According to a 2015 article in Fast Company, the University of Warwick found that happiness lead to a 12% spike in productivity, while unhappy workers proved 10% less productive. As the research team put it, “We find that human happiness has large and positive causal effects on productivity. Positive emotions appear to invigorate human beings.” Now don’t you think it’s time to have some fun at work?
If you want your employees to enjoy coming to work learn to lead with a light heart.
Make employees feel like they’re making a difference
If you really want to lead with a light heart, you have to understand that everyone wants to feel important. No one wants to feel like they slink in and out of work every day, making very little difference to the company or their coworkers. Show all of your employees how important they are by sharing how each and every one of them makes a difference. And, even more importantly, if they are not making a difference, don’t tolerate poor performance because they are dragging everyone else down.
Create special awards for top performers, friendliest customer service representatives, and extraordinary accomplishments. Take a little time out of each day to personally thank at least one person for something that they did for the company that was appreciated.
Provide opportunities for your employees’ to pursue their passions at work. This improves productivity, creativity and job satisfaction. Increased creativity in the work place can lead to streamlined work processes, doing a job differently or more efficiently and overall increased customer satisfaction.
Making a difference often means making a difference in the community. Provide your employees with plenty of opportunities to donate and volunteer together, and make sure you get involved too!
Don’t ignore their personal lives
We’ve all heard that we should leave our baggage at the door when we show up at work, and we should leave our work behind when we get home. Although this is a great concept, it isn’t a practical one. It’s nearly impossible to follow!
Don’t ignore your employees’ personal lives. If you notice that one person hasn’t been up to par lately, don’t assume the worst. Instead, take some time to talk with that person and determine if there are pressures in their life that are affecting their work performance.
Work-life balance is also something important to address here, especially if you’re an entrepreneur running your own business. Although asking employees to spend extra time working on building your business may sound like a good idea, it’s not good for their personal relationships or their health. A woman who leads with a light heart insists on a proper work-life balance for every employee.
Get creative with benefits and pay
So, you can’t raise wages because your company just doesn’t have the ability to at this moment. You’re probably locked into the best healthcare and retirement plans you can possibly afford for your team, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get a little creative when it comes to rewarding your employees.
If you do particularly well one quarter, hand out bonuses. If bonuses aren’t an option, but you want to reward employees for their dedication, form a contest that allows winners to leave an hour or two early on Friday.
You would be surprised at how many local business would be willing to provide you with free or discounted gift cards! You can even give out extra personal days and prizes to hard-working employees.
Share the Big Picture
Your employees want to know what’s next in the weeks, months and years to come. Top performers care about their work place and their careers. They want to know that they are expected to shift and grow as the company changes and they want to be involved in that process.
Build positive relationships and have some FUN!!!
It’s easy to get stuck in your office all day. I’m even willing to bet there are some days when you don’t interact with your employees at all! However, if you want to lead with a light heart and enjoy happier employees, work on building positive relationships with the people you work with.
Designate special fun days each year where everyone gets to take a break from work and play a few fun games, get physical with a fitness class or bring their pets to work. Buy lunch for everyone in your department every once in a while so you can chat while you eat. Even catching up with someone on your way out the door is a great way to work on building positive relationships with your employees!
Leading with a light heart means leading with kindness and compassion. You may not be able to provide your employees with a bigger paycheck, but they will certainly enjoy coming to work more, which will create an open, comfortable and growing atmosphere for everyone. All that positive energy will likely translate to a better business, so you may be able to increase wages after all!
If you would like to talk further about employee engagement schedule a call with me.