The UN Happiness report sites six criteria for the basis of their rankings. The key variables that support their findings are associated with general overall well-being: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support, and generosity.<\/p>\n
No real surprise here – since it’s hard to argue that any of these factors are bad. But the question we need to ask – is what causes these variables. It seems not to be luck – since the rankings do remain somewhat consistent year over year. And perhaps surprising is the fact that the wealthiest and most powerful countries like the United States (ranked 19th) and the UK (and ranked 15th) fall well below places like Canada, Norway, and Australia – all of which ranked in the top 10. The point here is that wealth and power are not the keys to happiness – and that should certainly be of little surprise to anyone.<\/p>\n
So what does make people happy? And how does this matter to the success of an organization and its leadership?<\/p>\n
The simple answer is that we can find happiness where we are in what we do. More specifically, in what we accomplish by what we do.<\/p>\n
Human happiness may be generally measurable in feeling safe and secure and living long healthy lives – as the UN reports suggest – but the more fundamental source of genuine joy in life is derived from the deep satisfaction we experience in life’s meaningful accomplishments. The greatest accomplishments typically occur when we are willing to risk our safety or security ( or at least push beyond our comfort zone) in pursuit of something noble – or when our generosity places the needs and interests of others above our own.<\/p>\n
What we think of as the “pursuit of happiness” tends to be our aim for the moments of overwhelming joy we experience in the satisfaction of accomplishing the thing that matter most. This is where, as leaders, we can be most effective.<\/p>\n
Any organization’s success is the result of its accomplishments. All of the talent, effort, and opportunity any person or organization can muster is only as valuable as the significance of what we accomplish with it. Our roles as leaders are simply to organize what we do have to accomplish what we must. It is how we fulfill our duty to ensure that our organizations maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.<\/p>\n
Accomplishment is a function of competence. People and organizations must be fully capable and prepared to perform to whatever level is necessary in order to fulfill our aims. Making it both necessary and possible for people to be competent entails that they have the requisite competencies – or the skills and knowledge they need, have a clear understanding of what it is they must accomplish.<\/p>\n
These are the tools, but tools alone do not get a job done. It requires grit and conscientiousness to bring the best of ourselves together with the best of our abilities. It is the willingness to go beyond where we are comfortable or confident. And we must have a belief that what we aim to accomplish serves something greater than our own personal needs or interests.<\/p>\n
It is our responsibility as leaders to make these things necessary and possible. By doing so we cultivate competence, expand human potential and set into motion the actions that form the accomplishments that can change the course of organizations, peoples lives, and even entire civilizations.<\/p>\n
Maybe more important, though – we impact the quality of people’s lives by providing them with MoJo – the moments of overwhelming joy that define a life well-lived.<\/p>\n
It has been said that the only place to look for happiness is within ourselves. There is no need to move to Finland or Norway to find the source of a happy life. We need only to look to ourselves and see what it would take to make ourselves fully competent – and then how we might make others competent too.<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
Phil Liebman is the Founder and CEO at ALPS Leadership – Where we help people fully competent, truly exceptional leaders. www.ALPSLeadership.com Phil has also been a Group Chairman with Vistage Worldwide since 2005 – where he helps leaders realize their potential by learning with and from other leaders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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