Fundamentals of Joy: At Work

There have been many a thought leader who discusses happiness as a leadership quality. I was first introduced to this idea as more of an academic subject when Shawn Achor gave a keynote at my new workplace in 2015 with a presentation based on ideas in his Oprah sanctioned book "The Happiness Advantage". I was captivated by his ideas of leveraging happiness for success. It was a real "ah-ha moment" to acknowledge that this wasn't just a conversation for the white collar privileged. In my mission to experience work differently than what my parents had to endure, this felt like not just a nice idea, but a movement I wanted to be a part of.

We now have plenty of data about how experiencing joy at work can significantly improve job satisfaction and productivity, no matter what your job position is. There is plenty of literature about how workplaces can create more joyful environments for employees. Things like:

• Appreciation and Recognition
• Learning and Growth
• Celebrating Successes
• Team Building
• Giving and Receiving Feedback
• Flexibility and Autonomy
• Community and Social Activities

But those elements alone do not a happy workplace make. Experiencing joy is personal. Ideas for improving your well-being at work generally fall into two broad categories: how you filter your personal experience and how you can effect the experiences of those around you.

Here are some courses on topics that you might be familiar with which focus on your personal experience :

• Protect Your Work-Life Balance
• Engage Deeply With Your Work
• Seek Variety and New Challenges
• Create a Positive Physical Workspace
• Cultivate a Positive Mindset
• Take Purposeful Breaks

When you are in a situation where work is so miserable, for whatever reason, the lists above can move the needle on your experience in building healthy relationships at work. All humans are social creatures who seek validation and a sense of belonging with our social groups. With American average of 36.4 work hours per week, we spend a lot of time with our work group. Instinctively, we all know that these work people can make or break our misery or our joy.

So how on Earth do we navigate our emotional well-being at work for success?

The simple advice is: Building Positive Relationships.

But why is this so hard?? Why does it seem to work so easily in some circumstances and entirely a herculean effort in others? Certainly, some people just don't mix and no amount of effort will overcome certain dynamics. But those are rare. Most of us want to get along but feel shy, intimidated or self conscious figuring out how to navigate work relationships not just for career growth and ambition, but for our fundamental well-being in our day to day lives.

To cultivate healthy work relationships and positive emotions at work, you need to start with your values.

When I decided to approach my work relationships based on my values, everything changed for me. By centering my actions on these values, I stay true to myself. When these actions resonate with a colleague, the relationship is that is forged is authentic and truly meaningful. Those meaningful relationships improve my mood and support positive emotions which affects my success at work.

Here are my top 10 work relationship values that you can also learn and build on:

1. Encouraging Laughter and Humor in Yourself and Others: Lighten up. I promise it's ok to bring levity into the room with you.
2. Helping Others: Acts of kindness and helping colleagues can create a sense of fulfillment and joy. Offering assistance or mentorship can lead to a positive work atmosphere.
3. Follow Through: Make sure the dots get connected. Make sure the things you said you would do, get done.
4. Be Responsive: Send a thank you email, even if a reply isn't totally necessary. Acknowledge the person who sent you the message. Ignoring people isn't cool and it's not a power move. It's just rude.
5. Seek and Foster Curiosity: If there's one phase that helps build this skill it's some variation of: "I'd love to hear more about that." Most of the time, others want to be heard and feel like what they say is interesting so stay interested and in return, open up so that the dialogue is mutually rewarding.
6. Be Generous: With your time, your resources, your support, and your effort. Don't hold back out of fear, and especially not out of spite.
7. Read the Room: Self awareness is a gift not only to yourself but it is definitely a gift to those around you. Listen to your gut when it comes to how your communication is being received and adjust accordingly.
8. Give the Benefit of the Doubt First: Default to believing the best in others. Not because they deserve it, but because your deserve to have a paranoid free mind.
9. When Someone Shows You Who They Are, Believe Them: Your initial benefit of the doubt was for you to default to a place of kindness and forgiveness. But joy is not creating by letting someone fool you twice.
10. State the Obvious: Then state it again. Over communication is not just about follow up and follow through, but about making sure we address any elephants in the room and clarify that we are on the same page.

Join me next week as I share stories and dive deeper into my top 3 values for creating joy at work and improving overall work well-being. Until, I'd love to hear from you, whether in a comment below or a DM, on what work values you leverage to make work a joyful experience, especially when the going gets rough. TTYL!

B