Moody Blues
Do your colleagues chastise you because you’re often in a bad mood at work? And is your perennially positive colleague always the one getting the most praise from your boss? Well, new research shows that happy workers aren’t the most creative or productive employees while workers with a bad mood can spark ingenious ideas and get more done.
It looks like having a negative mood at work might not be such a bad thing. A recent study by professors at Rice University determined that a mix of workers with bad and good moods is what fosters the most creativity in the workplace.
The study’s results contradict traditional management thinking that the only mood wanted in the workplace is a good one.
The study found that bad moods are required to make things better on the job. Rather than trying to stamp out bad moods, they can be fruitful if bosses treat them as a necessary part of the creative process. The research suggests that negative moods are a natural part of any job and workers and supervisors should use them as a way to identify problems and find unique ways to fix what’s not working.
With the right outlook from the boss, a worker with a negative attitude can alert everyone to shortfalls in the status quo and that can then be an incentive to develop new ideas and creative solutions.
What about good moods? The study found that when workers are in a great mood, that, of course, things are going well at the moment and staff are confident. The bonus is that a positive mood can free employees up to think of the future, come up with new strategies, ideas and long-term plans.
So bad and good moods work together to boost creativity. Good and bad moods can contribute to creativity in different ways. Bad moods can pinpoint what’s not working right now and come up with ways to solve these issues while good moods can get staff thinking in new directions for the future.
The study suggests supervisors be supportive to their staff whether they’re in a good or bad mood. That means bosses need to provide meaningful feedback to workers to improve their skills, be honest about how any decisions are made, and be trustworthy. With that support in a workplace, employees will feel safe enough to voice their concerns or ideas, whether they’re in a good or bad mood, and that boosts creativity all around.
