1 00:00:04,960 --> 00:00:09,880 Hello, hello, and welcome back to How to Be Happy at Work 2 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,920 Edition. On this thread in the show, we 3 00:00:12,920 --> 00:00:16,120 dive into the role that happiness has in workplaces, 4 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:19,200 organisations, and the way that we work as a whole. 5 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,840 Now, as always, I am your host, Declan Edwards. 6 00:00:22,280 --> 00:00:25,240 In this episode, I'm going to be continuing my exploration of 7 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:28,360 what I call the seven seas of employee happiness. 8 00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:31,640 If you're a leader, a people manager, an executive, or a 9 00:00:31,640 --> 00:00:34,800 business owner who genuinely cares about the experience that 10 00:00:34,800 --> 00:00:37,160 people have within your workplace or organization, 11 00:00:37,440 --> 00:00:40,600 you're going to want to listen to this one because today we're 12 00:00:40,600 --> 00:00:43,760 going to be exploring the sea of celebration. 13 00:00:44,320 --> 00:00:47,120 Specifically, we're going to have a conversation about the 14 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:49,640 return of investment of recognition. 15 00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,800 Now to start with, I want to share a little story that I 16 00:00:53,800 --> 00:00:57,280 often see play out in corporate landscapes all over the world. 17 00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:00,920 A mid level manager that's forsake of grants, that's make 18 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:02,240 up a name that's called her Sarah. 19 00:01:02,760 --> 00:01:07,840 Now Sarah spends 3 months doing overtime, putting in the extra 20 00:01:07,840 --> 00:01:11,640 hours, putting in the extra effort, really prioritising her 21 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:15,480 work so that she can deliver on launching a massive software 22 00:01:15,480 --> 00:01:19,080 migration for her company. It saves her company thousands 23 00:01:19,080 --> 00:01:22,120 of dollars in the long run, it fixes a legacy bug from the old 24 00:01:22,120 --> 00:01:26,040 software, and it does end up costing her several weekends of 25 00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:29,680 family time well after this change is made. 26 00:01:29,680 --> 00:01:32,680 On Friday, the CEO of the organization sends out a company 27 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:36,320 wide e-mail. Sarah opens this and fair 28 00:01:36,320 --> 00:01:38,000 enough, expects a bit of a mention. 29 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:42,800 Instead, the e-mail reads, Hey, great job on the software 30 00:01:42,800 --> 00:01:45,280 migration team. To celebrate, we're going to 31 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:48,360 throw a lunch for everyone. Please head out to the team 32 00:01:48,360 --> 00:01:51,720 break room for for a nice lunch together today. 33 00:01:53,880 --> 00:01:58,160 Now, after all the work she put in, Sarah doesn't want a cupcake 34 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:01,200 and a for, if I can call abundantly A disappointing 35 00:02:01,200 --> 00:02:02,920 sandwich from some catering company. 36 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:05,040 She doesn't want a generic shout out. 37 00:02:05,040 --> 00:02:09,280 She wants to know that her actual sacrifice was seen of the 38 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:12,320 extra hours and effort that she put in was recognized. 39 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:15,080 Because this doesn't happen. What does she do? 40 00:02:15,640 --> 00:02:19,000 Well, she shows up to the disappointing lunch, she shuts 41 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:22,400 her laptop afterwards, and then later that evening she starts 42 00:02:22,400 --> 00:02:27,760 looking for a new job. Now this story or a version like 43 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:33,360 this story isn't uncommon. We live in a corporate era that 44 00:02:33,360 --> 00:02:37,840 is utterly obsessed with performative recognition. 45 00:02:38,720 --> 00:02:43,280 This is when leaders and workplaces play the game of 46 00:02:43,280 --> 00:02:45,280 recognizing their team. But it's not heartfelt, it's not 47 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:46,720 genuine, it's not specific enough. 48 00:02:46,720 --> 00:02:49,840 You know, they throw the pizza party, they hand out cheap 49 00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:52,680 plastic trophies or a plaque for employee of the month. 50 00:02:52,840 --> 00:02:55,680 They post some sort of generic shout out on LinkedIn about how 51 00:02:55,680 --> 00:02:58,840 good A-Team member is. But despite all of this, 52 00:02:58,840 --> 00:03:03,440 employee engagement continues to hover at really disappointingly 53 00:03:03,440 --> 00:03:06,800 low rates. And so in this episode, I'm 54 00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,960 going to call bullshit on tokenistic praise. 