Page 37 - Getting to the Heart of High Performance

PSYCHOLOGICAL CAPITAL

A study of almost 4,000 college students found that fresh-
men’s level of hope predicted college grades more

accurately than either their SAT scores or grade point
1
averages in high school. This implies that hope can have a
major impact on a group’s performance.

Harvard Business Review reports another study that

found a strong linkage between positive emotion (for
example, optimism, hope, etc.) and higher creativity,
while negative emotion resulted in lower creativity. The
researchers found that on days when people were in the

most positive moods, they were 50 percent more likely to
have creative ideas than on other days. There also was a
surprising carry-over effect. The more positive someone’s
mood was on a given day, the more creative thinking

occurred the next day and, to some extent, even the day
after that. Positive emotions were found to have a simi-
lar beneficial effect on productivity, commitment, and
collegiality in the workplace. 2

The Deep Strengths Research Project 21