How to Be a Happy Leader When Your Boss is Unhappy
Are you conscious of your attitude at work, especially when leading a team? Do you try to be a happy, positive, and motivating leader? Are you working hard to create an excellent environment for your team, but you need help because your boss is not a positive leader? Staying fulfilled and connected to purpose and energized when the person you report to, who has a lot of influence over your team, is unhappy will naturally make you feel demotivated.
According to Gallup, over two-thirds of managers and leaders in the United States are disengaged while working. Amongst those leaders, approximately 14% of them are actively disengaged. When someone is disengaged, they work less hard, are less motivated, and often have trouble meeting their job expectations. What is even more alarming is that, according to the Harvard Business Review, disengaged employees make up to 60% more errors.
You may be thinking, how can you push past the negativity from your leader to help your team be more productive, aligned, and happy? Below is a framework I successfully used in this very situation in my career and now teach about. It will support you to move past the negativity from your boss and help your team be productive, engaged, and aligned. Happy leaders drive productivity, creativity, loyalty, and sales.
Step #1- Start with you. You must take care of yourself, inside and outside of work, to create your sphere of influence. Take care of your spiritual, physical, and intellectual well-being. Make sure you get enough sleep, eat healthy foods, exercise, meditate consistently, read books, listen to podcasts, and nourish your soul with things that make you feel good.
Focus on learning and growing for professional and personal development and invest in your relationships at work and home. When you prioritize yourself, you will increase your happiness, which helps you show up as a happier and more positive leader. You cannot put yourself on the back burner, especially if you do not have a happy leader.
Step #2- Show up to your leader with empathy and compassion. Often, you may not know if your leader is negative because something in their personal life is causing unplanned stress. Or they are receiving negative energy from their boss. Always show up to your leader with respect, curiosity, compassion, and kindness.
Step #3- Focus on human connection and understanding. Be conscious of your communication skills in one-on-one meetings, your written and verbal communication, and your interactions with our boss and your team.
Use open-ended questions starting with "what" or "how." Learn to understand your boss and their perspective. Get to know them on a personal level too. Ask them out for coffee, or have lunch together, and do not just talk about work. Connect with your boss on the human level. It will help your relationship, and it might help them be more positive when they are with you and when they are with your team.
Step #4- Influence. It is crucial to influence your team, direct reports, and peers with optimism and positive energy. You have a sphere of influence, and it is stronger than you think, and that is why taking care of yourself is vital. Do everything you can to be a motivating leader and show up for your team. Use active listening and creativity. Energize your team so you can counterbalance the negativity coming from your boss. When you do this, your positivity will create a ripple effect in your organization, and your culture will change for the better.
Step #5- Read my 8-step methodology in Be a Happy Leader! This book will give you strategies and tools to create a happy team to drive business results and keep you grounded, centered, and happy.
Step #6- Stay connected to your purpose. Progress in purposeful work is the number one motivator for you and your team. How do your personal values connect to your organizational values? Connect to how your work and leadership is helping people and making the world a better place to live in. Communicate with your team often about the meaning in the work and the forward progress. Work can often feel like a “whirlwind”, and it is important to stay aligned with your why.
Step #7- Stay motivated. Help your team stay connected to the vision, where you are going, their progress and successes, and their purpose. It is your responsibility to create a positive environment, lead with positive verbal and non-verbal communication, and energize people who work for you. Find other people in your organization, besides your boss, who are motivating to you and spend time with them.
Step #8: Know when to ask for help. Know how much your unhappy boss is truly affecting your team and organization. Good team members will leave, customers will see through the unhappy employees, and company revenue will be affected. If you are experiencing a serious negative ripple effect, then you must ask for help. Ask your mentors or go to HR. Unhappy bosses can be extremely costly to culture, customers, and finances, and I have had to do this in the past.
It is possible to be a happy leader even if your boss is not one. You will see immediate results in your work culture using the steps above. Remember, happy leaders, make successful leaders! If you would like to learn more techniques to help your team, contact Tia today!
Arrive At Happy's mission is to inspire transformation through the science of happiness. Tia Graham, founder, partners with organizations and individuals to increase their daily happiness and success in all areas of their lives. Relying on science-backed empirical data, she has gained the insight needed to prove and teach that happiness indeed leads to success.
Tia has a Certificate in Happiness Studies and a Certificate in Teaching Happiness from Harvard's Tal Ben-Shahar and The Happiness Studies Academy. She is a Certified Chief Happiness Officer from Woohoo Inc., Europe's premier Happiness at Work organization.