Choose Your Manager — My Radio 4 Four Thought Broadcast

“49% of the UK working population would take a pay cut to have a different manager.”

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That was the fact that I started my Radio 4 Four Thought piece with. My proposal, that people should be able to choose their manager, was broadcast last Wednesday at 8.45pm and also on Sunday at 5.45am. I’ve been astonished by how many people were up and heard the re-run early on Sunday morning. You can hear it again here, without having to get up at dawn:

Listen Again: Choose Your Manager

I’ve had lots of response. This has included tales of very bad managers, and promises from people to circulate the link to their own managers. But so far I have not had one person tell me they disagree or that it is a silly idea. Perhaps its an idea whose time has come? The full text is here:

Full transcript: Choose Your Manager

For me, this is part of a wider campaign to create happy workplaces, where people are valued and motivated and can work to their full potential.

And do let me know if you get the chance to try it out. Here’s one example of a company that tried it, to good effect.

Learn the 10 core principles to create a happy and productive workplace in Henry Stewart's book, The Happy Manifesto.

Support your aspiring and current managers to be empowering and confident leaders with Happy

Happy offers leadership programmes at Level 3, Level 5 and Level 7, from new managers/supervisor level all the way up to senior leadership teams and CEOs. These programmes are based on the ideas of trusting your people. They are practical and based on applying what yo’ve learnt. We aim to inspire and ignite change in your organisation, as well as giving you valuable management skills such as business strategy, decision-making, negotiation and project management.

We also offer programmes tailored specifically to people from Global Majority backgrounds. The content is the same, but have been designed to give new and experienced managers the skills they need to navigate organisational culture with a clearer perspective on their own potential, as well as building their confidence and expanding their professional strengths.

Henry Stewart

Henry is founder and Chief Happiness Officer of Happy Ltd, originally set up as Happy Computers in 1987. Inspired by Ricardo Semler’s book Maverick, he has built a company which has won multiple awards for some of the best customer service in the country and being one of the UK’s best places to work.

Henry was listed in the Guru Radar of the Thinkers 50 list of the most influential management thinkers in the world. “He is one of the thinkers who we believe will shape the future of business,” explained list compiler Stuart Crainer.

His first book, Relax, was published in 2009. His second book, the Happy Manifesto, was published in 2013 and was short-listed for Business Book of the Year.

You can find Henry on LinkedIn and follow @happyhenry on Twitter.