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You’ve probably heard that a happy employee is a productive one who can boost the bottom line. But just how much? Here are some numbers: 33% higher profitability (Gallup) 43% more productivity (Hay Group) 37% higher sales (Shawn Achor) 300% more innovation (HBR) 51% lower turnover (Gallup) 50% less safety incidents (Babcock Marine Clyde) 66% decrease in sick leave (Forbes) 125% less burnout (HBR) Here, some tips for staying happy at work

You’ve probably heard that a happy employee is a productive one who can boost the bottom line. But just how much?

Here are some numbers:

  • 33% higher profitability (Gallup)
  • 43% more productivity (Hay Group)
  • 37% higher sales (Shawn Achor)
  • 300% more innovation (HBR)
  • 51% lower turnover (Gallup)
  • 50% less safety incidents (Babcock Marine Clyde)
  • 66% decrease in sick leave (Forbes)
  • 125% less burnout (HBR)

Here, some tips for staying happy at work

Why Channeling Your Inner Weirdo Helps You Get Ahead At Work Ogilvy & Mather exec John Manly on workplace success - “Let your freak flag fly.” I have succeeded at five different ad agencies over the course of nearly two decades by sticking to one simple rule: Be a freakin’ weirdo. Weird, you question? Yes, weird. Weird is what fuels individuals in the most prolific agencies to remain the vanguards of new ideas. And despite the tendency to outfit agency halls with creative stimuli, channeling our “inner weirdo” is not a natural tendency simply instigated by odd-shaped chairs or brainstorming books. Weirdness—uncovering it, embracing it, practicing it—is one of the most difficult, yet most integral, components to success within the halls of any agency. “Being weird, I’ve come to realize, is only weird if you don’t use it to better yourself and those around you. Weird is the spark in innovation that separates the good from the great. Weird is the muscle behind adaptability and progress. Weird makes us broader thinkers, stronger leaders, and more adventurous co-conspirators.” Read the rest here.

Why Channeling Your Inner Weirdo Helps You Get Ahead At Work

Ogilvy & Mather exec John Manly on workplace success - “Let your freak flag fly.”

I have succeeded at five different ad agencies over the course of nearly two decades by sticking to one simple rule:

Be a freakin’ weirdo.

Weird, you question? Yes, weird. Weird is what fuels individuals in the most prolific agencies to remain the vanguards of new ideas. And despite the tendency to outfit agency halls with creative stimuli, channeling our “inner weirdo” is not a natural tendency simply instigated by odd-shaped chairs or brainstorming books. Weirdness—uncovering it, embracing it, practicing it—is one of the most difficult, yet most integral, components to success within the halls of any agency.

“Being weird, I’ve come to realize, is only weird if you don’t use it to better yourself and those around you. Weird is the spark in innovation that separates the good from the great. Weird is the muscle behind adaptability and progress. Weird makes us broader thinkers, stronger leaders, and more adventurous co-conspirators.”

Read the rest here.

Do Your Employees Trust You? They might like you, they may even love you, but can they be sure that you’ll get the job done when the chips are down? Why are some companies successful in implementing change while others struggle? Why can some leaders inspire people to work together effectively, while others cannot? These questions puzzled a friend of ours, Cynthia Olmstead, who worked for many years as a business consultant. Even though her methodology and practices didn’t change, outcomes from one organization to another varied widely. What was the key factor that allowed one leader to succeed where others failed? One day on one of her many flights from the West Coast to the East Coast, our friend had a revelation: This key factor was trust. When initiatives failed and relationships were strained, it was usually because people weren’t confident in the leader’s ability or intentions. If an initiative was taking place in a high-trust environment, it had a good chance of success. If an initiative was being implemented in a low-trust culture, its chances of success were remote. Four aspects of trustSatisfied that trust was the key to effective leadership, Cynthia soon found that the concept was hard to define. What was trust? How could she describe it? Did trust mean the same thing to her as it did to others? And if people didn’t have a common definition of trust, how could they ever talk about it—let alone create trust where it didn’t exist? After countless discussions with clients, colleagues, and friends—and the creation of endless flip charts—Cynthia identified four key attributes of trust and wrote about them in a new book, Trust Works! Four Keys to Building Lasting Relationships, co-authored by Ken Blanchard and Martha Lawrence. The four attributes are: Able—Demonstrate CompetenceBelievable—Act with IntegrityConnected—Care about OthersDependable—Maintain Reliability Read the full story here.

