New research by Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School and Steven Kramer, an independent researcher, shows that what they call 'inner work life' has a profound impact on workers’ creativity, productivity, commitment and collegiality. Employees are far more likely to have new ideas on days when they feel happier. Conventional wisdom suggests that pressure enhances performance; this data, however, shows that workers perform better when they are happily engaged in what they do. And what is the secret to being happily engaged? Thier managers. Workers’ well-being depends, in large part, on managers’ ability and willingness to support progress — by removing obstacles, providing help and acknowledging strong effort. The research showed that of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important — by far — is simply making progress in meaningful work. Unfortunately, most managers don't realise this. When managers were asked to rank five employee motivators in terms of importance, they ranked “supporting progress” last. 95% of these managers failed to recognise that progress in meaningful work is the primary motivator, well ahead of traditional incentives like pay rises and bonuses.  You can read the entire article in the New York Times by clicking here.