Here is a brief excerpt from an article written by Gretchen Rubin for LinkedIn. To read the complete article and check out others, please click here.

Photo: pmccarthy, Flickr

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I recently read First, Break All the Rules(1999) by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. The authors did a study with the Gallup Organization to find a way to measure strong workplaces, ones that would attract and retain the most productive employees.

They came up with a list of twelve questions. Those employees who answered “yes” to them and were happier in their workplaces, tended to work in business units with higher levels of productivity, profit, retention, and customer satisfaction – which shows that there is a link between how employees feel and how they perform.

This is a good list to use if you’re a manager who wants to create a happier and more productive work environment, or if you’re a job seeker/holder who wants criteria by which to judge a workplace.

Also, if you’re not happy at work, and you’re trying to identify the problem, take a look at this list. It suggests strategies for improving your situation. Not everything is within your control, of course, but perhaps you could identify for your boss what you need to change #2 from “no” to “yes” or to shift responsibilities so you get #3. Or can you make an effort to gain #10?

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To read the complete article, please click here.

Gretchen Rubin is the author of Happier at Home and The Happiness Project as well as a bestselling biography of Winston Churchill, Forty Ways to Look at Winston Churchill, and one of John Kennedy, Forty Ways to Look at JFK. Her first book, Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide, is social criticism in the guise of a user’s manual. Before turning to writing, she had a career in law. A graduate of Yale and Yale Law School, she clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor and was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. She lives in New York City with her husband and two daughters.