When it’s somebody’s birthday, my wishes in most cases combine both, health wishes and a suggestion to smile every single day. It became kind of my “thing” to wish a smile for each and every day.

When i am shopping, i try to always have a smile on my face, even if i do not feel like smiling. Why? When eye contact comes up,  i want to be prepared. The first eye contact should trigger a smile on the other person’s face. I want my eyes to be smiling. I want to be “saved” as a smiling person, in best case combined with a positive feeling.

When i am calling a support hotline, i even try to have a smile-sounding voice. Why? Because people seem to be more open to help me in a non-standard way, when they think i’m smile-sounding.

At some points in my life, i even smiled to myself looking into the mirror in the morning. Why? I believe, that a smile comes together with positive emotionality. And even if it does not directly increase my positive affect. When i see my own morning smile in the mirror, i start laughing and out of the box, there is some good feeling generated.

Children recognize smiling. Strangers recognize smiling. Friends recognize smiling. I assume, that even dogs recognize simling or at least a smile-sounding voice.

My experiences does not reflect the whole power of a smile nor is it representative, but it suggests, that there are benefits of frequent, proactive smiling on well-being.

Well, there a specifics to a real smile. There are differences to non-real smiles, too. A real smile is called “Duchenne Smile” and one can recognize it pretty easily by raised eye wrinkles and mouth angles. Humans in general just know, when somebody is really smiling and feeling true enjoyment.

But, there are other smiles. There are smiles, people show, when they win and display superiority. People smile differently, when they want to award somebody for something good he or she has done. There is smile people show, when they want to suggest empathy to somebody else. Each smile sends out another message and its interpretation varies based on context, in which it happened.

Of course, you don’t want to walk around like a clown, smiling without a reason. Nobody will believe your smile is true, when it will not fit the context and be congruent with your body language. The question is, when a smile is a beneficial behavioral strategy. Or: Which benefits might smiling generate. Smiling to yourself? Smiling to others, while talking, while approaching?

Smiling is one of many facial expressions. It is common knowledge, that body expressions are expressions of inner emotions. There is less agreement, when it comes to connection of specific emotions to specific facial expressions, like the real smile.

In general, we smile when muscles in our face get active.

Basically smiling, as many other facial expressions is at some point connected to emotions. Emotions are or better emotionality is on the other hand connected to well-being. Main theories which underline this assumption, are:

* The theory of needs: The basic assumption is to fulfill my own needs, which will lead to well-being.

* The theory of goals: The basic assumption is to pursue goals, aiming at an ideal state, which will lead to well-being.

* The Theory of activity: The basic assumption is, that task processing itself is the goal, which will lead to well-being.

How are motivation and emotion theories connected to a smile?

Emotionality and positive emotionality in particular can be understood as the future probability of participation in specified actions.

Emotionality in general is stable over time, might change in short-term, will get to an average, person-specific level in long-term. This means, that positive affectivity has an average, person-specific long term average level, too. Though context can impact emotionality on short-term, it will not have a major impact on emotionality on long-term.

So positive emotionality will impact the probability of fulfilling my needs, to pursue long-term goals and to conduct tasks in itself. Positive emotionality will therefore probably be a trigger for long-term well-being. Positive emotionality is understood to uncrease the repertoire of cognitive and behavioral ressources.

If a smile and other facial expressions are outer signs of inner emotions, then being a “smiler” might be an outer sign of being a positive person. Being a person with a high average of positive emotionality, will lead to increased well-being.

Many studies have been conducted on the topic of smiling and the impact smiling has on inter- & intrapersonal level.

On an interpersonal level (when interacting with others), people who smile are perceived as more friendly and attractive. more approachable, desireable, more authentic, more sincere and reliable, more generous. A smile can even compensate relative bad looking. Relative bad looking people are perseived as more attractive when smiling, compared to relative attractive people, who are not smiling.

Smiling increases the probability of cooperation. It increases the probability of the smiling person as well as the perceiving person to cooperate. Smiling even increases the probability to match the height of input whithin a cooperation scenario.

Basically families are a good place for observing smiling behaviors and the impact. Young children react to facial gestures and to gestures of body warmth and reflect it to the parents. Smiles are a sign of warmth within families.

On an intrapersonal level, people who smile more often, judge themselves as more social, more competent and less negative. Smiling not only helps in increasing positive emotionality, but helps in reduction of negative emotionality, too. Therefore smiling increases the effectiveness of psychological regulation.

People, who smile more often are rated as extraverted.

