Billionaire Ingvar Kamprad hard at work

That day, the IKEA store in Gentofte, Denmark is a hive of activity. Not only is there a European executive meeting taking place, but the company founder, Ingvar Kamprad himself, is in the house. That’ll make most employees straighten up and put in a little extra effort.

The execs wrap up at 6 in the evening, and Ingvar takes a stroll through the store as if this was the most natural thing in the world, kindly greeting each and every employee. He encounters two female employees talking to each other and approaches them with a smile and the words: “And what are too such lovely ladies talking about?” – following up with huge hugs for both of them.

Ingvar Kamprad is not merely a multi-billionaire and the top guy of company employing well above 100,000 people worldwide – he’s is also a happy person, and he’s not afraid to show it.

The same goes for many other top executives like Tony Hsieh of Zappos, Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines, Jørgen Vig Knudstorp of LEGO and Brin&Page of Google. Richard Branson of Virgin is perhaps the most famous example of a top exec who isn’t afraid of being happy, enthusiastic and funloving.

Would you dare to? Can people tell that you’re happy from looking at you? Are you walking the halls of your company with a smile on your face, a cheerful outlook and an unflagging faith in the future? Or have you, like so many other managers, bound yourself to an identity that requires a professional, cold, serious, disparaging and businesslike appearance?

Happiness pays off. Happiness at work is catching – and when the boss is happy, it’s downright infectious. If you, the person in charge, seem unhappy, you dampen the mood of everyone else in the company. This leads to more sick days, more stress, higher staff turnover and lower efficiency. On the other hand: When you radiate energy, curiosity and enthusiasm, you inevitably pass on your attitude to your employees. They grow happier and more creative, and they’ll ultimately end up providing better service to your customers.

Happy managers also gain a natural rapport with their employees, and people are much more eager to go the extra mile for a happy manager than for an unhappy one.

However, there’s one downside to being happy that you should be aware of: You may be regarded as less competent. In an exciting psychological study, participants were asked to read an article and subsequently assess the smartness of its author. Half the participants got an article with a negative, critical attitude towards a certain topic – the other half got an article on the exact same topic, but worded in a much more positive way. The study showed that the author of the negative article was perceived as the more intelligent of the two.

That’s frankly strange, because loads of studies prove that happy people do a much better job. But apparently, many people also think that happy people aren’t all that serious. They’re seen as kind of happy-go-lucky and maybe a bit gullible too.

On the whole, however, there’s no doubt that the advantages to being a happy manager far outstrip the disadvantages. So what can you do to bring some more happiness into your management style? Here are three concrete and dead simple suggestions.

1: Smile.
Look happy when you’re at work. Smiles are infectious and build good relationships. Don’t be fake, though. It has to be a genuine smile.

2: Look at the bright spots.
Many managers spend all their time on problems and all the stuff that doesn’t work. Change tack and spend much more of your time praising good work and finding and cherishing the heroes of your organization.

3: Cultivate optimism.
Some managers believe that a permanent atmosphere of impending crisis leads to good results, and they work hard to point out threats in order to create a burning platform. That’s a mistake. If you convey calm, optimism and faith in the future, you create a much more efficient and adaptable organization. Optimism is not an excuse to sit around doing nothing – it’s the most important driver of change there is.

The upshot

Studies show that managers on average are happier at work than employees but you wouldn’t usually think so to look at them, since many believe that leaders should be serious rather than happy. They forget that it’s possible to be both.

Smiling and being happy is no substitute for being good at your job of course. You still need to be professionally competent, efficient and a good manager. But the collective experience of some of the most capable and successful managers in the world shows that being happy makes you a better boss.

That is, if you’re not afraid to show it!

Your take

Are you a leader? If so, are you happy and not afraid to show it? Or do you adopt a more professional facade?

As an employee, have you tried working for happy boss? Or a very unhappy one? What was that like?

Related posts

• How Richard Branson celebrates his employees.
• Happiness at work at Southwest Airlines.
• Happiness at work at Zappos.

In 2011 we conducted a study of 1,000 Danish employees from a wide variety of workplaces to try to find the biggest factors that make people unhappy at work. Our study found that the second biggest driver of dissatisfaction at work was a lack of praise and recognition. Too many Danish employees are unhappy and demotivated at work because, even though they do great work, they hardly ever receive any positive feedback and I’m willing to bet good money that this applies in most other countries too.

That’s a damn shame because studies confirm that workplaces that have a culture of recognition are happier, have lower absenteeism and are more successful.

So we need more praise at work, sure, but that’s not enough. It’s also about better praise. We won’t create a viable culture of recognition in a workplace simply by increasing the amount of praise given, we must also improve the quality of the praise.

It is actually possible to praise employees and co-workers in ways that make them less happy at work.

Here are the top 5 ways NOT to praise people at work. Do you recognize any of these from your workplace?

1: Obligatory praise
Never praise people just because you feel you should. Praise has to be meaningful and earned. This means you can only praise others when there is a good reason to do so – which fortunately is quite often.

Praise given because you have to and not because you feel the person has earned it makes no one happy at work. It will also undermine all future praise, because people can’t trust it to be honest.

Also, some people will only give praise and tend to avoid giving negative feedback, possibly in an attempt to avoid unpleasant conversations and conflict. That won’t do. Our study showed that people long for feedback at work. They want to know what they do well but they also want to know what they can do better.

2: Sarcastic praise
Imagine this said in a wildly sarcastic tone: “Wow, you just did an awesome job on that, didn’t you?”

That’s not very likely to make anyone happy at work.

3: Praise mixed with criticism
Have you ever heard that you should preface any criticism with praise? Some people argue that the best way to give negative feedback is to wrap it in praise, i.e. you should praise, criticize and then praise again at the end.

I disagree completely with that approach. I say if you have negative feedback, say so. If you have praise to give, do it. But don’t feel like you have to mix the two.

The problem is this:

• The praise you do give seems fake – it’s just a preamble to the real message.
• It seems like you think people can’t take criticism since you wrap it in praise to soften the blow.
• In the future when you praise people, they’ll just be waiting for the hammer to drop.

4: Praising some – ignoring others
If some people get tons of praise while others are consistently ignored, this is highly demotivating since it give the praise-less a feeling of unfairness and of being overlooked.

A classic example would be a company where the salespeople get all the praise for getting new customers while the people working in the backoffice, who make the sales possible, are routinely ignored and taken for granted.

Unfortunately it’s easy to end up praising only those people who get the most visible results and ignoring the people backstage. Its also tempting to only praise the people who are most like you, who do work you immediately understand and who do it the way you would have done it. Therefore we should all make an extra effort to appreciate the people who are not like us.

This is not to say that praise should be handed out evenly so everyone gets the exact same amount of recognition. In any workplace, there will be people who shine and it’s perfectly alright if they get more praise. But it’s important that everyone gets noticed and praised for the good work they do.

5: Trivial praise
I once talked to a woman who got lots of praise from her male supervisor at her last job… but only ever for her looks. This was both creepy and utterly meaningless. She’s a highly skilled professional and she wants to be recognized for that – not for something as trivial as how she looks.

So make sure you praise people for things that actually matter to them and not for superficial matters and trivial accomplishments.

Your take

Have you ever been praised in a way that made you less happy at work? Does your workplace have a good culture of recognition? What’s the best way you’ve ever given or received praise at work? Write a comment, we’d love to know your take.

Related posts

• Why your boss thinks criticism is more effective than praise… and is wrong!
• Happiness and elephants
• How Richard Branson celebrates Virgin employees
• You… are great
• Specific praise is good praise