It seems one of the vital components for success is happiness
One of the most frustrating problems I found when I led and managed teams was my inability to make all of my team members happy, despite my best efforts. Of course the frustration was misguided because in those early days I didn’t actually realise happiness was an internal choice and that no matter what I did, if someone chose to be unhappy then I was quite frankly stymied in my futile attempts.
In my first management role at age 22, I didn’t realise why having a happy team was important, except that it felt much better to work in a happy environment, the understanding came much later on. It was a no-brainer really from an experiential point of view. Members of my team, who were happy, were engaged, motivated, purposeful and optimistic. They were prepared to go the extra mile, were more authentic and open, and simply recognised the importance of team cohesion.
So does that mean everyone who is happy is a good team player? Well no, but it seemed to increase the odds. Also what comes first? Does a motivated team lead to happier employees? Or do happy employees lead to a motivated team?
Shaun Achor author of “The Happiness Advantage” contends that happiness does indeed come first, and it is happiness which fuels success and not the other way around. Shaun is one of my favourite researchers and business psychologists and so when I found his conclusions I was relieved because somehow, my intuition was always telling me that happiness was indeed a choice, and it was being happy which created my world of happiness, not the other way around.
More and more studies are showing that employee happiness is important in the work place. At Warwick University, a definite causal link between human happiness and productivity at work. Professor Satya Paul, or the University of Western Australia conducted research where he concluded that “happy people are more active, more productive and get less upset by the work,’’. Significantly he found happy people also earned more.
So what are employers to do? If they can’t make employees happy, and happiness is in fact an individual choice; yet the success of their business relies on people being happy with all the benefits the business derives from that positive state? Furthermore even the most optimistic, happy people go through periods of unhappiness when life throws a curve ball at them.
Every leader or manager worth their salt understands that and engaged teams are crucial to the success of their business. It’s becoming clear that they will more likely succeed at achieving such teams if their employees are those who choose to be happy.
Although an employer can’t literally make someone choose to be happy, they can help them to make that choice, and here are some ways they can help.
- Right at the outset, hire people who demonstrate “can do” attitudes and have displayed resilience in adverse circumstances. Find out about attitude and if they can turn seemingly negative situations into positive successes.
- Encourage people to talk about what helps them maintain a happy state at work and do what you can to create that environment.
- Help people develop self-awareness; self-responsibility and an understanding they do have an ability to choose happiness or not.
- Where life’s trials befall them, have the right kind of support, counselling, therapy or team support, with the focus being on helping people to get back into a happy state.
- Where they suffer ill-health, take measures to support them back to wellbeing and therefore a happier state.
- Where exists, then don’t ignore, or condemn, but help employees realise there are other ways to look at situations which are more productive.
