With International Happiness at Work Week drawing to a close, we have been reflecting back on the events and webinars that we have hosted this week and have a whole repertoire of tips and advice we’re excited to share with you.
Our first webinar of the week looked at the importance of motivation and collaboration across all teams within a business – including (arguably, most importantly) the leadership team. In order to identify what really motivates and bonds a high performing, happy team – we went outside of the boardroom and onto the rugby pitch to speak with England’s most capped international rugby player: Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark MBE. As a World Cup veteran and current men’s rugby coach, there is no doubt that Rocky knows how to motivate with incredible results.
Her top tips include:
- Lead from the front
Ensure your leadership team are aligned and listening to each other, before you even think about the main team - Be agile at all times and make adjusting the norm
Never stick to a plan that isn’t working, constantly check in with all team members to maintain a clear picture of what progress is being made and keep adapting to stay on track - You can’t move the goal posts – but you can change the goals
There are always times in life, and business, when the original idea of success stops being an option. This doesn’t mean you have to give up or lose your motivation – you just have to change your goals. Introducing smaller, shorter targets still gives people something to work towards with a sense of purpose
You can read more from Rocky in our previous blog, for further advice on motivation and teams.
Next up, we held an interactive workshop, incorporating the physical and mental wellbeing aspects of finding happiness and gratitude within your working day.
Our favourite pilates instructor and movement guru Karrie-Anne Bradly, founder of Pilates At your Desk kicked off the session (literally) by reminding us all how energising and mood boosting even the smallest of movements can be. So if you’re reading this at your desk right now and feeling a little grumpy, tired or achy, why not true these three simple things:
- Make sure that you are sitting properly! Sit right up on your sit bones, with your feet flat on the floor and your knees, ankles and hips creating a right angle
- Interlock your fingers behind your head and push your head back into your hands for a good stretch
- Take a really deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth – repeat that five times
One of HiBob’s dearest friends and wellbeing at work influencer, Suki K Bassi, Chief Happiness Officer and founder of HappyMaven, delivered a truly inspiring keynote speech on the importance of gratitude. Her key takeaways for encouraging gratitude across your organisation are:
- Happiness is a direction, not a place (this counts outside of the office too) so you have to continuously work towards it. Keep your wellbeing initiatives current, fresh and relevant
- Financial rewards do not sustain happiness – psychological safety, meaningful recognition and purpose go much further than a bonus
- Make gratitude a personal and organisational norm – find ways for peers and managers to provide positive feedback on a regular basis and make sure that the gratitude given is specific. If you are saying thank you to someone – tell them why you are saying it and show you really mean it.
Bringing our happiness hat trick to a joyful conclusion was this morning’s webinar on Values and Purpose in the workplace – which Suki from HappyMaven kindly took us through.
Suki shared with us the personal journey that led her to finding her purpose and creating the HappyMaven brand. Suki also reiterated how crucial it is to take time to reflect on each of our personal journeys and remind ourselves what we consider our purpose to be.
So how does this link to the workplace? Because we are the same people at work as we are outside of it and a strong approach to creating company values, is to start with the team’s personal ones – here are the key points to creating authentic values for your business:
- Remember that every organisation has values and a purpose from day one – you just need to take the time to map them out and communicate them
- Start with your c-suit’s personal values. Book a 90 minute offsite session and ‘crowd source’ what they believe are key values in life and business
- Give equal weight to values that benefit the clients you serve and the employees you nurture!
We’d love to hear more about the Happiness at Work Week initiatives that have been happening in other businesses too, please share your HAWW pictures with us on Instagram tagging @HibobHR