Author Archive for Chris Cook – Page 10

Why Coaching? Why Now?

Posted by Chris Cook on
 July 30, 2013
  ·  No Comments

Fish out of Water

The Wall Street Journal reveals that executive coaches report steady demand for their services despite the recession. As the economy begins to bounce back, those individual and corporate clients say this one-on-one coaching has been instrumental to their career and organization’s success. Flourishing companies understand that coaching is a way to develop and keep their organization’s key talent, which is critical in any economy.

How I Can Help

I am excited to announce that as of June 25, 2013, I am a Certified Professional Co-Active Coach® (CPCC) through The Coaches Training Institute (CTI). Recognized as the most rigorous coaching program in the industry, CTI includes hands-on coaching, ongoing group work and one-on-one supervision of actual coaching sessions. After successful completion of the program (196 training hours and 100+ coaching hours), I passed the written and oral certification exams, earning my CPCC designation! It has been one of the most rewarding learning experiences I have ever enjoyed, and I am already using these coaching skills with individuals and organizations.

CPCC Logo
I’m joining a broad and varied group of professionals. To date, more than 20,000 coaches, consultants, managers and new career explorers have been trained through CTI. Coaches come from diverse backgrounds and careers, including marketers, entrepreneurs, CEOs, accountants, scientists, engineers, dentists, educators, therapists and community leaders.

How Organizations Can Benefit

Major organizations such as Marriott, IBM, Boeing and the EPA have offered Co-Active Coach® training to increase management and employee effectiveness. They recognize the value of coaching in honing leadership, management and communication skills of senior leaders and high-potentials.

How Individuals Can Benefit

You’ve heard it said, “It’s lonely at the top.” By working with a coach, the most isolated executive can explore goals, realities and options with a trusted source—someone who will encourage and hold them accountable for the actions and ways of being they determine will move them in the right direction.

While you’re growing and becoming your best self, a coach is on your side, championing you while believing in your natural creativity and resourcefulness.

The Hard Facts

Data at International Coaches Federation (of which I am a member) states that professional coaching brings many wonderful benefits, including fresh perspectives on personal challenges, enhanced decision-making skills, greater interpersonal effectiveness and increased confidence.

The list does not end there. Those who undertake coaching also can expect appreciable improvement in productivity; satisfaction with life and work; and the attainment of relevant goals. Data researched by PricewaterhouseCoopers follows.

Increased Productivity

Professional coaching maximizes potential and unlocks latent sources of productivity.

Improved work performance: 70%

Improved business management: 61%

Improved time management: 51%

Improved team effectiveness: 51%

Increased Positivity

Building the self-confidence of employees to face challenges is critical in meeting organizational demands.

Improved self-confidence: 80%

Improved relationships: 73%

Improved communication: 72%

Improved life/work balance: 67%

Return on Investment

John Schweiger Testimonial for Chris CookCoaching generates learning and clarity for forward action with a commitment to measurable outcomes. The vast majority of companies (86%) say they made at least their investment back.

More information on the benefits of coaching can be found in the ICF Research Portal, including case studies and industry reports.

For more client testimonials, see Leadership Coaching. Contact me at 541.601.0114 or chris@capiche.us to learn more or schedule a free session. I guarantee movement toward positive change in your first 30-minutes.

Blog Leadership Coaching Life Coaching Organizational Development
Tags : , , , , , ,

What’s Your Sign? Let’s Talk Personal Brand

Posted by Chris Cook on
 July 9, 2013
  ·  1 Comment

Lifting the Horizon

Here’s an old line with a new twist: what’s your elevator speech—for yourself?

You’ve probably invested weeks or even months defining your company’s brand, zeroing in on the sweet spot that distinguishes your organization from its competitors and then figuring out how to live it.

But how much thought have you given to your personal brand? What makes you stand out from your colleagues? What unique contributions do you make, both to your organization and the wider world?

Brand is central to all interactions—personal, business, online, social media—and is a combination of what you say and do as well as how you show up. And if you never bothered to think about it, your brand may be more accidental than intentional.

Below are some questions that will help you access the core of your being, see yourself as others do and distinguish between what you do and who you really are. Based on this information, you may decide to present yourself a little differently.

What Do You Believe?

It’s time to get personal clarity about your beliefs. What are you passionate about? What inspires you?

