Alexander Kjerulf's Blog, page 34

Celebrate your victories

This is the moment our bank won first place in the Danish Great Place to Work ranking:

Det lykkedes! Danmarks bedste arbejdsplads 2016. #dkfinans #GPTW_DK pic.twitter.com/yxgGjdYbDh

— MiddelfartSparekasse (@midspar) November 15, 2016

We really admire them for their decades-long commitment to creating a happy workplace. Congratulations!

Get my book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, in Czech

I am very proud to announce that my first book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, is now available in Czech.

At the Happiness at Work Conference in Prague last week I got to sign a lot of them.

You can buy the book in Czech right here.

Satisfaction is not happiness

Do you agree?

The happiest doctor I’ve ever seen

Giving a child an injection is important – but not likely to make anyone very happy. Unless you do it the way this pediatrician does.

Here’s the best part: We showed this video at our most recent Woohoo inc Academy and it turned out that one of the participants had been a patient of this doctor. He’s retired now, but she told the group how awesome it was to be his patient, how he was always friendly and happy and how she basically had to be kicked out once she grew up and had to start seeing a “big-girl-doctor”.

Woohoo! We have now spoken in over 40 countries

These are the 41 countries we’ve spoken in. Guess a flag :)

After our trips to Surinam and Dubai this month, we have now done keynotes and workshops for clients in 41 different countries.

That’s a milestone I’m really, really proud of :)

Here’s the entire list in alphabetical order:

Antigua
Bahamas
Bulgaria
Chile
Croatia
Curaçao
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Estonia
France
Germany
Greenland
Guatemala
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Israel
Japan
Kuwait
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Sweden

Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
USA

Woohoo: My book – Happy Hour is 9 to 5 – is now available in Czech

Here’s some more excellent international news: My first book, Happy Hour is 9 to 5, is now out in Czech.

You can buy it right here.

The translation was organized by our awesome Woohoo inc Partner Monika Hilm.

And if you sign up for our conference in Prague on November 10, you get a copy of the book for free :)

I’m electrifying and thought-provoking :)

The feedback was unanimous: Everyone LOVED Alexander’s keynote.

Electrifying, energizing, thought-provoking and relevant – certainly one of the best keynotes we’ve heard in a while.

After my speech at the Global Women in Leadership Forum in Dubai, the awesome people at Naseba (who arrange this event and many others) sent us that evaluation.

Wow :)

.@alexkjerulf gets attendees to try a ‘praising’ activity to highlight how appreciation can lift moods in the workplace #GWEF16 pic.twitter.com/2OlZGEA08F

— WIL Economic Forum (@WIL_Forum) October 25, 2016

Happiness all around the world

I am back after a 17-day trip to 4 different countries.

The trip started in Surinam, a small country just north of Brazil. Together with one of our Dutch partners, Gea Peper of The Happiness Bureau, I did a workshop for an HR network.

Surinam is currently facing an economic crisis, so we focused especially on how to create happiness at work in tough times. We were also guests on a Surinamese TV show called Panorama.

After that Gea and I flew on to Curacao in the Caribbean where we did another workshop for HR leaders.

The workshop ended with balloons :) We also did an interview with Dolfijn FM who have their studio right on the beach. Awesome! And of course there was time for a little bit of sightseeing. Curaco used to be a Dutch colony, so the capital Willemstad basically looks like Amsterdam in the Caribbeans.

From curacao I flew to New York City, where I met up with my awesome coworker Arlette to lead our 4th international Woohoo Inc Academy.

9 wonderful people from different US companies had signed up for the 3-day Academy and as far as we can tell from their feedback, everyone had a blast and learned a lot. The Academy included a visit to Next Jump, one of the happiest workplaces we know, and some sightseeing, including a guided tour of Grand Central Terminal and a cruise on the East River.

And following that I flew to Dubai to speak at the 18th Global Women in Leadership Forum, where I did the opening keynote on day 2 and particularly made the point that if we want to create happier workplaces, we need more women in leadership positions.

