Value your team and have some fun (science says it is ok)…

“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity.”?– Thomas J. Peters

From a Harvard Business Review article, I shared earlier this week (Simple Ways to Make Your Team Feel Valued – Kate Lee).??“If you want to lead a team of engaged, productive, and inspired people — people do great work and stick around, then you need to show them that they’re valued. Ensuring that your team feels important will help both them and you reach your goals. As leaders, this should be our top priority.

When we feel valued, whether it be in a relationship with a partner, friend, or parent, we feel connected, confident, and cared about — a sense of emotional safety. In the context of work, research shows that people who feel valued are more likely to report better physical and mental health, as well as higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and motivation, compared to those who don’t.

To feel valued, we need to “really” know our people.?We can’t meet someone’s needs if we don’t know what those needs are. To figure this out, dig a little deeper into our relationships with each team member. Ask ourselves:

-???????How well do I know my direct reports?

-???????What are their goals??

-???????What motivates them?

-???????What excites them about the work they’re doing?

-???????What challenges do they face at work (i.e. lack of diversity, not feeling heard, fear of public speaking)?”

We should make these developmental conversations a habit.??Asking our teams about their goals, motivations, and what excites them is not something that we do just once.

“Start with good people, lay out the rules, communicate with your teams, motivate them, and reward them. If you do all those things effectively, you can’t miss.”?– Lee Iacocca

We can also value our teams by?giving generously.??Recent?research by Gallup and?WorkHuman?found that 40% of people reported receiving recognition from their manager just a few times a year or less. When asked how often they would like to receive recognition from their manager, 21% said a few times a week or more while 59% said a few times a month or more.??The same research showed that the impact of more frequent recognition is significant. When people receive recognition only a few times a year from a manager, they are five times more likely to be disengaged, 74% more likely to say they don’t plan to be at their organization in one year, and 27% more likely to be struggling. Further, the research found that while private recognition is often described as personal and meaningful, public recognition showcases an team members value and magnifies the amount of recognition given. When teams witness recognition, they often extend it themselves, resulting in a ripple effect that can be felt throughout an organization.

So… does cultivating a?meaningful and fun culture really increase performance??The numbers say yes. A study completed?over a ten-year period?by?Queen’s University Centre for Business Venturing?found that an engaged work culture can increase productivity by 15%, customer satisfaction by 30%, and?unsolicited?employment applications 100%.?

Also, having fun makes us smarter.??According to science, one way to improve our memory and concentration is to have more fun. Partially, this has to do with the stress reduction that happens when we engage in something we enjoy. However, the benefits of fun activities seem to stretch further than that.?The British Cohort Study?— a study that has been following 17,000 people born in 1970 — found that reading for fun improves our language skills, and more surprisingly our proficiency in math as well. It appears that fun activities that introduce us to new ideas and concepts foster self-directed learning. The rewards we gain from these experiences might expand beyond the obvious benefits. Scientists are now also exploring if reading for fun can also protect us against cognitive decline as we age.

Many of our companies have added exciting new benefits to give our teams in a world now dominated by working from home and startup culture.?These benefits may look like in-office gyms, massage chairs, unlimited snacks, meals in the office, and modern interior. While these new perks often appeal to team members, they don’t necessarily mean a solid culture is being curated. Our teams naturally want to feel cared about, engaged, and recognized.?It’s important for our teams to feel cared about. We can do this?by?listening to our teams, creating safe spaces for team members to share concerns, allowing them to feel heard.?

“The happier you are, the more productive you will become.”?–?Chris Bailey

Having fun at work might be just as important as having fun in your personal life. Everett (2011) concludes that since we will spend more than 90,000 hours of our lives at work, we might as well have fun there. 90,000 hours – you read that correctly! Some of the benefits of having fun on the job include:

-???????Higher recruitment and retention rates. Organizations that nourish creativity and playfulness in teams have less difficulty recruiting and retaining good staff, and it is an encouraging trend that more modern organizations are balancing work and play than in prior decades (Everett, 2011). Sponsoring fun activities has also been recognized as a measure to prevent burnout (Meyer, 1999).

-???????Increased job satisfaction. Our teams must feel satisfied to be productive. There are many factors that contribute to job satisfaction, which logically also correlates to overall life satisfaction. When we can laugh and have fun at work, we can also build better relationships and help create connections with our teams. Doing fun things together creates a joint history with our teams. When we have fun together, we tend to relate to and identify with our co-workers better.?

-???????Increased customer satisfaction.?Customer satisfaction is generally closely linked with team member satisfaction. Workers who have something to smile about are usually better equipped to make customers smile than their melancholy counterparts. Fun seems to be contagious — as shown by studies looking at work environments. For example, when a fun work philosophy was adopted at Sprint, this resulted in their call center agents handling 30 percent more calls, and customers expressing an increased level of satisfaction with their services (Karl & Peluchette, 2006).

Harvard Business Review claims?positive work cultures are more productive because they:

-???????Create social connections:?Positive social connections in a work environment can create solid relationships and strong social interaction, leading to a productive team that can happily work well together.??

-???????Encourage communication: When communication is encouraged, teams will find it easier to discuss their problems or voice something that causes negativity or stress in their lives. The more teams communicate with one another, the less negativity will be fostered among a work culture.??

-???????Require compassion: Rather than quickly punishing a team member for a decline in productivity, take the time to sit down and talk to them about why they are not performing well.?

Teams also like to be rewarded for successes, big or small. Whether it be a new deal that just closed, the launch of a fresh product or even a new team member completing their first month of work, celebrating successes will help teams feel valued. Make sure every team member knows they are important and celebrate when necessary! What better way to cultivate a company culture than celebrating victories??

From Freedom Blog (Erin Rupp,?Making a Case for Fun):?the apparent benefit of fun is that it is, well,?fun. But beyond the obvious, fun has many scientifically proven health benefits:

-???????Reduced stress.?Cortisol, a stress-inducing hormone, is?decreased by laughing?and having fun.

-???????Improved physical health.?A?recent study?shows that physical activity promotes happiness and vice versa.

-???????Decreased depression and better sleep.?Fun boosts serotonin levels,?associated with better sleep patterns?and a more positive outlook on life.

-???????Improved immune system. Neuropeptides produced by laughter help to?fight stress?and more severe illnesses.

As if this wasn’t enough, fun can be a trigger to boost your productivity, too.??Research has found that people who can mentally disconnect from work experience less work-related fatigue, procrastinate less, and do their jobs more effectively.

For most of us, a large portion of our day is spent at work. During our lifetime, we’ll probably spend about 90,000 hours doing at our jobs. We may as well enjoy ourselves, right??So, value your team and have some fun because science says it is ok.

Together.???We.??Win