Pretend you’re introducing yourself to a new colleague or prospective client. How would you complete this sentence? “I believe …”

If someone asked me that question, I would say, “I believe that finding the positive in people and organizations contributes to a better world. I like to start by helping individuals develop their unique strengths, and this leads to better performance and greater happiness.”

What Taste Do You Leave in People’s Mouths?

Is it sweet, savory, or a pinch of both? Is it spicy or bland, bitter or sour—or perhaps you bring a touch of umami flair?

How does your presence influence others? What do they say about you after you’ve left a meeting? What will they say about you after you’ve left this world?

Whether or not you intend to, you affect others. People often don’t realize the impact they have on others unless it is publicly recognized—awards, celebrity, trophies of one sort or another. Few are aware when they have a deflating, enraging, or otherwise negative effect.

It might help to ask your colleagues and friends to give you an honest assessment of your brand. Ask them to not hold back—it might be tough to hear, but this is an opportunity to see yourself in a new way. If you don’t like what you see, change it.

You Are Not Your Job Title

You are more than the sum of your duties. Your personal brand has as much to do with how you do something as what you do.

When you perform a task, how can someone recognize your hand as opposed to your coworker’s? What are the telltale signs of your role in the project? Why would someone hire or promote you over a peer with similar skillsets?

Redefining Your Brand

You may be at a point in your life when you’re ready to change your brand. How do you go about getting people to take you seriously as y when they’ve always seen you as x?

You don’t want to be perceived as a chameleon, a waffler, or a wanderer. Just because you’ve decided to change doesn’t mean others will understand this is an evolutionary step rather than a screwball adventure.

Perhaps you’re embarking on a new career or starting your own business. You need to craft a narrative that gives people a bridge between your past and present selves. How does your old, familiar brand tie in with your new one? How does it give you an edge in a field that may be new to you?

Frame your story in such a way that your apparent weaknesses become compelling advantages. Say you’re a surgeon turned sculptor. While you may be new to the medium of clay, your knowledge of anatomy and ability to work deftly with your hands will imbue your work with striking accuracy and detail. Put it in a 30-second elevator speech.

Going Up

Here’s my elevator speech: ”I believe that finding the positive in people and organizations contributes to a better world. I like to start by helping individuals develop their unique strengths, and this leads to better performance and greater happiness. Combining my background in marketing, positive psychology and coaching, I help individuals and organizations define and then live their brand—which leads to better health, greater productivity and more meaningful and meaning-filled lives.”

So what’s yours? Please share.

Find Your Brand, Change Your Life

If you need help figuring out your personal brand, consider hiring a leadership coach. Let me give you a 20-minute sample session. Call 541.601.0114 or email chris@capiche.us to find out how I can help you transform yourself—and your world.

Blog Branding Leadership Coaching
Tags : , , , , , ,

Speaking of Happiness: How to Have Your Cake—And Eat It, Too

Posted by Chris Cook on
 June 22, 2013
  ·  No Comments

Little Girl about to Chomp Down on Big Chocolate Cake

There’s a lot of buzz about the significance of employee engagement—Forbes, Gallup Business Journal, and Harvard Business Review have all published articles on engagement just in the last three months. I, too, have examined the topic—most recently reporting on the Hay Group findings that highly engaged employees can quadruple a company’s revenue growth and generate 89% greater customer satisfaction.

There’s no denying employee engagement matters, but it’s only one tessellating piece of a bigger jigsaw. Myopically focusing on engagement can obscure our view of the most reliable predictor of performance—you guessed it, happiness. As I explained in “Why Employee Engagement Trumps Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction,” it’s possible for an employee to be highly engaged, but that doesn’t mean they’re happy (and when they’re not happy, they are most likely looking for a new job). On the flip side, however, happy employees always rank high on both engagement and job satisfaction.

When companies shift their focus from engagement to happiness, they get to have their cake and eat it, too.

Engagement is a good first step, and I believe in the importance of what’s measured in Gallup’s well-revered “Q12” engagement survey. In the recent “Five Questions You Must Ask Your Team,” Stosh Walsh explains how organizations can boost engagement using Gallup’s Q12 engagement survey results.

