情商3：影响你一生的工作情商（第2版）

美国宾夕法尼亚大学的心理学教授马丁·塞利格曼（Martin Seligman）曾做过研究，研究的目标是“乐观情绪怎样提高美国大都会人寿保险公司的销售效率”。^[44] 研究显示乐观的推销员在第一年销售的保险金额比那些悲观的推销员高29%，第二年高130%。

许多组织的经营情况也证明了乐观的价值。美国运通公司财务顾问公司进行了一个小规模测试，他们要检验推销员在接受乐观情绪的培训之后三个月内销售额的提高情况。结果发现，销售额的确出现大幅度提高，于是公司决定把乐观态度培训作为员工培训的基本内容之一。对其他高层管理人员的研究也显示，如果人们把挫折失败看作可以改正的失误，他们就会采取措施避免问题再度发生。^[45]

与乐观紧密联系的是信心，也就是知道实现工作目标所需的步骤，然后鼓足实施这些步骤时所需的干劲，这就是基本的动力。缺乏这种动力就无法达到目标。情感能力相关研究表明，在健康保健、咨询及教书育人等服务行业中，优秀的工作者都对自己努力帮助的对象抱有信心。^[46]

研究人员曾对一些社会工作者的工作情况进行研究。这些社会工作者主要帮助那些在医院中需要照顾的患有慢性精神分裂症、重度智障等严重精神障碍的患者，帮助他们锻炼生活自理能力。研究结果显示，对病人抱有信心能起到非常重要的作用。^[47]工作的第一年是最艰辛的，患者病情不见好转，事情进展也不顺利，患者毫不领情。因此有不少社会工作者热情逐渐消退，甚至辞职离开。但是那些信心充足、对患者改善的潜力和自己的能力持乐观态度的社会工作者却干得非常成功。在工作一年后，那些在一开始就信心十足的社会工作者坚持到了最后，而且取得了令人满意的成效。他们很少有失落感，而且都愿意继续从事现在的工作。

在上述工作中，工作人员一般压力很大，经受挫折是非常平常的事。保持乐观情绪和信心就更容易取得好的结果。当人们从事一项艰巨的任务时，信心显得尤为重要。在那些极其艰巨的工作中，保持必胜的信念尤其重要。也许，保持乐观是一种实用的工作策略。^[48]

不过要提醒大家，乐观和信心能起到重大作用，这个道理主要是针对美国文化的，也就是说不一定适用于其他文化。比如，对一家全球性食品饮料公司高层管理人员所进行的调查研究发现，保持乐观情绪在美国的优秀经营者中表现出来，而在亚洲和欧洲情况并非如此。

合益–麦克伯公司创新与研究中心的管理者玛丽·方丹告诉我：“在亚洲的很多国家和地区，比如日本、中国台湾和印度，‘我能行’的态度通常被认为是行为鲁莽或过分个人主义的表现。在那些文化当中，乐观主义通常以低姿态呈现出来。比如，人们可能会这样说：‘这事确实很难，我未必能胜任。不过，可以试一试。’人们不会说：‘没问题，让我来！’在欧洲人眼里，美国人的乐观态度简直就是目空一切的表现。”^[02] 涌流，英文原文为“flow”，一个人专注于工作时会进入一种理想的工作状态，心理学家称之为“涌流”状态。涌流是一种如冥想、深深沉醉其中的状态，人处于这种状态时会产生陶醉感，甚至察觉不到时间的流逝。——译者注

