The Way Towards Happiness at Your Job
by Alexander Wollboldt 16/01/2018
“Happiness” is most likely the most common answer to the question “What is your goal in life?”. But what is real happiness? Some will say that having a filled bank account, the newest smartphone, a fast sports car or the newest designer bag will suffice your definition of being in the ultimate state of being the most happiest person. But isn’t this a little bit like a cat chasing after its own tail? Once you were able to obtain your long wished for gadget how long will it take until you start comparing it to others only to find out that there is already a better, nicer gadget out there? The way towards happiness does not seem to be found in material things.
Does a well paid Job make people happy?
A well paid job might not be the most singular factor to this question either. You can find some interesting contributions about the topic monetary incentives through Daniel Pink on You tube. He describes the phenomenon of highly paid IT specialists spending their spare time developing tools like the Browser Mozilla for free. Just for the purpose of seeing a bigger meaning in this serving the internet community rather than what they are getting paid for in their jobs. So what is it that we have to look for and what drives happiness?
Happiness Factors at Work
One of the questions in Gallup’s Q12 Employee Engagement survey is “Do you have a best friend at work?”. It’s giving us a clue on the driving happiness factors at work to look out for. Having a best friend at work describes a high sense of belonging to the workplace triggered by a person that we have a positive trust relationship with that goes beyond work. One could assume that the more best friends or best friend-like relationships we have at work the more we create an environment of comfort. Positive interactions support such an environment. It is linked to the question what triggers positive emotions in others. So it’s worth spending some one-on-one time with your colleagues talking about those areas that excites them and apply those insights regularly.
The Authenticity of Shared Happiness
When you think about situations where you felt authentic happiness, aren’t those the moments that you spent with your friends, family members, sports team buddies and you experienced amazing beauty of nature, travel adventures or victories in sports competitions? And aren’t those the moments that you love to bring back into your memories and enjoy it even more when you can share those with the ones that were with you during those times? In fact, this seems to be the answers the to the initial question. Experiential happiness is the only authentic happiness that will last longest. So it is very much on us to establish the preconditions of happiness at work by creating positive interactions with our colleagues and try to create memorable moments together. Let’s pave the way towards happiness at work!
by Alexander Wollboldt 16/01/2018
Alex Wollboldt is a Certified Management Accountant (CMA), – Consultant (CMC) and Gallup Strengths Coach and has a decade of corporate professional history as Finance Head and Director in manufacturing and service industries in different locations such as Germany, Japan and the Philippines. He is a founding partner at Wissen Solomon, a business consultancy that provides businesses through consulting and coaching expertise in the area of digitization, marketing, finance, operations and organizational development. Alex also acts as co-director for OSG Global Consultancy taking care of various areas involving private equity investments, financial advisory, M&A mostly in the Philippines and other South East Asian countries.
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