The Q12 action planning process requires the team to:

1) Define each of the Q12 items

2) Articulate what the ideal looks like for each item

3) Identify the difference between their reality and their ideal

4) Select which items have the greatest impact on the company’s culture or performance

5) Determine what each team member will do to increase engagement

But why limit ourselves to one tree in the forest? If we strengthen the ecosystem, the tree will follow suit. Happiness is the secret to enhancing not just engagement but also satisfaction, health, loyalty, and innovation—not to mention performance and productivity.

Let’s instead consider what questions we can ask to help spread happiness at work. Fortunately, some really smart people like those at Delivering Happiness have already put tremendous thought and research into this question. Based on the New Economics Foundation’s dynamic model of well-being, their Happiness at Work survey is designed to do precisely that.

New Economics Foundation Dynamic Model of Well-Being

The dynamic model of well-being measures four primary areas of happiness at work, each with its own matrix of four intersecting components: 1) experience of work, 2) functioning at work, 3) organizational system, and 4) personal resources. The survey assesses 40 factors to determine the organization’s and individual employees’ levels of happiness.

Here are 16 sample questions posed by the survey:

Experience of Work

1) To what extent do you feel proud to work for your company? (positive feelings)

2) How much of the time you spend at work do you feel frustrated? (negative feelings)

3) How much of the time you spend at work are you absorbed in what you are doing? (engaging work)

4) Thinking about the job you do, in general would you say that the job you do is worthwhile? (worthwhile work)

Functioning at Work

The Hidden Costs of Disengagement1) To what extent do you get the chance to be creative in your job? (self-expression)

2) To what extent can you influence decisions that are important for your work? (sense of control)

3) To what extent do you like the people within your team? (work relationships)

4) To what extent have you been able to learn new skills at work? (sense of progress)

Organizational System

1) To what extent do you worry you might lose your job in the next six months? (job design)

2) To what extent do you feel trusted by your manager? (management system)

3) To what extent is it safe to speak up and challenge the way things are done within the company? (work environment)

4) In general would you say that the job you do is beneficial to society in general? (social value)

Personal Resources

1) To what extent do you feel full of energy in life? (vitality)

2) Taking all things together how happy would you say you are? (happiness)

3) In general would you say you find it easy or difficult to deal with important problems that come up in your life? (confidence)

4) How satisfied are you with the balance between the time you spend on your work and the time you spend on other aspects of your life? (work-life balance)

How would you answer these questions? Take the free Happiness at Work survey to find out how happy you are in your work. Do you feel the results are accurate? I will be interested to hear your experience of the process!

Blog Business Research Happiness at Work Organizational Development Positive Psychology Science of Happiness
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

Project Teams: Your Nemesis or a Sure Way to Succeed? The Devil Is in the Details.

Posted by Chris Cook on
 June 5, 2013
  ·  No Comments
CRR Global Founder CEO and Course Leader Marita Fridjhon with Students Chris Cook and Adele James

CRR Global founder, CEO and course leader Marita Fridjhon with students Chris Cook and Adele James

How often do you work in distinct teams to achieve a goal? (Probably quite often if you work for an organization of any size.) And how often do these team projects go perfectly? (Hmm … if my own experience is any indication, my guess is there are usually challenges.) What happens when they don’t go perfectly? (Well? What happens?)

I’ve spent the last two days in a CRR Global workshop that recognizes and teaches that no person is an island. We are all part of complex systems—families, teams, communities, companies. And we can design ways to make sure each of these systems has a greater chance to succeed. If we begin any team assignment by “designing a team alliance,” we can set the team up to succeed. This is a positive foundation that builds on the research that shows increasing the positivity on project teams also increases productivity (Goleman 2005; Losada and Heaphy 2004).

Here are the three simple steps to follow:

1. Identify the team’s agenda

In other words, what is the team tasked to do? What will success look like? How will success be measured?

2. Create a team agreement

In creating a team agreement, ask questions such as:

  • What is the atmosphere or culture we wish our team to work within?
  • How do we embody that atmosphere or culture?
  • What will help our partnership flourish?
  • What kinds of behaviors will not be tolerated?
  • How will we act when things get difficult?
  • What do we each agree to be accountable for?

3. Revisit the team agreement on a regular basis—especially when things get difficult

Research proves teams that create agreements about protocol—especially during times of conflict and decision-making—do better than teams with no such agreements (Guttman 2008). By consciously exploring ways to increase cohesion and alignment, the team greatly enhances its probability of success.

