By Lindsay Ellis
For Wall Street Journal
To lead a happy team, you have to learn to be happy yourself, according to a Harvard Business School course that’s been popular in the pandemic.
A hot course at Harvard Business School promises to teach future leaders an elusive skill—managing happiness. One of the toughest parts is just getting a spot in the class.
As business schools train the corporate chieftains of tomorrow, skills like emotional awareness and improving well-being are taking their places alongside deal making and financial modeling. Courses on happiness, relationships and balance are among the most in-demand courses at top M.B.A. programs. Their popularity reflects both the demand for soft skills and students’ desire for more-balanced lives—and an intention among schools to turn out better bosses.
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At Harvard, the 180 spots in Arthur Brooks’s “Leadership and Happiness” fill up quickly. Some students who don’t get into the elective attend lectures virtually or ask fellow students for lecture recaps, students say.
Participants are taught how to cultivate their teams’ happiness, along with their own. A central tenet is that happiness is key to being an effective leader. Happiness isn’t just a product of chance, genes or life circumstances, Dr. Brooks posits, but of habitually tending to four key areas—family, friends, meaningful work, and faith or life philosophy.