Is Britain’s Credit Crunch gloom contagious?

According to research into the views of 160 chief executives, counting the number of positive comments made during a randomly selected one-minute slice of time in a two-hour interview could predict company morale one year later, and in turn predict company productivity.

This finding is matched by other research data "showing the effects of emotional contagion in teams". More negative comments and a negative atmosphere will lead to more "moaning and whingeing and hopelessness."

"Optimistic and positive people spread ripples of positive emotion throughout their teams. This does not mean ignoring reality of course. Knowing the risks ahead is important. But talking negatively actually makes the risks greater, since economic prosperity is dependent on confidence and trust."

West says in the current climate this is what people should be hearing:

Business leaders

"It is about saying ‘we are in a hard situation, we are in a tough situation, but we want to get everyone’s views on how we deal with it. These are the things that we’re putting in place. We’re confident we’ve got the right people in our organisation. We’ve got great people. We’ve got great spirit. We’ve done very well in the past. We’ve built a solid base. We can go forward. And we will grow and we will be a better organisation in the future. That’s what good leadership is all about."

Political leaders

"What we want from our political leaders is honesty, good judgement, optimism and enthusiasm. They need to be honest about the realities of the situation - it’s a global crisis, it’s not limited to the UK. There are particular problems in Britain we need to solve but it’s also then about saying ‘ok, that’s the reality of the situation, but Britain’s done very well indeed, we have a high level of efficiency in our workforce and we should be celebrating what we’re good at’."

"We need them to be saying that this is a time of difficulty and challenge - what are the challenges we need to face and what are we going to do about them. We need to train more of our people to degree level and get them well qualified, it’s really important that we do that, we need to put more into research and development because compared to other countries we’re not. The danger is that at a time of difficulty like this is that what politicians do is take money away from training and research, but those are the investments for the future and we need them to be investing in the future now, so that we come through this difficult period better equipped to cope with the economic conditions afterwards."

Prime minister
 
"The most important thing the prime minister should be doing is presenting this country with a vision for the future. At a time of crisis, it’s about believing in the capabilities and the skills and strengths of the people of this country, affirming those and then saying how they are going to help us achieve the vision of the kind of society and economy that he anticipates that we’ll be in the future. That’s absolutely fundamental, first base stuff about leadership which we’re not getting at the moment, and that’s what he needs to do."

The country
 
"One of the greatest contributors to health amongst humanity is a sense of gratitude and this country has so much to be grateful for."

"A simple technique is to write down at the end of each day 3 things that you had to be grateful for that day, at the end of a month your mental health and physical health will be dramatically improved and will continue to stay improved for 6 months after."

"Write down 3 things a day in your diary that you have to be grateful for and that will promote your health and well being."