Learn how to ensure more successful projects within your teams. It’s as easy as 1-2-3. Give Chris a call at 541.601.0114 or email chris@capiche.us. Let’s design a team alliance that can set the tone for many successes to come.

Resources

Losada, M. & Heaphy, E. (February 2004). “The role of positivity in teams.” American Behavioral Scientist, 47(6).

Goleman, D. (2005). Primal Leadership. Harvard Business Press.

Guttman, H. (2008). Great Business Teams. Wiley.

Blog Business Research Organizational Development
Tags : , , , , , , , ,

How to Live the Brand—and Play to Your Strengths

Posted by Chris Cook on
 May 20, 2013
  ·  No Comments

Walking on the Beach

Say your company just invested a hefty amount of time and resources in a process to clarify its brand and claim its position in the market. Now that you’ve codified your brand, including your signature strengths, how do you help employees embody those principles on a daily basis? What are you doing to develop and promote your organization’s and your employees’ strengths?

Living the Brand

Walking the TalkIt’s not as hard as it sounds. Here are four ways your company can help people walk the talk.

1) The Interview. It all starts here. Zappos employees don’t need to be told how to live the brand—they do it naturally. As CEO Tony Hsieh explains in Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose, the company’s core values drive the interview process, and Zappos hires individuals who are inherently passionate about those values.

2) Conversations. Create a culture that encourages employees to discuss the company’s values. When your mission guides strategic decisions, when employees measure their actions against the company’s brand and when everyday conversations organically reflect the organizational values, you know your employees both understand and practice those values.

3) Peer-to-Peer Training. Let staff—not managers—take the lead when it comes to values training. When new and current employees learn about the company’s core principles from their peers, this dynamic gives the trainees a living example to follow while the trainers deepen their own awareness of the company’s values.

Walking the Talk4) Business Tools. The mission, vision, and values shouldn’t be an awkward uniform your employees don when they enter the building and drop in the foyer on their way out. In Delivering Happiness, employees talk about how Zappos’ first Core  Value—Deliver WOW Through Service—has affected the way they live their entire lives. They consistently make the extra effort to create moments of wow, whether it be on the phone helping a customer or relating to a fellow shopper at the grocery store.

Nurturing Individual Strengths

Two years ago when I launched Capiche, I wanted to create a company that was committed not only to educating but also transforming organizations. Armed with science of happiness research, best business practices, and positive psychology principles, I set out to help companies “understand and develop the capital within.”

Too many organizations treat their employees as if they’re expendable, interchangeable parts. If employees disengage, management issues pink slips and orders a fresh batch of replacements. When the reinforcements wear out, the cycle repeats. Rarely do such companies stop to examine why they are failing to engage their employees.

In a recent Gallup poll conducted at 14 different companies, the 105,000 employees surveyed only mildly agreed—3.87 on a scale of strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5)—that their company was nurturing their strengths.

If you want to help employees connect with your company’s brand and signature strengths, you need to identify and nurture their strengths.

Clifton StrengthsFinder is a fantastic tool for this discovery process. It can be an illuminating and fun experience for the employees and will help you see how each person’s strengths can best benefit the company.

Know Your Coworkers

Once you’ve discovered your employees’ talents, the next step is ensuring peers understand and rely on each other’s strengths.

This happens less often than you might realize. When Gallup asked 8,900 employees how strongly they agreed with the statement that they could name the strengths of five coworkers, the mean score was only 3.78 out of a possible 5.

Effective collaboration requires that team members know their coworkers’ strengths. A smaller group of employees chosen based on complimentary strengths can achieve far more than a large, haphazardly composed team. When tasks are divvied up according to individual talents, you’ll see that efficiency, passion and productivity skyrocket.

Coming Full Circle

So yes, brand is important, and clarifying your company’s core values, mission, and vision is a critical step toward building a successful brand, but all of those pretty words mean nothing if your employees don’t resonate with them and incorporate them into their day-to-day routines.

Similarly, identifying your company’s unique strengths should be followed up with an effective strategy for understanding and developing strengths within your employees. When you harness the talents of individuals for the expression of your company’s signature strengths, together you will become a formidable creative force.