When it comes to life outcomes, smiling on schoolbook photographs predicted lower divorce rates, higher subjective happiness in marragies and life overall, higher longevity. Smiling predicts better results at work, when having to solve complex high quality tasks. It predicts higher ratings of own work. Smiling predicts higher tips in service jobs or higher product ratings in client-centered jobs.

There is sometimes a limitation to smiling, when it comes to being in situations of confrontative aggression, eg. fighting. Fighters, who smile before fights, are predicted to have worse results (loose in fights) afterwards. This is, as smiling in a aggression context might be understood as an indicator of inferiority.

Smiling is even a signal of social mood. Analysis of facial pictures on web portals like Twitter led to the conclusion, that an increased number of smiling faces on photographs on twitter might be a mirror of a positive affective state of the whole population. With positive social events, more positive pictures online were registered. Positive pictures were registered, when faces showed Duchenne Smiles.

Smile, Smile, Smile! (when approaching others and the situation is right)

If you don’t want to be the clown, who is smiling in situations, which are contradictions of positive mood, then adapt to situations. When you want to cooperate or when you expect something from the person you are approaching, smile within the first seconds. When context matters more, adjust to the situation and do not smile (eg. when something bad happens).

If you want your co-worker to take over some responsibilities, approach them with a smile. If you want your boss to grant you a raise, approach your boss with a smile. Use your smile as a tool for lowering barriers in social interactions, especially at work. If you want to cooperate, smile and do not seek conlficts.

Use your smile in calling contexts, too. Your voice reflects your inner emotionality, too. Stand up, walk around, smile, then start speaking into the phone.

So smiling has a intrapersonal regulation function, too. This means, that smiling in itself to yourself might generate benefits for yourself. Even if it seems unnatural, stand up straight, look into the mirror and smile. Even if the smile in itself might not lead to positive emotionality directly, with time you will start laughing about yourself, which will then foster positive emotionality.

Just start each interaction, if the context allows it, with a smile. Just try.

SOURCES: academical papers on topics like: Duchenne Smile, Positive emotionality, Affectivity, Facial Expressions, Emotions

People often talk about satisfaction at work or about being engaged in work. People often understand satisfaction as coming from cirumstances, like the sallary, the social bond with coworkers or the possibilities of development.

Engagement seems to be connected to satisfaction, maybe influenced by satisfaction. Engagement is often understood as the willingness to go the extra-mile.

Employees judge themselves retrospectively. Employers judge their employees based on evaluations of satisfaction and engagement. Employees might think, that lower satisfaction and engagement are suggesting to change the company, ask for changes etc.. Employers might see indicators of lower loyality, lower willingness to be part of success of the company etc.

Often wrong

Satisfaction and engagement seem to be central indicators of the employee-work relations, but at the same time, they are not defined precise enough in a common sense. They are not defined precise enough in order to develop mechanisms, which will increase both, satsisfaction and engagement. Such mechanisms are often assumed to be sallary increases. Both employees and employers assume, that increasing sallaries will improve satisfaction and engagement. What if satisfaction and engagement are not understood properly and are ill-defined, therefore the motivational constructs, which should increase them, lead to positive effects only in short-term or to negative effects in long-term?

So what is engagement? There are different approaches to the concept.

The first approach defines engagement as identification with work. It depends on individual attributes, work circumstances and social context factors. Factors such as age, need for development, autonomy at work and in decision making, difficulty in task performing, group work or independent work may have an impact on engagement.

The second approach defines engagement as some kind of involvement. This involvement energizes the person and leads to action taking, which on the other hand leads to personal and professional fulfillment. Such energization on the other hand has it’s risks. When becoming extreme, it might lead to professional burnouts.

The third approach defines engagement as a positive cognitive perception of work and a positive cognitive leaning towards work. This in long-term leads to a general fulfillment.

Engagement understood within the three concepts above involves sub-concepts, such as vigor (which equals high energy and willingness to work), dedication (which equals 100% sensefullnes based on work) and absorption (which is kind of forgetting the world around, while at work).

Engagement in the longrun leads to taking over greater responsibility in shaping the organization. Engaged employees do their job conscientiously and voluntarily provide more input and energy to the outcomes of a company. At the same time, engaged employees have a positive effect on co-workers, increasing their engagement.

In general satisfaction is understood as a set of attitudes and feelings, both negative and positive for a given work (easier defined: the degree to which an employee likes or dislikes his or her job). Formerly, satisfaction was understood as a measure of satisfied physical and psychological needs.

