A study out of Brigham Young University in Utah found that you can significantly boost your level of happiness for up to four weeks when you share positive news with supportive people. The findings, bore out over five carefully controlled studies, showed there is a cause-and-effect relationship between sharing positive news and increased happiness.The boost in happiness was found to be above and beyond simply the boost one receives from reliving an event, and much greater than one receives from simply writing down the great news. The study also found that people who impart good news at least twice a week to a supportive person report greater overall life satisfaction. But the key is to report it to people who are supportive: Sharing good news with people who might resent you or feel you are bragging won't have the same positive impact. 

 

So when good things happen to you and your team - spread the word! And for people on the receiving end of hearing great news, keep in mind that being a supportive listener is incredibly critical in building positive relationships and an effective way to boost your own social network and your level of happiness as well.

 

To build this into your workplace add a "good news" section to your meetings, end the week with a 10-minute team meeting to highlight the 3 best things that happened that week, and do a month-end meeting to highlight the best 3 things that happened, in or out of work, that month.