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UPDATE October 17, 2019

Sadly, for our work world, Aventr's founders eventually ran out of runway and had to put Happster on the shelf. I don't know if it will ever be resurrected, but I sincerely hope so. The workplace lessons these inspiring young entrepreneurs pulled out of me and into this article are gold, at least to me. So I'll leave it as is, with this update, hoping it inspires you to move the needle on your workplace happiness gauge in the direction of "FULL."

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Years ago, a senior executive stopped by my office to speak with me. The sealed envelope, and the pit in my stomach, announced a resignation long before I read the words. This face-to-face conversation was prompted by their long tenure and our valued personal relationship. The reasons were rational and involved a better position, pay and opportunity. There was nothing I could do to turn this around, so I reluctantly accepted it, expressed all the best wishes, and set about the business of filling this gap in leadership. But there's a problem with this story. I eventually learned it wasn't true. Their motivation for leaving went much deeper.

Years later, after we had both moved on from our positions, I received an invitation to lunch. In this completely new context for our relationship, they revealed what actually drove their resignation. And it wasn't for any of the reasons given at the time. Over lunch, their "truth" came out in a flood, with no filters. They had been miserable - frustrated and angry with senior leadership relationships in their division that they felt were dysfunctional. For a time, decorum won over transparency as this professional played their part, without feeling it. But keeping a proper appearance, while you're screaming on the inside, is exhausting. Some do it better than others, and some can't do it at all. But all along that spectrum, the result is the same when you arrive at your breaking point. Self-preservation demands that you either remove yourself from the situation, or stay in your seat and check out. And for every choice made to leave, there are countless others who remain, disengaged. They dread Mondays and drag themselves out of bed; but hey, it’s a paycheck.

Meet Aventr

Raise your hand if you'd like to change the world of the workplace. Now, keep it up if you're doing something about it. Getting your hands dirty. Risking time and money. Even risking ridicule and the chance that, in the end, your dream turns to dust. That's the world of the entrepreneur. Not every entrepreneur is driven to change the world. And that's ok. But some are. And even those who aren't, sometimes do. That's what I love about entrepreneurs. That's what I love about being an entrepreneur and coaching and mentoring entrepreneurs. We're on a mission. Purpose-driven. Passionate.

Say hello to Mike Casey and Perry Petrozelli, entrepreneurs and co-founders of Aventr. They’ve given birth to a new workplace happiness paradigm enabled by their Happster app. Applying the principles of positive psychology with sophisticated analytics, their platform fosters trust through open dialogue in the form of feedback, support and recognition among and between members of teams and entire organizations. Happster fuels their mission to impact workplace happiness. If that term sounds like an oxymoron to you, then you probably understand the dream that drives Perry, Mike, and their team. And it's no coincidence that it also drives me. Perhaps the greatest challenge for any leader is tapping into what matters most to those under their influence, and then bringing that to bear on their mission. If that sounded a bit obtuse, let me rephrase for clarity. Those trying to get shit done are going to end up shoveling a lot of shit themselves if they are clueless as to what really matters to the people doing the work. That feels closer to the truth. (Spoiler alert! "Truth" is a key component. I have much more to say about “truth” a bit later.)

Workplace engagement in the US is at an all-time low. In February, Gallup reported in their “State of the American Workplace” that 67% of workers are disengaged and that over half are searching for new jobs. Seriously?! These are people's lives! When did we start making a distinction between “life” and "work life?” It's all life. If you're miserable at work, you're miserable. You don't get that time back to live it again, better, when you go home. Tick-tock. It's gone.

I had my share of this leadership challenge throughout my career. There were times I was effective, and times I was shoveling shit. You can't "see" heart. You can't "see" happiness. You can only witness their effects on behavior and results. My corporate coaching clients have given me new eyes with crystal clear vision into the workplace. A view so raw and unfiltered, it’s inaccessible outside of the coaching relationship. A view inaccessible to an organization’s leadership. A view that was inaccessible to me, as CEO. This is why I chose to engage with Aventr, and Mike specifically, as both coach and mentor. Our passions are aligned to have a massive, positive impact on lives. And workplace happiness is front and center on that stage.

Take a Tums and feel (just a little) empathy for the CEO

Leadership occupies a lonely seat. And the loneliest of all is at the top, where getting a pulse on engagement and the real issues can range from difficult to impossible. Yes, I know. I’m suggesting some empathy for your CEO, or for you if you are the CEO. I sat in that seat for a long time and can attest to this struggle. So stay with me and stretch that open-mind muscle just a tad.

Employees rarely tell leadership the truth. And by “employees,” I mean every human in the organization, including the CEO’s direct reports. And by “the truth” I mean “their raw, naked, honest opinions and beliefs.” They'll go home and tell their spouse or partner the truth. They'll go to happy hour and tell their closest friends the truth. They'll walk their dogs and tell them the truth. Some will even brazenly broadcast the truth over social media. But they generally won't tell you what they are really, truly thinking. That's reserved for years later, if at all, and at a safe distance, long after they're gone and the damage is done.

So, what is “truth?”

With all this talk about “truth,” what is it really, and why is it so important?

First, a little about “truth.”

Your truth is the whole of what you believe to be true in a context.