Helping organizations harness this creative force is Capiche’s passion. Call Chris at 541.601.0114 or email chris@capiche.us if you’re ready to put this force to work for your organization.

Blog Branding Business Research Happiness at Work Marketing Organizational Development
Tags : , , , , , , , , , ,

The Cinderella Fit: 5 Steps to a Better Brand

Posted by Chris Cook on
 May 6, 2013
  ·  1 Comment

Brown Men's Shoe

Adopting a new brand shouldn’t make you feel like an ugly stepsister squishing her foot into a tiny glass slipper. Rather, you’re looking for that Cinderella fit, a thoughtful melding of truth and optimism that empowers your company to grow into its deeper self. The shoe fits, but your toes still have room to wiggle.

A few months ago, I wrote a post called Creating Your Brand from the Inside Out: Why Your Culture Comes First, which was later published in the January 2013 issue of Utah Construction & Design. In that piece, I discussed the inextricable relationship between culture and brand.

Your brand should reflect your organization’s unique genetic identity with a spritz of aspiration. You want your company to recognize itself in the mirror, but maybe looking a tad dapperly, so it straightens its posture, brushes the lint off its shoulder, and strides toward the future with vision and confidence.

How do you achieve that magical fit? As a brand development consultant, I would take these five steps to discover and unleash your organization’s brand.

1) Formulate guiding questions to illuminate core issues. Don’t think of these as literal questions posed in a survey or focus group but instead view them as headings in your final report. Some examples include:

  • What is your current brand image/reputation among target audiences and stakeholders?
  • What positive and negative associations are attached to the organization?
  • What are the major brand associations of your competitors?
  • How is your company different and better?
  • What should you strive to be?
  • What tactical brand differentiation and marketing opportunities exist?

2) Thoroughly examine the facts through a qualitative discovery process. Get an honest view of your firm’s reality by conducting a competitive analysis, quantitative data assessment, and communications audit as well as gaining an understanding of the company’s history.

3) Involve all members of the organization. Establishing a transparent, comprehensive process in which every employee feels heard is not only vital for buy-in but also ensures the brand truly reflects the company’s culture. Participants will be more invested in the process and committed to maintaining its outcomes.

4) Develop a distinctive set of “brand tools.” A brand messaging platform will focus and guide marketing and organizational decisions. It includes a positioning statement, key messages, and brand attributes. The positioning statement reflects the institutional DNA and is so unique to the organization that it cannot be applied to any other company. The key messages articulate the firm’s purpose and direction, while brand attributes comprise a list of adjectives that describe the company’s character.

Branding Sweet Spot5) Bring the brand to life. Through a targeted creative process, design a visual identity that captures the company’s personality and develop a marketing strategy that is built around your company’s “sweet spot”—the intersection of what’s important to clients, what you do very well, and what your competition is not doing. Most importantly, help your employees understand and “live” the brand in everything they do—from answering the phone to delivering a presentation to hiring a new associate. The more deeply your brand is interwoven with your culture, the easier that glass slipper will glide on—and stay.

Are you ready to uncover your unique brand? Contact me at 541.601.0114 or chris@capiche.us to find out how Capiche can help your organization crack its genetic code and chart its course for future success.

Blog Branding Marketing
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Six Key Features of the Happiest Workplace on Earth

Posted by Chris Cook on
 April 23, 2013
  ·  2 Comments

Honeybees on Flowers

Let’s pretend you’ve been given carte blanche to design the company of your dreams. What would that company look like? How would you do things differently? Why would your employees look forward to starting work each day?

You already know creating a happy workplace isn’t just about Casual Fridays and big paychecks. And the reasons for its importance go way beyond the individual. Companies are discovering that if they want to thrive, if they want productivity to soar, they need to invest in their human capital.

New research by the Hay Group reinforces this concept. Companies with highly engaged employees experience four times the revenue growth, 54% higher employee retention rates and 89% greater customer satisfaction than companies whose employees are not emotionally connected to the organization. And those engaged employees are 50% more likely to transcend their leaders’ expectations.

How do you create an environment that inspires this kind of firecracker enthusiasm? Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones have spent the last three years trying to answer that question. After surveying hundreds of executives around the world, they published their findings on the alchemy of the ideal workplace in the May 2013 Harvard Business Review.