Do Your Employees Trust You?

They might like you, they may even love you, but can they be sure that you’ll get the job done when the chips are down?

Why are some companies successful in implementing change while others struggle? Why can some leaders inspire people to work together effectively, while others cannot?

These questions puzzled a friend of ours, Cynthia Olmstead, who worked for many years as a business consultant. Even though her methodology and practices didn’t change, outcomes from one organization to another varied widely. What was the key factor that allowed one leader to succeed where others failed?

One day on one of her many flights from the West Coast to the East Coast, our friend had a revelation: This key factor was trust. When initiatives failed and relationships were strained, it was usually because people weren’t confident in the leader’s ability or intentions. If an initiative was taking place in a high-trust environment, it had a good chance of success. If an initiative was being implemented in a low-trust culture, its chances of success were remote.

Four aspects of trust
Satisfied that trust was the key to effective leadership, Cynthia soon found that the concept was hard to define. What was trust? How could she describe it? Did trust mean the same thing to her as it did to others? And if people didn’t have a common definition of trust, how could they ever talk about it—let alone create trust where it didn’t exist?

After countless discussions with clients, colleagues, and friends—and the creation of endless flip charts—Cynthia identified four key attributes of trust and wrote about them in a new book, Trust Works! Four Keys to Building Lasting Relationships, co-authored by Ken Blanchard and Martha Lawrence. The four attributes are:

Able—Demonstrate Competence
Believable—Act with Integrity
Connected—Care about Others
Dependable—Maintain Reliability

Read the full story here.

Ron Johnson’s 5 Key Mistakes at JC Penney, In His Own Words Fast Company talked to former JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson three months into his new job. What he said then explains why things didn’t work out. Here’s the full story. But here are 5 lessons taken away from Johnson’s miscalculations: 1. JC Penney Is Not A Startup, And Therefore Can’t Behave Like One 2. Not All Business Decisions Can Rely Solely On Gut 3. JC Penney Isn’t Apple 4. Managing A Team Within A Company Requires Different Leadership Skills Than Being The CEO Of A Company 5. Behemoth Businesses Can’t Be Reinvented Overnight What can you learn from Johnson’s JC Penny disaster?

Ron Johnson’s 5 Key Mistakes at JC Penney, In His Own Words

Fast Company talked to former JC Penney CEO Ron Johnson three months into his new job. What he said then explains why things didn’t work out.

Here’s the full story.

But here are 5 lessons taken away from Johnson’s miscalculations:

1. JC Penney Is Not A Startup, And Therefore Can’t Behave Like One

2. Not All Business Decisions Can Rely Solely On Gut

3. JC Penney Isn’t Apple

4. Managing A Team Within A Company Requires Different Leadership Skills Than Being The CEO Of A Company

5. Behemoth Businesses Can’t Be Reinvented Overnight

What can you learn from Johnson’s JC Penny disaster?

