Determining a company’s WHY is crucial, but only the beginning. The next step is how do you get people on board with your WHY? How do you inspire deep trust and commitment to the company and one another? We find out in this book.
A single death is a tragedy, a million deaths are a statistic.
The “Social” Chemicals
The other two chemicals are concerned with socialization and our sense of belonging to a group.
When others like or respect us, serotonin causes us to feel proud.
Oxytocin is released in order to provide us with feelings of friendship, love, and deep trust. We couldn’t love our children without it, and we wouldn’t have a partner in the first place. It determines how much vulnerability we can afford to show others.
Oxytocin and serotonin grease the social machine. And when they are missing, friction results.
How you do anything is how you do everything.
Authority and Integrity
Leaders have a vision and should delegate authority to those who can provide reliable information.
Trust necessitates integrity, or the ability to consistently adhere to some moral values.
What Is Cortisol?
Aside from the happiness chemicals, there is also the stress hormone, cortisol. Historically, it is released when there is danger or a potentially dangerous situation.
Unfortunately, unhealthy work environments flood our bodies with cortisol, causing our bodies to shut down “unnecessary” functions like digestion, growth, and the immune system.
In an unhealthy work environment, we become physically ill.
Human nature and rules
Our society moves forward because of rules. But we don’t really trust rules; we just follow them. Because of oxytocin, trust is something that is inherently human.
This is why we often despise bureaucrats. They always play by the rules and never show the human side that our brain understands better.
How to Lead: The circle of safety
Many people these days struggle with effectively leading an organization. While there is no simple path to success, there are some guidelines and ideas that can certainly help.
Understanding that an organization is essentially a “Circle of Safety” is the first step toward becoming a good leader. Inside this circle, people’s insecurities vanish, but a bad leader will inevitably shrink or fracture it into multiple small ones.
There is uncontrollable danger outside the Circle, but we can make it safe inside.
Organizations are inherently social
People do not become sober in “Alcoholics Anonymous” until they complete the 12th (and final) step of the programme, which involves assisting another addict in overcoming his addiction.
Similarly, your best days at work were not when everything went perfectly, but when everything went wrong, the difficulty was shared, and your team pulled through as a whole.
The “Selfish” Chemicals
The first two chemicals are referred to as “selfish” because they are concerned with personal survival.
Endorphins are a stress or fear response that masks physical pain with pleasure. For example, laughing causes pain, which is masked by endorphins, which is why if we laugh too much, it eventually hurts.
Dopamine produces a sense of accomplishment after we complete a task that is important to us. It is proportional to the amount of effort expended.
Lifetime Employment
The concept of “lifetime employment” ensures that an employee will never be fired. This was put into action with positive results. It will boost morale and communication; instead of firing people, you will focus on why they perform poorly and find ways to improve their performance.
Get to know the people you fire, and you might reconsider.
Meet the People You Help: Human interaction is everything!
It is far more important to see the impact of your work than to have your boss compliment you on it.
Due to human nature, putting money on the line is usually not as emotionally impactful as offering your time and energy to others.
Remember this when motivating the group you lead.
We trust people not only to follow the rules, but also to know when to break them.
Leaders in an Organization
People strive for the title of “leader” because it comes with numerous benefits. These benefits, however, are accompanied by the responsibility they bear for their subjects or employees. Those who fail to fulfill this duty are poor leaders.
Any benefit you receive at work is intended for your position, not for you.
Destructive Abundance
“Destructive Abundance” refers to a state in which protecting the results takes precedence over protecting those who produce the results.
Companies get to this point because their leaders are only concerned with the score and have forgotten why they decided to play the game in the first place. Temptation replaces challenge, and people can be replaced.
Those at the top have all the authority but none of the information. Those at the bottom have all the information but none of the authority.
Happiness chemicals
When discussing human behaviour, we must first understand how the brain works. There are four primary chemicals involved in happiness:
- Endorphins
- Dopamine
- Serotonin
- Oxytocin
