Carly Cannings - The Happy Business School

Using Personal Strengths to Support a Thriving Workplace Culture

A passion for thriving: Two business founders, who both left corporate roles to follow their passions, discuss helping organisations create thriving cultures. Here’s my conversation with Nic Jackson from Personal Strengths Coaching about how strengths play a vital role in creating a happy, thriving workplace culture. Carly: I work with organisations of all shapes and

Why Gen Z Aren’t Rushing to Be Middle Managers – And Why It’s Not Just Their Problem

A recent survey by talent solutions firm Robert Walters revealed that 52% of Gen Z workers are steering clear of middle management roles. Here’s what the survey found: It’s tempting to chalk this up to a “Gen Z thing,” but honestly, I don’t think it is. This is a much wider issue that spans across

Alphabet Soup: The A-Z Of Workplace Happiness (Part Three)

It’s time for the third and final instalment of my A-Z of workplace happiness. So to complete the set, here we go with N-Z of workplace happiness. N is for negativity bias. Did you know we all have an inbuilt tendency to focus on the negative over the positive? This increased awareness of negativity comes

Alphabet Soup: The A-Z Of Workplace Happiness (Part Two)

It’s time for part two of my A-Z of workplace happiness. This time we’ll be looking at the letters I to M, so here goes…. I is for inclusivity. Being accepted for who you are is easier for some of us than others. If we fit the typical mould for our role or organisation, it’s much

Alphabet Soup: The A-Z Of Workplace Happiness (Part One)

Happy September! With this week being the week most children go back to school, or in the case of our daughter, start school for the first time, I wanted to give a nod to education in this month’s newsletter. I have resisted the temptation to write about new beginnings (there are plenty of posts and

The Ball’s In Your Court: What The World Of Sport Can Teach Us About Happiness and Success At Work

A spot in the netball B team at secondary school was as far as my sporting ability has ever taken me. My PE teacher famously failed to manage to teach me how to serve in badminton (‘I don’t know how else I can help you?!’). In fact my lack of hand/eye co-ordination is a running

The Missing Piece Of The Puzzle?: The Relationship Between Workplace Happiness, Wellbeing And Mental Health

Wellbeing and mental health are now (thankfully) much more common terms in the workplace than they were even five years ago. Happiness, less so. But where is the overlap between wellbeing, mental health and happiness in a work context? Let’s start with wellbeing. Most dictionary definitions of wellbeing refer to it as being a state

Following The Leader: How To Lead A Happy Team

“Great things in business are never done by one person; they’re done by a team of people.” Steve Jobs I recently watched a talk by Nic Marks, founder of Friday Pulse, an organisation that helps businesses measure the happiness of their people. Nic came up with the 5 Ways To Workplace Wellbeing which he says

The Truth, The Whole Truth And Nothing But The Truth – What Being A Lawyer Taught Me About Happiness.

When I say the word ‘lawyer’ what image does it conjure in your mind? What does the lawyer look like? What are their surroundings like? (Just for fun, is the lawyer male or female? Male? Still some way to go on that gender stereotyping…) Some of you will know (but I suspect lots of you

“You’re On Mute!” – How To Be Happy In A Hybrid Workplace

When most of us logged out of our computers and left the office in late March 2020 we thought we’d work from home for a few weeks then be back to the office, and back to normal, before the end of the summer. We hastily gathered up laptops and essential paperwork, kept our fingers crossed