Contrary to what you may think, this article has to do with work, professionalism, and excellence.
How can we know that we are good at something? Depending on the vocation in question, we can have tests, exams, auditions, evaluate results, calculate revenue and profit, examine appraisals by experts, consult with external auditors, ask the audience, seek a vote, read the reviews, you name it.
Or, we can check if we are smiling! And if we are, chances are others are smiling too. So, is smiling a mandatory criterion for success? Think of it this way: you can succeed and help others succeed without smiling. But if you are, there is no doubt you are already doing it.
To smile now and then is easy. The hardest thing for most top professionals is to Keep smiling. And it is even harder to keep making others do the same. Internal barriers, external obstacles, structural deficiencies, the unforeseen factor, risk, damage, and loss, are all issues successful people have to consider and deal with every day as they face countless minor defeats.
They all disappear when you smile. Especially if you smile together with others. And the only ocassion when such a hard task becomes natural and effortless, is when you are in love. Can we turn our workers, employees, employers, staff, and senior managers, to fall in love with the mission again? Whatever mission they had chosen back when their potential could only be matched by their high ideals…
This is not a purple wish of a pink dream, but the necessary step global organizations and major companies must take as we speak. Societies need passionate, involved, skilled individuals to drive progress and inspire change. Increasing the salary alone will not do the trick (look at the current Big Quit or Global Resignation as it is called), and neither will the repetitive preaching of moral values, of ‘duty’, and necessity.
People worldwide have realized that they can contribute more when they are offering their skills as Happy individuals. We have to make them fall in love again, with themselves, their team-mates, and whatever game they happen to be in. The tools are there.