HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY!

“90 percent of your long-term happiness is predicted not by the external world,?but by the way your brain processes the world.?And if we change it,?if we change our formula for happiness and success,?we can change the way that we can then affect reality.?What we found is that only 25% of job successes are predicted by IQ,?75 percent of job successes?are predicted by your optimism levels, your social support?and your ability to see stress as a challenge instead of as a threat.” Shawn Achor

That’s a powerful statement. It could change our lives if we really behaved in the way Achor describes. ?

However, the response is often:

“But, it’s not my responsibility to make sure my employees are happy!

It’s really their problem, not mine, if they’re not happy at work. They have a job to do and I’m just telling them to do it. Whether they’re happy, or not happy, has nothing to do with me.”

Oh yeah? Let’s take another look at that, leaders:

Optimism levels:?

When are we optimistic? What does being optimistic really mean? How do we get to be optimistic? Interesting questions and I’m going to look at this strictly from a ‘work’ perspective.?

We’re optimistic when we believe that things are going to get better or continue to be good. When we begin a job, a project or a business, we do it with optimism. Believing that this is going to be good! We’re going to do well and we’re going to achieve something we can be happy with.?

What kind of work environment leads us to be optimistic?

I’ll let you think on that for a bit while we take a quick look at the next criterion.?

Social Support:

Once again, from a strictly ‘work’ perspective. What are our social supports at work? Do we have any? How do they help if we do? What about if we don’t?

I’m guessing your first thoughts were that social supports at work would be your team colleagues, especially those you’d call friends, your immediate boss and the general staff hierarchy including HR.?

How would these be supportive? Aside from creating a pleasant work environment, it would mean that there’s a high level of what’s called ‘psychological safety’. In other words, where people are free to be people rather than just a ‘job do-er’ and where they are respected, listened to, understood, appreciated and all that good stuff. Where the leaders are interested in their team member’s wellness, goals and aspirations and take the time to mentor and develop talent and skill.

Stress as a challenge instead of a threat:

I think this aspect comes as a result of the first two criteria. When we’re optimistic and when we have a good social support at work, when pressure arises, we know we’re not alone. We’re all pulling in the same direction. Our leaders are supportive and understand the pressure that’s being applied and do their best to help us both deal with it and mitigate it. Perhaps we have an unexpected deadline change. Or we might have an exceptionally difficult task, or even client. Perhaps we made a mistake in something we did, or said, at work. Whatever it is, if we have that good support network, it’s a lot easier to be both optimistic and open to using stress as a challenge.

So who’s responsibility is it for our team members to be happy at work?

Hmmm, another interesting question. The answer is it’s both our responsibilities, ours and our team member’s… but as far as work goes, it’s mostly ours.?How so? Because we are the ones who create the environment. We are the ones who can lead by example and model how to be optimistic, how to be a good social support, how to handle stress as a challenge and not a threat. How to not lose it and blame the team when things go wrong. How to have their backs. We’re the ones who are in a position to inspire and encourage them. We’re the ones who can do our best to align their responsibilities with their inner purpose and core values.

After all, we’re the ones who hired them. If they’re really not a good fit for our team, they won’t be happy and neither will we. In which case it’s up to us to help them see that they’re better suited for another job - whether that’s within our organization or elsewhere.?

Why should we care if our team members are happy at work?

It’s simple. If our team members are happy they will be much more focused, productive, innovative, creative, accurate, loyal, committed to excellence, and care about the end-results of their labors and enjoy better collaboration.

That means: less time off due to sick days, less pessimism at work, less backbiting, complaining and self-sabotage. Less reaction to irritations. Less stress. Less staff turnover, therefore less downtime and less cost.?

In other words, as I said in my previous article , this is something that’s not a ‘why should I care?’ kind of thing, it’s an imperative for a healthy, thriving organization which can weather the uncertainties of our current world. It’s about making work-life easier - for all .

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