107: Happiness is a Serious Business | Nic Marks

Nic Marks’s TED talk on the Happy Planet Index has been viewed millions of times. He studied maths at Cambridge, is a trained therapist and statistician and was a member of the Think Tank (New Economics Foundation) working on wellbeing that became hugely successful and influential at Governmental level.
A happy team is a successful team. Happiness is ill defined and therefore can be thought of at three different levels. ‘I feel happy’ which is an emotion, ‘I am happy with…’ which is a cognitive judgement and ‘I am a happy person’ which is a personal trait.
Happiness is not a state to reach and maintain, it is a wave function where we go up and down; in and out of happiness. When we are happy, we should carry on, when not happy we need to make a change. Happiness all the time would actually be dysfunctional.
Happiness is a very social emotion. We are 30% more likely to laugh in the presence of another person. This is all about generosity and giving, our ability to have multiple relationships which require the investment of time.
“Are you happy at work?’ is a simple question relevant and east to answer from the CEO to the newest intern (from shop floor to the top floor)
KPI’s are usually a lagging indicator, so leaders need to consider focusing on leading indicators such as a weekly ‘happiness’ check in for teams. Happy individuals deliver better quality and quantity of work and creativity is heavily linked to positivity.
We can’t separate our home and work life as regards happiness, organisations are full of human beings who need care, empathy and understanding to allow all to feel valued and deliver value.
This episode is packed full of top tips and strategies for any leader to start to make happiness a KPI in their organisations.
To check out your own happiness at work see: www.fridayone.com

To learn more about Friday Pulse: www.fridaypulse.com

Read more about Nic and his work: www.nicmarks.org and www.happyplanetindex.org

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