55 00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:13,720 The promise of today's episode is that we're going to have a 56 00:03:13,720 --> 00:03:16,320 conversation about the heavy hitting, evidence based science 57 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:20,320 of how genuine celebration and recognition can have an impact 58 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,160 on performance and productivity and on your bottom line. 59 00:03:26,280 --> 00:03:28,560 We're going to unpack some behavioural data from Gallup and 60 00:03:28,560 --> 00:03:31,640 Harvard, distinguish between what real validation is versus 61 00:03:31,640 --> 00:03:34,840 empty feedback, and I'm going to give you a practical blueprint 62 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,560 to help your people feel seen, appreciated and celebrated at 63 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:42,120 work without you needing to sound like a corporate robot. 64 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:45,920 So if that all sounds interesting to you, then join me 65 00:03:46,400 --> 00:03:50,280 and let's unpack the real return on investment of saying thank 66 00:03:50,280 --> 00:03:58,680 you to your team for their work. Now whenever I talk to 67 00:03:58,680 --> 00:04:02,840 traditional old school CE OS or CF OS or hard nosed executives 68 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:06,080 about celebration and appreciation in the workplace, I 69 00:04:06,080 --> 00:04:08,320 can practically see their eyes roll into the back of their 70 00:04:08,320 --> 00:04:10,480 heads. Are you concerned about them? 71 00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:12,680 To be honest, I'm worried they're going to pass out. 72 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:16,000 They tend to think that this is soft stuff. 73 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:18,839 They think it's some HR fluff designed to make people feel 74 00:04:18,839 --> 00:04:21,839 warm and fuzzy at work, and it distracts from the real work of 75 00:04:21,839 --> 00:04:25,200 getting the job done. So to appease those people, 76 00:04:25,200 --> 00:04:26,640 let's start with the hard numbers. 77 00:04:26,640 --> 00:04:31,840 Because genuine celebration is not something that costs a lot 78 00:04:31,840 --> 00:04:34,720 of money, but it is something that have that can have quite a 79 00:04:34,720 --> 00:04:38,080 dramatic impact on retention and performance. 80 00:04:38,800 --> 00:04:41,360 In fact, according to a massive landmark study conducted by 81 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:44,760 Gallup and Workhuman, employees who receive high quality, 82 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:49,440 genuine recognition at work, they're up to 56% less likely to 83 00:04:49,440 --> 00:04:50,960 be actively looking for a new job. 84 00:04:52,240 --> 00:04:53,880 I want you to let that sink in for a second. 85 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,960 In a global war for talent, simply knowing how to validate 86 00:04:57,960 --> 00:05:01,920 your staff and recognize their efforts can have a huge impact 87 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:05,600 on turnover risk. And within the same study, they 88 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:08,120 also found that when recognition is integrated well into the 89 00:05:08,120 --> 00:05:10,320 culture, so it's not just this one off thing, it's something 90 00:05:10,320 --> 00:05:12,960 that's part of how the team works together and how the 91 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:15,960 organization operates. Employees are four times more 92 00:05:15,960 --> 00:05:19,800 likely to say that they're highly engaged at work, and 93 00:05:19,800 --> 00:05:23,160 safety incidents dropped by an average of 22%. 94 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:27,520 Now, when we look into what's actually happening in the brain, 95 00:05:27,520 --> 00:05:31,280 when people feel recognized and validated, results like this 96 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,320 actually make a lot of sense. You know, when a human being 97 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:39,120 receives specific praise for a job well done, their brain does 98 00:05:39,120 --> 00:05:41,640 something pretty amazing. It releases this, let's call it 99 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,960 a, almost like a, a cocktail, I guess, a cocktail of happiness 100 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:46,440 hormones. That sounds pretty good. 101 00:05:47,840 --> 00:05:51,000 It mixes these releases and mixes these hormones called 102 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:52,720 dopamine. So that's our reward chemical. 103 00:05:52,720 --> 00:05:53,880 You've probably heard of it before. 104 00:05:54,160 --> 00:05:57,120 And oxytocin, which is the chemical responsible for bonding 105 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,120 dopamine is the thing that comes in and says, hey, remember this, 106 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:03,800 save that that's important. It's basically saying to brain, 107 00:06:03,800 --> 00:06:07,080 whatever you just did to get that praise, do it again. 