In the past three years, a course taught by Professor Laurie Santos at Yale, known as the ‘Happiness Course’, has become the world’s most subscribed program. The title and advice on the topic of achieving happiness has spread to books, podcasts, documentaries, and Ivy League colleges. In sheer volume, it gives rivals material on how to succeed. It is ironic, however, that the parameters of being happy have little in common with the parameters needed to be successful. The elements that go into achieving happiness have a far greater emphasis on introspection than on an outward orientation to success. And there’s a reason for that.
Success, by definition, is driven by an external scorecard: how well you did in your studies, which Ivy League colleges accepted you, where you interned, which firm made your first offer, and how fast you progressed in your career. Proceed from It and its material surrogates such as the houses you live in, the cars you drive and the vacations you take are all scorecards created by society to promote competition and growth. They are not customized according to what a person wants internally. Take the sports world for example. The world’s top-ranked badminton player may apparently have much less wealth than a 10th-ranked tennis player, despite the fact that all the elements like talent, hard work, passion, etc., that go into making a world-class player Let’s go, there are few. Equal for both in the competitive field of this sport. Therefore, when it comes to success, at least as society defines it, a large portion of the associated satisfaction derives from external evaluation, validation, and peer acceptance.
However, once a basic threshold of cleanliness is achieved, other elements that create happiness come in and these are largely introspective. how healthy are you? How much of your life is in control of you? Are you able to balance your responsibilities and relationships? Do you look forward to coming to work because you will be happy, or do you view a typical work day as the drudgery that has to be done to achieve professional goals? Does your day end with a sense of accomplishment or hopeless exhaustion? These measures of satisfaction are very much internal.
Last month, I visited a deep coal mine with a group of senior leaders. It was an arduous journey of 450 meters deep into an aging mine which took two hours to reach the pit. The air was stale and laden with coal dust. It was hot and the clothes of the sweat-soaked laborers had come off till their waist. The machines and conveyor trolleys were deafening and the helmet lights painted surreal shadows in the tunnels. Mining was clearly a difficult and dangerous way to make a living.
We were shown around by a shift engineer in his mid-thirties who had been working with this state enterprise for 11 years. He was a graduate of a premier Indian engineering college and was considered at the top of his craft. When one of the visiting leaders asked him if the workers had night shifts, the boy smiled sarcastically and said that inside the mine, it does not matter whether it is day or night outside. Talk about a room with no view!
However, despite the lack of material leverage, the young leader showed a clear presence of command. The working gangs were jovial, yet cautious. At least instructions were being given and it seemed like everyone knew exactly what to do. It was a well oiled elite team working with their leader. We didn’t see any posters of a mission statement or core company values. No financial incentive plan for better performance was advertised and there were no screensavers that reminded employees how much they were cherished by their organization. Instead, there was only pure individual leadership on display at half a kilometer depth. The leader seemed to know his job as well as each member of his team. He led from the front with a smile and stream of encouragement, making the grueling work environment irrelevant, especially for high-risk excavating. This can only be done by leaders who are naturally happy. Not because they will get more money or promotion. They revel in the joy of leadership, a feeling that comes from being happy, and not necessarily ‘successful’.
Firms measure leadership behavior and organizational culture using two major scorecards. Some use external scorecards, with financial incentives, prizes, foreign junk, job rotation and rapid promotion. Others focus on internal satisfaction scorecards, underscoring camaraderie, psychological safety, and a sense of purpose and belonging. While the two are not exclusive to each other, a company’s DNA usually gravitates towards either. There is no doubt that success-driven levers are more popular because they are easier to create, distribute, communicate, and measure. However, it is the internal scorecards that develop leaders who can lead without material incentives alone. Importantly, only leaders secure enough that they do not need external validation tend to delegate decisions, mentor others, and build a succession line of leaders superior to them. Those who rely on external scorecards are more likely to prioritize personal stakes at the expense of organizational success. Successful leaders can leave behind success stories, but it takes ‘happy’ leaders to leave a real legacy.
Raghu Raman is the former CEO of the National Intelligence Grid, Distinguished Fellow of the Observer Research Foundation and author of ‘Everyman’s War’.
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