Bring Joy to the workplace

 What? 

    In Keith Ferrazzi's Leading Without Authority he has eight practices for his third rule: earn permission to lead. The practice I am focusing on is the ability to promise joy in partnership with your coworkers. Joy and happiness are one of the most effective ways to increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace. It is also one of the easiest ways to co-elevate group members and be a great way to be of service to them. Joy and happiness are how we stay connected in our daily lives and those feelings should not have to subside once we enter a professional setting.

So What?

    Joy and happiness should be the standard for how we feel about our work, but it does not always turn out that way. Employees constantly feel that their work does not matter and that they feel emotionally and intellectually disengaged from their work (Ferrazzi, 2020). A Gallup poll collected over 40 years' worth of data showed that in 2018 we hit a new high of nearly 34% of worker engagement, which means nearly two-thirds of workers do not find their work appealing or find any value in it. When workers are happy it is better for all parties as workers' productivity increases including providing more input to other employees on other projects (Awada & Ismail, 2019). In terms of the company,  it increases profitability and the retention rate of the company. This allows employees to feel a sense of purpose and relevancy in their work so they can perceive their contribution to the organization which Ferrzazi says can lead to a meaningful life. Ferrazzi states that nearly half of the workforce does not find meaning or significance in their work which can lead to them feeling alienated or disengaged from their workplace. This is an issue for employees, as well as management as employees who do find meaning in their work, are nearly three times more likely to stay with the organization (Ferrazzi, 2020). One way to retain employees and succeed in the pursuit of happiness in the workplace is to foster a culture centered on creating and building relationships (Bennett, 2022). This can be done through being engaged in the community internally and externally as you can create connections and relationships that can bring value and happiness.


Now What?

    In Ferrazzi's eight practices of earning permission to lead, promising joy in your partnership I believe is the most useful. It is useful for you and others to challenge issues together as it makes it easier to get through the bad times to actually enjoy your work and life later. This will help me in my future career because when working on consulting projects you are always working in groups and being able to uplift and create happiness for others makes their emotions better and make the group work more efficiently as a whole. Sometimes it is just as simple as saying you like their shoes, but also might be as difficult as offering to take some work off of somebody's plate as they deal with difficult times. I believe in what goes around, comes around so when you are able to help someone in need when they need it the most, so when you need it the most either that person or someone else will reciprocate those actions of kindness and potentially create joy for the other person.


Awada, N. I., & Ismail, F. (2019). Happiness in the Workplace. International Journal of Innovative Technology and Exploring Engineering, 8(9).

Bennett, B. (2022, April 21). Council post: The role of joy in the Workplace. Forbes. Retrieved September 20, 2022, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/12/02/the-role-of-joy-in-the-workplace/?sh=5896f5332222

Ferrazzi, K. (2020). Leading without authority. New York: Penguin Random House LLC.


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