Want a Better Everything at Work? Use These 3 Strategies to Boost Happiness and Results

Hello. Happy Monday. It’s John Garrett coming to you with another episode of Green Apple Slices. I’m here with my co-host. Happy Monday person Rachel Fisch. Rachel, how are you doing?

Rachel: Good. How are you doing, John?

John: Great and you’re back from the UK, your trip to London, and everywhere?

Rachel: Yeah. To London and UK so that’s it.

John: Everything’s good but you actually found this really great article on Inc., an article by Ellen Petry Leanse. “Want a Better Everything at Work? Use These 3 Strategies to Boost Happiness and Results.” Really great. Yeah. You had a really good guess at what the three would be.

Rachel: I did.

John: They were not quite there but I agree with your three are pretty solid.

Rachel: Apparently, the three ways to boost happiness at work is not through chocolate candy or caffeine. I kind of thought those were few ones. There’s even like three C’s but I really loved it because like I love finding articles that basically preach the green apple message, right? That there’s more to us at work than our professionalism and that the key to all of this shocking research that people are doing is that it actually helps to have relationships inside work but outside work like that connect with your other passions and things like that. Anytime I find something like that it just kind of reinforces what we talk about every single week that this is not rocket science but it’s just something that doesn’t seem to come naturally to the corporate world.

John: Yeah. I love how she starts out with talking about the science behind the mental burden or cognitive load of when people are unhappy and when you’re not letting them share their passions and share where their energy comes from and what they’re excited about, then they’re naturally going to be happy and not only are they less productive but your brain doesn’t let you be productive. The chemicals that aren’t released interfere with the cognitive abilities and all that stuff and so it’s really great to hear that there’s science behind my crazy little ideas which is always nice too.

Rachel: Yeah, absolutely.

John: She starts out the three things, not to keep everybody waiting any longer. The three things are relationships, contribution, and growth. Two of them directly relate to the green apple message with relationships and growth. It’s building a real connection with people.

Rachel: Yeah. The thing that I like about contribution and this has come up in previous articles that we’ve talked about as well is that when you give somebody a project to do outside of their normal day-to-day routine, they actually get energized by it, and they’re excited to do it and so that actually helps them do their job better when they can have a bit of a different perspective and also feeling connected to something, right? Feeling like you have a purpose and feeling like you’re contributing to a larger thing, mission maybe whatever that thing is, right?

John: Absolutely, yeah and that your little piece makes the world better in some way and you understand how you fit into that is definitely important. And then the other thing that I thought was really cool is the growth piece of just how there’s also science and research behind how learning and growth in areas not directly related to your work can pay dividends back in the office.

There’s actually a software company that she cites that supports employees taking classes in whatever interest them like wood working or dance or history or whatever it is because those skills in learning something new in another area help you learn better in all areas which is yeah, just that what your interests and your passions and what you’re doing outside of work do directly make you better at your job.

Rachel: One of the things that I really like about your longer episodes with your interviews is when you are asking your interviewee, “What is it about this passion outside of work that actually makes you better at your job?” It’s amazing when you think about it what some of those connections are and that’s exposure to areas of creativity or areas of physical exertion or these other muscles that you’re using, how you can actually relate them back to what you actually do in your job. There’s a little plug for your podcast there.

John: Yeah. Well, thank you. For those of you that don’t know there is a Wednesday, Rachel isn’t a part of it, but —

Rachel: I know you tune in every Monday morning. I know you do but there’s actually a whole other show.

John: It’s great and yeah, it is. It’s so fascinating just every week how hobbies and passions have impacted people’s careers and Matthew Heggem and his dance and creating dance and creating art is very similar to creating business and how he goes into that or how just recently Wesley Middleton plays the organ in his band and he’s not the band leader. Yeah, he’s the managing partner at work. He’s able to see what it’s like to be part of a team and what it’s like to be a follower which in turn makes him a better managing partner when he gets to the office and to be a leader there.

There’s all kinds of different examples that I mean 128 now or so. Really, there’s quite a few. Yes, so it’s just so cool to come across an article like this that just reinforces everything and if you want to check it out, go to greenapplepodcast.com. You can read the article there. There’s some links to some old Harvard studies and things like that that reinforce a lot of this as well.

And everybody go to greenapplepodcast.com, you can get links there and while you’re there, I have a research study, it takes about 60 seconds, and it’s anonymous just to see how the green apple message might impact your career and your firm. That’d be cool to check that out and yeah, on Twitter check Rachel’s @FischBooks and I’m @RecoveringCPA and the shows @GreenApplePod so follow us there and never miss an episode. That’d be great. Very cool. That’s it. Everyone, get back to work. Busy season.

Rachel: With your chocolate and candy and caffeine.

John: See? There we go. Cool. Well, thanks a lot Rachel and yeah, look forward to talking with you again next week.

Rachel: Yup. See you next week, John. Bye-bye.