Happiness Habits For Business Decisions

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What qualities define truly great leaders and business organizations? What habits consistently build enduring, highly successful, outstanding companies?

Jim Collins, the well known management consultant and author of “Built To Last” and “From Good To Great,” defines many of these critical qualities in the June 27, 2005 Fortune Magazine cover story “How To Make Great Decisions.”

There are surprising parallels between many of Collins’s key points and the qualities we heard habitually happy people say helped guide and direct their lives.

Collins says that “Lasting excellence in corporations... stem[s] less from decisions about strategy than decisions about people...” In an uncertain world, the best strategy is having people who can adapt well and profit from whatever changes and challenges arise, people who are creative, adventuresome and independent.

The habitually happy people we studied invariably exhibited creative, independent, adventuresome spirits. They genuinely value and appreciate other people, especially people who are different from them, people they can learn from. Happy people are generally far more confident, cooperative and creative than their less happy counterparts.

Collins says greatness begins with internal drive. Questions like “What are our real core values and our real aspirations?” “What do we really want to get done?” And “...do you believe that how your life turns out is ultimately up to you, that despite all the things that happen, you are ultimately responsible for your outcomes?” help drive their process. “Great companies are internally driven and externally aware.”

Habitually happy people have strong internal drives. They have defined and developed themselves to be both happy and successful. They are also altruistic and guided by goodness. They are sensitive and attuned to both their external environments and to the people around them.

Collins reports that great companies were built by leaders who made long term greatness of their companies a key goal, who managed “for the quarter century, not the quarter.”

The habitually happy people we studied were willing to sacrifice short term gratification for long term goals. They are very disciplined, their discipline is driven by desire to excel and do well. They consider the consequences of their thoughts and their actions. They think about how they think.

Collins warns that “...where decisions can go awry is when there’s ambiguity or confusion about what you are really making decisions for – yourself or the company. Why should people throw their full creative energies into a decision that is ultimately about you?”

Habitually happy people repeatedly said excessive self concern is a primary source of unhappiness. Exhibitions of “ME ME ME” egotism embarrasses them. They are high achievers who are able to view the world from lots of different perspectives. They see how ridiculous selfish, egotistical displays appear, they avoid them at all costs.

Happiness Habit® research focused on both happiness and spiritual success. Many of the habitually happy people we studied were very successful financially and spiritually.The joy and goodness they share with others brought wonderful things into their lives as well. Being able managers of their lifetime resources and opportunities is a continual, central and conscious concern for them.