How to be happy at work
Danish CEO and entrepreneur Peer Krogh had one main message for his employees:
”The most important thing is really this:
Have you made someone smile today?
If you have, you’ve done a good job.”
He passed away in 2013, but the company still has that message written in the office and on badges like the one you see above.
What a great example of Leading With Happiness.
Good leaders put happiness first! Here’s a very short summary of my presentation on “Leading With Happiness” in The Netherlands last month.
Are you passionate about creating happier workplaces?
We are offering two students the chance to attend our International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen in May free of charge.
All you have to do is write an essay and post it to LinkedIn or your own blog/website and then send us an email with a link to the essay.
The essay should be 500-1,000 words long and answer the following question: How can happiness at work help workplaces attract and engage young employees?
The contest is open to any student currently studying management, human resources, organizational psychology, or a related field at a university or business school. The deadline is April 27.
We already had a great program for our big International Conference on Happiness at Work in May – and it just got even better :)
The latest addition to the program is a talk by Vibeke Lunding-Gregersen and Henrik Tingleff about corporate compassion.
Compassion is an exceptional ability that made homo sapiens victorious in the great evolutionary race and its role in present day life is backed by solid scientific data. Learn how compassion directly increases happiness, health, well-being, performance and relationships as well as a few examples on, how to work with compassion in everyday life.
We are really close to 1,000 subscribers on our Youtube channel which will unlock some new features in Youtube – so could you do us a favor and click here and subscribe to the channel? Thank you :)
The channel has a ton of popular videos on happiness at work and we regularly add new ones.
Here are three of our favorites:
Thank you :)
We’re back from 2 AWESOME weeks in Shanghai and Austin. It’s just crazy how the interest in happiness at work is growing all over the world.
In Shanghai I spoke at a management seminar for 100 managers from Hermés in the region. Hermés already has a strong focus on employee happiness. They LOVED my talk and are now taking this message to all stores and offices in the region.
In Austin I spoke at the WorkHuman conference, which is essentially all about happiness at work. Other speakers included Simon Sinek and Amal Clooney, so I was extra proud that several people called my speech their favorite from the event :)
My books in very good company at WorkHuman:
The entire team on stage:
Signing books after my talk:
Good communication in the workplace is essential – especially if you’re the one in the driver’s seat. This video shows what happens when communication breaks down and it’s not pretty.
We have already sold over 100 tickets for our Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen in May. One multinational company just bought 10 tickets, so they have a large group of people bringing back all the great inspiration, knowledge and tools.
And no wonder – this year’s program is our best ever with 12 AMAZING speakers.
We are constantly blown away by the great work our international partners do to promote happiness at work around the world. Here are just a few recent examples.
PlusConsulting in Israel did a Workplace Happiness seminar for 45 HR managers from leading organizations. They presented a case study of a big retail company that they have been working with for the last 2 years, to train all their managers with leading with happiness tools, and many other happiness tips. They have also been working with the National insurance services’ headquarters to involve positive psychology tools like mindfulness, appreciative inquiry and strengths in their daily routine.
Florian Amstutz of PeopleUp in Switzerland did a presentation on happiness and change management for 120 managers from a company. He had lot of fun and the CEO was really happy with the speech.
TGI Monday in Hong Kong have developed a workshop called Choosing Happiness at work which is dedicated to any employee willing to increase its happiness at work. It includes a lot of videos, good practices examples from caring organizations for Hong Kong FCCIHK – as you can see above, people love it :)
Mush Panjwani from Hong Kong will be going to Pakistan to do the first ever training on happiness at work in that country.
Happy Office from Holland did two sold-out workshops at the Agile India conference.
Vega IT Sourcing in Serbia did a charity relay race where 83 teams participated on a sunny Sunday morning to help children without parental care.
Nicolai Knudsen had a breakthrough in his work to make the Danish military a happier workplace when he gave a keynote at a conference for the organisation for personal advisors and colleague support, a voluntary organisation within the Ministry of Defense that helps people cope with personal problems, stress, offensive behavior, sexism, trauma and PTSD. The head of the MoD center for workplace environment health and safety was really inspired and had never seen that approach, despite having worked with health and safety in over two decades.
Mari Niwa from Ideal Leaders in Tokyo came up with a new way for coworkers to praise each other. In Japan people are a little shy, so rather than doing it in public, you can put up envelopes for each person and then people can praise you by writing a note and sticking it in your envelope.
Dr. Jenny Brockis recently delivered the closing keynote on Thriving@Work at a huge retail conference in Melbourne which was really well received and she’s now getting many more inquiries about this topic as organisations wake up to the need to improve their employees’ experiences at work to boost productivity, performance and overall happiness.
Paleta Znanj in Slovenia are wrapping up a 2-year project of rebuilding/upgrading organizational culture in one great and very successful small company (up to 20 employees, 25 years on the market) who needed help to cross the gap between financial and organic growth (high profits, low employee satisfaction), and to enter “modern age” of leadership. They helped align the company culture with their current and future needs, to make a shift from being profit oriented culture to being people and client oriented one and so to bring more happiness into their working lives and did analysis, counseling, team buildings, coaching, workshops and introduce a tool/system called the Growth Book.
In February I was in NYC to do run our latest Chief Happiness Officer Academy and while walking down a street in midtown Manhattan, I passed this lady standing on the sidewalk in front of a church.
Her sign made me so curious I had to stop and talk to her to learn more and I loved what I learned. Rev. Adrian Dannhauser serves as an Episcopal priest at Church of the Incarnation and every Tuesday morning 9:00-9:30 she stands on a busy New York sidewalk and blesses anyone who asks for it,
Here’s how she describes it on her blog:
During the half hour I’m out there, most people walk by me without making eye contact. Several smile and nod or say, “Good morning.” Ten or so actually stop and request a blessing. In that moment, I introduce myself, get the person’s name, and ask if there’s anything s/he needs prayer for. Responses vary but I’ve noticed some themes – a sick loved one, a struggling child, an upcoming job interview, the need for more peace and less stress, the state of our nation. Half of those who stop are in crisis. Someone always cries. And a few are simply curious or just looking for a good way to start the day. Each time, I offer a prayer based on the need expressed. Then I close by making the sign of the cross on the person’s forehead and pronouncing a blessing in the name of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
I just love this. It’s a wonderful way to put yourself out there and brighten other peoples’ day.
We had a really nice chat about the nature of happiness, in particular how happiness comes from serving others – not yourself.
I am of course an atheist, but I did ask for a blessing anyway – and she gave me some really nice, uplifting words. She even remembered our encounter and wrote about it here.
The Chief Happiness Officer Academy is our most in-depth 3-day training where we share everything we know about creating happier workplaces. Get an in-depth background in happiness at work, hear about the latest research in the field and learn how to use this in your own business.