BOOK REVIEW: High Performance Through Happy People

It isn’t a huge secret that companies that do best are those where the employees are engaged, thrive and enjoy their roles. However, organisations (both public and private sector) that actually manage to create a culture that brings out the best in their people are still few and far between. High Performance Through Happy People is on a mission to change that!

Elaine Jobson takes the reader through the mindset shifts and approaches that are needed to build a high performing culture. She makes it clear that getting the foundations right is absolutely critical to then building a great culture, and outlines the elements that need to be in place to ensure you can create a thriving culture that outlasts any single individual.

Each section comes with practical exercises and questions, some which will definitely challenge the reader’s thinking and assumptions that are held about their organisation and even themselves. It is easy to see the book being used to facilitate strong conversations at team away days and planning sessions.

Alongside these are the teachings from someone who has successfully turned around company culture, taking teams from extremely challenging situations into a thriving and happy workplace. The writing is clear and engaging, and demonstrates Elaine’s knowledge and experience. She does not promise an easy pathway or a ‘miracle cure’, but each chapter takes you on the next step of the journey.

One of the things I love about High Performance Through Happy People is the lessons and examples Elaine has included, both from organisations where the leadership has created the conditions for an awesome culture to flourish, and from those where the leadership lessons are most definitely “don’t do this…”. The switch between the “what to do” and “what not to do” really helps to bring the stories to life.

I really enjoyed the early section that articulated the difference between good profit and bad profit, those situations that we can all relate to where a company has sacrificed the experience of employees, clients and ultimately the fortunes of the company purely for the sake of a few additional dollars. It is so easy to see the issues and consequences from the outside, and hopefully the stories will help readers to recognise when this bad behaviour is occurring at some level within their own organisation, before it does too much damage.

Whilst the most change will come from a senior leadership lens on the organisation, High Performance Through Happy People is not solely focused on the “C-Suite”. Elaine makes it clear that a team culture, developed and fostered by engaged managers and “lower tier” leaders can support localised change and growth, even if the overarching company culture is not amazing.

There is a lot of focus on commercial business and their operations within the book, however the lessons are also applicable to the public sector and to non-governmental organisations/charities. Given these are challenging times for public and private sector alike, this makes High Performance Through Happy People essential reading for anyone who leads people at any level of their organisation, and who wants to make a tangible difference to their team.

Jo Toon FCIPS