While writing this piece I tried hard to define the term happiness, I googled but the result baffled me more. The definition and cause of “Happiness” ranged from “virtue” to “growth” to “want” to “satisfaction” (and similar other jargons). But at the end of it I realized that the cause may vary from person to person, situation to situation but it (happiness) is only real when it is shared. Though it is customary in many companies these days but I thoroughly believe that “Motivation Pizza “ (https://positivesharing.com/2006/12/why-motivation-by-pizza-doesnt-work/) doesnt work for long. You want to share your happiness with people who feel genuinely happy for your achievement. Thus there has to be a relationship of genuine trust,respect and affection across the hierarchy in an organization.
1: Happy people are better team members : Happy people are a lot more fun to be around and consequently have better relations at work. This translates into: • Better teamwork with colleagues• More satisfied clients
2: Happy people are more creative : Our productivity to some extent depends on Creativity as far as social media campaigns and other aspects are concerned. It is noted that happy people are more interactive. Check out the research of Teresa Amabile (https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5492.html) for proof. She says: “If people are in a good mood on a given day, they’re more likely to have creative ideas that day, as well as the next day, even if we take into account their mood that next day. There seems to be a cognitive process that gets set up when people are feeling good that leads to more flexible, fluent, and original thinking, and there’s actually a carryover, an incubation effect, to the next day.”
3: Happy people fix problems instead of complaining about them : When you don’t like your job, every molehill looks like a mountain. One keeps complaining of every smallest issue. While on the other hand if you’re happy you try to fix the problem as much as possible on your end rather than complaining about the same.
4: Happy people have more energy : Happy people have more energy and are therefore more efficient at everything they do.
5: Happy people are more optimistic : Happy people have a more positive, optimistic outlook, and as research shows (https://www.amazon.com/Learned-Optimism-Change-Your-Mind/dp/1400078393), optimists are way more successful and productive.
6: Happy people are fitter and not become unwell too often : Getting sick is a productivity killer and if you don’t like your job you’re more prone to take leave for the meanest excuse of “ dont feel like going to office today”.
7: Happy people learn faster : When you’re happy and relaxed, you’re much more open to learning new things at work and thereby increasing your productivity.
8: Happy people refer their friends to the organization : Team members who are happy with the company would refer their friends to the company as they are themselves very happy with the team.
9: Happy people make better decisions : Unhappy people operate in permanent crisis mode. Their focus narrows, they lose sight of the big picture, their survival instincts kick in and they’re more likely to make short-term, here-and-now choices. Conversely, happy people make better, more informed decisions and are better able to prioritize their work.
10: Happy people are easier to retain : Being the HR I have had the opportunity to speak closely to a number of people who have stuck with a particular organization for a long time. It is generally found that they are extremely happy in the comfort zone of the present organization and is quite sceptical whether or not they will get the similar kind of environment in the next organisation they join. Thus we see that Happiness plays a vital role in retaining the candidates.