Don’t Worry, Be Happy
The success or failure of top management may hinge on something few of us ever consider. That is the range of temperaments across the senior team. Team composition has been sliced and diced across every conceivable dimension of age, sex, race, national origin, tenure and function, but it turns out that one important contributor to team success is something altogether different: a common attitude toward life.
Recent research appearing in Administrative Science Quarterly convincingly demonstrates that teams sharing the same level of “positive affect” (disposition) work together better. In fact, companies that had top teams made up of people with similar temperaments enjoyed 4% to 6% higher market-adjusted earnings per share than companies that did not. The study included 301 top executives at 62 major U.S. organizations, selected from among the Fortune 500, the 100 largest privately held companies, leading nonprofits and a few newsworthy emerging growth companies.
The researchers surveyed the executives' levels of enthusiasm, mental alertness, energy and determination. Highly positive-affect people scored high on survey questions such as “I always seem to have something pleasant to look forward to,” “I often feel happy and satisfied for no particular reason” and “Most days, I have moments of real fun and joy.” People who scored low on those questions were typically sluggish, dour and sedate — and were labeled as having low positive affect.
The researchers then tested whether companies did better when they had a team of executives who displayed a variety of different temperaments or when all the leaders shared the same basic affective orientation. They found that team members on more homogeneous teams felt more satisfaction, experienced a greater sense of personal influence with other team members, and enjoyed greater cooperation and less conflict than more heterogeneous teams. Interestingly, CEOs of affectively homogeneous teams also tended to use a more participative decision-making style, involving team members more frequently and more meaningfully in business decisions.
Robert Galford, a managing partner of the Center for Executive Development in Boston and co-author of “The Trusted Advisor” (a book outlining ways trust is built in consulting relationships), wasn't surprised by the findings: “When you get to the top of the house, intellect and experience are a given. Everyone is smart and seasoned. What makes the difference from the point of view of a highly functioning team is the ability to build intimacy with each other. That means understanding each other and properly interpreting the signals that are sent.” Affect, Galford believes, telegraphs certain deeply held attitudes and values, such as optimism or pessimism, good will or ill will.
Fortunately, even affectively diverse teams can come together over time. Related research in an October 2000 white paper indicates that although affect may be an inherent personality trait, it can also be influenced. “The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion in Groups” was based on classroom simulations involving 91 business-school undergraduates and a highly trained actor working undercover, feigning various affects to see how they would spread.
The result: “People do not keep their emotions to themselves,” says author Sigal Barsade. “Moods are contagious. [Outward diffusion] can occur without the individual's conscious knowledge.” As with the top teams, catching other people's positive emotions makes group members feel better about their jobs, their personal contribution and the team. Of course, the extent to which individuals are affected by emotional contagion varies from person to person.
But might emotional contagion also play a role in spreading bad attitudes? To an extent that's true, says Barsade, but “the most contagious affect is what we call ‘low-energy positive’ — the pleasant optimist. That person's influence is at least as great as a high-energy negative — the guy who bursts into your office spouting revolution.” In fact, the low-energy positive trumps even the high-energy positive cheerleader type.
Eda Roth, a communications consultant to the Leadership Institute at Boston University's School of Management, believes she knows why: “With quiet, there's room for other people. It allows for listening.” And nothing connects people better than that.
The Administrative Science Quarterly article, published in December 2000, is called “To Your Heart's Content: A Model of Affective Diversity in Top Management Teams” and is written by Sigal Barsade and Jeffrey A. Sonnenfeld, both of Yale University; Andrew J. Ward of Emory University; and Jean D. F. Turner of Sepracor Inc. Sigal Barsade also is the author of “The Ripple Effect: Emotional Contagion in Groups.”