Nice and happy

High Performance Culture is not about being nice and making people happy. Read that sentence again if you need to. I’m not against happiness per se, but it misses the point. 

Building an outstanding team and culture is about forging a group and environment that delivers on your objectives, helps you to create great products, raise money and commercialise your efforts, creating solutions for your customers, returns for your investors, experiences and memories for your team and progress for the field as a whole. That is the point of culture in science and technology driven companies - in any company, really.

And culture definitely isn’t about perks. I’m not sure exactly when we got confused about this, but no amount of free breakfasts, running clubs, beer Fridays, unlimited PTO or team activities will make up for a lack of overarching purpose, clear and defined opportunities for growth and learning, feeling valued and working alongside a diverse group of people with whom you share common ground through the values you hold. Not even if you have slides and beanbags in the office.

Perks and being “nice” are like empty calories. Wolf down that Big Mac and there’s a brief rush, for sure. But soon you’ll be hungry again, because there’s no real nutritional value there.

There are three main problems with focusing on making people happy. The first is that it’s incredibly hard to define. One person’s understanding of happiness will be very different from another's. Some people like being miserable and complaining. Others drop into a funk if the sun’s not out. With so much scope for error and ambiguity, optimising for happiness is an incredibly difficult thing to do.

The second issue with happiness is that it’s not really in your control as an employer. It’s true that you can do things to help people see value in their work, to set objectives that stretch and challenge them, to align them to a mission they want to achieve and people they enjoy working with. But does any of that matter if they have a sick child? Arguments with a partner? Spiralling debt? You can’t affect any of these things, and nor should you try. You can absolutely support your team through challenging situations, but don’t expect them to be happy when they walk through the door whilst facing the rigours of life.

The biggest issue with trying to achieve happiness for your employees, however, is that there’s no real evidence it drives success. In fact, Harvard Business Review research has shown that prioritising happiness often leads to reduced constructive conflict and accountability, reducing performance. Execution-driven companies like Amazon and Apple where high expectations, pressure and competition exist often outperform their peers, and a study conducted by the London School of Economics found that happiness initiatives have little correlation with long-term stock performance or revenue growth.

For those about to protest, I’ll draw a distinction here between happiness and engagement. Research articles often conflate the two, which leads to inaccurate understanding. It’s important to reiterate, too, that if your team is happy, that’s not a bad thing. When you make happiness the goal, however, you’re aiming for the wrong target. Ultimately, the objective of work is not to have fun and be nice. It’s to grow, stretch, make a difference, see what you’re capable of and contribute meaningfully to something bigger than yourself. Those are the factors that really make a difference when it comes to retention, engagement, productivity and performance.

For the first ten years of my career, I worked for a company that no-one would describe as “nice”. It was an aggressive, competitive sales culture that prized performance above anything else, and could be ruthless with those that didn’t meet the mark. I loved it, most of the time, and I wasn’t the only one. There were plenty of people who stayed for 5, 10, 20 and more years, achieving more than they ever thought they could. And the company was genuinely successful, operating in 35 countries around the world with revenues over £1bn and FTSE 250 status. It wasn’t for everyone, but it was effective.

So do you want to be nice or successful? There will come a time when you need to choose. Better to decide up front, and design your culture around your answer.

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