108 00:06:07,720 --> 00:06:10,560 By the way, This is why things like your smartphone are so 109 00:06:10,560 --> 00:06:13,360 addictive because literally scrolling on social media gives 110 00:06:13,360 --> 00:06:15,760 you those dopamine hits and your brain goes, oh, I felt good for 111 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:16,320 a second. Do it. 112 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:18,720 Do more of it. So if we get dopamine from being 113 00:06:18,720 --> 00:06:22,840 recognized at work and doing a good job, our brain goes, oh, I 114 00:06:22,840 --> 00:06:24,600 like that. I want to do a good job more 115 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,760 often. Yeah, it it literally builds the 116 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:30,840 neural architecture in our brain for higher performance. 117 00:06:31,880 --> 00:06:35,280 Oxytocin, the other part of our little happy cocktail that our 118 00:06:35,280 --> 00:06:37,400 brain releases when we're properly recognized. 119 00:06:37,720 --> 00:06:40,600 Oxytocin, on the other hand, is responsible for building safety 120 00:06:40,600 --> 00:06:42,800 and psychological trust. This is something that turns a 121 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:45,560 group of individuals who are transactional and going, look, 122 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:48,840 I'm just here to get paid and go home into a team that feels more 123 00:06:48,840 --> 00:06:50,840 loyal and cohesive to one another. 124 00:06:52,040 --> 00:06:56,920 Now on the other hand, when an employee works their absolute 125 00:06:56,920 --> 00:07:02,160 guts out and receive 0 feedback, or worse, a generic tokenistic 126 00:07:02,160 --> 00:07:07,160 e-mail, the brain interprets that lack of recognition as a 127 00:07:07,160 --> 00:07:10,040 threat. Cortisol levels go up, which is 128 00:07:10,040 --> 00:07:12,720 our stress hormone. So the stress metric spike and 129 00:07:12,720 --> 00:07:17,720 the employee and the employee naturally drops into compliance 130 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:18,920 mode instead of contribution mode. 131 00:07:18,920 --> 00:07:21,160 They drop into you know what, let's just get the job done. 132 00:07:21,160 --> 00:07:23,840 At a bare minimum, let's tick the boxes so we don't get fired. 133 00:07:23,840 --> 00:07:25,880 But why am I putting in this extra effort if it's not even 134 00:07:25,880 --> 00:07:29,400 appreciated? They stop innovating because 135 00:07:29,400 --> 00:07:32,280 their brain says, sure, I could do extra work on this. 136 00:07:32,280 --> 00:07:35,200 Sure, I could go the extra mile. Sure, I could, you know, give my 137 00:07:35,200 --> 00:07:38,880 best work in this space. But the leaders here don't even 138 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:40,440 seem to care. So why would I bother? 139 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:46,120 Now, beyond retention and these, you know, neurochemical benefits 140 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,160 and the neurobiology behind it all, there's also another deep 141 00:07:49,160 --> 00:07:52,920 psychological reason why I argue that we need to encourage 142 00:07:52,920 --> 00:07:54,960 celebration more in modern workplaces. 143 00:07:56,480 --> 00:07:58,920 From my perspective, it is one of the best checkpoints we have 144 00:07:58,920 --> 00:08:02,560 to break this corporate addiction to the endless pursuit 145 00:08:02,880 --> 00:08:05,480 of more. If you've listened to this show 146 00:08:05,480 --> 00:08:07,800 for a while, you may have heard me talk before about something 147 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,040 called the hedonic treadmill. The human tendency to quickly 148 00:08:11,040 --> 00:08:14,640 return to a relatively stable level of happiness despite big 149 00:08:14,640 --> 00:08:16,040 changes. You know, we're always chasing 150 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:17,960 the next thing. I'll be happy when I'll be happy 151 00:08:17,960 --> 00:08:20,280 when I'll be happy when workplaces do it too. 152 00:08:20,840 --> 00:08:22,880 In the corporate world, we've institutionalised this 153 00:08:22,880 --> 00:08:24,240 treadmill. Think about it. 154 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:27,000 How often have you experienced yourself or seen or heard 155 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:30,400 stories about teams that hit a pretty impressive quarterly 156 00:08:30,400 --> 00:08:33,440 milestone? They hit a pretty, you know, a 157 00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:37,280 bit of a stretch goal for that quarter at the 9:00 AM team 158 00:08:37,280 --> 00:08:38,640 meeting. It's acknowledged for like all 159 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:40,559 of a second. It's a nice little polite nod 160 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:42,080 and maybe a round of applause. Hey, well done. 161 00:08:42,080 --> 00:08:44,960 Like we did it. And then 5 minutes later by 905, 162 00:08:44,960 --> 00:08:47,960 the slide deck to the meeting changes and the lady goes, OK 163 00:08:47,960 --> 00:08:50,320 guys, now, now let's look at next quarter's targets. 164 00:08:51,000 --> 00:08:54,560 Like we've moved immediately to the next project, the next KPI 165 00:08:54,560 --> 00:08:57,480 and the next deliverable without even really taking a moment of 166 00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:59,760 pause or recognition. This would be like someone 167 00:08:59,760 --> 00:09:02,120 showing up to the Olympics like they've trained for four years. 