The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Category: Leadership

Leadership is an insanely important discipline. Here you’ll find the thought, tools and tricks of the trade of great leaders.

  • Going to DC and Seattle

    I’m going to 2 conferences in the US in november. First I’m going to World Dynamics conference for democratic CEOs in Washington DC arranged by Traci Fenton and her crew, and after that I’m going to Washington state to be a part of the Practice of Peace conference. While these two conferences look quite different on the surface, I actually believe there’s a huge overlap between them and with the happiness at work project.

    If you’re in DC or Seattle, and would like to meet and talk, drop me an email. I’m available om november 6 in DC and on november 13 and 14 in Seattle. Also if you know of a place I could stay in Seattle, I’d like to hear about it.

    A big thank you to Kasper of Culture Adventure for the excellent travel arrangements. If you’re travelling, I can definitely recommend him.

  • Want happiness at work? Control your own time!

    Giving employees something to smile about at the office may be as simple as offering them more control over their time, its recent survey suggests. One-third (33 percent) of workers polled said greater schedule flexibility would result in increased job satisfaction.

    From an article in the Sillicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal.

  • Control

    A financial analyst once asked me if I was afraid of losing control of our organization. I told him I’ve never had control and I never wanted it. If you create an environment where the people truly participate, you don’t need control. They know what needs to be done, and they do it. And the more that people will devote themselves to your cause on a voluntary basis, a willing basis, the fewer hierarchs and control mechanisms you need.
    – Herb Kelleher, ex-CEO of Southwest Airlines

    From this article. Read more about Southwests way of doing business in Nuts!.

  • Death and grief

    From an article in Fast Company:
    Philosopher and consultant Peter Koestenbaum spends his days exploring truly big questions that have never sounded more relevant. Here, he reflects on what the shock of death teaches us about leadership — and how to move forward without forgetting.

    For another way to view it, check out Harrison Owen’s concept of griefwork, which is the process that we as humans go through every time we encounter change. There’s a brief description here, and more in his book Expanding our now.

  • Robert Levering

    Robert Levering is the man behind the “Great place to work” book and concept. Here’s a quote from the introduction to the book

    …I am more optimistic than ever about the prospects for the workplace. When Milton and I began researching this area nearly two decades ago, great places to work were clearly exceptions to the rule. They often were the result of the vision of extraordinary business leaders like FedEx’s Fred Smith or HP’s David Packard. Today more and more senior managers have become convinced that fostering a great work environment is a business imperative. But perhaps more important, employees are no longer willing to put up with the kind of insensitive and demeaning management attitudes that have typified most workplaces since the dawn of the industrial age.

    Grounds for optimism, I’d say. There’s an excellent interview with Robert Levering here.

  • Meditation at work

    Businessweek have an article on medation in the workplace. Vice president Dave Jakubowski of Internet service provider United Online recently turned to a mat and 60 minutes of silence a day, and says
    “I’m in business, and I need results. It’s amazing. I’m able to sort through work challenges in this state of calm much faster than trying to fight through it. And I make fewer mistakes.”

    Via slashdot.

  • Pride on the job

    Once again an excellent article from Fast Company on the importance on pride at work.

    There`s one thing I’d like to add, namely that you can’t “do pride”. Pride is not a practice, it is the result of one or more practices. The article even shows some of these practices like caring for employees, focus on learning, including employees in decisions and focus on long term results. Here’s the list of practices, that I believe promote pride and happiness at work.

  • Job satisfaction and the bottom line

    Gallup have a report from a study involving 200.000 emplyees from 36 different companies, that clearly links high job satisfaction with good financial results. Among other things the report shows that satisfied employees result in:
    * Much lower employee turnover rates
    * Higher customer loyalty
    * Higher sales
    * Higher profit margins

    This is great news for my Project Happiness at Work. And I would love to add something to this study.
    (more…)

  • Fun

    The more balanced your life is and the more diverse your interests are, the better your thinking will be. If you work 20 hours a day, your product will be crap
    – George Colony, CEO of Forrester Research Inc. in an article in Fast Company

  • Democratic Management in the Real World

    I researched business democracy a little on the net, and I came acrosss this article on democracy in food coops. A teaser from the article: The best-run co-ops weave employee input into every aspect of operations. There is a culture of employee involvement in every decision that impacts working conditions.