Hey, everyone, this is Chris with Hacking Your Leadership, And on today's discussion on employee engagement, we're gonna be talking about another really common reason why people leave their jobs. On last week's episode, we talked about how companies not investing in people is a really, really huge reason why people decide to leave a company. Another one that is right up there with that is that
they don't feel like they're happy at their jobs. And I know that sounds like kind of like, well, well, duh, Like everybody wants to be happy. You want to be happy no matter what you do, right, But there are very specific things that go into what it means to actually be happy. Harvard University did a seventy five year study on happiness and they found that the most important elements that make up a person's happiness level are meaningful
relationships, connections, and social support. Those things matter more than anything because we spend so much of our time at work. If those things aren't in place at work, we tend to not be happy at work. It's not like, you know, if I go to the grocery store and I don't find a meaningful connection, a good good social support, and a great relationship you know, I still gotta go to the grocery store, so I get it done, and there such a small part of my time it doesn't matter.
But when it comes to where we work, because we're there basically a third of our lives during our working years, it is absolutely necessity to feel happy and to have meaningful connections, meaningful relationships and social support while you're there, or you really won't be happy. It's funny. I was just having
this conversation with somebody last week. They were asking me about kind of the idea of happiness, and you know, my take on it is like happiness, and I like that you defined it because kind of the surface level of when people talk about happiness, I'm like, happiness is kind of like fleeting. Like you know, you get a new car, I'm really happy, and then you get that payment for a month. Yeah, yeah, I'm not happy anymore. Right, Like I'm like, no, now I'm angry.
But joy, right, Joy is something that kind of maintains and it's kind of like a something that brings you joy. It's it's a self defined
thing, is how you feel about it. So I like the fact that you kind of define happiness within some parameters that have a lot to do with the social element and the connection that you have to people around you and the work that you do, because I think those things have more of an impact on somebody who has joy in the work that they do, and then therefore, like the happiness factor kind of you know, sustains over longer periods of
time where you enjoy the work and you enjoy the people that you work with. But yeah, I absolutely would agree with you. Is like on the surface, you're like, come on, duh, Like you're not happy, I why don't you leave? But the reality is that, like there's more to it than just that, because there are definitely times of any job that you can find a lot of joy in where you're just like, ah,
like, I'm really not happy today. There's stuff I gotta do, I don't want to do, things I gotta deal with I don't want to deal with. But those are not necessarily bad days. Those are just things that can be frustrating, things that can you know, cause you to be like, ah, like, I'm just not having the best day today. But that's very different if you're finding joy in real true kind of like as you
defined happiness in the work that you're doing right right. The Harvard study says that these three things matter more than a person's income, assuming that they are not having difficulty paying the bills right, So if you are, if you're poverty stricken, then that can matter more to a person in terms of a job search than meaningful relationships. Obviously, but assuming the bills are being paid,
these three things matter more than income. It matters more than where a person lives, like the location of their work or the location of their home. It matters more than the schedule they're expected to work. It actually matters
more than their commute time. And so a person commuting a long commute to work to a place of business that they really enjoy and they enjoy the people that they have meaningful connections there, that person is going to be happier than a person who can works around the corner but they really dread going to work and they don't have those connections. It matters that much. The Gallop Organization found that a person who has a best friend at work is seven times more
likely to engage in their work. You know, I've been doing employee engagement surveys for organizations for many years, and there's always been this question on a lot of employ engagement surveys. I have a best friend at work. And if you don't know what's behind that question, you could think that it's almost like, you know, magoo, like we're gonna we're all gonna sit around the campfire singing and kumbaya together and be happy. I have a best friend
at work. You know, a best friend at work isn't necessarily somebody who you would treat the same way as a best friend outside of work. It doesn't necessarily rise to that level. A best friend at work is someone who you have conversations with that have nothing to do with work. Number one and number two someone you you would maintain a relationship with if one of the two of you left the organization tomorrow, Meaning the relationship is one that is rooted
in more than just the coincidence that you work together. And so if you have a person like that at your job, you're seven times more likely to engage in your work. And so when when a company says they want employees to be happy, it just means that you want people to get out of bed with this excitement to be able to get their work done. Whatever that is that you you know that they're not doing it all the time, but when it is time to do it, it's not something they dread. They
look forward to it. Where I see this being done correctly by a lot of organizations, the easy ones are places like charities and nonprofits. Right, So, people who have a kind of like a calling to do good or do better for the world at large, they tend to gravitate towards organizations that do that kind of work. And those people tend to be happy. They
tend to have meaningful connections with the people that work alongside. Where it's harder is where you have these you know, private for profit companies where not everyone is doing work and making decisions that impact the trajectory of the organization except in aggregate meaning all of the little actions and little decisions combined absolutely impact the organization.
