Happiness As A Management KRA

Frankly, what is management meant to strive for? Efficiency, growth and profitability matter, of course, yet beneath those measures lies something far more profound.

Life in organisations takes up the majority of our productive years and during that time, we often define ourselves through the work we do and the people we lead. If our inner quest for meaning is to have any weight, it cannot exist separately from our professional life. It needs to be woven into the very fabric of daily work, shaping the rhythm and culture of the places where we spend so much of ourselves.

Ask yourself: When was the last time your work left you feeling fully alive and engaged? How often do you notice whether the hours you spend leading others nurture the people around you as much as they nurture the business? What becomes of your own sense of purpose if the answer to these questions remains unclear or neglected?

These questions are not philosophical abstractions. They are profoundly human, touching on the way we live and work each day.

Our current systems often fail to reflect this reality. Market share, profits and quarterly results dominate conversations while employee exhaustion, ethical compromises and fading culture are often invisible. Boards focus on numbers, yet the well-being of people rarely receives the same attention. It raises a quiet but insistent question: how can organisations truly thrive if the people within them are not able to flourish?

Happiness is subtle and unpredictable. In organisations, I see it vanish when fairness is overlooked, respect is withheld, or work becomes mere obligation. It grows quietly, in moments when decisions honor people's dignity and work feels meaningful. The hours we live cannot be reclaimed, and I have learned that people remember how they were treated far longer than the targets they hit. The measure of happiness lies in the quality of those hours, not the sum of outcomes.

I have also come to see that leadership and well-being are inseparable. People who find purpose in their work become healthier, more creative, more resilient and capable of thoughtful choices. When I neglect my own inner life, when decisions are made only to hit numbers, the energy of the team falters. Every small choice, every conversation and every interaction sets a tone. They shape the culture of a team, the integrity of an organisation and even the wider environment in which it operates. How we lead in these quiet, everyday moments ripples far beyond the office walls.

For centuries, Indian thought has reminded us that wealth must be aligned with well-being. The Mahabharata teaches that artha is to be pursued for dharma, not at the expense of it. Chanakya in the Arthashastra is equally clear: the happiness of a ruler comes from the happiness of those he governs. The Katha Upanishad adds that the self is the rider and the body is the chariot, and if the reins — our mind — are unsteady, the journey falters. Leaders who cannot attend to their inner life cannot reliably guide the organisations they oversee. Paying attention to happiness, purpose and care is as important as strategy and efficiency.

I have often seen that happiness generates a momentum no balance sheet can ever capture. Organisations are made of real people, each carrying hopes, struggles, and inner questions. When these personal quests are overlooked, workplaces feel like spaces of quiet disconnection. But when a leader allows their own sense of purpose to flow into the organization, it creates room for others to grow, to feel seen and to bring their best selves to work.

Around the world, organisations are beginning to recognize this truth. Bhutan measures Gross National Happiness. New Zealand publishes a well-being budget. Even Silicon Valley companies, with all their contradictions, openly champion “people-first” cultures because they understand that talent cannot be sustained without attention to human flourishing. India, with its rich heritage of ananda, has yet to fully embrace the idea that well-being and prosperity can be pursued together.

Ultimately, the question of happiness at work is inseparable from the question of what it means to be human. Life is finite, and the hours we devote to work shape our existence. If meaning is left aside, life becomes a ledger of tasks and transactions. Being human involves aligning effort with awareness, ambition with ethics, and action with joy.

The Bhagavad Gita offers guidance as relevant today as it was centuries ago: act while rooted in equanimity. Growth and results matter, yet they must be pursued from a place of balance and responsibility. Numbers fade, market caps change and quarterly results are forgotten. What endures is whether a leader has shaped a workplace that nurtures life and allows people to feel fully alive.

Happiness does not sit at the edges of management. It is the measure by which the legitimacy of leadership can be judged. A smiling workforce is not a byproduct of financial success. It forms the foundation upon which success itself is built. Leaders who fail to honour this truth may leave behind organisations that are impressive in size but small in soul. That is the gap where happiness too often falls.