Mark Pincus’s Clowns Are Still Haunting Zynga Around this week last year, more than a half-dozen clowns invaded Zynga headquarters in San Francisco, and began terrorizing some of its employees. This wasn’t research for some carnival game the company was working on; no, a herd of clowns—in full makeup, red- and green-haired, the ones who haunt children’s dreams—had swarmed the social-game developer’s offices, and, by some accounts, made employee lives miserable, for days on end. “He means well, but just doesn’t realize the downstream effects of his decisions.” Another former developer lead agrees with the assessment. “It’s almost a mechanistic thing like, ‘Morale is low, so let’s do something that makes people happy.’ It was very typical of Zynga to address the symptoms rather than the root causes.” Here are some of the managerial lessons learned from that episode. [Illustrations by Joel Arbaje]

Mark Pincus’s Clowns Are Still Haunting Zynga

Around this week last year, more than a half-dozen clowns invaded Zynga headquarters in San Francisco, and began terrorizing some of its employees. This wasn’t research for some carnival game the company was working on; no, a herd of clowns—in full makeup, red- and green-haired, the ones who haunt children’s dreams—had swarmed the social-game developer’s offices, and, by some accounts, made employee lives miserable, for days on end.

“He means well, but just doesn’t realize the downstream effects of his decisions.”

Another former developer lead agrees with the assessment. “It’s almost a mechanistic thing like, ‘Morale is low, so let’s do something that makes people happy.’

It was very typical of Zynga to address the symptoms rather than the root causes.”

Here are some of the managerial lessons learned from that episode.

[Illustrations by Joel Arbaje]

fastcodesign: Forget The Mission Statement. What’s Your Mission Question? WARREN BERGER TAPS SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL CEOS IN THE COUNTRY TO REVEAL THE QUESTIONS THAT WILL KEEP ANY COMPANY ON TRACK. Most companies, of course, articulate their missions by way of formal “statements.” But often they’re banal pronouncements (We save people money so they can live better. —WalMart) or debatable assertions (Yahoo! is the premier digital media company) that don’t offer much help in trying to gauge whether a company is actually living up to a larger goal or purpose. Questions, on the other hand, can provide a reality check on whether or not a business is staying true to what it stands for and aims to achieve. So herewith, derived from interviews for my forthcoming book, A More Beautiful Question, are thoughts from a couple of top CEOs (Panera Bread’s Ron Shaich and Patagonia’s Casey Sheahan) and a trio of leading business thinkers/consultants (the Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen, Peer Insight’s Tim Ogilvie, and SY Partners’ Keith Yamashita). The following five “mission questions” are designed to keep a business focused on what matters most. 1. WHY ARE WE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE? 2. WHAT DOES THE WORLD NEED MOST…THAT WE ARE UNIQUELY ABLE TO PROVIDE? 3. WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO SACRIFICE? 4. WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN MONEY? 5. ARE WE ALL ON THIS MISSION TOGETHER? Find out what top CEO’s said about these questions here.

fastcodesign:

Forget The Mission Statement. What’s Your Mission Question?

WARREN BERGER TAPS SOME OF THE MOST POWERFUL CEOS IN THE COUNTRY TO REVEAL THE QUESTIONS THAT WILL KEEP ANY COMPANY ON TRACK.

Most companies, of course, articulate their missions by way of formal “statements.” But often they’re banal pronouncements (We save people money so they can live better. —WalMart) or debatable assertions (Yahoo! is the premier digital media company) that don’t offer much help in trying to gauge whether a company is actually living up to a larger goal or purpose.

Questions, on the other hand, can provide a reality check on whether or not a business is staying true to what it stands for and aims to achieve. So herewith, derived from interviews for my forthcoming book, A More Beautiful Question, are thoughts from a couple of top CEOs (Panera Bread’s Ron Shaich and Patagonia’s Casey Sheahan) and a trio of leading business thinkers/consultants (the Harvard Business School’s Clayton Christensen, Peer Insight’s Tim Ogilvie, and SY Partners’ Keith Yamashita). The following five “mission questions” are designed to keep a business focused on what matters most.

1. WHY ARE WE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

2. WHAT DOES THE WORLD NEED MOST…THAT WE ARE UNIQUELY ABLE TO PROVIDE?

3. WHAT ARE WE WILLING TO SACRIFICE?

4. WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN MONEY?

5. ARE WE ALL ON THIS MISSION TOGETHER?

Find out what top CEO’s said about these questions here.