If you're reading this, you want to make your team happy! Welcome to the club!
But what were you searching for when you stumbled upon this post? Perhaps how you can increase employee motivation or "What motivates employees in the workplace?" and maybe even how to stay motivated at work yourself?
However, motivation is more of an outcome and less of the key to happiness.
The Work-Happiness Report shows that work happiness is the key to more motivation. We've reached into the not-so-deep bag of tricks and put together nine practical tips on how teams can collaborate more happily. These tips have been tested within the team and are all awork approved. 🤓
Here are 9 practical tips to create work happiness:
Discover shared values
By delving deeply into the values that truly matter to teams – in collaboration and goal-setting – they gain clarity about which behaviors are appreciated within the team. There are no right or wrong values, and no correct number of them. A good starting point for a shared definition is to take stock of the team. This can be done by recording typical team events or stories and the values that underlie them.
Define feedback rules
The ability to openly express praise and criticism without fearing consequences can be a central tool for strengthening the professional community of the team. To create a safe space for this purpose, shared feedback rules work well, both for giving and receiving feedback.
Set common goals
For teams to collectively prioritize the right things and rally behind a goal, company and team goals need to be transparent and understandable. A system like Objectives and Key Results, breaking down company goals across all levels of the organization and making everyone's influence clear, is suitable for this purpose.
Enable active participation
Not everyone can express themselves in every project. However, the ability to contribute one's own ideas during conceptual phases and especially in choosing specific work approaches utilizes the team's strengths and creates a sense of self-efficacy. This can be done, for example, by clearly dividing project concepts among team members and assigning implementation responsibilities purposefully.
Time to shine: Provide time and space for personal projects
Taking responsibility for personal projects beyond daily business is generally experienced as a significant enrichment. Of course, it's reasonable to expect these projects to directly contribute to company or team success. However, they need space and a fair chance to be implemented. A joint hackathon as a project kickoff or a regular project day as part of team events can be an excellent starting point.
Prioritize structured training
Self-realization also involves developing one's own strengths. It's not about general further education, but about targeted development and inspiration in the specific skills of team members. Training, conferences, and coaching that foster this area shouldn't focus on compensating weaknesses or skill gaps. Instead, they highlight unique abilities, and their selection can be a part of performance reviews and feedback discussions.
Embed tasks in a larger context
True sense of purpose in work emerges only when the contribution of a task to project or company success is clear. Clear briefings that establish this connection and transparency about company development help recognize this context.
Why, why, why!
Even if 'Purpose' has become a buzzword, the 'why' of projects, teams, and companies remains the central driver of meaning in work. Leaders tend to see the 'why' as self-evident – but it usually isn't. It needs to be reiterated and kept present in daily operations.
Regular recognition of achievements
When successes, especially when recognized publicly, are worth investing effort in and working together on. For instance, a public "Feedback Friday" where the team can discuss achievements in a shared chat. Tools like Matter can support this process.
Work and happiness are closely intertwined. By implementing these tips, you create a work environment where your team collaborates more happily. And that makes everyone happy! 🥳
Want more Work-Happiness? Then download the Work-Happiness Report. Here, we once again emphasize the importance of such measures, peppered with scientific insights, and of course, packed with study results.
[.b-related-article] Read the Work-Happiness-Report [.b-related-article]
