Ordinary people as well as human resource professionals, line managers, general managers and CEOs all aspire that they and their organisations reach peak performance. But how?
Employee happiness has become the talk of the town. Every organisation: big or small has started incorporating the word ‘happiness’ into their mission, vision and value statements regardless if they walked the talk or not.
Let’s first define what happiness is and what it is not. Psychologists often refer to happiness as positive state – a mood or emotional state which is brought about by generally positive thoughts and feelings. Positive affect contrasts with low moods and negativity, a state of mind described as negative state in which people take a pessimistic view of their achievements, life situation and future prospects.
In psychology, happiness is defined as “a mental or emotional state of well-being which can be defined by, among others, positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy”. Another definition of happiness is “the experience of joy, contentment, or positive well-being, combined with a sense that one’s life is good, meaningful, and worthwhile”.
In both definitions, happiness is an emotion that is built into people’s being, hardwired into their souls; people are born with a capacity to be happy; it is an inside job. Happiness is not something external that people move towards.
Since happiness is an inner job, so what can organisations do to promote happiness among their employees and increase productivity?
Simply put, an emotionally intelligent management and leadership can help employees unleash their inner happiness emotion and take their organisations to the next level.
So what is emotional intelligence? How does it help generate happiness and positive energy?
This is what we will be discussing next week.
Dr Sharif Bajo, Certified NLP Practitioner, Emotional Intelligence Facilitator