But the little things that you do each day all by yourself, they don't necessarily and and and that can lead to a feeling of you know, you know that your work is mundane or and and you know feel like you
you are less happy if you don't have those meaningful connections alongside you. Yeah, and I really think this is where leadership plugs in tremendously because I know that the impact that a leader can have, even in those types of jobs where maybe it is kind of like mundane or you know, repetitive and that
type of thing. A great leader that can connect with people individually, that can bring people together, that can have some fun, that that's authentic, that's genuine, and that's looking for, you know, for for to get to know people and to understand, you know, what they're looking to do and where they want to go. Those types of relationships can make the work and make the work environment uh more fun where you can be a little bit
more happy. And again, maybe this is not the career job that you want, maybe this is not what you want to do long term, but it's the job that you have now. And and you know a leader that can make that job you know, fun or enjoyable to a degree or not where you're just absolutely dreading it, maybe like maybe it's not the thing that you really love to do, but you're also not like, oh my god,
like I just can't stand any of this. I can't stand anybody that I work with, Like a great leader could have an impact on that by making sure that you know a lot of the connections that are made are are you know, true, and are kind of that have positive energy behind them and empathy behind them, and that's really that's something that can impact happiness.
Yeah, you're so right, because the leadership role in this, not not the broader company leadership role, but the role of the leader themselves in this process and in the impact of what it means to be happy at work, because that one on one relationship is so important in this. I want to make sure that we give some advice to leaders who want to make sure that their employees are are as likely as possible to be happy at work. But
first I want to get up toward one of our sponsors. Okay, so, if you're a leader and you're trying to make sure that your people are as happy as possible at work, I'm going to start with some advice that I got from a leader a long time ago. This woman said that she begins every single conversation with an employee around their career, a career conversation, a development conversation. All those conversations start with asking them two questions, do
you know why our company exists? And are you excited by that to be happy about where you work? Means you have to be excited about why your company is there to begin with. And and you know, every company exists for a reason. If your company exists for reasons that don't excite you, you are probably at the wrong organization and you should find one whose purpose for existing does fit better with you know, something you can align with and something
that would make you happy. If the answer to the question is yes, you know, your employee knows why the organization exists and they are excited about that fact. You're starting off on the right foot right there. But it goes deeper than that once you kind of have that baseline. Now it becomes what does the relationship look like between you and that employee in a way that helps them build those meaningful connections, those social relationships and having that social support.
So you need to know what your organization offers in terms of social support and different you know, kind of benefits and plans and offerings. And you also have to make sure that you are you know, setting people up for success when it comes to the relationships they build with each other, putting people together on projects that you think might align and turn into you know, something where a relationship can develop out of it a professional and a personal relationship.
You know, these are things where leaders can kind of pull the strings of creating these relationships once you know that the people on your team are excited about the work that they're doing. But again, it starts with that assurance that Okay, are you excited about being here and are you happy with the work that you're doing. Yeah, I would definitely underline all of that. I
think also leaders have to be authentic, they have to be themselves. They have to not just like it's hard to tell somebody like why don't you be happy if I'm not happy? But if you have joy? If I don't have joy, Like if you're if you're a leader of people and you're not reflecting what you're asking people to do, if you're showing up every day and you don't have a kind of positive attitude, you're not finding joy in the
work that you're doing. You're not looking to proactively build relationships and like be the point of energy that's inspiring people. Modeling it, modeling it right, then all of that behavioral work, people can see right through it, yep. And And that that doesn't create happiness, right, That creates distrust,
that creates like come on, like whatever. So so that's that's kind of like step number one in that leadership role is that you really have to make sure that you have, you know, spent enough time with yourself to to to feel good about the work that you're doing, have a true passion for it, and and and make sure that you're being authentic in the way that you're approaching these relationships so that so that people can see that and that also
people believe that this is exactly you know, that that you're practicing what you preach, and that they you're giving them a reason to want to show up
to work and and look a little bit differently, right. I think this is where this could really be seen as being done right or wrong by a leader is in the way that they articulate why they like their job and why they're excited to be there in a way that doesn't incorporate company lingo or company verbiage, like how how does it manifest itself in the leader's own words?
Because I'll tell you, it can be very easy to fall into this trap of trying to fake this happiness because you've kind of decided that well, this is a stepping stone for you it's your career. It's something that's necessary, and you're not looking to leave because the benefits out weigh the negatives, and so you're kind of just like grinning and bearing it. That's not the same
thing as being happy. And if you have people reporting to you who are not in their career, they're in a job or or their job is much more easily replaceable for them than it might be for you because of where they are in their career versus where you are in your career, when you are
not on the same plane as they are. For those for the answers to those questions, it can become easy to kind of convey them to be happy by saying that you're happy, but they will see you right through it if it's fake that you They will only believe that you have this happiness and this joy and this excitement about the work yourself if they see it in your actions every single day, and if they and if you can articulate in a way
that that doesn't look like you just drank the company kool aid and you're trying to regurgitate it for them. So with that, that brings to this discussion on employee engagement. Join us next week i'll have another one. Have a great day.