168 00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:05,600 They show up to the Olympics and they they'd say they place, 169 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:08,200 whether they've got gold, silver, bronze, doesn't matter. 170 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:09,440 They've placed, they've got a medal. 171 00:09:09,440 --> 00:09:11,640 They're in the top three best people in the world for that 172 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:16,440 moment, for that sport, and then immediately signing up for the 173 00:09:16,440 --> 00:09:18,760 next race, immediately going into the race. 174 00:09:18,760 --> 00:09:21,760 This doesn't happen, right? Athletes celebrate for a moment. 175 00:09:21,760 --> 00:09:23,320 Yes, there's still discipline and dedication. 176 00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:24,600 Yes, they still go into training. 177 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,000 Yes, they're still saying goals, but they have the moment of 178 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:28,800 celebration and recognition first. 179 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:33,160 That's what we need to do. If you run an organization and 180 00:09:33,160 --> 00:09:36,240 you don't do that, if you're just skipping straight ahead to 181 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:39,600 the next KPI, the next project, the next goal, you're not 182 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:41,920 motivating your team. You're exhausting them 183 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:44,680 psychologically. You're never giving them a 184 00:09:44,680 --> 00:09:47,400 checkpoint to look back down the mountain at how far they've 185 00:09:47,400 --> 00:09:49,840 already come. As a result, the work begins to 186 00:09:49,840 --> 00:09:52,400 feel like an endless meaningless March. 187 00:09:52,400 --> 00:09:55,880 This endless task of, you know, just pushing a boulder up the 188 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:58,400 hill with no end insight and no checkpoint. 189 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,440 We can break that pattern with conscious operation. 190 00:10:03,080 --> 00:10:07,320 And when we do so, it serves as a almost like a cognitive 191 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:10,560 boundary for ourselves. It forces our brain to pause, to 192 00:10:10,560 --> 00:10:14,280 step off the treadmill of always chasing more and actually absorb 193 00:10:14,280 --> 00:10:20,440 the accomplishment, actually experience a sense of pride, a 194 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:25,000 sense of satisfaction, the difficult work, but also getting 195 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,160 the reward. And in well-being science, we 196 00:10:28,160 --> 00:10:31,840 call this savouring. Savouring is the active practice 197 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:34,680 of prolonging and reinforcing a positive experience. 198 00:10:35,280 --> 00:10:38,480 When you enable your teams to step back and enjoy their wins, 199 00:10:38,960 --> 00:10:40,760 you're not wasting productive time. 200 00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,400 This drives me up the wall when I hear people say like, isn't 201 00:10:43,400 --> 00:10:44,960 that a waste of time? Like do we have to throw a party 202 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:46,240 about everything? No, you don't. 203 00:10:46,240 --> 00:10:48,360 But if you achieve something, celebrate it. 204 00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:51,480 Because by doing so you're actively refilling their fuel 205 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:52,560 tanks. You're getting them ready for 206 00:10:52,560 --> 00:10:55,640 the next push. You're giving them the emotional 207 00:10:55,640 --> 00:10:59,240 capacity required to take on the next challenge in KPI and goal 208 00:10:59,520 --> 00:11:02,720 with a sense of genuine enthusiasm rather than a sense 209 00:11:02,720 --> 00:11:05,160 of resentment and burnout. Like I know which shame. 210 00:11:05,160 --> 00:11:08,320 I would much rather lead to the next, you know, challenge and 211 00:11:08,320 --> 00:11:09,680 goal. I know which athlete I would 212 00:11:09,680 --> 00:11:12,160 rather coach to the next Olympics on the one that's 213 00:11:12,160 --> 00:11:15,480 coming in with genuine enthusiasm because they've been 214 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:19,280 recognized and celebrated. So let's say we're on the same 215 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:20,200 page now. I hope we are. 216 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:21,920 I hope you're seeing when we're going, yes, this all makes 217 00:11:21,920 --> 00:11:23,400 sense. I can see why this is important 218 00:11:24,720 --> 00:11:26,840 and you may be left wondering, well if recognition and 219 00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,200 savouring are so incredibly valuable, why are so many 220 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:32,200 companies completely failing at it? 221 00:11:33,680 --> 00:11:36,000 I would argue a big reason for this is because leaders are 222 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,800 confusing genuine recognition and genuine celebration. 223 00:11:38,800 --> 00:11:42,800 Where we get these benefits with performative recognition and 224 00:11:42,800 --> 00:11:46,160 celebration? Performative celebration is 225 00:11:46,160 --> 00:11:48,080 public facing, it's very self-serving. 