Some companies are so focused on the bottom that there is no joy working there. People show up for work but are drained and have little energy.They are more focused on what is wrong than making a significant contribution to the success of the business.
I am consulting with a company that just won a “Great Place to Work” award. People are starting to play more and have fun at work. The revitalized energy is infectious.
Are you happy at work? What creates your sense of fulfillment?
Some companies are so focused on the bottom that there is no joy working there. People show up for work but are drained and have little energy.
Why do so many companies have uninspiring leaders and uninspired employees who plod along with little motivation? Why are corporate decisions still being made for the short term, undermining morale and jeopardizing business success?
The worst cases make headlines for their ethical misdeeds and corruption, and the damage is much greater than economic. There’s also a significant loss of public trust in both the business and its leaders.
Business leaders must look beyond the bottom line to avoid ethical lapses. By doing so, they’re actually far more effective at maintaining financial health. Employees are also proud to be part of organizations that become respected constituents of the business community.
For decades, business schools and consultants have focused on the numbers. Measurements of production, finance and return on investment are scientifically applied to organizations. But such focused attention on bottom-line results doesn’t work for the long term.
A new body of research points to a missing dimension that would enable organizations to achieve stellar results. This “new science of happiness” is a name that may seem frivolous at first. But it goes far beyond putting on a happy face.
Happiness is not a result, but a cause, of success. It is key to bringing out employees best talents, strengths, passions, interests, knowledge and skills. From the CEO down to a company’s minimum-wage employees, individual and team happiness is measured by long-term success.
This new way of gauging organizational health is discussed in depth in What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better (Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006), cowritten by a medical psychologist, anthropologist and business author.
But if you assume happiness comes down to company softball leagues, birthday celebrations and sing-alongs, think again. It requires an understanding of how our brains work and how positive or negative energy transforms workplaces into either creative or fearful environments.
Do you work for a happy company?
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