The Happiness Advantage : How Happiness Impacts Performance

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life nail your goals. I'll see you there. Welcome to Lead On Purpose. I'm James Laughlin, former seven time world champion musician and now executive coach to global leaders and high performers. Each week I'll publish a solo cast where I'll share my top high performance habits and methodologies to supercharge your life and career. If you enjoy the show, please take a short moment to subscribe and leave a rating and review. I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to connect today and investing in yourself. Enjoy the show.

A huge thank you to NZ Mortgages for supporting the Lead On Purpose podcast. You can check them out @nzmortgages co nz are you unhappy at work or do you have people at work that are clearly unhappy disengaged? When we look at the peer reviewed studies around disengagement, people who are not engaged at work, it's shocking, right? We think of the productivity and effectiveness of that. It's not looking good. But more importantly, when we have unhappy people, it should concern us. When we are unhappy ourselves in the work that we do, we should be concerned because happiness absolutely impacts performance. I'm going to share with you different examples of how that happens, how it's true. I'm going to talk about At Formula one I sat down with George Russell's coach, Team Mercedes, and talked about what they measure in regards to happiness and how it actually impacts performance. I'm also going to share with you a couple of books I'm reading right now. As you know, I'm a book reading fanatic, but there's a couple in there that you might really enjoy. Also, I'm going to talk about the three key factors that drive happiness. How you can create more happiness. And it's not just a light, fluffy, beautiful thing that we should aim for. It's actually a necessity for us to feel fulfilled, for us to be connected and have a sense of belonging. And also it's something we deserve and it's something that drives performance. I know often when people want to spend time reading or listening to a podcast, they want to listen to something or read something that adds value, that helps them move forward. Well, I'm about to tell you something right now that's going to supercharge your performance. So here we go, the Happy secret to better work. And recently I literally just got off a flight from London and an amazing time there. So I was over speaking, I was delivering a keynote. Two keynotes in London, one in Northern Ireland, my home country, which was amazing to go and see. Grandparents, parents, siblings, niece, nephew, et cetera. It was brilliant. So I learned a lot from being over there. But I was also asked in one of those keynotes to talk about happiness and how it impacts our performance on field and off field. On field for you could be literally a field if you're an athlete. But for most of us, we're not athletes, but our field is the field of work when we step into the office, or maybe you work from home, it's what you do for work. Happiness is going to absolutely impact that. And so I want to share a few of the things that I did share in that keynote. And first things first, I want to be really clear. Happiness is not a destination. It's not the car that you get, the house that you buy, paying off that house. It's not the promotion, it's not the new book, it's not the relationship you've always longed for. Getting the thing does not drive consistent long term happiness at all. Happiness is not a destination. Happiness to me is a direction. Happiness is simply moving towards something. Happiness is in motion. When we are idle, I promise you, we are not generally very happy. If you sit on a beach in Spain or Fiji or Tahiti, wherever. If you sit on that beach every day, drinking the same cocktails, having the same lunch, talking to the same people, going to bed at the same time, I promise you, eventually you will be unhappy. First two or three days you might be on cloud nine, but eventually you will become despondent, unhappy. You'll start to become complacent. Apathy will kick in. So happiness to me is moving towards something and I'll get even more specific about that. Before we do that though, I want you to think about this. Helplessness cripples happiness. If you feel helpless, that you have no sense of control over your environment, your direction, your job, your health, your relationship. If you feel helpless, it generally means you're pretty unhappy. You know, we see it in relationships all the time. When people are in a relationship that's abusive, toxic, you know, there's narcissistic traits from your partner. Generally, you feel quite unhappy in that relationship. It's no different at work. If you feel like helplessness in terms of your career progression, in terms of your ability to execute on your role and do the things that you believe is your role because other people hold you back or question you or worse, micromanage you, then, of course, you feel unhappy. Now, on the flip side, hopefulness multiplies happiness. If you feel hopeful, then you feel a sense of happiness, a sense of fulfillment, a sense of direction. So it's important in what we do in life that there's a sense of hope, that we're moving towards something that can allow us to grow, allow us to contribute, allow us to have meaning. So to me, happiness is this. It's when you are in the pursuit of these three things, could be all three, or it could be one, two or three. But when you're in the pursuit of enjoyment, satisfaction or meaning, you feel happy. When you're not in the pursuit of one or more of those things, you don't feel happy. You feel maybe miserable, maybe unhappy, maybe a sense of mediocrity, a sense of apathy, a sense of boredom, a sense of being unfulfilled. So those three things are important when you're in the pursuit of enjoyment, satisfaction or meaning, you're happy. Another word for meaning is purpose. Of course, this is lead on purpose that you're listening to right now. So I'm all about, hey, how do we pursue that thing? Look, talking to George Russell's