What makes you happy at work? Might be surprised.

Are you “thriving”? Not sure how the Q12 might have to change to move past engagement towards thriving that Microsoft defines as being “energized and empowered to do meaningful work.” This is what gets you up and out of bed in the morning ready to start the day type of feeling from my perspective. Take a moment to think about what keeps you energized at your job, or at a prior role. When I thought back the common themes were leaders who helped but didn’t get in the way, teammates who did what they said they would when they said they would do it and were “nice ” people too (funny, respectful, kind and caring). Meetings that mattered and not the place that had meetings to plan a meeting. Finally, meaningful work, what I did mattered and was recognized as a solution to help others. The researchers at MS found those who thrived had “five fewer hours in their workweek span, five fewer collaboration hours, three more focus hours, and 17 fewer employees in their internal network size.” I think we may have identified a key reason why so many people working remotely were more productive over the last 2+ years and why they don’t want to return to the office now. People had time to work and didn’t have those “drop-in” folks to interrupt their workflow. Moving toward a hybrid flexible workspace leaders should take these findings into consideration. Let people focus, don’t add extra meetings that take more time, keep teams small and targeted on the work. Let people thrive and watch productivity, and happy workers, rise. Check out the study and more at https://buff.ly/3nOOEjJ Want to talk more? Let’s Zoom or talk, I’ll bring some coffee…