The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

  • Serving your employees

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    This is a fantastic video of Colleen Barret talking about leadership and service at Southwest Airlines:

    Southwest Airlines gets it. Their priority is:

    1. Employees
    2. Customers
    3. Shareholders.

    This is the way it has to be.

    My favorite quote from her talk:

    “The most important priority that we have is our employees… I spend 85% of my time on employees and on delievering proactive customer service to our employees… They in turn spend their life trying to assure that the secondmost important customer to us, ie. the passenger feels good.”

  • A question for ya: What is the financial crisis doing to your workplace?

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    new_bookI just began working on my second book which has been fast-tracked by the publisher for a publishing date in May this year. If you know the publishing industry at all, you’ll know that’s fast; usually it takes 12-18 months to get a book out.

    The theme for the new book is happiness at work in a crisis. This is of course inspired by the current financial crisis but the book is directed at any workplace in trouble. And now I need your help!

    The book has three central claims:
    1: Most of what companies traditionally do in a crisis doesn’t work.
    The way many organizations typically handle crises is by cutting back on all expenses and doing mass layoffs. While this can be necessary, studies actually show companies who choose this approach recover more slowly.

    2: It is possible to be happy at work even in a workplace in trouble.
    Of course it’s easier to be happy when everything is going swimmingly, but people can still be happy at work in a crisis. It takes determination and focus, but it can be done. Surprisingly, a crisis can make people happy at work, provided that it becomes a reason for people to focus and pull together – rather than an excuse to give up.

    3: Happy workplaces get out of a crisis faster.
    Especially in a crisis, an organization needs to get the best out of its people – and when we’re happy at work we are more motivated, creative and productive.

    Here’s how you can help: Give me your story.

    Is your workplace in trouble? What does that do to you and the people around you? How is it affecting morale, motivation and happiness at work? How is your organization facing the crisis? Is it working – or is it actually making things worse?

    And one final thing: I need a kick-ass title. Any and all suggestions are most welcome.

    Related posts

  • Get my book in Chinese


    Click for full size.

    Not only is my book coming out in Portuguese soon, it is now available in Chinese!!!

    Click here to get it:

    Here’s a poster describing the book:

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5 in Chinese
    click image for full size…

  • Help me choose a cover

    My first book Happy Hour is 9 to 5 is coming out in Portuguese soon and I need your help to pick the cover.

    Here are the three suggestions that they’ve cooked up:

    1:
    cover3

    2:
    cover4

    3:
    cover1

    What’s your favorite and why? Please write a comment.

    You can read more about the book here. It’s already out in English, Spanish, Chinese, Dutch and Danish.

  • Conference about happiness at work

    Happy at work

    It is with great pride that we can announce our next conference about happiness at work. The conference takes place on May 26 from 9:30-5PM at the Danish Design Center in Copenhagen.

    We have a great speaker lineup, including:

    • Stephen Shapiro, author of Goal-Free Living and 24-7 Innovation.
    • Robert Biswas-Diener, author of Happiness: Unlocking the Mysteries of Psychological Wealth and Positive Psychology Coaching.
    • Kim Axelsen, CEO of AFA JCDecaux.
    • Knud Herbert Sørensen, HR Director of Middelfart Sparekasse (the happiest workplace in Denmark)

    The themes of the conference are:

    1. Happiness at work in practice: How some of the world’s happiest workplaces do it and what results they get.
    2. Happiness at work in a recession: Why making employees happy is the best way out of a recession and how to do it.
    3. Strengths at work: How to identify and apply personal strengths at work.

    Most of the conference will be held in Danish. You can read all about it here (in Danish).

    We also have 6 free, open events lined up for the first half of 2009. You can see the list and sign up here.

  • Guess what my book’s about

    I ran the text of my first book Happy Hour is 9 to 5 through Wordle – this amazing site that let’s you do a word cloud on any text – and this is the result I got:

    Happy Hour is 9 to 5
    (Click image for full size)

    I’d say that gives you a pretty precise idea of what my book’s about :o) I stole the idea from my buddy Steve Shapiro, who did the same thing for his Little Book if Big Innovation Ideas.

    I’m currently working on my second book, which will be out soon. I’ll reveal the topic in a new blogpost very soon. Stay tuned.

  • AMA podcast: Happiness at work

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    PodcastThe last time I was in New York City I recorded a podcast with the American Management Association and Terrence Seamon.

    We talked about the value of happiness at work, why happy companies make more money and the importance of saying good morning.

    You can hear the whole thing here.

  • Happy Christmas

    jumping_xmas2008 for me has been the best year ever. So much interesting stuff has been happening that to even start to summarise it here is almost meaningless. Suffice it to say, that 2008 seemed to zoom by because so many cool things were always going on but now that I look back on it, it seems like a loooong year indeed.

    Here are just a few highlights:

    I have taken less time for blogging than I’d like and will prioritize it more in 2009! Blogging is seriously one of the most inspiring, productive, fun and useful things I do – particularly because so many nice people read along and take time to give feedback.

    Now I’m off to some Christmas celebrations (yes, Christmas is on the 24th. in Denmark) and then on to a week of snowboarding in the French Alps. In the meantime, you might enjoy some of my previous favourite posts on the blog or maybe some of the quickly growing number of links in the happy at work link collection.

    But most importantly: I wish you and your loved ones a very happy Christmas and a spectacular new year.

  • A note from the boss

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    Note to new employees

    Imagine it’s your first day in a new job. You sit down at your desk for the first time, and waiting for you there is a note from your new boss.

    In the note your boss bids you a warm welcome to the company, and then says this:

    1: My most important priority is your happiness and productivity at work. If there’s anything I can do to make you happier and more efficient – tell me right away. This isn’t idealism, it’s good business, because happy people are more productive.

    2: I will not burden you with endless rules and regulations. You’re an adult – I trust you to use your best judgment.

    3: You have my full permission to screw up, as long as you own up to it, apologize to those affected and learn from it.

    4: Please tell me when I screw up so I can apologize and learn from it.

    5: Please make sure to hunt down people who do great work and praise them for it. I will do this as much as humanly possible, but I can’t do it alone.

    6: If I get it right occasionally, I’d love to hear about it from you, too :o)

    7: I will always have time for you. My calendar will never be so full that my next free time to talk to you is three weeks from next Friday.

    8: I want to know about you as an employee AND as a human being. I DO care about your private life, about your and your family’s health and well-being.

    9: Life is more than work. If you’re regularly working overtime, you’re just making yourself less happy and more stressed. Don’t join the cult of overwork – it’s bad for you and the company.

    10: I expect you to take responsibility for your own well-being at work. If you can do something today to make yourself, a co-worker or me a little happier at work – do it!

    This post was inspired by Michael Wade’s post over at ExecuPundit called Note from boss to employees. I liked his tips but I found the tone of them a little defensive. Michael’s tips had an undercurrent of “business is hard and being a leader is tough but we can slog it out together.”

    I disagree – work is great fun (or at least it could and should be).

    How would you like a note like this from your new boss?

    Related posts

  • You… are great!

    I love this fun little movie called Validation. At 15 minutes, it’s a little longer than your standard oh-my-god-what-a-cute-kitten video, but it’s definitely worth it.

    Related posts:

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