More recently, satisisfaction is understood as the outcome of superior cognitive processes. Work and work experience in the eyes of a satisfied employee, is perceived as emotional, positive and pleasant.

Similar, to engagement, which is consists of sub-elements, satisfaction can be understood as a global concept as well as a detailed concept consisting of sub-concepts.

From another point of view, the detailled approach defines satisfaction as the thoughts, feelings and behaviors, that employees have about certain sub-aspects of their work.

Work satisfaction consists of three components: the affective component, the cognitive component and the behavioral component. The affective component presents feelings, emotions and attitudes towards work. The cognitive component describes the rational beliefs about the work situation (Work can be interesting, motivating, attracting, but also hard and difficult). The behavioral component descibes tendencies to display certain behaviors at work: Such as being accurate to timings, promoting good opinions about the employer, staying after hours.

Engagement at work might be considered as a motivational construct concerning work itself. Satisfaction on the other hand might be seen as a positive reactive state, after engagement has been increased.

So the assumptions are not directly confirming or might even contradict the general assumption, that satisfaction increases engagement. This leads to the suggestion, that methods should not aim at increasing satisfaction, but at increasing engagement directly. One could understand this better this way:

Engagement leads to enthusiasm, energization and mobilization.

Satisfaction leads to higher satisfaction and comfort, which might in a worse case scenario lead to less energization and mobilization.

Employees are more willing to devote more time to their work and their company, when they become more engaged. Employees then are perceiving their ability to fulfill essential needs at work and private life as very high. As an employer: if you perceive your ability to work properly for you as well as for your employee as high, you will engage more and more. Increasing engagement therefore is the way to increase and maintain satisfaction.

Newer studies underline the importance of both concepts in impacting each other.

On this basis, it can be concluded, that employers should take care of both aspects among their employees. Both satisfaction and engagement should be cared of, as they are mutually affecting each other and bringing future benefits to the functioning of companies.

Salary as the main method for increasing satisfaction and engagement is not effective, as assumed. Many studies indicate, that salary does not change the long term effects on both scales. Even employees, who were unsatisfied with benefits and salary, were not less satisfied, than co-workers. Other aspects, such as growth-potential, involvement and engagement in company decision making, supervision and mentor-programms and transparency were more directly connected to overall satisfaction.

From a employer-perspective, there are certain mechanisms, which could increase both engagement and satisfaction. Salary and benefit is one component, but should be used strategically.

Create transparent policies and processes: Every employee engaged, should have insights on why and how things are working and progressing, especially if it connects directly with their work

Create an environment of support: Every employee needs the feeling of being supported, if necessary, while not developing the feeling of control. The rule should be: As much support as necessary, as little control as possible.

Create a view, which allows development and goal pursuing: Employees should have the possibility to aim at certain target states at work.

Create a system, where the employee decides: Let the employee decide, if somehow possible. Involvement in decision making increases capabilties, work ressources and increases the speed of the learning curve. A good rule might be: An effective leader is the one, which makes the followers think “they achieved something by themselves, only”.

Create a salary and benefits programm, that is not predictable but transparent: Provide increases and benefits, not on a regular basis, but on a irregular, but understandable way as a gratification for past achievement and a incentive for future great behaviors.

Create jobs within your company with end-2-end responsibility: The tasks an employee is conducting, should include the planning and decision making as well as the finishing till the end-product.

Create jobs within your compamy with verticle and horizontal challenges: vertical challenges are tasks from higher hierarchy-levels. horizontal challenges include tasks on new topics.

From a perspective as an employee, the major suggestion would be to concentrate on building own engagement. Set own goals, try to fulfill tasks as good as possible. Try to deliver results. Do not look at satisfaction in short-term. To be satisfied is – in my opinion – a long-term concept and not the main product, but a by-product of proper work itself.

Try to take over responsibility and be autonomous: Try to find tasks which imply high responsibility and solve them by yourself.

Try to always set a higher goal or undertake a more difficult journey / task: Do not rest based on satisfying results. Aim higher, try to get a little bit more out of the next adventure.

Try to not delegate decision making to others: Do not seek for the decisions of others, e.g. a husband, a wife or a supervisor. At least try to evaluate possible decisions by yourself and then seek advice.

Try to undertake difficult tasks: task should be as difficult as possible, while the solution should be as easy as necessary in order to be able to achieve it.

Try to grow in teamwork: Look out for tasks, where shared ressources and common goals might lead to higher positive outcomes for you and the group.