The #1 Thing for Happiness: Data revealed and key ways to elevate well-being this January

The Harvard Happiness study explored what keeps and maintains happiness for people as they grow.  

The #1 answer is Community.  

The study showed it’s the strength of the connections you make that is correlated to increasing your well-being.

"Personal connection creates mental and emotional stimulation," says project director, Dr. Robert Waldinger, "and those things are automatic mood boosters, while isolation is a mood buster." 

At work, I often see businesses push “community building” off to HR or just assume it will organically happen.  Saying “it’s not really possible to do virtually." 

Yet, employees are then left to their own devices, and not given a way to help them connect and feel a strong sense of community & belonging.  This leads to stress, lower motivation, creativity and engagement, and increased tension & turnover. 

I have seen the opposite, and working with my clients who have focused on creating strong connectivity together we have improved productivity, engagement and well-being.

So how do we create stronger connections?

• Establish Critical High-Relational Behaviors: 

Value and reward curiosity, presence, listening to diversity of voices and compassion. Create a safe environment that encourages people to share openly, honestly and vulnerably without fear of judgment or risk in sharing emotions.

• Build communication & relational intelligence skills

Help employees gain stronger and more empowering communication skills & relational intelligence that will help them move beyond transactional relationships to more authentic and collaborative relationships

• Proactively foster connection & build community 

It’s critical to create intentional spaces for teams to bond, get to know each other well, & have more real, personal conversations.

I have found the best to successfully enable this is:

1. Find a proven framework that is getting others predictable results and follow the same model. 
   
   
2. Find support to help you on the journey of implementing the process. 

Just doing organic team building or passive learning will only get you so far. Being intentional in implementing meaningful ways to connect, consistently, without these times getting canceled and employees saying “it can wait” is quite another. 

Having someone to help you implement and give the space for people to practice together is really helpful to move things forward.  

I have been passionate about understanding human behavior and connectivity my entire life.  So much so, that I then started my business around it in order to empower others to elevate connections with greater ease and confidence. 

That’s why I took all my years of learning, certification training and experience and developed a proven science-based connection framework. I teach it for all different types of situations - meeting people for the first time, building rapport, getting to know someone, strengthening relationships or deepening connection.  

Every time I lead a client experience, I hear someone say how they were stressed, overwhelmed and energy drained before joining the session, and then at the end they feel energized, inspired and connected.  

That is the power of real connection.

With WELLNESS JANUARY upon us, what are your plans to foster stronger connectivity in your business? 

What are your commitments to take steps to form stronger relationships with your team, clients, customers or business partners?