226 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:50,480 It's designed to make the manager, the leader, or the 227 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:54,960 company look good, rather than making the employee feel good. 228 00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:58,200 And think of the classic employee of the month park on 229 00:11:58,200 --> 00:12:01,760 the wall or that forced fun. You know of a corporate Wellness 230 00:12:01,760 --> 00:12:03,880 morning where everyone has to high 5 afterwards. 231 00:12:04,040 --> 00:12:06,040 It feels transactional. It's rigid. 232 00:12:06,040 --> 00:12:12,080 It's entirely surface level. Genuine recognition, though, is 233 00:12:12,120 --> 00:12:16,160 personalized. It's also timely and it's 234 00:12:16,160 --> 00:12:18,200 specific in nature. That's really important. 235 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:19,000 I'm going to say that again, right? 236 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:21,560 Because genuine recognition, just to make sure you hear it, 237 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:25,160 is personalized, timely, and specific. 238 00:12:26,680 --> 00:12:31,560 Now, in positive organizations and in positive psychology, we 239 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:34,880 tend to see a very simple framework to distinguish between 240 00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:38,120 empty feedback and praise that actually leaves an impact. 241 00:12:38,840 --> 00:12:42,160 Empty feedback is saying something really generic and 242 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:44,440 kind of flat. It's like, hey, Mike, great job 243 00:12:44,440 --> 00:12:47,880 on that presentation yesterday. Good work, really appreciate it. 244 00:12:48,760 --> 00:12:51,320 That's nice. Doesn't leave a bad taste in my 245 00:12:51,320 --> 00:12:54,000 mouth, but it's kind of bland. It doesn't really leave any 246 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:56,640 taste in my mouth afterwards. It's kind of useless, to be 247 00:12:56,640 --> 00:12:58,160 honest. You don't worry about wasting 248 00:12:58,160 --> 00:12:59,360 time. That is a waste of time. 249 00:12:59,840 --> 00:13:03,720 It doesn't do enough to trigger that dopamine that we spoke 250 00:13:03,720 --> 00:13:05,840 about earlier, that thing that says to the brain, hey, remember 251 00:13:05,840 --> 00:13:09,400 this, this important do more of it because Mike in that example 252 00:13:09,400 --> 00:13:14,440 doesn't know what part was good. They just said, hey, Mike, great 253 00:13:14,440 --> 00:13:15,800 job on that presentation yesterday. 254 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:17,720 Good work. What do I, what do I mean? 255 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:20,960 If I'm Mike, I don't know what I'm meant to do with that. 256 00:13:20,960 --> 00:13:22,040 Oh, thanks. OK, cool. 257 00:13:22,440 --> 00:13:25,320 Almost to the next task. I guess if we want to practice 258 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:28,760 genuine recognition, we need to follow something called the BIA 259 00:13:28,760 --> 00:13:32,200 model behaviour, impact appreciation. 260 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:34,960 Choose the same example with Mike, the behaviour. 261 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:37,800 Hey, Mike, during that client meeting yesterday, the way you 262 00:13:37,800 --> 00:13:41,880 handled their objection about our pricing model was fantastic. 263 00:13:42,600 --> 00:13:45,680 So in this case, we've named the exact repeatable behaviour, 264 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:48,400 right? Mike, you handled that objection 265 00:13:48,800 --> 00:13:51,440 really well. Now we go to the impact. 266 00:13:52,680 --> 00:13:55,560 I watched how you were able to stay calm and you highlighted 267 00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:58,240 our implementation data and showed the value behind our 268 00:13:58,240 --> 00:14:00,480 pricing. And I noticed that that led to 269 00:14:00,480 --> 00:14:03,880 the client feeling a bit more at ease about signing the contract. 270 00:14:03,880 --> 00:14:05,760 I think that was a big part of why we're able to go ahead. 271 00:14:06,680 --> 00:14:11,440 So we're showing him here how his actions, how Mike's actions 272 00:14:11,440 --> 00:14:15,200 and choices moved the whole project forward. 273 00:14:15,880 --> 00:14:17,800 You know, sometimes people, especially if they're working 274 00:14:17,800 --> 00:14:19,800 for large organisations, they feel like a tiny cog in a big 275 00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:21,720 machine and they go, nothing I do matters anyway. 276 00:14:22,320 --> 00:14:24,200 It's a very common experience in corporate culture. 277 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:27,920 If you can say, hey, yeah, you might be a small cog, but look 278 00:14:27,920 --> 00:14:30,320 at what you were able to move. Look what you made happen. 279 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,560 We can help people feel a bit better at work. 280 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:35,160 And the last step, the appreciation. 