1. The classic description of flow: Mihalyi CsikszentmihalyiFlow: The Psychology of OptimalExperience (New York:Harper and Row, 1990).
2. The real rewards of work: based on a survey of 1,528 menand women who had been followed atfive-year intervalsor so through the course of their lives, into the 1990s. SeeCarole K. Holahan andRobert R. Sears, The Gifted Group inLater Maturity (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 1995).
3. The brain in flow: Jean Hamilton et al., “Intrinsic Enjoyment and Boredom Coping Scales:Validation with Personality, Evoked Potential and Attention Measures,”Personality and IndividualDifferences 5 (1984).
4. Flow at work and leisure: Judith LeFevre, “Flow and Quality of Experience During Work andLeisure,” inMihalyi Csikszentmihalyi and Isabella S. Csikszentmihalyi(eds.), Optimal Experience:Psychological Studies of Flow in Consciousness (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988).
5. Flow and outstanding performers: Robert E. Kelley, Howto Be a Star at Work (Times Books,1998).
6. Being fully present: William A. Kahn, “To Be Fully There:Psychological Presence at Work,”Human Relations 45(1992); William A. Kahn, “Psychological Conditions of Personal Engagement andDisengagement at Work,”Academy of Management Journal 33 (1990).
7. The professor and the factory worker: Maria T. Allisonand Margaret C. Duncan, “Women, Workand Flow,” in Csikszentmihalyi and Csikszentmihalyi (eds.), OptimalExperience.
8. The neurochemistry of motivation undoubtedly entailsmany neurochemicals, since the brain iscontinuallysecreting larger or smaller amounts of the more than twohundred neurotransmitters. But thecatecholamines havebeen most studied, and they figure prominently in theunderlying brain chemistryof motivation. See, e.g., U.Lundberg, “Catecholamine and Cortisol Excretion Under PsychologicallyDifferent Laboratory Conditions,” in J.Usdin, T. Kvetnanski, and D. Kopin (eds.), CatecholaminesandStress: Recent Advances (North Holland: Elsevier,1980).
9. Eugenia Barton, the compassionate teacher: in CaryCherniss, Beyond Burnout (New York:Routledge, 1995).
10. Affiliation: see Richard Boyatzis, The Competent Manager:A Model for Effective Performance(New York: John Wileyand Sons, 1982); Lyle M. Spencer Jr. and Signe M.Spencer, Competence atWork: Models for Superior Performance (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1993).
11. Managers low in affiliation: Spencer and Spencer Competence at Work.
12. Managers and affiliation: Boyatzis, The Competent Manager.
13. In a series of studies in which underlying brain chemistry was assessed in people ranked high invarious motives,David McClelland deduced that norepinephrine is involved when the need for power isaroused, while theneed for affiliation—wanting to feel close and connectedto people—seems associatedwith dopamine, a brain chemical involved in pleasure, among other moods (seeDavid C. McClelland etal., “The Relationship of AffiliativeArousal to Dopamine Release,” Motivation and Emotion 11
14. ;David C. McClelland et al., “The Need for Power,Brain Norepinephrine Turnover, and Memory,”Motivation and Emotion 9
15. ). And the need to achieve seemed toinvolve, among other brainchemicals, a pituitary hormone, vasopressin (see David C. McClelland,“Achievement Motivation inRelation to Achievement Related Recall, Performance, and Urine Flow, a Marker Associated withRelease of Vasopressin,” Motivation and Emotion 19
16. ). But such specific connections betweenmotives and brain chemistry are highly speculative at this point.
17. Computers and emotion: see Roz Picard, AffectiveComputing (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,1998).
18. The amygdala and motivation: see James D. Duffy, “TheNeural Substrates of Emotion,”Psychiatric Annals, January 1997.
19. In an analysis of 286 studies from organizations intwenty-one countries, the achievement motiveturned upas the single most frequent distinguishing competence among superior executives. Spencerand Spencer, Competence at Work.
20. In Gates’s industry, software development, as in mostother technical and professional specialties,the need toachieve distinguishes star performers from average morethan any other competency. Spencerand Spencer,Competence at Work.
