It’s amazing to see wild animals engage in a behavior which clearly has no purpose, except that it’s fun. And these otters are a prime example:
Have a very happy weekend :o)
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Friday Spoing
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A simple way to focus on the positive at work
Any job has good and bad things to it. Any job. Yours too. Maybe you kinda like your co-workers, you’re good at what you do and the food rocks – but on the other hand the commute is deadly and your boss is a bit of a jerk.
Here’s the point: Even though all jobs contain good and bad elements, most people over focus on the bad things. In this 4-minute video I talk about why that is and what you can do about it. Click above to watch it.
This is the first video in a series of five that we did for Danish enzyme producer Novozymes. They are already a great workplace, and as part of a campaign called “It’s Great to be a Zymer” wanted a simple, fun way to communicate the basic concepts of happiness at work to their employees in Denmark, China, USA and Brazil. So they hired us to do these videos, which their employees can access on the intranet. They have very kindly allowed us to share the videos with a wider audience.
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Less than 100 tickets left for our conference on May 26 in Copenhagen
Our annual conference about happiness at work will be held on May 26 in Copenhagen and if you’re thinking of going, you should probably book your tickets soon – there are now less than 100 left. Read all about it and buy tickets here.
Info in Danish:
Skal 2011 være jeres gladeste år nogensinde på arbejdspladsen? Vil du skabe mere arbejdsglæde og fremragende resultater i din organisation? Vil I af med højt sygefravær, stress og udbrændthed? Skal I have et ordentligt skud energi og engagement?På Arbejdsglæde Live! konferencen den 26. maj 2011 i København, oplever du, hvordan din organisation skaber meget mere arbejdsglæde og overskud.
Vi har fundet nogle fantastisk inspirerende og engagerede talere til dagen, blandt andre:
- Peter Mikkelsen – verdens bedste fodbolddommer i 90?erne og nu HR chef i Fona
- Steve Shapiro – forfatter til Goal-free Living, 24/7 Innovation og Personality Poker
- Cathy Busani – CEO i firmaet Happy, kåret som bedste arbejdsplads i UK i 2010
- Den altid fantastiske Thyra Frank er igen klar til at vælte salen
- Ole Stephensen er konferencier
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I’m speaking in Portugal in May
I’ve had to keep it secret for a while, but now it’s been announced that I’m the closing keynote speaker at the Talks 2.0 conference in Portugal on May 7.
The conference is about happiness and creativity in your work life and the program looks absolutely amazing.
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Interview in Slovakian
I spoke at a conference in Bratislava last year and now there’s an interview with me about happiness at work in a Slovakian magazine. You can read the whole interview here.
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A question for ya: New boss gets the cold shoulder
I’ve written a lot about bad bosses and what you should do if you work for one – but sometimes it’s the other way around.
I recently got this email from a reader:
Dear Alexander,
I hope you don’t mind me off-loading on you, but I could really do with your advice.
I have just started a new job as the Director of a department that has undergone significant restructuring. I do not have a predecessor as my role is brand new. However, I have inherited a team of 4, all older than me, with clear loyalties to the person who did a similar role before and left in very unpleasant circumstances.
She had about 50% of my role, but only managed 2 of them. I am now responsible for the over-seeing of all 4 posts. The office that previously was independent is my biggest challenge. I am being given the complete cold shoulder. They don’t speak to me, make conversation, keep me informed and trying to get information from them is like trying to get blood from a stone.
There are 3 women and 1 man. I am a woman, and my problems are with the women!
What can I do? I feel miserable and scared I won’t be able to perform. I have the feeling I’m being set up for failure…
I would really appreciate your advice.
Interesting question and something I’m sure a lot of new managers face. What would you do?
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It Pays to be NICE to Your Employees
This is a guest post by my good buddies Linda and Robin over at THE POWER OF NICE.
Managers, when was the last time you asked yourself, “Am I doing enough to show my employees how much I appreciate them?”
If you’re unsure, chances are your office could probably benefit from a little gratitude. A November 2009 Careerbuilder.com survey revealed that 40 percent of employees have difficulty staying motivated at work, while 23 percent describe their office morale as “low.” What was the reason? As you might have suspected, it was a simple one. They felt unappreciated by their employers.
Contrary to what you might think, however, it doesn’t take a whopping pay raise or a slew of promotions to make employees feel valued. Studies have shown repeatedly that it’s the small, interpersonal gestures that have the biggest payoff.
A 2010 McKinsey study found that the best workplace motivators appeal directly to the emotions, with 67 percent listing praise or recognition from an immediate manager as “effective” or “extremely effective.” What’s more, respondents found all emotionally based motivators to be more effective than financial ones.
While we certainly can’t argue with the value of congratulating an employee on a job well done, we have another novel trick that we’ve found rather effective: chocolate. Yes, when you “sweeten the deal” quite literally, you’ll find that your employees will actually experience a bit of an emotional boost. It’s not just because of the sweet taste, either. Chocolate contains over 300 different chemicals, including caffeine, theobromine, and phenylethylamine, which stimulate the neurotransmitters in the brain linked to concentration and mood. In other words, a few handfuls of M&M’s could have employees feeling better and working smarter. (Quite a big accomplishment for a little chocolate candy!)
No matter what your approach, demonstrating your gratitude toward your employees and recognizing their accomplishments regularly is a SMALL but highly effective way to transform your office culture and rev up productivity—and as a result, kick your business into high gear.
And that’s something everyone can appreciate.
Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval are the co-authors of the bestselling books, THE POWER OF NICE: How to Conquer the Business World with Kindness and THE POWER OF SMALL: Why Little Things Make All the Difference. To connect with them, follow them on Twitter, “like” them on Facebook, or check out their blog.
Related posts
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Latest happy newsletter
The latest edition of our free Happy at Work Newsletter just went out with these headlines:
- A simple way to appreciate the good things at work.
- Faking happiness at work makes you unhappy.
- Happiness at work in India.
- I’ll be speaking at WorldBlu Live in San Francisco in May.
- Spoing!
You can read the latest one here and subscribe for future newsletters here.
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Happy at work at… Happy
Yes, there is a company in the UK called Happy. Yes, they’re happy :o)
We went to London last week and had a chance to visit the Happy HQ and meet with their managing director Cathy Busani to hear more about what makes them a great workplace.
Here’s a short video with Cathy:
And there’s much more. At Happy, employees can also choose their own bosses, they help make all major decisions, all bonuses are divided equally – just to give you some examples.
Cathy will talk much more about thisat our conference about happiness at work in Copenhagen in May. Read all about it here.
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See me speak at WorldBlu Live in San Francisco in May
I’ll be speaking at the WorldBlu Live conference on May 19 and 20 in San Francisco, an event that promises to be absolutely amazing and inspiring.
The theme for the event is democracy at work, ie. how do you create workplaces that are based on freedom rather than on command and fear. There are two reasons why this interests me: First of all, my company is run democratically. I can truly imagine no other way to do it. Secondly, democratic workplaces are happier workplaces. When you grant employees trust, autonomy and freedom to make decisions, there is a much bigger chance that they will be happy at work.
Traci Fenton, the founder and CEO of WorldBlu, spoke at our conference in Copenhagen in 2009 and you can watch her presentation here:
Read all about the WorldBlu conference and sign up for it here.