You are most at ease when you operate from your truth.

Life makes sense when your experience aligns with your truth.

Your truth directs and drives your choices, behavior and attitude.

If you can’t find evidence to support your truth, you’ll make it up.

The further you live from your truth, the greater your stress.

If you’re forced to live far enough from your truth for long enough, you will shut down and either disengage in an act of self-preservation, or remove yourself from your situation if you have better options.

So it sounds like your truth is pretty important. But what about your organization? Does it have a truth? Does it hold beliefs that guide how it operates in the world? Well, no. An organization has no truths. An organization is just an idea. Nike is an idea. Google is an idea. If each and every employee of these organizations were to resign today, the "idea" of Nike and Google would live on for a while in the minds of the former employees, customers, and the general public, but Nike and Google would be dead. They wouldn’t function. The only truths in an organization are the truths that live in its members whose supporting beliefs are personally and individually formed and held. The concept of disembodied, overarching, organizational truths is a myth. There are as many truths as there are people. “Perception is reality” doesn’t refer to one reality, it refers to as many realities as there are minds. Organizations hold people by financial agreement, but they don’t own the truth in their minds. Only you own your truth in your mind.

This is at the core of why employees withhold their truth from leadership. They fear discomfort at best, and retribution at worst. Why? For two, interrelated reasons. First, an employee’s truth is theirs. It is very personal and inextricably attached to their story. Speaking your truth exposes “you.” That’s a scary place to be, standing alone, even when elements of your truth align with the stories of others. The second reason is that leadership has their own truths. If your truth collides with theirs, your imagined fallout can make you hold your peace. Leadership that is perceived to ignore feedback adds a third reason to this list. People stop offering input when they perceive it’s falling on deaf ears.

"You can't handle the truth!"

No leader has the luxury of living into this famous declaration from "A Few Good Men," yet it happens every day. It’s human nature. Exposing truth can be unpleasant, particularly if it’s your job to “fix” it. It can make for difficult work and even expose a leader’s weaknesses. Then, lack of follow-up can be demoralizing at best, and devastating at worst. For these and countless other reasons, “You can’t handle the truth!” is lived out every day. But it doesn’t have to be this way. There is a clear way forward if we first recognize the fundamental, problematic issue.

Searching for Truth - The "mine hunt" dilemma

The common problem, when dealing with “the truth” in an organization, is this. It’s treated like a mine hunt. There are mines out there, buried deep in the heads of employees. This encourages one of two responses from leadership. Let sleeping dogs lie, hoping they don’t detonate. Or search them out and try to diffuse them. This discovery process paradigm is fatally flawed for reasons already mentioned and many others. People fearfully withhold their truth. Leaders often don’t want to expose the truth. It’s inherently stressful when discovery lives in an atmosphere of distrust. It can feel risky and destabilizing. I’ll stop there. Point made. But the good news is, there’s another way. And not only is it inherently problem-solving, it is inherently positive as well.

Co-creating Truth - The path of sustainable workplace happiness and engagement

So, here’s the good news. We create our truth. Even better, we recreate our truth over time. It’s as natural as breathing for humans. Yes, some elements of “our truth” remain intact over long periods, some even for a lifetime. But beliefs, the building blocks of our truth, have their roots in experience. And as long as we continue to have experiences, we continue to evolve our beliefs and hence, our truth. So how does this relate to workplace happiness? It relates when we stop thinking of workforce un happiness as a discovery process, and start thinking of workplace happiness as a natural, participatory co-creation process.

Work Happier

Which brings us back to Happster. Co-creating and sustaining a happy, engaged workforce is possible through the alignment of supporting truth in your organization. When this is achieved, it is the ultimate competitive advantage. Hands down. But it won’t happen without the intent and commitment to achieve it. The shift from a discovery paradigm to a co-creation paradigm for genuine, individual, aligned “truth” is the only sustainable way to get and stay there. Humans operate from their own truth, not platitudes and corporate mission statements. Constantly and consistently co-creating the truth by and between each and every human in your organization is powerful. Happster is built from the ground up to drive this empowering dynamic.

I sought out Aventr to work specifically with these start-up visionaries, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity. Serving them and their cause lights me up. And my belief in their mission and their ability to deliver is grounded in my forty years of experience. If you're curious, check out their site and this unsolicited shout-out for Happster in Entrepreneur Magazine. If you come away lifted by their vision and encouraged by their hard work to make workplace happiness a priority and reality, consider playing a part by passing this on or signing up for a free Happster team. And if you're reading this before June 1, 2017, stop by Kickstarter to check out their Happster campaign and hear directly from co-founder, Mike Casey. Then raise your hand if you want to help these tireless entrepreneurs, working to eradicate the disengaged workplace and deliver Workplace Happiness. With your support, they'll do the heavy lifting, and work even happier doing it!

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Carl Godlove is an executive leadership coach who brings decades of hard-earned wisdom and experience as a CEO to leaders and their teams. His extensive training and proven methods help improve business performance and create sustainable competitive advantage through transformational leadership development. Carl warmly welcomes your outreach to get acquainted. He is easily reached by email (carl@carlgodlove.com) and phone (call or text 610-741-8991).