about how this can be used to gather 360 degree feedback.
[19:40] - Bob has been working on re-examining the character strengths virtue groupings and why new studies suggest there are three, rather than six virtues.
[24:16] - The Lightning Round with Robert McGrath

Your Resources:

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for joining me again this week. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons you see at the bottom of this post.

You can also listen to all the episodes of Making Positive Psychology Work streamed directly to your smartphone or iPad through stitcher. No need for downloading or syncing.

Until next time, take care!