Exceptional leaders are happy people for a particular reason. Making others productive, creating the conditions for robust learning, and providing the vision and strategy that excites people — that’s what makes a leader smile.
But if you really want to understand why the best leaders are happy people, you need to comprehend how important it is for them to make others happy. Great leaders become happier themselves when they make others happy through their leadership.
This unique quality is not widely shared. Too many leaders are unconcerned about the life satisfaction of those they lead or get too little juice from others’ happiness and success.
It’s not that they are bad people or lack the emotional intelligence to relish other people’s positive feelings, it’s just that, along the way, they have missed an important point. In their desire to create outstanding results and outcomes, they have to come to believe happiness gets in the way. The sacrifice necessary to stay on task and push through adversity doesn’t align with “happy” or satisfaction in their minds. In fact, it seems like it is a misguided goal or pursuit.
Exceptional leaders generally don’t have any choice in this regard. They are hard-wired to create the conditions and feelings in others that allow them to thrive. They truly feel greater happiness when those they lead are more satisfied and cheerful. In the chicken and egg equation, they prefer to believe that happy people are more successful, and not that successful people are happier.
This is not to say great leaders feel responsible for others’ happiness or that they dodge challenging conversations or decisions because they might make others less satisfied or upset. But, in the end, after all the results and organizational tasks are calculated, they desire to make a difference in people’s lives.
They understand that life is hard enough without having a leader who makes it even harder. They strive to be a source of value and a creator of satisfaction for others. When that happens, they feel a personal satisfaction unequaled in professional life.
Maybe this is a bit of a selfish pursuit. Have you ever noticed that the best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer up somebody else? Exceptional leaders enjoy happiness like anyone else and they create their own happiness by focusing on others. Not a bad deal.
If the greatest happiness in the world is to make others happy, then great leaders are happy people. As legendary comedian Charlie Chaplin liked to say, “Life salutes you when you make others happy.”
A Daily Dispatch from the Front Lines of Leadership.
