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For an entire year, Gretchen Rubin devoted her life to the study of personal happiness.<\/p>\nFor an entire year, Gretchen Rubin devoted her life to the study of personal happiness.<\/p>\n
She picked twelve important areas of human existence (such as marriage, work, parenting) and, one-month-at-a-time, committed herself to increasing her happiness in each of them.<\/p>\n
Throughout the process, Rubin spent time \u201ctest driving\u201d all of the world\u2019s wisdom on the subject \u2013 everything from ancient philosophy, recent scientific studies and lessons from popular culture.<\/p>\n
In her recent book, The<\/em> Happiness Project, <\/em>Rubin distills all she learned from her research and offers wonderful insight on how to most successfully and comprehensively make ourselves happier.<\/p>\n I happened to catch an interview with Ms. Rubin on CBS Sunday Morning \u2013 <\/em>soon after her book made it to the top of the New York Time\u2019s<\/em> best seller list \u2013<\/em> where she was asked this bottom-line question:\u00a0 \u201cWhat, above all else, did you discover to be the most important driver of happiness?\u201d<\/p>\n Rubin told viewers that the answer to this question has been unchanged throughout the ages.\u00a0 Having strong relationships with other people \u2013 connection<\/em> \u2013 has the greatest influence on our satisfaction in life.<\/p>\n This is invaluable insight for leaders.\u00a0 We now know that when people feel happy in their jobs, they\u2019re more engaged and productive.\u00a0 We also know that companies where employees are happiest achieve significantly greater financial performance.<\/p>\n With the knowledge that having greater connection increases human happiness \u2013 and productivity \u2013 I\u2019d like to offer a few suggestions on what you as a leader can do to make your employees feel more deeply connected at work.<\/p>\n Foster Teamwork And Camaraderie<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve said this before, but when people feel united with one another in working toward a meaningful cause, excitement about work becomes extraordinary.\u00a0 In addition to connecting people to the team and its mission, purposely pair up workers on brief assignments.\u00a0 Go out of your way to put people in position to build new relationships \u2013 and to improve ones that are off track.<\/p>\n