Yesterday, we spent some time learning about Tony Hsieh’s passion for making happiness the central focus of the Zappos culture. The insight was gained from a recent article published in Inc. Magazine.
When companies think about happiness, particularly as it applies to employees, the attention usually shifts to perks and benefits. Hsieh seems to know better:
“That single-minded focus on happiness has led to plenty of accolades for the company, which routinely scores high on lists of the best places to work. But Zappos’s approach to workplace bliss differs significantly from that of other employee-friendly businesses.
For one thing, Zappos pays salaries that are often below market rates — the average hourly worker makes just over $23,000 a year. Though the company covers 100 percent of health care costs, employees are not offered perks found at many companies, such as on-site child care, tuition reimbursement, and a 401(k) match.
Zappos does offer free food to its employees, but the pile of cold cuts in the small cafeteria loses its allure faster than you can say Googleplex. Instead of buying his employees’ loyalty, Hsieh has managed to design a corporate culture that challenges our conception of that tired phrase.”
As Dave Mashburn often points out in his WorkPuzzle posts: Every human wants happiness, but we’re very poor at predicting what will make happiness a reality in our own lives. This is exactly what intrigues Hsieh:
“’I’ve been doing a lot of research into the science of happiness,’ he says. In addition to asking everyone he meets what makes him or her happy, he has also been studying books on the subject, especially Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis, which uses social psychology experiments to evaluate the world’s great religions and philosophies and concludes that ancient wisdom and science are both useful tools in the quest for contentment.”
So, what’s he come up with? Hsieh has concluded that happiness comes from establishing a balance between the following four basic human needs:
Perceived Progress: The perception that you’re further along today than yesterday.
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Perceived Control: The perception that you have a direct affect on the outcomes in your life.
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Relatedness: Living life in the context of meaningful relationships.
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Connection to a Larger Vision: Contributing to something bigger than yourself.
Hsieh admits that he doesn’t have this topic completely figured out yet:
“’I’ve got a few different frameworks and I’m just figuring out how to combine them,’ he says without irony or even a smile. ‘I think I’m pretty close.’”
I find all of this intriguing, particularly because we now have hard-core business leaders addressing issues that previously “belonged” in the realm of philosophy. Why? Because these issues have a direct and profound impact on performance.
If you have the responsibility for coaching and managing others, hopefully you will feel inspired to step into Tony Hsieh’s shoes, and view the vast benefits of happiness in a whole new light…