coach. So for those that are not into sport, many of you will be, many of you won't be. George Russell is a Formula one driver with Team Mercedes. Sat down and listened. Sorry. Sat down and interviewed his coach, Alex Casanovis, and you can listen to that. I'll ask my team to put the link in the show notes to that interview. But we were talking on air and off air about George's performance. Some days he has great performance, other days he doesn't, just like the rest of us. But I said, what do you measure and manage that actually impacts better performance? He says, well, there's two big things. One is happiness and two is sleep. He says, look, a happy George more often than not reflects a really good performance. When George is not so happy, it also reflects a not so good output in terms of performance. Now, look, I can guarantee that most of you listening right now are not Formula One drivers. Why, there's only about 20 of those on the planet. Maybe there's one listening. Hello. If you are but most of us are not. So you think, well, I'm not a formula one driver. How does this apply to me? Well, you are a performer. You are performing every day. You've got a role as an employee or as a founder or as a CEO or as a family member, a parent, a sibling. You're actually performing every day in your own health, your mental health. You're performing. So this absolutely pertains to you, and I want you to think about that. What am I doing to drive my happiness? Do I feel that I have full agency and control over my happiness, or do I let the situations and circumstances around me impact my happiness? Look, I will say before I finish the George Russell story that I've not always been happy. And I still, to this day, I'm not always happy. People are. James, you're so positive. I'm like, yeah, most of the time, but if I was always positive, I wouldn't be human. We've got to experience sadness, sorrow, grief, anger, disappointment, loneliness, unhappiness. I experience them all, but I choose to not sit in them forever. I acknowledge them, I accept them. I feel, you know, what am I feeling? What am I learning about this? What's this emotion telling me? But I choose to not sit there for long. There's a term called learned optimism, and that's something that I totally embrace and I believe in. Optimism can be learned. It's a muscle. It can be built. It's the same as happiness. It can be built. It can be learned. So we have to take charge of that. I've had times when I grew up where I was deeply unhappy. I've had times in my career where I was very unhappy. I've had times in previous relationships where I've been very unhappy. You know, I went through divorce. Do you think that was because I was joyously happy? Absolutely not. So don't think that this is me preaching to you about, hey, I am the king of happiness, and I'm always happy. That is not true. I have been unhappy, and I continue to experience unhappiness. But when I sit and reflect, often through journaling or meditating, I realize, hey, I'm not currently in the pursuit of. Of something that brings me enjoyment, satisfaction, or meaning. That's generally when I'm not doing that, I'm unhappy. So then I get to work controlling my controllables. When your focus is on things you can't control, there's a sense of helplessness, a sense of unhappiness that comes from that. Now, the other thing going back To George Russell, the Formula one driver, the other thing that they measure is his sleep. When he's sleeping well, he's performing better, his reaction speeds are better, you know, and you measure sleep through things like this. I'm just holding up for those that are listening, not on video. I'm holding up my Oura ring. I'm not sponsored by them. There's no kickbacks. It's simply something I think is a great tool for measuring sleep. Is it perfect? No. Does it give me good metrics? Yes. I also back it up with the Garmin watch that. I use that to count my steps and exercise, but also to give me an indication when I on. Is my sleep, my body battery, as they call it, Is it looking good? Could I improve it? And then I run experiments, going to bed a bit earlier, going a bit later, a little bit less screen time, a little bit more reading, more breath, work, exercise. Earlier in the day or later in the day, I try experiments, run experiments, and see what affects my sleep and quality of it. Now, obviously, George Russell, his reaction speeds are better when he's, well, slept, he's happier because of that, too. Therefore, he performs better. You're not driving a Formula one car, but you're making decisions. You're driving to and from work or commuting. You've got to be ready to respond or react, sometimes very quickly. So sleep is crucial both to performance and its impact on happiness. Absolutely crucial. So I want you to think about this. What are you doing right now in your pursuit of enjoyment and meaning and satisfaction? I want you to think about it right now. What are you doing that you're pursuing that gives you enjoyment? I'll give you something right now. For me, that's being a dad. I am far from the best dad in the world. I'm far from perfect. But I'm in motion. I'm in progress. I am in constant pursuit. Why? Because I want to be better. I want to be more present. I want to create moments. I want to be right there for the magic. In fact, every day I read one page of a book called the Daily Dad. If you're a dad, let your partner know or let a friend know that my next birthday, if you want to buy me a gift, good book, or do yourself a favor, buy yourself it and get on it. If you're listening to this and you know a dad who wants to continue growing as a dad, buy them as a gift. It's by Ryan Holiday. It's called the Daily Dad. I'm reading it. It's Stoic quotes and how to apply that in the modern world. As a dad, it just helps direct my focus, helps get me focused on wmi, what's most important. So that brings me enjoyment. I feel like I'm improving a little tiny bit as a dad every day, or if I go off piste, it brings me back on piste. So that's something. Next. What are you doing and pursuing that brings you satisfaction? I'll tell you right