Are you happy at work?
Are the folks around you happy at work?
It’s interesting to notice the direct correlation of happiness and personal responsibility; those who are most unhappy are the ones that believe they are a victim of the circumstances in which they find themselves. Those who are happy at work believe they are empowered to alter their approach to the circumstances in which they find themselves…or they believe they can impact, influence, and create their own reality.
If you are not familiar with the work of Cy Wakeman, she wrote a wonderful book called Reality Based Leadership: Ditch the Drama and Turn Excuses into Results. The overview video is below:
Here are a few quick points she makes that I love!
Truth:
Happiness or engagement is not about perfect circumstances
it’s not about having everything we need to do our work
it is about taking accountability for succeeding in our work in spite of the circumstances
Happiness is directly related to accountability, NOT to our circumstances
68% of Americans quit their jobs on a daily basis: active or passive disengagement. They quit, but keep coming to work and collecting paycheck. Folks stepping down rather than stepping up.
Don’t let your people leave your presence with a list shorter than yours…
Be supportive and take the opportunity to call people to greatness. Focus on how they need to see their reality differently so they themselves can succeed in their own reality. Rather than attempting to fix their world, help them understand how to approach things differently so they themselves can be their own solutions. Not cycle of trying and failing to change reality. Not innocent victims.
Leaders job is to call people to greatness, develop them, bullet proof them, make them immune to their circumstances so they can succeed in spite of the challenges…change their mindsets so they can impact their own circumstances.
Lead first and manage second
know that the pain employees are experiencing has nothing to do with their circumstances, it has to do with their own approach to their circumstances.
Get your team to stop judging and start helping.
No way to impact reality until you change the way you see and approach reality.
Suffering is optional, self imposed. Access to happiness and impact as leader is shifting mindset.
Limiting mindset that cripples:
Learned helplessness: we come to believe that we are at mercy of our circumstances, come to believe we cant’ have any impact over our circumstances. It’s killing our organizations.