98% of People Say Happiness Impacts People's Work Effectiveness, But...

Sometimes survey questions can have answers that are so obvious that one wonders why those questions even needed to be asked. That may seem to be the case with my recent LinkedIn poll which was answered by almost 1,900 professionals: "Do you feel people's personal happiness level impacts their effectiveness at work?" Yet such questions are used to find common ground that possibly will lead some people to gain an effective new perception to help the survey responder. Again, this was the point of this "obvious" survey question.

Do You Walk the Walk? In the movie Full Metal Jacket one angry soldier wanted to know if the other soldier was able to go from verbal sparring to a physical fight. In a less threatening way, the question for us who believe that one's personal happiness level impacts their work effectiveness is, "how do we incorporate that view into how we interact with our clients and staff?" Another obvious point with happiness is that we each feel happier when we help others. Therefore we become happier the happier we help our staff and clients become.

Why Help Clients & Staff be Happier? Forgive me for those thinking the answer to this question is painfully obvious, so a reminder here about obvious questions getting us to improve our ability to "walk the walk". Enhancing other's happiness should be viewed as the magic approach ("app" for the tech lovers) for increasing the loyalty and effectiveness of staff, and loyalty and enhanced business and referrals from our clients. AND, this helping effort will increase our own happiness and personal fulfillment levels.

Happiness as Part of Our Interactions We only can help our staff and clients be happier people if we approach them in a non-prying, non-imposing; non-judgmental, or critical manner. So we should avoid (same order as above): "are your in-laws still a pain?"; "you need to fully open up with me"; "why don't you just..."; or "your work has been unacceptable lately, are there any personal problems?" In short, the happiness conversations should take place on an ongoing basis and before we sense a client or staff member is unhappy.

Help with Situational Unhappiness Only Unless we are licensed to do so, we should avoid helping a client or staff member with clinical or situational depression. It almost always is self-evident when someone is depressed. And when in doubt, it's best to assume they are depressed. With these clients and staff, maybe share with them how you know people in the situation they've described have been helped through talking with a therapist (less of a shock than telling someone they need a psychologist or psychiatrist). No diagnosis or judgment, just sharing how some others have found help with their feelings/struggles. Situational unhappiness are disappointments or challenges that haven't overtaken their lives or frozen them with fear.

Meaningful, In-Person Conversations Apologies to all of you who love 100% remote work, but there is no substitute for meaningful in-person conversations with unhappy clients or staff. This is the best way for you to: "be in the moment"; listen to the other person (sometimes people just need to vent); assess if the person is open to ideas or introductions; and to show you care about them.

Help Through Being Well Connected to Your Community The more connected each of us are with our community of professionals and charities, the better we are at helping our clients and friends. Examples: i. You can introduce someone who says they have few friends to the head of a local charity group; ii. You can introduce a client to a great recruiter who can help them hire more people; and iii. You can introduce an avid tennis player to the manager of a local tennis club.