Harvard professor says leaders have a responsibility to be happy at work because it can affect your stock price

Harvard professor Arthur Brooks clutches his hands while sitting in a chair (Credit: Eric Lee / Bloomberg—Getty Images)

Your boss’s mood and behavior can affect how everyone else around them performs at work. But the happier your boss is, the happier their employees are—and that tends to have a positive impact on both the company’s bottom line, and its market performance.

That’s the conclusion from Arthur C. Brooks, a Harvard professor who teaches courses on leadership and happiness at both the Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. Speaking recently at Harvard Business School’s Klarman Hall for an episode of the HBR IdeaCast, Brooks said “happier employees are more profitable, more productive employees. That’s just the way it is. If you can have a happier workforce, you’re going to have a better company. And the results are going to be there.”