On my run yesterday, I thought about my mentor and friend, Tony Hsieh and the amazing legacy he created around employee happiness in Zappos’ heyday. Born from the simple idea that “happy employees equal happy customers”, he helped the company create an organizational culture that would eternally redefine how customers should be treated in the eCommerce world and how employees should be treated in a company.

Imagine a company that makes its employees so happy that they feel intrinsically obligated to deliver nothing but the very best customer service and experience?

Novel idea, right?!

Tony breaks it down for us in his book, Delivering Happiness:

“Happiness is really just about four things: perceived control, perceived progress, connectedness (number and depth of your relationships), and vision/meaning (being part of something bigger than yourself).”

The next time we’re left wondering how can we can improve our happiness levels, a good first step could be to spend some time investing whether we are feeling each of these things in our lives, or not.

Let’s Explore

People are really bad at predicting what makes them happy and it turns out that it’s not as simple as just asking people either.

As for Tony’s definition of happiness, I’d love to share my reflections, based on all that I’ve experienced and learned throughout my career at Zappos.

A few caveats before moving on though…

Although these takeaways are geared toward the workplace and the leaders that create the space in which employees can deliver their best (or not), it can apply to many other places in our lives.

While Tony’s definition of happiness isn’t spot on for everyone, I feel it gets us to the starting line when thinking about what makes people happy, especially in the workplace. It gives us a good base.

It is important to keep in mind that every person and team is unique. How I define these four things may be very different from how you define them, which could be very different from someone else’s. As an example, the value that a person may put on a promotion, or a pay bump, may be just as valuable as a consistent pat on the back or public recognition to another person.

Lastly, it’s important to also think about the environment in which we’re expected to do our best work. There is a a big difference between an ideal culture, which includes the values and social norms that a company or group claims to have, versus real culture, which are the values and norms that are actually created and followed by its people. “Things” you get in your job don’t define “the culture”, the people do. For example, although a renowned benefits package and culture goes a long way for its employees (and Zappos had one of the best), the things that truly matter in the workplace are the things that those employees feel, what they care deeply about, and what they take action on. If we’re intentional about creating happiness through a great culture, we’ll see happy employees and stellar results. However, if we’re not paying attention and culture becomes an afterthought, employee happiness can very easily slip away and quickly bring the company to its knees. And for many of us, this also happens to be true for every other aspect of our lives.

Now Let’s Proceed…

Perceived Control

Authentic empowerment through trust. Communicating clear accountabilities and expectations and letting people run with it. Explicit and authentic ownership of a project or a piece of work. Meaningful distribution of authority to our team members (really “deputizing” them with responsibility versus “delegating” work). Not micro-managing people. Embracing the belief that “failure is research” and mistakes are the gateway to learning and growing – Failure is inevitable if we want progress. Making people part of the decision-making process; asking for people’s involvement in “important” decisions. Living and breathing the belief that every person on a team has an important role to fill; remembering that the whole is more important than the sum of its parts.

These are important reminders of what it takes to have people feel and know they have control. If people don’t feel it, they don’t have it.

Perceived Progress

A clear progression plan. Smaller bumps in salary and promotions over shorter periods of time (even though it may end up being the same amount of time in the long-term). Public recognition and accolades. Surprise awards ceremonies. A simple email or video call congratulating someone on a job well done. Giving someone new responsibility because the showed they can perform well. Celebrating the small wins. Recognizing and rewarding the contribution that someone has made.

There are so many ways we can make people feel like they’re doing good work and that they’re a valuable part of the team. AND it doesn’t always involve money and promotions (actually what you do in between those life events goes a much longer way). The hardest part is making the time to just do it, which isn’t THAT difficult… right?

Connectedness (number and depth of your relationships)

You don’t need to connect with thousands or even hundreds of people in your network to feel connected. Actually, according to British Anthropologist, Robin Dunbar, we can only legitimately handle about 150 meaningful connections before we’re maxed out mentally. Additionally, Dunbar’s theory suggests that the tightest circle has just five people – loved ones. That’s followed by successive layers of 15 (good friends), 50 (friends), 150 (meaningful contacts), 500 (acquaintances) and 1500 (people you can recognize).

In our new work-from-home cultures, connecting with people, especially loved ones, has probably been one of the biggest challenges of the pandemic. But sometimes we forget the little things…

The people we like most in our lives are just ONE call away. ONE digital message, email or text message away. ONE video call away. Sometimes a simple poke is all someone needs to feel like there are others that care and are thinking about them.

Give yourself permission to reach out to someone you haven’t talked to in a while, or someone you need to collaborate with, but haven’t yet done so. Or simply do it to say hi. There is ALWAYS something to talk about.

We are stronger together and it’s so important for people to know they’re not alone, especially in times like these. So what are you waiting for?

Vision/Meaning, aka Purpose (being part of something bigger than yourself)

Creating the environment in which people can do their best work – not only grow, but thrive and become the best versions of themselves.

It’s all about inclusion here (and anywhere). It’s about purposeful work. It’s about making people feel like the stuff they do is important; that they are a valuable member to the team we work on and the company we work for, not to mention the customers we serve. It’s enabling folks to take on work outside their normal accountabilities; the stuff that makes us feel engaged, energized and inspired (like Google’s old-school 80/20 Rule). It’s creating the possibility for people to bridge what’s important in our personal lives with what’s important in our work – in a way that builds and maintains harmony between the two. It’s having the opportunity to do more than just sell stuff to a customer; it’s the feeling you get when you change someone’s life and their feelings about the brand you represent, even if that brand is YOU. It’s what every feel-good customer service story you hear is born from.

It’s truly being part of something bigger than ourselves.

What are your thoughts? How do you help create happiness for others? In the workplace? Outside the workplace?

Leave your comments below 😊

Gratitude 🙏

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