Goffee and Jones identified six common practices of authentic, happy organizations. These companies:

1) Nurture individuality. According to research conducted by London Business School Professor Dan Cable, when employees feel free to be completely themselves at work, they are more dedicated, perform at higher levels and happily lend a helping hand to their peers. This inclusivity extends beyond conventional categories of race, age and gender to embrace intellectual diversity and personal eccentricities. There are no cultish cliques, bosses’ pets, pressures to conform or feelings of inequity. Ideas flourish in this multidisciplinary melting pot where English majors hang with accountants, artists with engineers and jocks with the IT crowd.

2) Practice open, honest communication. There is no trust without transparency, and authentic happiness requires a shared level of trust among all members of an organization. Don’t patronize your staff—empower them with knowledge. The more they understand—even when the news appears bad—the more potential solutions they can offer. And suppose you’re a branch office of a larger organization. Keep the corporate information flowing—even if it seems to change willy-nilly. You can create a culture of “We’re all in this together.”

3) Encourage employee development. Create the time and resources for people to pursue their passions. This goes deeper than skill-building, educational opportunities and professional development, although those are important. Maybe an employee has a yearning to take up graphic design, Spanish or creative writing. Even if the subject isn’t obviously related to their job, they may discover a hidden strength that, if nurtured, could end up benefiting the organization in unexpected ways. By awakening and developing these talents, the company not only helps the employee become a richer human being, but that employee may evolve to fill a new institutional role that enriches the overall organization.

4) Serve a meaningful purpose. Employees who feel part of a larger cause and who know their organization is making a difference in the world will wake early, stay late and work through lunch to help achieve that collective purpose. Their lives will be imbued with a meaning driven by the quest for a greater good, and they will be proud to share your company’s mission with others.

5) Offer work that is rewarding in itself. Rewrite job descriptions to focus on each person’s strengths and assign projects that allow employees to flex their creative muscles. Budding videographers can film commercials; short-story writers can compose marketing copy; comic book artists can design the company handbook. Keep inspiration flowing, and the organization will become a hotbed of innovation.

6) Don’t make employees follow mindless rules. In the 1999 comedy Office Space, about five different bosses chastise the protagonist for forgetting to put the new coversheet on his TSP reports. This has become iconic for the arbitrary busywork and “just-because” rules companies force their employees to follow. Pointless tasks breed resentment and dread—pretty much the last feelings you would expect to find in the happiest workplace on earth.

What Does a Happy Workplace Get You?

Goffee and Jones conclude, “People want to do good work—to feel they matter in an organization that makes a difference. They want to work in a place that magnifies their strengths, not their weaknesses.”

Makes sense, doesn’t it? And yet traditional, profit-driven business culture fails to cultivate its most valuable resource: employees. Creating a happy workplace is a win-win for the staff and the company. It’s time for our business models to reflect this growing, research-driven awareness.

Do these six principles describe your dream organization? Are there other characteristics you would add to this list? I’d love to hear about your experiences with positive workplaces.

For more about the benefits of happy workplaces, see my previous posts:

A New Report on Workplace Happiness

Is Your Work a Test of Endurance or a Labor of Love?

Learning About Happiness and Company Culture from the Big Dogs

Why Happiness at Work Trumps Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction

Is Anyone Sick of Happiness of Work? I’m Not, and Here’s Why

The Value of Happiness: How Employee Well-Being Drives Profits

Is Happiness a Luxury Small Businesses Can’t Afford?

Wall Street Journal Measuring Happiness at Work

If Happiness Drives Performance, How Do I Get Happy at Work?

Cash in on Happiness

Blog Happiness at Work Organizational Development Positive Psychology Science of Happiness
Tags : , , , , , ,

How Important Is Leadership—Really?

Posted by Chris Cook on
 April 10, 2013
  ·  4 Comments

Clouds

Leaders define an organization. Leaders inspire employees to achieve terrific heights. Leaders make the difference between success and failure.… Or do they?

A recent survey of 1,000 employees suggests otherwise. Conducted by the Communications for Executive Council, the study reveals that employees value connection with their fellow employees over big-personality leaders—1.6 times more, to be exact.

Tools and resources won out over charismatic leadership for 75 percent of those surveyed. Just under a quarter of the group (24 percent) were inspired by their leaders, and only 31 percent felt the leadership respected their opinions. As few as 29 percent said leaders shared the reasoning behind their decision making with workers.

