Why Creating A Culture of Happiness Creates Creative Employees And Impacts The Bottom Line with Kris Boesch

Inside LaunchStreet interviews Kris Boesch, the CEO and Founder of Choose People, a company that transforms company cultures, increases employee happiness, and boosts the bottom-line. Her Choose People 360° Culture Audit is based on over 1000 hours of research Boesch conducted with the Industrial Organizational Psychology Department at Colorado State University. She is also the author of Culture Works: How to Create Happiness in the Workplace. Prior to Choose People, Boesch was the CEO of Exodus Moving & Storage. We go deep into why satisfied employees aren’t enough, and how focusing on your culture is the difference between barely getting by, and leading your industry. We also chat about how happy employees are more productive and innovative.

 

 

Key Takeaways:

[1:36] What experiences led Kris to become an expert in workplace culture? How did simplifying help Kris to create the largest moving company in Colorado?

[4:22] Why is it important for even the un-sexy companies, those mainly out of the spotlight, to think about defining culture? What are the challenges in these companies that aren’t defining culture?

[6:53] Organizations must connect how important the team’s individual roles are to success within the company, and also connect how the success of organization makes the world a better place.

[9:00] Kris shares her experiences about her orientation meetings within her moving company. How did this powerful orientation affect her movers performance?

[9:58] What breaks should management look for to determine if the culture needs to be better? Drama, low expectations, low performance, no real energy or excitement, lack of appreciation. It’s the difference of walking into the front doors of the DMV or walking into the doors at Disney! What is the energetic force field?

[12:15] How can you turn this disunity around? The first thing that needs to happen to change the toxicity is for the leaders to own and acknowledge the problem. Oftentimes, a real apology is necessary to move forward.

[15:35] Tamara shares that she feels culture is about three things: First, it really is about accountability. Second, the message must have authenticity. Third, people must feel as if they are contributing to the greater cause.

[16:27] Kris believes in the three-pronged way of culture: people must feel like they are  known/cared about as individuals, feel as if they matter, and have a sense of feeling included.

[17:36] Kris relates a story about an employee that needed support. The employee took some time off, yet the team started feeling cheated due to the lack of support for the team. The ripple effect took a toll on the team. Kris asked the employee to step up his effort. This helped him to see his value and purpose. The team needed his contribution.

[22:14] Accountability is always a hot topic. What is the synonym of accountability? A better definition can be that you are count-on-able!

[24:11] Tamara shares a personal experience about her manager rewarding her with a gift card to her favorite restaurant. Listen as she explains how that made her feel special and needed.

[25:50] Why happiness? Leaders are in charge of creating a context in which employees can be happy! Is satisfaction enough? Or Engagement? A productive employee will be happy.

[28:18] What is my return on investment, when my company has a happy environment?

If my employee is happy, they will contribute 1.5 multiple of their salary.

[31:49] Employees that are happy make 26% fewer mistakes. Innovation requires caring. If you want your people to be innovative, you must create a positive culture. Those elephants must be called out.

[33:29]  Why should you find your “secret sauce”? How do you capture it? Why it’s important to identify the recipe of the “secret sauce.”

[35:14] The Culture Works Book and Workbook is intended to be a ‘how to guide.’  It’s designed to support teams and managers, and leaders of teams, to have the tools needed to make the culture happen.

[38:16] Kris’s moonshot goal is to help shift the national conversation. The tipping point is 14% of the population, or 17.6 million people, need to be talking about having joy in the workplace to shift to the conversation to joy in the workplace.

Connect with Kris at Choosepeople.com

 

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