21. Qualities of the wealthiest: Michael Klepper and Robert Gunther, The Wealthy 100: A Ranking ofthe Richest Americans, Past and Present (New York: Carol Publishing Group, 1997).
22. The study of fifty-nine high-tech entrepreneurs: John B.Miner et al., “Role of Entrepreneurial TaskMotivation inthe Growth of Technologically Innovative Firms:Interpretations from Follow-up Data,”Journal of Applied Psychology 79 (1994).
23. The enterprising workers at Donnelly: in Carl F. Frost, Changing Forever: The Well-Kept Secretof America’s Leading Companies (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996).
24. Money as keeping score: Ann Graham Ehringer, Make Up Your Mind (Santa Monica, CA: MerrittPublishing, 1995).
25. Nathan Myhrvold: Ken Auletta, “Annals of Communication,” The New Yorker, May 12, 1997.
26. The description of the concern for efficiency is based largely on Spencer and Spencer,Competence at Work.
27. The Herman Miller raise-the-plush weekend: Frost Changing Forever.
28. Patricia Sueltz: quoted in Fast Company,October/November 1997.
29. Commitment to the organization and thriving understress: C. S. Leong et al., “The ModeratingEffect of Organizational Commitment on the Occupational Stress Outcome Relationship,” HumanRelations, October 1996.
30. Attachment makes good organizational citizens: see, forexample, Arthur Brief and S. J.Motowidlo, “ProsocialOrganizational Behaviors,” Academy of Management Review 11 (1986).
31. Organizational support and loyalty: Robert Eisenberger etal., “Perceived Organizational Supportand EmployeeDiligence, Commitment and Innovation,” Journal of Applied Psychology 75 (1990).
32. The glory-sharing manager and the glory-seeking consultant: in Spencer and Spencer, Competenceat Work.
33. The new shape of loyalty: Tom Peters, “The Brand CalledYou,” Fast Company,August/September 1997.
34. Adam Werbach: “We Can Sit Here Bemoaning Beavis andButthead or We Can Learn from TheirAppeal,” Time, June27, 1997.
35. The enterprising shipping clerk: The tale is told bySpencer and Spencer, Competence at Work.
36. The PNC Bank computer savings: Kelley, How to Be a Starat Work.
37. The extended time horizon as a mark of success: Elliott Jacques, Requisite Organization(Arlington, VA: Cason Hall, 1989).
38. Initiative in government: Boyatzis, The Competent Manager.
39. Initiative in real estate sales: J. Michael Crant, “The Proactive Personality Scale and Objective JobPerformance Among Real Estate Agents,” Journal of Applied Psychology 80 (1995).
40. Deloitte & Touche Consulting competency model: in Richard H. Rosier (ed.), The CompetencyModel Handbook,vol. 3 (Boston: Linkage, 1996).
41. The hardworking salesman: cited in Spencer and Spencer, Competence at Work.
42. The whims of fate and difficulty in managers: Ferdinand A. Gul et al., “Locus of Control, TaskDifficulty, and TheirInteraction with Employees’ Attitudes,” Psychological Reports 75 (1994).
43. The tale of the too-brash vice president of marketing istold in Boyatzis, The Competent Manager.
44. Too-eager managers perform poorly: Boyatzis, The Competent Manager.
45. The case of the two executives refused a promotion isdescribed in Salvatore E. Maddi andSuzanne C. Kobasa,The Hardy Executive: Health Under Stress (Homewood, IL:Dow Jones-Irwin,1984).
46. The cases of Anne Busquet and Arthur Blank: PatriciaSellers, “So You Fail. Now Bounce Back,”Fortune, May 1,1995.
47. Martin Seligman’s studies of optimism and pessimism among insurance sales agents are detailedin Peter Schulman, “Explanatory Style and Achievement in Schooland Work,” in G. Buchanan andMartin Seligman (eds.),Explanatory Style (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995).
48. Superior managers: Boyatzis, The Competent Manager;Spencer and Spencer, Competence atWork.
49. Hope in human services: Spencer and Spencer Competence at Work.
50. Hopefulness in caseworkers: Stuart Kirk and Gary Koeske“The Fate of Optimism: A LongitudinalStudy of Case Managers’ Hopefulness and Subsequent Morale,” Researchin Social Work Practice,January 1995.
51. The utility of unrealistic optimism: Shelley Taylor and J. D. Brown, “Illusion and Well-being: ASocial Psychological Perspective on Mental Health,” Psychological Bulletin 183(1988).