Page 247 - How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win

WHAT DELIGHTS ME? (CIVILITY AND HAPPINESS)

front-row tickets to a play-off game. And it is true that the big
purchase would get your attention and give you a huge thrill
and a lasting memory. But the research suggests that after
two years you would have gotten a lot more satisfaction and
a bigger boost to your overall happiness by investing $100 a
week in lots of smaller hits: small vacation breaks, dinners
with friends, gifts for people you like, handouts to someone
in need, a membership at a gym, fresh flowers, a new basket-
ball, a painting class—especially if you keep the small hits
consistent with your values and interests.
So, how many of the items on your list were related to or
done at your work? Too often, delight is found outside of the
daily demands of work. In a workshop, senior leaders were
asked to write their personal leadership point of view. In almost
every case, when leaders talked about values and things that
brought meaning and delight to them, they referred to things
outside of work—their children, families, hobbies, and service
activities. When they talked about work, they referred to their
ability to set goals and get things done. Simply stated, we want
to bring meaning and delight into work, without minimizing
the seriousness or intensity of the work we must do.
Delight at work does not have to be expensive either, and
employees will generally appreciate lots of small investments
in their well-being and delight at work more than grand
gestures on rare occasions. As a leader you set a tone for culti-
vating and modeling delight at work. You can also ask others
to brainstorm about what they could do to make work more
fun for them or what the company could do at minimal cost
that would be meaningful to employees to bring delight to
work.
Let’s look at four sources of delight that can make
work, and life, more enjoyable: creativity, pleasure, humor/

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