Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the

Workplace
Both job performance and the employees' level of happiness
impact the potential of success for an organization.
 
Charles D. Kerns, PhD
Performance and happiness go hand in hand in making an organization
successful.[1] With both an appropriate performance management system and
a positive approach to influencing people that increases happiness, an
organization's key results can more likely be achieved and sustained.
Which of the following types of persons would you prefer to have in greater
numbers in your organization?

Which of the following types of persons would you prefer to have in greater
numbers in your organization?

A. Happy Low Performers

B. Unhappy Low Performers

C. Unhappy High Performers

D. Happy High Performers

E. All of the above.

The obvious preference would be "D." Intuition aside, mounting evidence

suggests that happy high performing workforces correlate with greater
employee satisfaction, customer loyalty, productivity, and profits.[2] The
majority of workplaces, however, are filled with "E": all of the above.

The intersection between the dimensions of performance and happiness will

dictate whether an organization is able to sustain its success. This article
highlights the importance of both performance and happiness to the long-term
success of a business, describes the key dimensions of happiness in the
workplace, and offers a self-assessment tool which individuals may use in
thinking about their own personal performance and happiness at work. A call is
made to practitioners and applied researchers to design, develop, and test
happiness-enhancing interventions to assist practitioners in their efforts to
boost happiness in the workplace.

The Performance – Happiness Matrix

In the context of performance management, "performance" refers to actions
that drive the achievement of key results. A "high performer" is an individual
(or work group) that performs the actions necessary to drive key results.
"Happiness" is the experience of frequent, mildly pleasant emotions, the relative
absence of unpleasant feelings, and a general feeling of satisfaction with one's
life."[3] People who are happy in the work setting are generally having more
positive experiences than negative ones in connection with the work place and
their job.  

An interesting and useful way of viewing people and groups across the two
dimensions of performance and happiness is depicted in Figure 1. Happy and
sad faces, with arrows symbolizing high and low performance, represent the
four permutations in this analysis. The author often uses this matrix with
executives to discuss their own situation as well as that of the people in their
organizations. References in this article to the various quadrants are used for
thought and discussion purposes only. For more specific analysis of areas of
relative strength and weakness for a particular individual or group within an
organization, see thePerformance-Happiness Self-Assessment
Survey here.

Performance-Happiness Matrix

1. Quadrant #1: Happy Low Performer. These employees remain happy in

spite of poor performance. They may be especially optimistic, perhaps
mismatched for their current position, or need training. Tom, for example, a
new and inexperienced pharmaceutical sales person, was positive about his
future and hopeful that his current poor performance would improve with sales
skill training. He was optimistic and hopeful about succeeding in this position,
even though his current performance was poor; as his performance improves,
he would move toward Q4 behavior.

2. Quadrant #2: Unhappy Low Performer. Many factors can contribute to

this condition, including a lack of performance management systems, poor
selection practices, and little or no meaningful employee recognition. For
example, Mary was frustrated and unhappy in the workplace most of the time.
Her job required her to be detail-oriented, structured and willing to work alone
for long periods of time. The problem was that Mary was not good with details,
and she was creative and extroverted. She was an underperformer in her
current job with little chance of succeeding because her work preferences did
not match those required by her job.

Negative low performers can keep organizations from reaching their full
potential. Their own lack of success drags down overall performance. Perhaps
more significantly, unhappy low performers can infect others with negative
attitudes and become negative role models, exacerbating the impact of their
unhappiness, and allowing counterproductive behaviors to creep into the
workplace.

3. Quadrant #3: Unhappy High Performer. Various reasons may underlie

why an employee who is performing well may nonetheless be unhappy in the
workplace. For instance, employees may be unhappy because their work is not
challenging, or they are repeatedly asked to do the same assignments because
they are good at a particular activity. Without challenging work, it is difficult for
an employee to become involved, engaged, or positive about his or her work,
making it difficult to sustain high performance over time. This may result in the
most talented and marketable people, who are unhappy, leaving an
organization.

For instance: Having been given the same assignments numerous times, Peter
was unhappy and frustrated. While he continued to be a high performer in his
current position, Peter believed that no one cared about his development and
was contemplating looking for another position.

4. Quadrant #4: Happy High Performer. Happy high performance presents

the best prospect for long-term organizational success. A high performer who is
happy about his/her work will be much more likely to sustain high performance
over time and deliver key results.

A Closer Look at Quadrant #4, the Happy High Performer

People who occupy Quadrant #4 share some key characteristics. These

individuals:
 1. Have a clear direction.
2. Find that direction motivating.
3. Focus on what is important and what they can influence.
4. Are linked to the resources necessary to execute key actions.
5. Talk and act in ways that promote performance and happiness.
6. Are significantly engaged in their work.
7. Find meaning and purpose in their work.
8. Have more positive experiences than negative experiences at work.
9. Are grateful about the past and do not carry grudges.
10. Are optimistic looking into the future.
11. Achieve agreed upon results.
12. Are happy about their workplace.