281 00:14:35,680 --> 00:14:38,880 I feel really grateful for the fact that you came into that 282 00:14:38,880 --> 00:14:42,360 meeting prepared and with a lot of clarity because I think 283 00:14:42,360 --> 00:14:44,200 without that, the deal might not have gone ahead. 284 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:48,960 Notice the difference? The first one is a really 285 00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:52,080 generic pat on the back, whereas that second example we just went 286 00:14:52,080 --> 00:14:57,440 through, it's such a specific validation of what Mike did. 287 00:14:57,840 --> 00:15:01,440 We, we validated Mike's choices, his actions, his behaviour, and 288 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:02,880 we said, Hey, I, I really appreciate it. 289 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:05,040 Now The thing is, you need to, you need to mean it. 290 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:08,400 You can't just say this and be like, I listen to a podcast from 291 00:15:08,400 --> 00:15:10,760 this guy who studies happiness and he said I need to appreciate 292 00:15:10,760 --> 00:15:13,640 my team more. So, you know, reading your dot 293 00:15:13,640 --> 00:15:17,720 point notes. OK, first, the behaviour, Mike, 294 00:15:18,840 --> 00:15:21,680 the behaviour, you show that this isn't going to work, right? 295 00:15:21,680 --> 00:15:23,760 Like you have to genuinely. So yes, practice, practice, 296 00:15:23,760 --> 00:15:24,960 practice this. You'll get better at it over 297 00:15:24,960 --> 00:15:26,600 time. But in the back of my head, 298 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:28,360 whenever I'm recognizing something that my team's done 299 00:15:28,360 --> 00:15:32,000 well or clients have done well, I really want to lean into this, 300 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:33,320 OK, what's the behaviour? What's the impact? 301 00:15:33,320 --> 00:15:36,000 What do I genuinely appreciate? If I don't genuinely appreciate, 302 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,160 if I don't feel that appreciation, I'm not going to 303 00:15:38,160 --> 00:15:40,680 say it because again, that's performative. 304 00:15:41,320 --> 00:15:44,880 So we want to be able to actually say it like we mean it 305 00:15:45,200 --> 00:15:47,680 because that's the part that makes the difference. 306 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:51,840 Now, how do you take this framework and build it into your 307 00:15:51,840 --> 00:15:55,000 day-to-day rhythm, your day-to-day routine? 308 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:56,960 Because I get it. Like there's enough on your 309 00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:58,880 plate as a leader and people manager without having to think, 310 00:15:58,880 --> 00:16:00,600 OK, how am I specifically giving feedback? 311 00:16:00,600 --> 00:16:02,360 So I'm going to give you a couple of options here. 312 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:04,800 You don't have to do all of them, but they are highly 313 00:16:04,800 --> 00:16:08,120 practical. 0 cost projects that you could implement immediately 314 00:16:08,480 --> 00:16:11,320 to help strengthen the sense of celebration with your team and 315 00:16:11,320 --> 00:16:14,880 your culture. The first one is to do a bit of 316 00:16:14,880 --> 00:16:19,040 an audit and understand how your people like to be recognised. 317 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:24,000 Some people love public praise, so a shout out at a quarterly 318 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,240 all hands meeting is something that they feel really good 319 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:27,400 about. That would fill their cup for 320 00:16:27,400 --> 00:16:29,440 months. If someone who's more 321 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:32,040 introverted, that same public shout out and recognition is a 322 00:16:32,040 --> 00:16:35,640 literal nightmare that causes them major social anxiety. 323 00:16:35,640 --> 00:16:38,080 It makes their skin crawl. It's the last thing they want. 324 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,240 They'd much prefer, you know, a bit of a quiet handwritten 325 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:43,360 sticky note left on their desk or a bit of a one-on-one 326 00:16:43,360 --> 00:16:44,960 message. You can still use the same 327 00:16:44,960 --> 00:16:46,320 framework by the way. You can still talk about the 328 00:16:46,320 --> 00:16:49,760 behaviour, the impact and what you'll appreciate regardless of 329 00:16:49,760 --> 00:16:53,600 the the delivery method. So your task this week is I want 330 00:16:53,600 --> 00:16:57,560 you to get curious and ask the people that you work with, the 331 00:16:57,560 --> 00:17:01,400 people that you lead, how do you personally prefer to be 332 00:17:01,400 --> 00:17:03,320 recognized? Like when things go well, when 333 00:17:03,320 --> 00:17:06,560 you hit a milestone, how do you want that to be honoured? 334 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:10,319 How do you want that to be celebrated and just see what 335 00:17:10,319 --> 00:17:12,720 comes up? There's like public, private, 336 00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:15,280 written down notes. Do you want a new goal or 337 00:17:15,280 --> 00:17:16,480 project opportunity to talk about? 338 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:17,960 But you're part of that conversation. 