Boost your Psychological Capital

What is psychological capital?  Psychological capital is made up of four unique characteristics - hope, optimism, resilience and self efficacy.  Studies should that people who score high in measures of Psychological Capital have better psychological wellbeing, as well as increased on the job performance (Avery, Reichard, Luthans and Mhatre, 2011).

So how can you increase your psychological capital to capitalise (excuse the pun!) your wellbeing?

Here are a few strategies you can try:

• Set yourself small and challenging goals to increase your sense of self efficacy.  Try breaking down tasks into smaller components to make them less daunting.
• Master a task!!  Task mastery increases self efficacy.  How can you do this?  Try observing someone such as a mentor or colleague and modelling the task based on their example.  Online tutorials such as You-Tube clips can be a great way to master a new skill if you don't have a real life example.  
• Reflect on times you've overcome setbacks in the past to increase your resilience!  How did you do it?
• Ask others to discuss how they might overcome a setback if they were in a similar position to increase your repertoire of strategies.
• Think about how you can view a current challenging or difficult situation through a different perspective.  Are you working long hours at the moment?  What are some benefits of the situation?  Are you taking on more of a leadership role and expanding your skills?  

Would you put any of these strategies to the test?  

References

Avey, J.B., Reichard, R.J., Luthans, F. & Mhatre, K.H.  (2011).  Meta-analysis

of the impact of positive psychological capital on employee attitudes, behaviors, and performance, Human Resource Development Quarterly, 22(2), 127-152