Leadership is an insanely important discipline. Here you’ll find the thought, tools and tricks of the trade of great leaders.
Call centers are notoriously tough workplaces.
But City Call Center in Copenhagen is different. Very different. They were recently named one of Denmark’s best workplaces in the Great Place to Work Survey and people love working here.
In this interview, their founder and CEO Pouline Mangaard explains how she has created the (nearly) impossible: A happy call center.
Payoff, The Hidden Logic That Shapes Our Motivations, is a short book with an important message: “We suck at motivation.”
Based on fascinating research from workplaces and psychology labs all over the world, the book documents how we consistently fail to understand what really motivates ourselves and others and consequently end up killing motivation off, when we try to strengthen it, much of the time.
Nowhere is this more obvious than in the workplace, where a blind belief in the power of bonuses, raises, promotions and perks has kept managers doing the wrong things for (or to) their employees for decades.
Dan Ariely, a professor of Psychology and Behavioral Economics at Duke University, is the perfect person to convey this message. As a researcher he has conducted fascinating and very elegant experiments to uncover what motivates and demotivates us. He shared two of these in this TED talk:
In Payoff he uses his own research and that of others to get to the truth of motivation. And while he clearly shows that performance bonuses can actually reduce performance, he also shares the factors that motivate us to do better. These include things like praise, meaningful work and a real connection to the people you work with.
This is a short book (120 pages) but that just counts in its favor, in my opinion. It is a captivating read, incredibly useful and highly entertaining – in fact I laughed our loud several times while reading it.
In short, I hope I have motivated you to read this book :)
If you don’t have a good relationship with your manager, you will never be happy at work. But how can a workplace ensure that every employee has the right manager – someone they trust, like, respect and communicate well with?
London-based training company Happy have come up with a radical but simple solution: Let every employee pick their own manager.
That way, anyone who is not happy with their boss can simply pick a new one. Incidentally, bad bosses quickly find themselves without employees, eliminating that particular problem.
In this inspiring speech their founder Henry Stewart shares how they do it along with two other great practices that have made Happy so… happy :)
How should you deal with a bad boss? Here’s some EXCELLENT research-based advice from Stanford Professor Bob Sutton (51 mins into the video).
On a related note, a journalist once asked me during an interview why employees put up with bad bosses.
Without thinking about it I blurted out “Stockholm syndrome.”
I only later realized I may have been right.
Michal Srajer, one of our Partners in Prague, is currently travelling the world and interviewing many different people for his podcast about happiness at work. His first interview was with me and you can hear it here.
His second podcast features Søren Lockwood, the CEO of SEB Pension in Denmark, who took his company of 300 serious financial professionals in dark suits through a transformation that has resulted in happier employees, lower absenteeism, happier customers and better results.
You can hear the podcast here:
https://soundcloud.com/happinesspodcast/02-happiness-at-seb-pension-with-soren-lockwood-ceo
Søren Lockwood also spoke at our conference this year in Copenhagen, where examined the classic question of whether you can prove that happiness at work is good for the bottom line. He gave the best answer EVER:
Complete this sentence: “When it rains, the price of umbrellas goes __.”
If you guessed up you’d be right in most places. But at IKEA stores, you’d be wrong.
Here’s how they price their umbrellas depending on the weather:
Yes, on rainy days, umbrellas are cheaper :o) What a nice way to make customers happy.
This is no coincidence – happiness matters at IKEA. Their founder, Ingvar Kamprad, once said this:
Work should always be fun for all colleagues. We all only have one life. A third of life is work. Without desire and fun, work becomes hell.
To me, this attitude only makes sense. Making your employees happy makes the business more profitable and making your customers happy keeps them coming back.
It ain’t rocket surgery, and fortunately more and more companies are figuring this out and committing themselves to happiness at work.
Henry Stewart is the found of Happy, a company in London that does computer and happiness trainings. They are also (naturally) a very happy workplace.
In this speech, Henry shares 3 more advanced tips for creating a happy workplace:
The economist Milton Friedman famously once said that “The business of business is business.”
We respectfully disagree.
On November 18+19 we are arranging the first ever conference about happiness at work in India together with Les Concierges and Naresh Jain of ConfEngine.
We have just announced the schedule with an amazing lineup of speakers and workshops, including critical themes like:
… and many, many more great topics. Speakers include:
And of course myself :) See the entire schedule here.
Attendance is limited to 300 people, so better get your tickets now.
This is just too cool: Every month, financial-services company Motley Fool selects a random employee who gets 2 weeks off and $1,000. Their mission is to spend those two weeks on whatever they want with zero contact with the office.
They do this to show employees that it’s OK to balance work and life and not overwork yourself to death.
Genius!
June 2-5 2026 in Copenhagen
The Chief Happiness Officer Academy is our most in-depth 3-day training where we share everything we know about creating happier workplaces. You get a comprehensive understanding of the latest research, tons of effective practical tools and learn how to use them in your own business.
