Put Happiness to Work summary

Engaging teams effectively hinges on one essential component: authentic appreciation. True appreciation isn't just about noticing the valuable contributions of team members – it’s about actively acknowledging and expressing gratitude for them.

Lots of leaders brush off the importance of appreciation: they've heard it all before or assume they're already doing enough. Research suggests otherwise. Plenty of surveys show the gap between the perception of senior leaders and the reality experienced by frontline managers and individual employees. The former believe they’re dishing out more than enough appreciation; the latter feel starved. Simply acknowledging the importance of appreciation isn't enough, then – there has to be a genuine, consistent effort to express it. 

Social connection, simply put, is the feeling of belonging, being valued, and caring for others’ welfare as they care for ours. It's as vital to our well-being as water, food, and shelter. Dating back 50,000 years, our ancestors thrived and survived by being able to coordinate with others to tackle the challenges of a dangerous world. But there’s more recent evidence of just how important social connection is. Take a landmark Harvard study published in 2012. 

It tracked the lives of 724 men over several decades in order to see what factors had the profoundest impact on their sense of well-being. Spoiler: it wasn’t money, career success, or status – it was social connection. In a nutshell, people who were closely linked with family, friends, and their community were much happier than people who weren’t. And this subjective sense of well-being was closely linked to better life outcomes. In other words, they were also likely to enjoy better health and live longer. 

Stress is often seen as a productivity killer. Mostly, we respond to stress by seeking distractions, ignoring it, or becoming confrontational. Put differently, we engage in a fight-or-flight response. That’s understandable: countless studies have highlighted the harmful effects of stress on our health. Not only are significant percentages of doctor visits stress-related, but  stress has also been linked to major causes of death such as heart disease. 

So far, so familiar. What might surprise you, however, is that stress isn't universally negative. In fact, there’s good evidence that some stress can be a good thing. Call it eustress, a word that combines “stress” with the Greek prefix eu-, meaning “well” or “good.” Eustress has positive effects on motivation, performance, and well-being, and high achievers know how to harness it for superior performance. 

Let’s wrap things up by taking a look at coaching. 

Now, coaching and managing aren’t quite the same thing. Managers, simply put, give orders; their authority is top-down. Coaching, though, from a managerial perspective, isn’t about telling people what to do – it’s about fostering growth, understanding, and happiness among direct reports during regular one-on-one meetings. This approach centers on the individual's development, setting them on a path to success and enhancing their well-being.