For Employee Happiness, Skip the Foosball Table and Espresso Machine

Employee happiness is where it's at. Happy employees can outproduce their disengaged coworkers by 200%. On the flip side, unhappy and disengaged employees can cost their employer up to 3x their annual salary in lost productivity.

Happiness matters. We get it. It's an intuitive concept that is easy to grasp.

The smart manager asks, "How can I make my employees happy?"

If the people you have on your team are in the wrong seats for their Core Values Index profile, the unfortunate answer is not much.

When I first learned about the CVI, I had to overcome an initial misconception about productivity. Despite what I learned about my own core values, I asserted that it was possible for me to be productive at things that were counter to my innate, unchanging nature. I'm not supposed to be good at sales (I am an Innovator/Banker) yet I have had some successes in the past by landing a few solid contracts.

This was a learning opportunity for me. I discussed this dichotomy with Travis Stovall, CEO and founder of eRep, Inc. and CVI guru.

He began by asking me the question, "You may have succeeded at sales, but was the effort easy for you, or did it take some effort?"

After thinking about that for a minute, I realized I had struggled with different aspects of the sales process from beginning to end, but, "Initiating contact was the hardest part," I replied. "Once the client and I established a list of their challenges, I went into my problem-solving mode and things were easy for the remainder of the process. But getting to that point and establishing rapport with someone I'd never met was a struggle."

Travis gave me a knowing smile and said, "You may have closed the sale, but if your primary or secondary core value was Merchant, it would have been a joy, not a struggle."

That was one of my revelations about the CVI. Most people can accomplish adequate results if they work hard and really set their mind to it. But it's not so much about a person's ability to achieve an outcome, it's about how natural that effort is for them. It's about where their happiness lies in the work they do.

Employee happiness has up to a 200% positive affect on outcomes.

I am an Innovator/Banker so creating and fostering relationships with others requires effort that can include a bit of discomfort and unease, like I'm doing something that isn't natural for me. If I was a Merchant/Innovator or even an Innovator/Merchant, it would feel more natural and even something I'd look forward to.

This is where happiness really matters when it comes to the power of the core values index on your team. By way of a hypothetical example, let's assume you have six people on your sales team. All have the same industry experience and education but they have a blend of different CVI profiles.

Despite having nearly equal qualifications, you will get mixed results from your team members. Those without Merchant core value energies may initially achieve similar quotas to their peers, but they will have to work harder to reach those goals. Their morale and happiness will suffer in the process. Over time, they will underperform compared to their peers with primary Merchant CVI profiles. "Why does Banker/Innovator Bob have to work so hard to achieve nearly the same sales figures that Merchant/Innovator Michelle gets, yet she doesn't seem to struggle at all?" (In real life, Michelle's performance would outpace Bob's by a noticeable margin, and would likely do so right from the start.)

Foster employee performance by fostering employee happiness.

Put the right person into the right seat and happiness will practically take care of itself. Identify the core value energies of your team members and assign them the tasks and responsibilities that match. Results will improve with reduced effort. Do you remember that old saying, "Work smarter, not harder"?

Putting the right people into the right seats is how you get smart results without hard effort.