Employees who adore their organization perform better than the lukewarm … don’t they? Wrong again. There is little perceivable difference in the performance of employees who sort of like your organization and those who love it. Even building pride in an organization fails to raise productivity levels.

It is only when employees feel connected with and supported by their coworkers that researchers observe a noticeable difference in their performance. Building a stronger interpersonal network encourages employees to learn from and consult each other when they hit a stumbling block. They feel buoyed rather than threatened by their peers, and this connectedness sets the stage for a more productive work environment.

A Jobsite.co.uk survey echoed these findings across the pond. For 70 percent of the 1,000 UK employees surveyed, the number one factor contributing to job happiness was workplace friendships.

Those of us familiar with Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness are not surprised. Even though the Zappos founder is an iconic example of inspirational leadership, he recognizes that happiness is found not within a single person but in the spaces between them (see Chapter 7, p. 34). The cultural fabric of an organization emerges from the overlapping intersections of the warp and woof, not the individual thread.

But that’s not to say leaders are insignificant. Leadership style matters. Those leaders who encourage employees to connect, share resources, and participate in the decision making process have a 1.6 times greater impact on the bottom line than cult-of-personality leaders.

A little less ra ra ra and a little more kumbaya may well be the key to organizational success. Happiness researchers know friendships play a key role in employee engagement, which in turn influences performance. Indeed, that is one of Zappos’ secret weapons—by consistently hiring employees who already share their core values, Zappos cultivates an organic culture with deep, interlocking roots rather than manufacturing an astroturf one.

Do these findings jibe with your experiences, whether as a leader or an employee? Have you felt the difference between a workplace where you were closely connected with your peers and one that centered around a magnetic personality? Which environment felt happier—and more productive?

Blog Business Research Happiness at Work Leadership Coaching Organizational Development
Tags : , , , , , , , , ,

Take a 75% Pay Cut? Are You Kidding?

Posted by Chris Cook on
 March 11, 2013
  ·  6 Comments

Chinese Lanterns

Last week while visiting Eugene, my friend and I were craving Chinese food. We checked Yelp and found the highest-ranking Chinese restaurant. Driving there in the rain, we were hoping the food would be good. We love Chinese food—good Chinese food.

The restaurant didn’t look like much from the outside. It was small, located in a strip mall. But when we walked into the restaurant, we were encouraged to see an older Chinese couple at a large table by the door. We hoped this was a sign that the food would be authentic. Also at the table were three young children and a woman in her 30s.

The food was delicious and the service top-notch. The waiter was energetic and had a show-stopping smile. He brought a sense of joy to the dining room as he made sure all the patrons were enjoying their meals. After observing the sweet interactions between the waiter and the children at the large table, we asked him if those were his children. Yes they were, he beamed, and he proceeded to point out all of his family members at that table—his children, wife and parents. His sister was just joining them.

He then said, “I took at 75 percent pay cut to come home to Eugene to be with my family.” Wow!

“I was a desk monkey at Nike and had successfully climbed the corporate ladder, and I thought I had to keep climbing because that’s just what you do,” he said. “But then one day, I realized I wasn’t happy.”

He said he didn’t get to spend much time with his young family. He missed his parents and siblings. So he quit his high-paying, high-prestige career to move “home” to Eugene and wait tables at his family restaurant.

At first it was scary to take such a pay cut, to take such a risk, he said. But then he thought about the risk his parents took when they emigrated from China when he and his two siblings were young children. They weren’t sure what the US would be like, but they had faith that they could have a better life. Beloved by many, the restaurant they started is now the highest-ranked Chinese restaurant in Eugene, and it’s a place for family to come together.

Taking that risk, he said, was the best decision he has ever made. He is secure in his conviction that being with his family is more important than money and status—it’s what truly makes him happy and fulfilled. And you can tell by his smile.

What makes you happy and fulfilled? What would you do to find true happiness? Coaching can help you discover these answers. Call me at 541.601.0114 or email me if you’re interested in an exploratory coaching session. Let’s see just how rich your life can be.