339 00:17:17,960 --> 00:17:19,720 We're not just racing ahead when it comes out. 340 00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:22,280 Like write their answers down and just try to keep it in the 341 00:17:22,280 --> 00:17:26,119 back of your mind and practice the art of praising people in 342 00:17:26,119 --> 00:17:28,640 the way that they want to be seen and celebrated. 343 00:17:30,080 --> 00:17:33,280 The second project that you can choose to do is to enforce a 344 00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:36,360 project Postmortem Spark. Now we've all heard of project 345 00:17:36,360 --> 00:17:38,000 postmortems. This is where teams sit down to 346 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:39,560 dissect what went wrong in a project. 347 00:17:39,560 --> 00:17:41,920 They take dedicated time to go. What went wrong? 348 00:17:41,920 --> 00:17:44,120 How do we do a better next time? That's still valuable. 349 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:47,920 But I also want you to have a project Postmortem spark where 350 00:17:48,200 --> 00:17:50,360 after a major deliverable is shipped. 351 00:17:50,360 --> 00:17:53,920 So after a major project is done and closed out, ban your team 352 00:17:53,920 --> 00:17:56,640 from talking about the next steps on new KPIs for at least 353 00:17:56,640 --> 00:17:58,520 the 1st 30 minutes of the debrief meeting. 354 00:17:59,280 --> 00:18:01,360 That 30 minutes of the debrief meeting should be dedicated. 355 00:18:01,360 --> 00:18:03,920 That entire block of time is dedicated to savouring and 356 00:18:03,920 --> 00:18:07,720 experiencing the wind and encourage people to share what 357 00:18:07,720 --> 00:18:10,360 they learned, what a breakthrough was, what great 358 00:18:10,360 --> 00:18:13,080 result a colleague made, to review positive client feedback 359 00:18:13,080 --> 00:18:17,280 and data, and to explicitly articulate and put into words 360 00:18:17,720 --> 00:18:19,440 what they're proud of from that project. 361 00:18:19,440 --> 00:18:23,040 This is a firm boundary. There we go. 362 00:18:23,040 --> 00:18:26,160 Hey, after we complete a goal, we're not jumping straight to 363 00:18:26,160 --> 00:18:28,080 the next one. We're taking 30 minutes at least 364 00:18:28,080 --> 00:18:31,760 to intentionally celebrate it. And the third project that you 365 00:18:31,760 --> 00:18:35,880 can do is introduce peer-to-peer storytelling as a form of 366 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:38,680 celebration recognition. I don't believe celebration 367 00:18:38,680 --> 00:18:41,280 should always flow top down from management and leadership. 368 00:18:41,320 --> 00:18:43,000 In fact, I think some of the best cultures I've seen in 369 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:46,080 workplaces have recognition that also flows horizontally. 370 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:49,720 You know your next weekly team meeting, I'd encourage you to 371 00:18:49,720 --> 00:18:52,680 spend about 5 minutes encouraging your team to 372 00:18:52,680 --> 00:18:56,320 nominate or to share stories of people doing good things at 373 00:18:56,320 --> 00:18:58,640 work. This might be a brief story of a 374 00:18:58,640 --> 00:19:00,760 colleague who stepped up, someone who lived up to a 375 00:19:00,760 --> 00:19:02,720 company value, someone who helps them during the week. 376 00:19:03,400 --> 00:19:06,040 At some places, at a place, actually at a workplace I was 377 00:19:06,040 --> 00:19:09,000 involved with for a little bit there that I consulted for, they 378 00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:10,520 called it, you know, giving stars. 379 00:19:10,680 --> 00:19:12,680 There's the idea of like when we're kids, we all wanted the 380 00:19:12,680 --> 00:19:15,160 star on the star chart. This is the same thing. 381 00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:16,440 It's like, give people their stars. 382 00:19:16,680 --> 00:19:18,760 They're like, you know, give them the flowers, right? 383 00:19:18,760 --> 00:19:20,320 Like, hey, I saw this. I appreciate it. 384 00:19:20,680 --> 00:19:24,880 This shifts the entire focus of that meeting away from just 385 00:19:24,880 --> 00:19:26,760 firefighting and problem solving, which is what most 386 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:31,120 workplaces weekly meetings are. And it also creates room and 387 00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:35,600 space for collective celebration, collective pride 388 00:19:35,600 --> 00:19:39,280 and a sense of shared success. So again, three options. 389 00:19:39,280 --> 00:19:40,920 You can choose between them. You can do one of them, two of 390 00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:42,440 them, three of them, your choice, you know, do the 391 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:45,720 recognition of how your people want to be celebrated. 392 00:19:45,920 --> 00:19:49,560 You can enforce that post mortem spark, that 30 minutes of 393 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:51,640 breathing room between completing a goal and setting 394 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:53,080 out for the new one to celebrate. 