What Happy Leaders Know
What makes a happy leader? Can anyone become a happier leader, or are we stuck with what we’ve got? What drives some people to violate ethics and values and behave reprehensibly, while others, no matter their level of success, would never go below the line of “decency”? The answers to these questions and many, many more will be found in the new leadership book written by renowned global leadership experts, Cathy Greenberg and Marshall Goldsmith.
Based on the premise put forth by Dan Baker in his book, What Happy People Know, that “Happiness is not merely an emotion; it is a way of being.” What Happy Leaders Know will provide valuable insight to global leaders, who today are faced with complex, never-before-met challenges caused by worldwide competition; globalization; increasing technological advances; and what seems to be practically nonexistent or at least non-verbalized strategic direction and a lack of commitment on the part of followers.
As a whole, the world is in desperate need of strong, ethical, courageous leaders to guide us through these challenges in all aspects of societal life, from business and politics to education, religion and even entertainment. However, there just aren’t too many good leaders, too many outstanding role models, to be found in the world spotlight today. Featured on the nightly news are leadership scandals and failures. It’s no wonder. The problems we face as a world society are so challenging that without an exceptionally strong intuitive sense of what it is to lead, the easiest path to “success,” the path of least resistance, is often selfish and self-serving. Doing the “right thing” today isn’t easy, and it’s often not immediately profitable. But, there are some happy leaders doing great things and that’s why we’re writing this book, What Happy Leaders Know, to talk about some of the challenges, some of the traps, some of the reasons and solutions that will help those in leadership positions lead us, by example, by practice, and by choice to a better world for tomorrow.
For years we’ve researched, interviewed, and coached global leaders. We’ve written and edited many books about global leadership, positive psychology, and we’ve discovered as has been noted by scholars and leadership experts over many decades that the best of leaders have certain core traits that make up their state of being. These traits include, but are not limited to the following:
- A clear sense of direction (having a sense of “true north”)
- Timeless (unwavering) core values or virtues
- A strong character that allows for perseverance through challenging times
- Good to excellent empathy, intra-personal and interpersonal skills
- Resilience
- A core sense of purpose, which is frequently found within the context of their work
How does this “state of being” evolve? And more than that, does it evolve or are certain people just born with these traits? These are some of the important questions we’ll answer in What Happy Leaders Know.
In attempting to answer these questions, we’ve found strong evidence that suggests that successful leaders have an extraordinary capacity for gratitude and appreciation that fosters happiness. And, this happiness better enables them to organize and channel constructive resources. Of course, there have been and are currently leaders who are fear-driven and engage in leadership from a maladaptive dynamic of top-down command, control, and coercion. We could debate the characteristics of such leaders as Hitler, Stalin, and Hussein. They were not by nature happy nor moral. In fact, one of the distinctions between these villains and “good” leaders is that they led the world down a path of death and destruction, but they did lead, and they had many followers.
The leaders we are interested in are creative, constructive individuals, and their contributions make life better for not only themselves, but for many others as well. These individuals find happiness in succeeding with those around them. Their exceptional performance is rooted in their motivations to show gratitude and appreciation for their talents and the talents of those around them, as well as for their informal and formal mentors who have supported them on their path to success.
So let’s get down to brass tacks. As envisioned now, What Happy Leaders Know will consist of ten chapters. There will be exercises, models, diagrams, and illustrations in these chapters that will help leaders further their progress on the road to happiness.
- Chapter one will give an overview of positive psychology as it relates to leadership. What traits enable happy leaders to move ahead in the face of even the most difficult times rather than the unhappy, fearful reactions of freezing, fleeing, or fighting? In this chapter we will begin to pool our collective thoughts and research on this subject along with that of industry experts to reveal the list of happy leader constructs that clearly underscore exceptional performance termed for our purposes as traps and tools.
We will explore the theory of the happiness set point, the concept of intentional activity, as well as situations and events to determine just how the state of happiness impacts leadership success. - Chapters two through five will describe the traps, including perfectionism, greed, and workaholism, which leaders fall into that lead to unhappiness and poor, immoral, and bad leadership.
- Chapters six and seven will illustrate the tools and antidotes to the traps, such as gratitude and appreciation, and how they work.
- Chapters eight and nine will portray ten qualities of happy leaders in story form as told by the leaders themselves. Leaders who will tell their stories include the Krispy Kreme developer who coined the phrase “paying it forward,”
- The final chapter will conclude the book with the authors’ personal experiences of happiness and leadership, and will also look at possible future research.
We believe that by clarifying how this state of being influences leadership, we will add value to the ongoing ideas supporting the development of future leadership. And by defining a model for happiness, we may begin to understand its impact on overall leadership success.
As change quickly increases in today’s global economy, coupled with more restrictive and regulated compliance environments, it is crucial to understand all aspects of success that are attributable to both the performance and integrity of extraordinary leaders.
We want to understand what happy leaders know to discover what is both good and right about leaders from a global perspective. This research is the subject of our new book What Happy Leaders Know, which conveys useable models for helping current and future leaders to achieve and sustain higher levels of fulfillment. Our work will contribute to building more constructive corporate cultures and responsibilities rather than fostering the evermore regulated, destructive, and criminal environment that will ultimately undercut innovation, growth, and capitalism in the free world.
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