Here are some reactions from twitter:

RT becbarry: Great kick off to day2 of WIL_Forum by happiness guru alexkjerulf #woohoo! #high5 #GWEF16 woohooinc pic.twitter.com/tnMy1TcEoO

— Mitren Chinoy (@nertim) October 25, 2016

@alexkjerulf you have truly inspired us today. Thank You! @WIL_Forum

— رنده كريدية (@kreidiehr) October 25, 2016

An electric start to the day with @alexkjerulf on #happiness and #leadership. #GWEF16 pic.twitter.com/globR2O8EZ

— Charlotte Chédeville (@ChaChedeville) October 25, 2016

And then I flew home. My internal clock is so fried, I’m not even sure I have jetlag at all.

But I’m also incredibly encouraged to once again have had the chance to spread the gospel of happiness at work in some new countries and to find so many like-minded people all over the world who agree that this is an incredibly important topic that businesses need to act on.

In fact, this trip brings the total number of countries we’ve spoken in to 41. Here’s the complete list:

Antigua
Bahamas
Bulgaria
Chile
Croatia
Curaçao
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Estonia
France
Germany
Greenland
Guatemala
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Israel
Kuwait
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Sweden

Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
USA

Happiness all around world

I am back after a 17-day trip to 4 different countries.

The trip started in Surinam, a small country just north of Brazil. Together with one of our Dutch partners, Gea Peper of The Happiness Bureau, I did a workshop for an HR network.

Surinam is currently facing an economic crisis, so we focused especially on how to create happiness at work in tough times. We were also guests on a Surinamese TV show called Panorama.

After that Gea and I flew on to Curacao in the Caribbean where we did another workshop for HR leaders.

The workshop ended with balloons :) We also did an interview with Dolfijn FM who have their studio right on the beach. Awesome! And of course there was time for a little bit of sightseeing. Curaco used to be a Dutch colony, so the capital Willemstad basically looks like Amsterdam in the Caribbeans.

From curacao I flew to New York City, where I met up with my awesome coworker Arlette to lead our 4th international Woohoo Inc Academy.

9 wonderful people from different US companies had signed up for the 3-day Academy and as far as we can tell from their feedback, everyone had a blast and learned a lot. The Academy included a visit to Next Jump, one of the happiest workplaces we know, and some sightseeing, including a guided tour of Grand Central Terminal and a cruise on the East River.

And following that I flew to Dubai to speak at the 18th Global Women in Leadership Forum, where I did the opening keynote on day 2 and particularly made the point that if we want to create happier workplaces, we need more women in leadership positions.

Here are some reactions from twitter:

RT becbarry: Great kick off to day2 of WIL_Forum by happiness guru alexkjerulf #woohoo! #high5 #GWEF16 woohooinc pic.twitter.com/tnMy1TcEoO

— Mitren Chinoy (@nertim) October 25, 2016

@alexkjerulf you have truly inspired us today. Thank You! @WIL_Forum

— رنده كريدية (@kreidiehr) October 25, 2016

An electric start to the day with @alexkjerulf on #happiness and #leadership. #GWEF16 pic.twitter.com/globR2O8EZ

— Charlotte Chédeville (@ChaChedeville) October 25, 2016

And then I flew home. My internal clock is so fried, I’m not even sure I have jetlag at all.

But I’m also incredibly encouraged to once again have had the chance to spread the gospel of happiness at work in some new countries and to find so many like-minded people all over the world who agree that this is an incredibly important topic that businesses need to act on.

In fact, this trip brings the total number of countries we’ve spoken in to 41. Here’s the complete list:

Antigua
Bahamas
Bulgaria
Chile
Croatia
Curaçao
Czech Republic
Denmark
Dominican Republic
Estonia
France
Germany
Greenland
Guatemala
Iceland
India
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Israel
Kuwait
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sri Lanka
Suriname
Sweden

Switzerland
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
USA

Bob Sutton’s EXCELLENT advice on dealing with a bad boss

How should you deal with a bad boss? Here’s some EXCELLENT research-based advice from Stanford Professor Bob Sutton (51 mins into the video).

On a related note, a journalist once asked me during an interview why employees put up with bad bosses.

Without thinking about it I blurted out “Stockholm syndrome.”

I only later realized I may have been right.

Related posts

Bad bosses – why they’re bad and what to do about them
Why every workplace should train employees to disagree with bosses
A note from the boss
The 10 worst excuses for staying in a bad job