This is the Idea Couture year three Christmas Party and probably the best one so far, without the live performance of an Indian classical group performing like the previous year but we have a DJ/designer Victor who took over as Chief Music Officer for the party.
Everyone was having a great time and I saw a lot of happy people. It is my number one performance metric for business performance, happy people = better work = more creativity = high performance. I don’t think they teach this formula in MBA schools or it happened when I was asleep in class.
I am very grateful that IC has the created a great culture. I picked the right people and they come from all walks of life and have one common goal – human potential. I promised myself long time ago that I would never hire someone whom I think has no potential and do not have a chance to be the best of the best. And some takes a little longer and that's ok.
For me, the best is not good enough; I want the best also the fast. Some think I am asking for too much, I ask for the same for myself. If I can do it, they can do it. I’ve pushed people to the edge and bounced back stronger than ever and I am proud of the people I mentored. I am also very quick to get rid of those that don’t meet the standard; I have no time to waste. I want to look back one day and say here is a long list of names of people that I’ve helped to fully developed their true potentials.
It is a chicken and egg thing – happy people first or happy work first? Happy people who have a better chance to find happy work because they follow their hearts. Or happy people just happen to find jobs that are surrounded by happy people or pick a happy boss. Or a company that has a happy culture attracts happy people? I don’t know exactly what comes first.
The finding from a study published this year in the Journal of Occupational and Psychology conducted by Assistant Professor Nathan Bowling of Wright State University with colleagues Kevin Eschleman and Qiang Wang undertook a meta-analysis on the results of 223 studies carried out between 1967 and 2008. All of the studies had investigated some combination of job satisfaction and life satisfaction. People who are unhappy in life are unlikely to find satisfaction at work, anything new here?
Their studies assessed factors at two time points so to better understand the causal links between job satisfaction and life satisfaction. If people are satisfied at work, does this mean they will be more satisfied and happier in life overall? Or is the causal effect the opposite way around?" The causal link between subjective well being and subsequent levels of job satisfaction was found to be stronger than the link between job satisfaction and subsequent levels of subjective well-being. "These results suggest that if people are, or are predisposed to be, happy and satisfied in life generally, then they will be likely to be happy and satisfied in their work," said Nathan Bowling.
Incentive systems only work to certain extend and it is far less powerful than creating a ‘happy’ culture. There is no productivity in an unhappy environment not to mention innovation. The single most efficient way to increase your productivity is to be happy at work. No glorified job titles, fancy corner offices, systems, incentives or methodologies in the world can beat the productivity and creative boost you get from really, really enjoying your work and surrounded by really really smart and funny people. May be business school needs to start teaching how people can be funny and strategic?
