by Judy Ryan
When you think of a happy community, you likely picture good team players who pitch in, are positive and manage themselves well, including their relationships, motivation and enthusiasm for life and work. They are your go-to people. Every business, organization, school, neighborhood and family has them; they are fully engaged, proactive and socially intelligent.
People in the happiest of communities commit to conscious personal growth and build trust. They are honest and straightforward and disclose their ideas, opinions and feelings. They are receptive to differences and don’t rush to find solutions as though diversity of thought and feelings is a disaster or cause for alarm. Instead, they show deep respect for the values and gifts others bring and maintain patience and faith when a path to collaboration and synergy is not immediately evident. They seek excellence, serve by doing quality work, follow through on commitments and build strong relationships.
The Post-Dispatch recently reported on an alarming trend and the high cost to area businesses when disgruntled customers complain on social media. It’s every company’s nightmare. Do you want to protect your reputation and make sure your employees deliver consistent, positive customer service? Consider a happy community as the solution. When you recall your own experiences in one, remember how much work is accomplished and how fulfilling the experience is. This begs the question: Why would any business owner neglect happy community as a prerequisite to excellent service? Most often it is because most do not recognize the costs of neglecting it or how to go about creating it when they do. The greatest challenge I face is articulating the process and resources needed to create happy community. In order to simplify, here are two basic components for “how to”:
Encouragement. It’s the essential component for building a happy community. Encouragement is the building up of courage through development of leadership and internal motivation so decisions and actions occur from responsible, empowered thinking and feeling. Bottom line: Encouragement happens when all members of the work force understand what must be nurtured and cultivated in one another. It requires removing from your business those practices likely to cause people to feel anything other than empowered, lovable, connected and contributing, and this is a lot. It includes transforming managers into mentors; removing gossip, office politics, confusion and apathy; and adopting human systems to shift blame to problem-solving by consistently asking, “What system would solve this problem or prevent it from happening or recurring?”
Redirecting negative behavior. By creating an encouraging environment, you eliminate about 90% of all negative behavior, but despite this, sometimes people show up at work and display poor behavior. If this is met with traditionally harsh, punitive or enabling reactions, you foster further discouragement. Therefore, learning how to maintain order and healthy relationships without diminishing yourself and others is critical. Redirect a tool that gets at the root of poor behavior and shifts it, all while strengthening and restoring encouragement quickly.
Service and support are a natural response when human beings feel happy, competent, safe, connected and creative and are having fun. Too many people say, “I left the corporate environment because it was just too toxic.” Rather than lose your best employees and customers, consider the benefits of proactively creating a happy workplace community where people function to their highest potential.
Judy Ryan (judy@LifeworkSystems.com; 314-239-4727), human systems specialist, is owner of LifeWork Systems. Her mission is to help people create lives and jobs they love.
Submitted 10 years 210 days ago