Happiness at work wasthe focus of a work-shop in The Bahamas

last week, and one of the fea-tured presenters – AlexanderKjerulf of Denmark – recent-ly gave Guardian Business hisprescription for a new lead-ership paradigm, suggestingthat prevailing models ofpromotion in the workplaceneed to be re-examined.

Kjerulf was in The Ba-hamas to participate in the“Happiness at Work: LessonsFrom Festivals” seminarhosted by his fellow presen-ter, Roosevelt Finlayson. Fin-layson is the creator of Festi-val in The Workplace, a curat-ed experience designed touse Junkanoo principles tocreate a high-performing or-ganization.

Speaking with GuardianBusiness following the semi-nar, Kjerulf pointed out thatFinlayson’s work on inculcat-ing some of the Junkanoo“shack” principles into theworkplace and his own fieldof happiness at work –Kjerulf styles himself “chiefhappiness officer” of hiscompany Woohoo inc. –mesh very well together.

New leadershipparadigmKjerulf addressed the peren-nial problem of promoting ahigh-performing individualaway from the thing theylove to do and are so skilledat: the teacher who is “pro-moted” to administration,the software engineer who is“promoted” to management.

“What we need to realize isthat we need to promote adifferent kind of leader, a dif-ferent kind of person to lead-ership. Our model for whatmakes people happy at work

is that it’s not really aboutthe salary – as long as, ofcourse, you’re being paidfairly. What really makes ushappy at work is results andrelationships,” he said.

“Results is about beinggood at what you do and re-lationships is about feelinglike you belong in the work-place. We need both. Whatoften happens in a work-place is that we promote theresults-oriented people toleadership, and I think whatwe need to do is promote therelationship-oriented peopleto leadership, because theycan relate to others, they canunderstand other people,they can make sure thattheir needs are met.

“They can make sure thatthose employees feel thatthey are seen, they are heard,they are valued, and this is

something a results-orientedperson cannot do as well.”

Kjerulf reported that in anumber of Danish business-es there are two careertracks: management andspecialist tracks. On the spe-cialist track, for example, asoftware developer mightbecome a senior software de-veloper then software archi-tect, then senior software ar-chitect and so on.

“In each of those stepsthere is a raise associatedwith it, there is a little moreprestige, but more thanthat, there is the recognitionof your professional skills,which is what really mattersto a lot of these people. Andalso, they are allowed to dothe work they like to do.

“This basic realization isthat being a leader is notabout the actual work, it’s

about the people doing thework. We need leaders whoare good at people, not goodat the work, and that’s notthe same thing.

The new workThe changing nature ofwhat is considered “work” –the work day, the workweek, the workplace, eventhe concept of a job – con-tinues to be a subject ofmuch scholarly debate, andKjerulf weighed in on thesubject. He noted that whatis considered work is by andlarge a product of the indus-trial revolution, prior towhich people lived in amostly agrarian model.

“There is a massive, mas-sive shift happening,” hesaid.

“As the nature of workchanged and we got moreand more creative jobs,more and more knowledgeworkers, our attitudes to-ward work have changed aswell, and people have start-ed investing more and moreof their identity into their

job. I actually think that’s avery positive development,because we spend so muchof our time at the work-place.”

“And if you spend most ofyour life doing somethingthat you don’t really careabout, something in whichyou see no meaning or pur-pose...that just has a mas-sive negative effect on yourlife.”

Kjerulf told Guardian Busi-ness the shift in importancepeople are placing on per-sonal satisfaction in theirwork is “an incredibly posi-tive movement”, both at theindividual and corporatelevels.

“Companies are sayingthey are here to make mon-ey, obviously. But if they canactually run a happy work-place, then they can alsomake more money... My per-sonal feeling is that the hap-py workplaces are so muchmore efficient and produc-tive and profitable that theyare going to out-competethe unhappy workplaces,”

he said.Kjerulf agreed that empir-

ical data is important tosupport assertions like theone he makes about happyworkplaces outcompetingunhappy ones, and said it is“fairly well established bynow that happy workplacesdo make more money.”

“There are massive indi-vidual differences and somemiserable workplaces arestill really, really profitable,and happy workplaces canstill lose money obviously,but on the whole statistical-ly there is an effect, andthere is actually quite alarge effect depending onwhat industry you are in,”he said.

Industries like hospitalityare heavily affected by thelevel of happiness in theworkplace, Kjerulf said, asare the creative workers – IT,designers, architects andthe like. He added that someresearch is even suggestingthat when a hospital is ahappy place, people get bet-ter sooner.

“On a very fundamentallevel, there is some neuro-logical research that looksat what happens to us in cer-tain situations, and general-ly speaking, being happy –feeling good, experiencingpositive emotions – hassome very positive effectson us,” he said.

“For instance your mindis more open, so you’remore likely to notice what’sgoing on around you whenyou’re in a good mood thanwhen you’re in a bad mood.You are more open to peo-ple, so you’re more helpful,generous, empathetic andalso you are more resilientto problems, setbacks andcrises,” he continued,adding that a good moodmeans more creativity, pro-ductivity and better com-munication.

“It is fairly well estab-lished that we feel better,and we do better work whenwe’re happy. And we’re bet-ter people overall whenwe’re happy,” Kjerulf said.

B2 | The Nassau Guardian | Monday, May 18, 2015 ➘ thenassauguardian.com

BUSINESS

New leadership paradigm:promote ‘relationship’ peopleK. QUINCY PARKERGuardian Business Editorquincy@nasguard.com

AlexanderKjerulf.