Managerial leaders are encouraged to use the "Performance – Happiness Self-

Assessment Survey" to rate themselves on these characteristics. This
assessment tool is an informal survey that serves as a springboard for a
conversation about areas of relative strength and areas where improvement
may be indicated, with the goal of personal growth toward Q4.

Paths to Performance and Happiness

Job satisfaction researchers have had a long standing debate as to whether

employees are happy first and performers second, or performers first and happy
second.[4] However, both happiness and job performance need to be
addressed.

Various paths exist to maximize performance and happiness. It may be

relatively easier to move people from Q1 or Q3, rather than from Q2, toward
the high performing happy Q4. For instance, a change in recognition and reward
strategies may be sufficient to move people in Q3 to Q4. In most situations,
however, the "fix" to enhance people's happiness in their work environment will
be challenging. Tools exist for increasing performance, but positivity enhancing
interventions that drive happiness still need to be developed for use within
organizational settings.

1. Increasing Performance. A managerial leader can maximize performance

by taking action in the following four areas:

1. Designing, developing, and delivering a clear and motivating direction

2. Creating operational focus
3. Effectively and efficiently linking or coordinating resources
4. Ensuring that people practice effective influence skills

When managerial leaders effectively execute the action roles of director,

focuser, linker and influencer,[5] performance is advanced. In order to be a
high performer, an employee must have a clear and motivating direction, know
what to focus on, know how to access and link with resources to maximize his
or her performance, and be surrounded by people who practice effective
influence or people skills, including individuals who model and promote
happiness.

2. Increasing Happiness. In looking at happiness in the workplace, we find

that a person's orientation in reflecting on the past, focusing on the present,
and looking into the future, is determinative of whether he or she is happy.[6]

 When reflecting on the past, the way to happiness is to be grateful and

"count your blessings." Happy people do not carry grudges; they find
effective ways to forgive others.
 In looking at one's present situation, individuals derive happiness from
being significantly engaged in their work, finding meaning/purpose in
what they do, and/or regularly having more happy/positive
experiences than negative ones.
 Individuals who are challenged while using their skills and strengths will
be engaged in their work. When an optimal balance occurs between
challenge and skill, a person becomes fully engaged in the activity at
hand. Such individuals are "in flow" with their work.[7]
 Employees experience meaning in their work when they recognize that
their work has an impact on others. Meaning is often brought into greater
focus when employees understand what needs they are satisfying for the
end users of their organization's products and services. For example,
when production workers in a manufacturing plant recognize that their
company's products contribute to environmental safety in communities
around the globe, they can see the greater good, or meaning, in their
work beyond the relative simplicity of completing their own daily tasks.
 Finally, happiness comes from work experiences that yield positive
emotions, positive thoughts, and/or positive images in people. Positive
emotions in particular have the capacity to "build and broaden" people's
positive response repertoire.[8] People who approach tasks with positivity
have been found to be more productive, creative and resilient.[9]
 When looking into the future, happy performers are optimistic and
hopeful. They utilize positive goals, self-talk and other strategies to help
them remain resilient as they move forward.

Perhaps the initial way for a managerial leader to think about how to influence
the happiness level of his or her employees is in relation to the employee's
present situation. For example, engagement with one's work can likely be
enhanced by having an individual assess her "strengths" and utilize those
strengths in her work. This may include coaching to help the individual use her
strengths in innovative ways. An employee's level of engagement at work, and
subsequent happiness, is likely boosted when he or she has the opportunity to
do what he or she does best at work – utilizing one's strengths is a positive
experience. (This could likely help Mary, the Q2 Unhappy Low Performer, move
toward Q4.)

A Call to Action

Organizational leaders should strive to increase the number of Happy High

Performers in their ranks. Start by assessing yourself in relation to the qualities
of a high-performing happy person. With this assessment you can develop
practical action plans that help you move toward higher performance and
happiness in the work environment.

To increase the number of happy high performers in the workplace,

organizational leaders need access to proven happiness-enhancing
interventions. Unfortunately, there has been little work done in organizational
settings to address this need. As a foundation, there is a growing body of
applied research which seeks to validate happiness enhancing interventions in
self-help and mental health settings.[10]Practitioners and applied researchers
working in organizations need to focus more attention on developing practical
happiness-enhancing interventions to assist managerial leaders to help their
people become more engaged in their work, experience meaning in their work,
and experience positive emotions, thoughts, and images in relation to the work
and work environment. With tools to help people in organizations enhance their
happiness combined with effective performance management systems, happy
high performers will likely grow in numbers within organizations