| I’ve recently had an opportunity to challenge my own purpose in life and to consider the interesting question of whether there is a connection in business (and life) between Purpose, Happiness and Results.I have been researching ideas by other writers such as Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, world famous psychologist who wrote the book ‘The State of Flow’ and the causes of happiness, academics such as Paul Hannam and coach Mickey Feher who recently wrote on a similar topic. I was shocked to find a survey by Gallup in 2013 found that a massive 71% of US workers are not engaged or actively disengaged from their job. The CIPD found that 70% of workers in the public sector are disengaged – so different countries and similar results.
On the other hand, research shows that happiness in staff raises sales by 37%, productivity by 31% and accuracy on tasks by 19%. This is based on Shawn Achor’s work widely used on CNN, TED talks and the Harvard Business Review. Yet businesses often ignore all this and throughout the downturn, the attitude seems to have been all about more from staff for less. This has led to more disengagement in both the public and private sectors. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi argued that behind happiness there is a state called FLOW. Flow is built on simple things like clear goals, direct and immediate feedback, balance between ability and challenge, sense of personal control over the situation and an intrinsically rewarding activity.
I wonder, what makes something intrinsically rewarding to you? The answer is always something that is important to you, in other words, it is aligned to your personal values. Think about the work that has made you most happy. Why was this? Which of your core values were being satisfied? To get your 70% of disengaged workers to start being engaged you need to tap into their disconnected and misaligned values and help them make the link between what is important to them and what they do for a living. Yes you might lose some people as they realise they are in the ‘wrong’ job but others will feel re-energised from within themselves.
The really important message here is to help your people to focus on:
Changing themselves
NOT their Circumstances
Many of you may be thinking that it isn’t possible to be fully aligned to your work and feel totally engaged. This is what Paul Hannam describes as a ‘Fixed Mindset’ and will not get you where you might need to. One of my favourite quotes is:
‘’What got you here, won’t get you there.”
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