Your business depends upon the mood of you and your staff. Depressed people do not make good leaders or good workers. Neither do people with anxieties which incapacitate them by preventing full participation and enthusiasm for your company. Ask Google if they think a happy workforce makes for a good company…! The search engine is famed for having fun-filled offices, places to relax and free staff lunches from leading chefs. The work environment within Google is dramatically different from, say, your bank or your local solicitor’s office.

Many people who run businesses or who work in the typical office are not in the right mood to do the best. So, just how can you improve that situation and be more positive? You might not be able to afford the luxuries offered by Google to its staff, but at least there is one thing you can do which will significantly improve the mood of your staff – and yourself. What is it? You guessed it – blogging.

Blogging is therapeutic and hugely positive. New research shows that blogging SIGNIFICANTLY improves socio-emotional difficulties and self-esteem. Studies amongst children have shown that blogging improves literacy. And studies have also shown that writing reduces depressive episodes. In other words, if you allow your staff to blog, you will make them happier. And happy people are more positive and thereby more useful to your business.

Studies of writing are consistent in one thing, though, which may concern business owners. People tend to improve their mood and become more positive much more when they write about the negative things they experience. In other words, if you have a tough internal meeting, your staff are going to improve their mood about it if they blog about their negative feelings as a result of that meeting. And that’s precisely what business owners do not want them to write about…! At least not publicly…!

So, what can you do to encourage blogging and help improve the psychological health of your employees – and employers, remember, under health and safety legislation you are also required to protect psychological well-being as well as physical.

Firstly, have a blogging culture. Encourage all your staff to blog – add staff blogs to your business website. All the research shows that when your business blogs prolifically it leads to more business. So blogging will help you and your staff at the same time.

Secondly, encourage personal journal keeping. This could be a private blog or a physical journal where people write down their thoughts about the negative aspects of their work and personal life. But if they do so, their emotions will be boosted – thereby improving their performance at work.

Blogging – whether public or private – helps you, your staff and ultimately your business. And the research shows people only need to blog twice a week to have a significant impact on psychological status. So why wouldn’t you encourage it in your company?

Related articles

• Blogging May Help Teens Dealing with Social Distress (socialpsychology.org)
• The benefits of business blogging: Part 1 (marketing.yell.com)
• What’s stopping you writing a business blog? (marketing.yell.com)