Happiness is the Root of Employee Engagement

The secret is to know where to find it!

I watched a video recently called ‘Take Care of You First’ that depicted a woman telling her daughter how hard it is to be a mother, a wife and a daughter because the messaging mothers get in our society tells them they must sacrifice everything for their families, even their own happiness. It’s not a particularly healthy message and as she explains to her daughter, everyone, even mothers, have a right to be happy.

What has this got to do with being an engaged or unhappy employee? The video shares a universal message that we can all relate to, it has to do with the understanding that no one else can make you happy, we each have to do it for ourselves.

The way to happiness is by taking responsibility for ourselves and we do that by taking care of ourselves.

When we don’t, we start looking to others to make us happy. How many spouses blame each other for their own unhappiness or blame their boss for making them miserable…it happens.

Many of us have yet to learn, as Deepak Chopra the secret to happiness lies within.

How happy we feel inside could be said to be a insightful predictor of how we feel about our jobs. If we aren’t happy, that will shape our feelings towards work and the people we work with. If you find yourself blaming your boss, your work, or your company for what ails you, chances are you have forgotten or are neglecting that being happy is your responsibility not theirs. It makes me wonder how many employees sit through their annual employee engagement surveys with a chip on their shoulders, unaware of how much they are the source of their own unhappiness.

Perhaps the national employee engagement index is so low across North America, in part because so many of us are simply unhappy to begin with.

Without a doubt there are toxic workplaces out there that no one should have to endure. But as we bring 2015 to a close let’s all take a moment and ask ourselves if we are living our best life. Take care of yourself first, make your happiness a priority in 2016 and let’s be the change we want instead of looking to others to make it happen for us.