happy blogs

'Love', Kindness and Patience are the Keys to Leadership, Says Caron Bradshaw

“Leadership is a term, much like ‘strategy’, that is misused and misunderstood. I don’t believe that being a leader is about being the CEO, hierarchy, wielding power and control or having all the answers. Yet leaders can have a hard time breaking out of the traditional concepts of leadership and embracing a different approach. And others fail to recognise their own leadership qualities considering themselves too junior or lacking that leadership ‘title’,” says Caron Bradshaw OBE.

Giving Your Employees Freedom is the Key to Success, Says Isaac Getz

"In every aspect of our lives — in politics, in economics, in entertainment, and in family life — we demand the freedom to decide matters for ourselves. And yet when it comes to our work lives, far too many people are stifled, constrained, hemmed in, and tied down by bureaucracy and rules that have nothing to do with allowing them to do the best they can in their jobs. These constraints leave people feeling out of control of their work lives, which, in turn, leads to stress, fatigue, and disengagement from work."

How Michelle Hill Has Maintained TLC's Culture Whilst Growing

"We're a relationship charity, and we want to invest as much time in our team and their relationships at work as we do with our clients," says Michelle Hill, CEO of TLC: Talk, Listen, Change. "We want them to have a workplace where they feel valued and where they want to do their best work. I think the more we invest in wellbeing and the team being happier, the better the results are."

10 Takeaways From the 2017 Happy Workplaces Conference

The fifth annual Happy Workplaces Conference took place in London on June 14, 2017. The conference looked at how engaged workplaces are more profitable and incur lower costs, as well as the tendency for happy workplaces to have higher staff retention, offer more flexibility and be more productive. Here are 10 essential takeaways from the conference.

10 Takeaways From the 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO Conference

In June, Happy hosted our annual 2017 Happy Workplaces CEO Conference in London. Here are the top 10 take-aways from the attendees on the day.

10 Takeaways From the 2017 Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference

Held at the National Audit Office in February 2017, the one-day Creating Happy Workplaces in the Public Sector Conference focused on change within the public sector and looked at how to create a culture of trust and happiness. Here are ten essential takeaways from the event.

Sarah Pugh of Whizz Kidz: Her 15 Tips for Creating a Happy Workplace

At the 2021 Happy Workplaces Conference, we had a fabulous presentation from Sarah Pugh. I ask the speakers at our conferences to share 'nickable' ideas that people can put into practice and Sarah came up with no less than 15 of these. Sarah has just become Chief Executive of Whizz Kidz, so a lot of this relates to when she was CEO at Heart of Kent Hospice.

Could a 4 Day Week Work in Your Sector? Yes!

At Happy we are engaged in the UK four-day working week pilot, with 70 UK companies testing the idea from June to November 2022. We've had huge interest, with my blogs on LinkedIn getting up to 10 times as many views as my other posts. But some respond by saying that it wouldn’t work in their sector. So I was very interested to read the book Shorter: How Smart Companies Work Less, Embrace Flexibility and Boost Productivity by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang. This gives a whole range of examples from different sectors.

How to Stop the Same Few People From Dominating Your Meetings

Wouldn’t it be nice if your whole team could find their voice and participate in meetings? Liberating Structures can help — 33 methods of that avoid one person dominating a conversation and give everybody a voice. In this blog, Henry goes through two of the most popular methods to get you started.

Increase Your Productivity With No Meetings or Email Before 11

Having no meetings and not checking email before 11am is the Monk Mode Morning concept that Bruce Daisley set out in his book The Joy of Work. Since my holiday I have adopted it and spend the first 2.5 hours of each morning getting stuff done. I can manage 5 Pomodoros (25 minute focused sessions) in that time. How would your day be if you could get your most important tasks done before 11?