Do you agree?
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.
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The happiest doctor I’ve ever seen
Giving a child an injection is important – but not likely to make anyone very happy. Unless you do it the way this pediatrician does.
Here’s the best part: We showed this video at our most recent Woohoo inc Academy and it turned out that one of the participants had been a patient of this doctor. He’s retired now, but she told the group how awesome it was to be his patient, how he was always friendly and happy and how she basically had to be kicked out once she grew up and had to start seeing a “big-girl-doctor”.
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Woohoo! We have now spoken in over 40 countries
These are the 41 countries we’ve spoken in. Guess a flag :)After our trips to Surinam and Dubai this month, we have now done keynotes and workshops for clients in 41 different countries.
That’s a milestone I’m really, really proud of :)
Here’s the entire list in alphabetical order:
- Antigua
- Bahamas
- Bulgaria
- Chile
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greenland
- Guatemala
- Iceland
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Israel
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Suriname
- Sweden
- ?Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- USA
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Woohoo: My book – Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – is now available in Czech
Here’s some more excellent international news: My first book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, is now out in Czech.
The translation was organized by our awesome Woohoo inc Partner Monika Hilm.
And if you sign up for our conference in Prague on November 10, you get a copy of the book for free :)
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I’m electrifying and thought-provoking :)
The feedback was unanimous: Everyone LOVED Alexander’s keynote.
Electrifying, energizing, thought-provoking and relevant – certainly one of the best keynotes we’ve heard in a while.
After my speech at the Global Women in Leadership Forum in Dubai, the awesome people at Naseba (who arrange this event and many others) sent us that evaluation.
Wow :)
.@alexkjerulf gets attendees to try a ‘praising’ activity to highlight how appreciation can lift moods in the workplace #GWEF16 pic.twitter.com/2OlZGEA08F
— WIL Economic Forum (@WIL_Forum) October 25, 2016
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Happiness all around the world
I am back after a 17-day trip to 4 different countries.
The trip started in Surinam, a small country just north of Brazil. Together with one of our Dutch partners, Gea Peper of The Happiness Bureau, I did a workshop for an HR network.
Surinam is currently facing an economic crisis, so we focused especially on how to create happiness at work in tough times. We were also guests on a Surinamese TV show called Panorama.
After that Gea and I flew on to Curacao in the Caribbean where we did another workshop for HR leaders.
The workshop ended with balloons :) We also did an interview with Dolfijn FM who have their studio right on the beach. Awesome! And of course there was time for a little bit of sightseeing. Curaco used to be a Dutch colony, so the capital Willemstad basically looks like Amsterdam in the Caribbeans.
From curacao I flew to New York City, where I met up with my awesome coworker Arlette to lead our 4th international Woohoo Inc Academy.
9 wonderful people from different US companies had signed up for the 3-day Academy and as far as we can tell from their feedback, everyone had a blast and learned a lot. The Academy included a visit to Next Jump, one of the happiest workplaces we know, and some sightseeing, including a guided tour of Grand Central Terminal and a cruise on the East River.
And following that I flew to Dubai to speak at the 18th Global Women in Leadership Forum, where I did the opening keynote on day 2 and particularly made the point that if we want to create happier workplaces, we need more women in leadership positions.
Here are some reactions from twitter:
RT becbarry: Great kick off to day2 of WIL_Forum by happiness guru alexkjerulf #woohoo! #high5 #GWEF16 woohooinc pic.twitter.com/tnMy1TcEoO
— Mitren Chinoy (@nertim) October 25, 2016
@alexkjerulf you have truly inspired us today. Thank You! @WIL_Forum
— ???? ?????? (@kreidiehr) October 25, 2016
An electric start to the day with @alexkjerulf on #happiness and #leadership. #GWEF16 pic.twitter.com/globR2O8EZ
— Charlotte Chédeville (@ChaChedeville) October 25, 2016
And then I flew home. My internal clock is so fried, I’m not even sure I have jetlag at all.
But I’m also incredibly encouraged to once again have had the chance to spread the gospel of happiness at work in some new countries and to find so many like-minded people all over the world who agree that this is an incredibly important topic that businesses need to act on.
In fact, this trip brings the total number of countries we’ve spoken in to 41. Here’s the complete list:
- Antigua
- Bahamas
- Bulgaria
- Chile
- Croatia
- Curaçao
- Czech Republic
- Denmark
- Dominican Republic
- Estonia
- France
- Germany
- Greenland
- Guatemala
- Iceland
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Israel
- Kuwait
- Luxembourg
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Poland
- Portugal
- Romania
- Russia
- Serbia
- Slovakia
- Slovenia
- South Africa
- Spain
- Sri Lanka
- Suriname
- Sweden
- ?Switzerland
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- United Kingdom
- USA
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Bob Sutton’s EXCELLENT advice on dealing with a bad boss
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).
Related posts
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Podcast with Søren Lockwood – a (very happy) financial CEO
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:
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At IKEA, umbrellas are CHEAPER when it rains
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.
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3 advanced tips for creating a happy workplace from Henry Stewart
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:
- Let employees choose their boss
- Give pre-approval on big projects
- Celebrate mistakes
