Dr. Kortni (00:00)
Welcome to the Compassionate Newsroom, your gateway to transforming the heart and soul of journalism. I'm your host, Dr. Kortni Alston Lemon. I'm a former news director and television reporter turned happiness scholar. Now I train news leaders and journalists worldwide, teaching them how to cultivate workplace wellbeing and resilience with positive psychology. Each week, join me as I share evidence-based strategies.
and talk with some of the most inspiring people in the industry, including news leaders, journalists, trainers, and mental health experts. Together we'll share actionable approaches to help you. Imagine a newsroom that not only cares about the story, but profoundly values the people behind them. A place where compassion is the competitive advantage. Don't just listen, become part of this transformative journey. Subscribe to and share The Compassionate Newsroom. Let's champion a more supportive,
healthier and happier newsroom culture, one episode at a time.
Dr. Kortni (01:03)
Welcome to the Compassionate Newsroom. I'm Dr. Kortni I'm super excited.
to talk about something really important today. And that's applying positive psychology in our workplaces. We're gonna dive into how you can create a workplace that boosts the wellbeing of you and your team. And I also have some handy framework for you as well. It's called the PERMA model and it's developed by our founder of positive psychology, Dr. Martin Seligman. PERMA stands for the P.
for positive emotions, the E, engagement, the R, relationships, the meaning, and A, for accomplishments. And each piece is really a key in building a positive workplace. So we're gonna start with the first one. We'll start with positive emotions, right? The P. And in our workplaces, it's really crucial that we bring in hope, joy.
and also gratitude, something I've talked about often in this podcast. You can really kick off the setting with some clear expectations, giving everyone that chance, to have a voice and supporting them in the important work-life dynamic. When we cultivate positive emotions, we're also ramping up
coping skills and resilience and helping to reduce stress. So here's some quick ideas to kind of serve you as it relates to positive emotions. for those of you who may be new to the podcast, my favorite thing is gratitude. I value it, I practice it, and I often talk about it as it relates to work. these quick ideas actually speaks with how to incorporate gratitude in the practice.
first you can do is public recognition. Give a shout out, express how you're grateful for certain members of your team, or even create a segment portion of your meeting focused in on gratitude and allowing all of your team members an opportunity to share what they're grateful for. I've done it as a leader and I'm telling you, it's wonderful to hear team members sharing.
about what they're grateful for amongst each other. Another gratitude visits, you can do it by, you know, knocking on the door and saying how you're grateful for uh, member of your team. Or you can also do it. I would like to call it the old fashioned way because I think there's nothing like a thank you note, but a thank you note that's handwritten. I mean, you can send an email. That's great too, but it's something about a handwritten note.
a handwritten thank you note. I will admit, I keep all of my handwritten notes that people give me. I actually have them on my door. I love to see them. So that's another way for you to express gratitude. And the last one I'll share is milestone celebrations, ways to kind of show your appreciation for an employee. And so you can think about maybe it's the employee's first week on the job.
Maybe it's the first year, right? All of it is to really showcase all of these different levels of what you are grateful for and how you are grateful for your team. So you can do that at work. You can also transfer that at home. And in episode two, I had a great chat with Poynters Kerwin Speight about his mindfulness routine.
that includes journaling, because we often think about that as relates to gratitude. But Kerwin shares a practice that is really unique in that episode. And it will give you an opportunity to also hear from another news leader on how they incorporate journaling to help them with their self care. I'll actually link that episode in a show notes so you can check it out. So now let's talk about the
E, which stands for engagement. And we really want to create a space where everyone feels connected, And excited about what they're doing. And a great way to do just that is by aligning our work, goals with our personal values and interests. you can think about that as it relates to yourself as a leader, but then also as it relates to your team.
when people are engaged in tasks, they're truly captivated by that interest, they get to experience that amazing state of flow. You probably heard a lot about that, where can be completely immersed and you've lost track of time. And so these are things to think about in terms of building engagement. Here's some more tips. Align challenges with skills. So make sure the task
of your employees really match with their strengths. know, so think about that, but also think about challenging them to engage, but not so to the point where they feel overwhelmed. And those passion projects It lets employees work on projects that are really important to them, that spark their interest. This is a way of
building engagement. Another thing to think about as it relates to you building engagement for your employees, is also think about what puts you in a state of flow. what is something that you do in regards to helping you with levels of flow? It could be going to a place. It could be a specific task. What does that look like for you?
