Leading Toward Happiness

Being a leader in the workplace is not easy. You are constantly being pulled in all directions by every imaginable force.

Employees always want your attention. The ownership wants more productivity. Customers want greater satisfaction. With all the strain and stress, it can be easy to overlook some of the smaller or less noticeable details.

But, ignore the small things long enough, and they will compound upon each other and eventually leave you with a mess to clean.

In order to avoid the mess, I have some tips that can help leaders ensure a happy, healthy workplace.

• Prioritize: Everything has some level of importance and urgency. People in leadership need to focus on the most immediate and most urgent things first, then work their way down to the stuff that isn't important or urgent. Michael Hyatt has a great post on this topic.
• Delegate: There are some things that only you can do in your workplace. And, there are a lot of things that others can do. If someone else in your organization has the ability and time to do some of the stuff on your plate, hand it over to them. Train them how to do it, then step back and let go of it.
• Don't ignore your employee's priorities: This is the perfect spot to note a couple of things about delegation and priorities. You need to be mindful that your employees have priorities that need to be respected as you delegate work to them. Likewise, their top priorities may be dependent upon some function of your job. Don't ignore what you perceive as a low priority, but is a high priority to someone else.
• Develop a healthy culture: There are a lot of little things that can get overlooked as time passes. But, its the little things that can define the health of your company's culture. Ignore them, and your culture gradually becomes toxic. Work to improve staff morale and communication while ending water cooler gossip and poor work ethic.
• Don't ignore the company cancer: One bad egg in an organization can spoil your office environment. Staff discipline should be carried out at the moment an infraction is discovered. Delaying it will soften the impact in your own mind, and breed contempt in those affected by the bad egg. Discipline should also be custom tailored for the individual. Some people require severe consequences, while others need a slap on the wrist to gain correction. Three words sum this point -- keep short accounts.
• Create fun opportunities: One of the best ways to build morale is to do fun stuff together. Close the office one day a month and go to a ballgame, go bowling, play a round of golf, have a cookout. When you do stuff together, you build community and friendships.

Do you have any other ideas to create a happy, healthy workplace?