"Don't worry, be happy!"

The singer Bobby McFerrin had a monster hit in the 1980's (it reached number 1 on the U.S. pop music charts and won both "Song of the Year" and "Record of the Year" at the 1989 Grammy Awards) called "Don't Worry, Be Happy!"  It was a great song with a catchy tune and inspirational (if not simple) lyrics ("In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double - don't worry, be happy").  When you really think about it, the lyrics and the message that goes along with them, make perfect sense.  As the ancient Stoic philosophers claimed too, there are a lot of things in this world that are under our control (perhaps most importantly, our attitude) and even more things in this world that are not (basically everything else).  Why do we worry about the things that are not under our direct control?  We should worry about our attitude instead - in many cases, how we respond to a particular set of events has a greater impact on the consequences of those events than the events themselves.

Attitude is very important, and it is a simple truth that our attitude is completely under our control.  Attitude impacts behavior.  Behavior impacts our response.  Our response can then change the attitude (for the better) of those around us.  It is a virtuous cycle of change for the better!  Shawn Achor wrote a book a few years ago called  The Happiness Advantage that highlights this growing body of research.  It is a fascinating book that covers research performed over the last several decades (some of the studies were performed even earlier - see below) that show that happier people are more creative and make better decisions than those who are not.  Two longitudinal studies from Harvard (the "Study of Adult Development" and the Grant study - reviewed here), in which a cohort of Harvard graduates were followed for over seven decades, suggested that happier graduates led longer, healthier lives!  There is also evidence that happier physicians make faster, more accurate diagnoses at the bedside (see study here).  As it turns out, small gestures of gratitude or kindness, such as a smile, receiving positive feedback, or receiving a small gift, induces a positive affect, which also leads physicians to solve clinical problems more efficiently (see study here).  These last two examples are particularly relevant given the current focus on professional burnout in health care providers (higher rates of burnout have been associated with worse outcomes, higher costs, and worse patient satisfaction - and the rate of professional burnout in health care is about 50%, which is higher compared to all other professions).

Charles Darwin (yes, that Darwin) proposed as early as 1872 something that is now called the "Facial Feedback Hypothesis".  Basically, Darwin suggested (and studies since his time have supported) that our facial expressions can significantly influence our emotions:


"The free expression by outward signs of an emotion intensifies it.  On the other hand, the repression, as far as this is possible, of all outward signs softens our emotions.  Even the simulation of an emotion tends to arouse it in our minds."


William James, the so-called "Father of American Psychology" followed with a similar idea.  He wrote in his book, "The Principles of Psychology" that:


"Refuse to express a passion, and it dies."


A number of studies (see one study here) have used a variety of methods to measure both the subjective (self-reported emotional state) and objective (heart rate, sweat production, blood pressure, skin temperature, etc) response to different emotions in response to different stimuli with the presence or absence of facial expression.  The majority of these studies have shown that without the ability to smile, the emotional response to a trigger designed to produce "happiness" (such as a funny story or cartoon, or similar to the studies described above, a small gift or positive feedback) is significantly attenuated.  More recently, using methods such as functional MRI to objectively analyze the emotional response and Botox injections to inhibit the ability to smile, studies (see an example here) have produced similar results.  In other words, if we can't smile, we don't feel happy! 


How do we interpret all of these studies in the context of leadership?  Easy - small gestures of kindness, positive feedback, or even a simple smile will not only make us feel better, it will make everyone around us feel better.  Bobby McFerrin was absolutely correct - "Don't worry, be happy."  Even if you are not feeling happy, if you just simply "smile", you will feel better.