395 00:19:53,760 --> 00:19:57,680 Or you can also encourage that horizontal flow of recognition, 396 00:19:57,680 --> 00:20:00,760 that peer-to-peer storytelling at some point in those weekly 397 00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:02,480 meetings. Whichever 1 you choose to do, 398 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,280 let me know if you're listening through Spotify, drop in the 399 00:20:04,280 --> 00:20:06,160 comments so you have a bit of extra accountability. 400 00:20:06,400 --> 00:20:08,960 And I highly encourage you to do any of them because the more 401 00:20:08,960 --> 00:20:12,800 leaders and workplaces we have. Bringing celebration into their 402 00:20:12,800 --> 00:20:15,560 cultures and into their teams. I genuinely believe the happier 403 00:20:15,560 --> 00:20:18,040 not only the world of work becomes, but as a ripple effect 404 00:20:18,040 --> 00:20:20,600 of that, the happier the world becomes as a whole. 405 00:20:27,120 --> 00:20:30,040 And just like that, we've reached the end of yet another 406 00:20:30,040 --> 00:20:33,360 episode of How to Be Happy at Work edition. 407 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:37,280 I want to remind you, people don't leave workplaces just 408 00:20:37,280 --> 00:20:40,680 because work feels hard. In fact, they often leave 409 00:20:40,680 --> 00:20:43,800 workplaces because the hard work feels thankless. 410 00:20:44,800 --> 00:20:48,360 If your people are expending the finite amount of time and energy 411 00:20:48,360 --> 00:20:52,160 they have in this lifetime to help build a business and build 412 00:20:52,160 --> 00:20:55,720 your organization, the very least that you can do is to 413 00:20:55,720 --> 00:20:57,640 ensure that that effort is recognized. 414 00:20:58,160 --> 00:21:01,720 Ensure it's met with genuine, specific and authentic 415 00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:04,880 celebration. I hope this episode encourages 416 00:21:04,880 --> 00:21:07,680 you to turn off the performative corporate scripts to step off 417 00:21:07,680 --> 00:21:10,320 the endless treadmill of just moving immediately into next 418 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:13,160 goal without celebration 1st. And I hope it encourages you to 419 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:15,560 look at people in the eye and let them enjoy their wins more. 420 00:21:16,640 --> 00:21:18,600 Now if you are a leader listening to this right now and 421 00:21:18,680 --> 00:21:22,120 you're thinking, you know what, my executive team, my managers 422 00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:25,520 or our staff as a whole would really benefit from hearing this 423 00:21:25,560 --> 00:21:28,160 A send them the episode. But also if you'd like to bring 424 00:21:28,160 --> 00:21:31,280 more happiness, evidence based practical happiness into your 425 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:34,240 workplace and you've got an upcoming event that you think 426 00:21:34,800 --> 00:21:37,200 you could have more happiness at, well then I would love to 427 00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:38,400 work with you and have a conversation. 428 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:41,520 I regularly run a keynote speeches, learning and 429 00:21:41,520 --> 00:21:44,320 development initiatives and break out masterminds at 430 00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:48,440 corporate events, team days off sites, whatever you've got 431 00:21:48,440 --> 00:21:51,520 coming up that you go. The goal of this is my team to 432 00:21:51,520 --> 00:21:55,120 learn to be inspired and to be re energized, but to do it in a 433 00:21:55,120 --> 00:21:57,480 way that they'll be talking about for years to come, know in 434 00:21:57,480 --> 00:22:00,200 a way that they just remember on the day and then two weeks later 435 00:22:00,200 --> 00:22:02,880 they're back into work as usual. So if you do you want to bring 436 00:22:02,880 --> 00:22:05,080 the science of workplace happiness into your next 437 00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:08,240 corporate event, then please do follow the link in the show 438 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:10,520 notes or search declanedwards.com dot AU. 439 00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:12,840 That is my speakers site. You'll find out all about my 440 00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:15,280 keynotes, my topics, my offerings, and we can start the 441 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:17,720 conversation there about bringing me to work with your 442 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,920 organization and with your team. For now, though, thank you so 443 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:23,520 much for investing some of your finite work week with me, 444 00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:27,440 learning more about the impact of recognition and celebration 445 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:29,880 in creating happier, higher performing workplaces. 446 00:22:29,880 --> 00:22:31,800 I hope you'll be kind to yourself and compassionate to 447 00:22:31,800 --> 00:22:34,600 yourself as you continue to practice these skills and you 448 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:37,120 continue to upskill as a humanistic leader. 449 00:22:37,360 --> 00:22:39,600 And I look forward to connecting with you again in the next 450 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:41,120 episode of How to Be Happy.