So one of the things I love about PERMA, it allows us to think about ourselves individually, because I often share with news leaders, it starts with you. what I love also about PERMA, it allows us to reflect on our team. So all of these different elements that I'm sharing can be leveraged individually and truly leverage
as a collective. now let's dive into the R portion, which is all about relationships. And it's all about building those strong connections with peers, managers, leaders, all the different individuals that make up your team. And when we prioritize open communication and create meeting spaces where everyone can interact freely, We are nurturing teamwork.
Plus, recognizing partnerships and collaboration really helps foster a supportive atmosphere. And that culture is so important. Now trainer and consultant Emma Thomason knows about that very well because she shared insights in episode nine about her work of creating a network of 60 to 70 peer supporters around the world for Reuters.
They were trained and they made themselves available to colleagues when they were going through tough times. That episode gives you great insight to cultivate not only a peer support group, but really begin to build and understand how to better serve your team. It is an episode that I hope you go back and check. And I will, course, all the episodes that I mentioned during this show.
will be in the show notes. So let's move on to meaning. Employees really thrive, really thrive on meaning when they can connect their work to a bigger purpose. So taking time to reflect on their contributions, their impact in terms of their colleagues, What it means to community and also to institutions that are very important to them.
Now in...
episode 13, Eden Fine Day, the publisher of Indiginews, shared how her identity as a Cree woman not only adds to her meaning in her work, but it elevates her self care. I love how Eden leans into that. That is another wonderful episode. Definitely check out episode 13. So lastly,
We can't forget about achievements and accomplishments. setting meaningful goals and striving to achieve them gives us a fulfilling feeling, of being able to meet a challenge. It's so important when we're doing that to recognize and to celebrate our hard work and success, especially as it relates to our teams. So sharing milestones and supporting each other through challenges
really enhances the sense of accomplishment. So here's a little tip for you to think about. Celebrate the process, not just the outcome. And that's for your team and for yourself. So acknowledge the effort and improvement, not just the final outcome of success, but value the accomplishment of the process. One of the things I love is
as a professor, I often have my students do an orientation in my class. And it's focused in on Dr. Carol Dweck's work with growth mindset. And one of the things I really value as it relates to it is because it's about valuing the process. it's a shift in mindset. I love when she says the power of yet. So this is a great opportunity.
to celebrate the process, not just the outcome, this builds a resilient team that truly values work, but also just values the process itself. So it's something different for some of us, right? Because we often think about the outcome, but it's value in the process too. Ute Korneth, who is with the German...
Journalists Association she's also an incredible resilience coach she teaches us about creating safe spaces where teens can feel appreciated and Really valued and that is an episode 11 of the podcast and she teaches us to do all those things through the agile method It's really a wonderful episode
Ute is an incredible, incredible trainer and just an amazing leader. So by nurturing these five key areas, right? Positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments, we can really empower our teams and create a workplace that flourishes. And remember this, what works best can vary for each individual
to another. So you want to keep that in mind. So it's important to kind of customize these ideas to what fits your team and also what fits you. So you can find all of these episodes that I mentioned in the show notes. Don't forget to visit the compassionate newsroom.com for more resources. Now that's a wrap.
for today's episode of the Compassionate Newsroom. I hope you found these tips helpful for bringing positive psychology into your workplace. If you also see it's a value, Share it with a friend, a colleague, so they'll know too. Thanks for tuning in and I'll see you next time.
Dr. Kortni (12:33)
for tuning into the Compassionate Newsroom podcast. Together we can transform workplace wellbeing in news. If you found value in today's episode, please share it with a colleague to help foster a supportive environment in the industry. And don't forget to subscribe and also visit our website for more resources at thecompassionatenewsroom.com.
