5 ways leaders can harness brain chemistry for happier and more productive teams

Research links employee happiness with higher productivity. A 2019 study led by Oxford University, for example, found that workers were 13% more productive when they were happier. HR teams have responded with enhanced benefits packages, flexible work options, and well-being resources. But leaders have another immediate lever available every day: the experiences they create for the people around them and what that means for their actual, physical well-being.

One useful framework I include in my new book, Better Good, involves brain chemistry. Specifically, the four chemicals commonly associated with feeling good: dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, and endorphins. The science behind them is complex and their effects overlap. But at work, they offer a means for thinking about four experiences leaders can influence: progress, recognition, connection and, yes, fun.

The payoffs include productivity, bonding, respect, and camaraderie, all of which can positively impact workplace culture and the bottom line. Acts of recognition, connection, progress, and shared laughter can engage overlapping neurochemical systems that reinforce motivation and social connection. Those experiences can also spread. One person’s enthusiasm can become a team’s energy. Enthusiasm, after all, is contagious.

Here are five ways leaders can put this brain chemistry and its good-inducing consequences to work.

1. Design for small wins (dopamine)

Dopamine plays an important role in reward, learning, and motivation, which means leaders should create more frequent moments of progress by emphasizing micromilestones and celebrating them publicly. Highlight a #WinOfTheWeek in Slack. Applaud a concrete victory during every all-hands meeting. Close a Friday team meeting by naming one thing the group moved forward that week. The wins could be anything from hitting a deadline to landing a meeting with a potential client to solving a recurring problem that has slowed everyone down. Progress along the way is still progress. And worth celebrating.

2. Make gratitude routine (serotonin)

Serotonin is the body’s mood booster, helping to regulate social behavior. In leadership terms, gratitude and recognition create positive social feedback that can be built into the rhythm of a team.

Think about how a truly sincere “thank you” from a leader or teammate you admire can change the mood and texture of your day. You know the feeling, and there’s actually serotonin-fueled chemistry behind it. Add a 90-second “shout-outs and thanks” segment to every meeting, and rotate who heads up the segment so the recognition moves peer to peer and across levels. Create a Slack channel where people can thank a colleague and name exactly what they did that helped. Or ask managers to include one specific piece of appreciation in regular one-on-ones.

Repeated moments of gratitude can lift morale while highlighting the behaviors and contributions that help the organization work well. You can’t overdose on this.

3. Create connection rituals (oxytocin)

Oxytocin plays an important role in bonding and social connection, and research has shown the importance of workplace relationships in areas ranging from mentorship to problem-solving to emotional support. An easy way for leaders to encourage these bonds is by starting meetings with prompts that get their team members interested in each other’s lives. Who did something fun last weekend? Any big plans for the holiday? Or, bringing it back to the dopamine, does anyone want to share a win, professional, personal, or otherwise? Keep it short and constant; consistency beats length.

Leaders can also create connection through simple rituals like team lunches, one-on-one check-ins and volunteer activities, whether that’s a 5K charity run or a cleanup at the local park. Shared service may or may not be the best use of professional team time compared to what you can uniquely do as professionals. But from a team building perspective, the fact that they combine connection with purpose—while giving people a shared experience they can not only carry back into the workday, but look back on over time—creates a connection that people remember.

4. Inject fun (endorphins)

Think about your happiest moments at work, the moments that put the biggest smile on your face, made you laugh the hardest, or created the fondest memories. There’s a good chance fun played a role.

Leaders can make room for more of it deliberately. Laughter and movement can activate the body’s endorphin system and support feelings of wellbeing and social bonding. Hold a walking one-on-one meeting as Steve Jobs famously did. Build a 5-minute movement break into a long offsite. (Sure, it may feel a bit cringey at first, but don’t you always feel better afterward?) Create a playful team tradition around birthdays, milestones, or the end of a big project. Give people a reason to laugh together during an all-hands. In turbulent times, fun remains the best, and often most powerful, medicine for what ails workplace culture. The best version fits the culture and gives people room to participate naturally. It isn’t always for everybody at all times. But the resulting fun and enthusiasm will be contagious.

5. Model the behavior and share stories of impact

Leaders—all leaders, not just “the boss”—who show empathy, celebrate progress, and express human emotions like joy and excitement, create the contagious energy we all inherently crave. People take cues from what leaders repeatedly notice, reward, celebrate, and share. That is how cultural norms take hold, cement over time, and create new foundations for connection and growth.

Workplace culture is built in moments: a win noticed, a thank you voiced, a laugh shared, a story that reminds people why the work matters, and by simply having fun. By designing more of those moments, you’ll recruit brain chemistry toward a greater purpose and, in the process, give people more reasons to feel good, connect with one another, and bring that energy back into their work. At a time when it is needed more than ever.

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