The Foosball Investment

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The Foosball Investment

Jan

Melissa Kaylor | Search Marketing Trainee

Positive psychology guru and business consultant Shawn Achor makes a strong case to reverse a common formula for success. Many believe if you work hard and achieve your goals, then you will be happy. In his book, The Happiness Advantage, Achor argues the reverse: Happiness comes first, then success. iProspect is a company that intuitively follows Achor’s formula through its expression of culture; employees at iProspect are happy, which galvanizes success with business and clients.

When faced with challenges and stress, people generally retreat solitarily and introspectively. Achor argues, “The most successful people take the exact opposite approach. Instead of turning inward, they actually hold tighter to their social support.” This is Achor’s fundamental principle of the Happiness Advantage called Social Investment. He explains those who are happiest and most successful invest in their social support when the going gets tough. This principle is built into the culture at iProspect, and I have no doubt it is one of the most important reasons for our success with clients.

Intern Friday From my first day here, it was instilled that I should lean on my team members, trainers, and manager. iProspectors enjoy helping one another with new challenges. Every Thursday, individuals volunteer to share industry updates, success stories, and lessons learned in our office-wide Shared Information Class (SIC). If someone tells you “Don’t be afraid to ask questions,” it actually means they will seek you out on a regular basis to see if you have any. Daunting projects, which might left to the individual in other organizations, are a team effort here.

While educating and supporting one another is important, and no doubt leads to stress reduction, the happiness investment at iProspect does not end there. We regularly engage in fun activities together. I play foosball with my team members after lunch many days, and a competitive round of team trivia every Friday. And the Employee Experience team at iProspect helps bring new quirky ideas for office activities to life. The coveted “no a**hole rule” that applies at many service champion organizations, applies here as well. The bottom line is, people at iProspect are friends—friends that willing to invest in one another both socially and professionally.

Relying on social support, according to Achor, is an absolutely fundamental component of achieving a positive mindset. He writes in Harvard Business Review, “Research shows that when people work with a positive mind-set, performance on nearly every level—productivity, creativity, engagement—improves.” This concept is at the core of iProspect’s success. It’s no easy task handling high caliber clients like the collection of Fortune 1000 companies we serve. However, the social environment at iProspect fosters a level of happiness which, time after time, allows us to achieve our goals for success.

Posted in Featured, Within iProspect