now, satisfaction is only achieved when we do hard things. If you go to a hotel and it's say, four flights and you get the elevator and you walk off the top of the elevator and onto the fourth floor, I guarantee you don't feel satisfied. But if you took the stairs, maybe with a light piece of luggage or not so light, and you get to the top of the fourth floor and you walk out the stairwell, I promise you, you will feel a level of satisfaction. Satisfaction is only brought about when we do hard things, things that challenge us, things that we find maybe a little bit on the of our discomfort. For me right now, one of those things is writing a book. So I've got a book that I've got to submit to HarperCollins, the publisher. I've got a deadline for that submission. It's hard because I've got other conflicting priorities, but I've got to get it done. And I actually really love writing. So for me, I've got to say what gets scheduled gets done. So it's on the calendar. It's a commitment with myself. Sit down. I actually sit down in this very room, curtains closed, little lamp on, and I write. Now, when I write 100 words, I feel a sense of satisfaction. I'm not finishing that book this week, this month, or even next month. But there's many micro moments of satisfaction as I reach tiny little milestones. What are you doing and pursuing that's bringing you satisfaction? Last but not least, what are you pursuing that brings you a sense of meaning or purpose? What is that one thing? It could be something very small, could be something very significant. Often when we're pursuing something that brings us meaning, it's doing things for others and doing it in a way where you're not asking for something in return. An example of that is my amazing and beautiful partner, Caroline. She quietly, every week goes and visits a beautiful old lady who's in her 90s. And it's through a company called Age Concern. And Age Concern realizes that lots of elderly people are suffering from loneliness. In fact, many are dying from loneliness. So they ask people to donate an hour of their time and go and visit an elderly person. And Caroline loves it. It brings her a huge amount of meaning. And when she comes home from visiting her elderly person, she's sharing stories and insights and how much she loved it and what it's done to make her feel happy. So I want you to think about that. What is it that you're doing for others that brings you meaning? And I'm sure you are doing something. If you're not, this is your opportunity to do it. But I want to leave that with you. To me, that's the happy secret to better work, to better performance is understanding that happiness does actually drive performance. When you're unhappy, you don't perform well. If you want to do better work, focus on happiness. Creating happy culture, happy people. Understanding unhappiness is a part of life. But you don't need to choose to sit there. You want to choose to control your controllables. As promised, I'm going to share the four books I'm currently reading. I'm one of those weird people who doesn't like reading a book. I like Variety and I'll read a chapter of this and a chapter of this and then tomorrow I'll read a couple of chapters of a different book. So currently my good friend Ryan Holiday, he sent a signed copy. It's called Right Thing. Right now it's just been released. I am very excited to get stuck into this. Just started it. He's a stoic, a philosopher, a modern stoic philosopher. Applies it to life right now. Next is Leading with the Heart by Coach K, one of the all time great basketball coaches of all time. I'm reading this because it's around leadership. I work with sports teams, I work with corporate organizations. I'm often delivering keynotes on stage to people in their annual conferences. There's some gold I'm taking from this that I want to share in those situations. Turn the Ship around is another book I'm reading. It's a naval officer that was assigned to a ship that was ranked at the very bottom of the whole fleet and he managed to turn it around, turn the culture around, and it impacted the performance. Really interesting book. It's an oldie, but a goodie. And last but not least, it's actually an upcoming guest here on the episode Baris Shah. It's his book called Beyond Hope so reason I'm reading this one. His story is absolutely fascinating. Two, I want to be really informed. So when I sit down to interview him, it's a really powerful interview. So those are four books. And actually I'll read the subtitle of his book, from an Auckland Prison to Changing Lives in Afghanistan. How could you not want to read the book? Right. So that's what I'm reading right now. I would love to know what you're reading. And also I've got a challenge for you and you can message me. There's a direct message function here in the show notes if you want to message me on that. I'll get that. Or you can email me jamesjloughlin.com you can find me Instagram or a LinkedIn DM. But I've got a challenge for you. If you were to rename the podcast, what would you call it? When you think about what you learned from this podcast, the guests that I have on, what might you call it? The reason I ask is I named the podcast Lead On Purpose over four years ago and it's very fitting and it works. But I'm also open to looking at what you think about and what you would call it. So is there a name for it that sits with you that you think? James, I think your podcast should be called this. What would that be? I'm open to all ideas, all suggestions. I really appreciate it, in fact. And you can be part of that rebranding journey. I may or may not rebrand, but I'm always open to looking at it. So for now, please get out there and lead your life on purpose. A huge thank you to NZ Mortgages for supporting the Lead On Purpose podcast. You can check them out at nzmortgages Co nz. Thanks for tuning in today and investing in your own personal leadership. Please hit that subscribe button and I'd love if you'd leave me a rating and review. I've got some amazing guests lined up for you in the coming weeks and leaders. It's that time to get out there and lead your life on purpose.