Happiness, Resilience, Leadership, Entrepreneurship and a Better Future for the SA Economy
Happiness at work is not a flaky “happy clappy – happy hippy” new religion. Neither is it an invitation to an elaborate game of hooky.
For entrepreneur, Ricardo Semler it is very simple. The repetition, boredom and aggravation that too many people accept as an inherent part of working can be replaced with joy, inspiration and freedom. And the bottom line results are evident. They are very rigorous about the numbers and by applying his unconventional participatory model, Semco was rescued from bankruptcy. Despite tough economic times in Brazil, Semco has enjoyed 27% growth for the past 25 years, each year. Making money has been a very nice by-product of a business that is very much on track.
It is estimated that South African productivity has hit a 46 year low. A few days ago Leadership Intelligence Bulletin (www.leadershiponline.co.za) published their weekly newsletter.
What was evident was the excruciating intensity of the difficulties facing executives today.
Headline 1: Labour unrest to impact elections
Headline 2: World economy prospects subdued
Headline 3: Government union relationship under scrutiny
Headline 4: Diversification and human capital crucial – SA Economy may miss targets….
“SA continues to face the triple challenge of chronic high unemployment, poverty and inequality”
Back in 2011, Tom Peters said, “The future for the South African Economy is reliant on enough entrepreneurs getting out of bed excited to start a new business or build the one they already have.”
Right now, more than ever before, the future of the South African economy is reliant on business and government leaders wanting to get out of bed with excitement to create success. At a time when employee morale could be at an all-time low and businesses need to optimise and leverage their assets, the rising cost of misery for our organisations is a strategic priority. happiness@work is a hard core approach if you believe you need people and excitement to make your organisation succeed. According to Semler, companies can no longer rely on buying the grudging compliance of their people and they need to change the way they do things to enjoy the enterprising participation of their people, committed and confident to make a difference.
The mere mention of optimism and happiness@work have traditionally been received with roars of laughter, which is why Jessica Pryce-Jones made it her mission to evidence to the hard-numbered world of business that this “new-agey”, “happy clappy” concept is important if leaders want their talented people to develop and thrive within their organisations.
At the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in 2012, Adrian Gore spoke about the massive impact that a few good leaders could have on our economy.
“The exciting thing is that leadership, effective leadership is also “Paretian”. Effective leaders make a massive difference on the system. A small number of people can pull the entire system across. We should never underestimate the exponential effect that great leaders have.
Tal Ben-Shahar, the professor who taught the most popular course at Harvard on Positive Psychology and the 3rd most popular course on the Psychology of Leadership has evidenced the significance of positive psychology as a leadership imperative to achieve resilience and innovation in organisations.
According to Tal, most organisational and individual potential is untapped. By creating a positive environment leaders can nurture the inherent potential in themselves and from within their people.
We can only hope that a few good leaders will have the courage and resilience to consider a new way of doing business to pull the entire system across in an exponential, “Paretian” way.