Blog Food and Dining Happiness at Work Life Coaching Science of Happiness
Tags : , , , , , , ,

Civility Costs Nothing—and Buys Everything

Posted by Chris Cook on
 February 26, 2013
  ·  2 Comments

Rudeness at Work

It Really Does Pay to Be the “Nice Guy”

With the science of happiness at work as a cornerstone of my business model, I am always interested in new research that illustrates how happy employees are more productive and creative, provide better customer service, are better team players, are sick less and stay longer. These days, there is a LOT of that research, and the findings continue to be consistent with these positive outcomes.

It amazes me that I still find people who resist the idea of happiness at work—or those who believe the statistics but think they don’t have the time or resources to invest in creating a workplace where happiness is part of the culture.

“Happiness at work? I’m not happy—why should anyone else be?” or “They should be happy to have a job.” or “We’re not here to be happy; we’re here to make a profit.” Then I remind them happiness at work boosts the bottom line, and their interest is piqued.

This month a new piece of research was published in the Harvard Business Review about civility and rudeness: “The Price of Incivility: Lack of Respect Hurts Morale—and the Bottom Line.” Guess what? Civility at work creates results similar to happiness at work, and rudeness at work creates results that correlate to unhappiness at work.

Kid Sticking Tongue OutDid you know rudeness at work is raging and is on the rise? According to researchers, 98 percent of workers polled said they experienced rudeness at work—with half of them experiencing it at least once a week, up from 25 percent in 1998.

Like unhappiness at work, rudeness at work undermines the bottom line. In a poll of 800 managers and employees in 17 industries, the researchers found the following statistics:

Among employees who have experienced incivility at work:

  • 48% intentionally decreased their work effort
  • 47% intentionally decreased the time they spent at work
  • 38% intentionally decreased the quality of their work
  • 80% lost work time worrying about the incident
  • 63% lost work time avoiding the offender
  • 66% said their performance declined
  • 78% said their commitment to the organization declined
  • 12% said they left their job because of the uncivil treatment
  • 24% admitted to taking their frustration out on customers

Other studies have found that creativity suffers, performance and team spirit declines, and customers who witness the rude behaviors turn away. Sounds a lot like what happens with unhappiness at work.

It also sounds like a recipe for disaster—not a way to increase an organization’s profits or become known as an employer of choice. And it’s expensive! According to a study conducted by Accountemps and reported in Fortune, managers and executives at Fortune 1,000 firms spend 13 percent of their time—the equivalent of seven weeks per year—mending employee relationships and dealing with the aftermath of incivility. And just think of the costs should consultants and attorneys be brought in to help settle a situation.

So what’s a leader to do?

In managing yourself, model good behavior. After all, the leader sets the tone of the organization. You are on stage, and your supporting cast is taking cues from you. Ask for feedback—what do your employees like and dislike about your leadership style? How does that relate to civility (or happiness) at work? What can you do to shift behaviors that are perceived poorly?

Coworker ConflictAnd keep a pulse on the organization. What’s really going on, and how are people treated and treating others? You need to be connected to your workforce and constantly striving to create a culture where people feel as though they have what’s needed to succeed.

In managing the organization, hire for and reward civility. If civility is a key attribute your culture values, put it above all else. For example, at Zappos, people are hired based on fit within the culture, and the most skilled person will be passed over if their values don’t match the values Zappos has deemed essential to its core. Share those values (and make sure civility is one of them) and demonstrate what it looks like to live those values. Be specific. Tie those to individual performance assessments and rewards, and celebrate circumstances in which the values of civility and respect shine brightly.

Rude or civil? Unhappy or happy? The choice is clear. Civil, respectful cultures enjoy the same benefits as cultures where people are encouraged and given a climate where they can succeed at work—that’s when they can reach their potential.

Today’s data show creating a culture of civility and happiness is not simply the morally right thing to do, it’s also the fiscally responsible thing to do.

Contact me for more specifics or for a culture check of your organization. Let’s see how your company can become an employer of choice—a place where people feel as though their contributions matter, a place that resonates with their values, vision, passion and sense of purpose. It is possible!

Blog Happiness at Work Organizational Development Science of Happiness
Tags : , , , , , , , , , , , ,
← Previous Page
Next Page →

Subscribe to Our Blog!

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Follow Capiche

Facebook IconTwitter IconLinkedIn Icon

Tweets

Certified By

CPCC Logo

Accreditation

iOpener Logo

Training

Dare to Lead–Trained Badge

Training

ORSC-Trained Badge