The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Author: Alexander

  • Help: What book should I write next?

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5 by Alexander KjerulfI want to write another book about happiness at work and I have a number of ideas to choose from.

    I would love to hear your thoughts – which of these books would give you the most value? Which intrigues you the most?

    Leading with happiness
    A book on a new kind of leadership that seeks to maximize happiness rather than profits.

    Manners for managers
    A short book of rules for managers in different situations – to help managers avoid behavior that is simply rude or bad manners.

    Quit already
    A book on quitting to help everyone who feels stuck in a bad job get the heck out of there.

    The happy team
    A book on how to create a happy team.

    The customer is always right is wrong
    How putting employees first helps them put customers first

     

  • Tim Dorsett: Top 10 Tips from Innocent Drinks

    Tim Dorsett: Top 10 Tips from Innocent Drinks

    Last week we had our annual conference on happiness at work and it went insanely well.

    As always we will share the speeches online and here’s the first one. Tim Dorsett works at Innocent Drinks. His titel is Office MANgel and his job is to make sure that people at Innocent Drinks do great work and go home happy.

    In his inspiring presentation he shares the top 10 things he’s done to make sure that happen.

  • Catch me in London on October 15

    Well-Being@Work

    On October 15 I’m speaking at the Well-Being@Work event in London along with some great people in the field, including Nic Marks and Henry Stewart.

    Check out the event here.

  • I’m in The Guardian (in The Bahamas)

    Screen Shot 2015-05-22 at 13.00.56

    When I was in The Bahamas last week, I did a radio interview and a newspaper interview with some really smart, passionate people.

    You can hear the radio show here and see the two newspaper articles here and here.

     

  • Join the Woohoo Academy in Copenhagen on June 16-19

    woohoo-academy-logo-outlined

    10 people have already signed up for he first Woohoo Academy training, which will take place on June 16-19 in Copenhagen – and which will be awesome :)

    The training is meant for:

    • HR staff, managers and internal facilitators who want to get a real understanding of how to create a happy workplace.
    • Members of the Woohoo Partner Program who want to develop their knowledge and skills.

    Read all about it and sign up here.

     

  • Have you ever done harmful work?

    Have you ever done work that you now know was, on balance, mostly harmful?

    Let’s say you did payday loans at ridiculously high interest rates, worked in a slaughterhouse where the animals clearly suffered, worked for a company that made land mines or something similar.

    Here’s what I’d like to know: Did you think at the time that your job was harmful or did you ignore it or rationalize it somehow? How did it affect you and your coworkers? Did the company address it in any way or was it ignored inside the workplace?

  • I’m a featured expert

    I’m a featured expert on World HR Net, with an interview where I talk about what makes us happy at work.

    I’m also in the papers in Denmark today:

    2015-04-29 11.51.04

  • Herb Kelleher: I think people should have fun at work

    I stumbled on this interview with Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines and it is all kinds of awesome.

    From the interview:

    Well, I think people should have fun at work. It should be an enjoyable part of their life. They should gain psychic satisfaction from it.

    I think most of us enjoy fun, and why not at work as well as at play? And so we’ve always encouraged people to be themselves, not to be robotic, not to be automatons. We don’t expect you to surrender your natural personality when you join Southwest Airlines. We want you to have some fun, we want you to have psychic satisfaction from your job. It’s not just about money, it’s also how you feel about what you’re doing.

    We want people to be recognized, participated, diligent and creative. And you can’t ask people to be someone other than themselves and have that kind of creativity and dedication and participation. So, we liberate people at work.

    Go see the whole thing.

  • Warren Bennis: The most dangerous leadership myth is…

    The most dangerous leadership myth is that leaders are born — that there is a genetic factor to leadership. This myth asserts that people simply either have certain charismatic qualities or not.

    That’s nonsense; in fact, the opposite is true. Leaders are made rather than born.

    – Warren Bennis

  • I’m speaking in Spain in June

    fet 2015

    In June I’ll be speaking at the 5th International Conference on Happiness at Work in Coruña in Northern Spain.

    Considering that I’m also speaking in Chile later this year and possibly in Colombia, I should probably get cracking on learning Spanish :)