Navigating the Duality of Happiness with Antoni Tzavelas

Unlock the secrets to a happier, more cohesive work environment with Antoni Tzavelas, keynote speaker and Chief Happiness Officer at Smiling Bowtie. We kick things off with Antoni sharing his love for Toronto's vibrant coffee culture, and then he dives into his revolutionary Happiness Blueprint through the IMPACT model—Inspiration, Mindset, Power (empowerment), Alliance (relationships), Care (psychological safety), and Transformation. Antoni's personal story from his time as a DevOps engineer vividly illustrates how this model can foster growth and cultivate a supportive and motivating environment. By committing to continuous upskilling and inspiring his peers, Antoni created a blueprint that transformed not only individual careers but entire team dynamics.

In our second segment, Antoni takes us on a journey through the origins of his Happiness Blueprint, drawing inspiration from positive psychology and the lifestyles of centenarians in blue zones. He underscores the vital role of workplace happiness in driving engagement, fulfillment, and productivity, while also addressing common skepticism among leaders. Antoni shares practical strategies for re-engaging disengaged employees and discusses the shift from classical project management to Agile methodologies. To wrap up, we delve into the essentials of Agile practices, where Antoni offers invaluable tips and insights for both newcomers and seasoned practitioners.

Connect with Antoni on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonit/

Check out Antoni's Training Offerings:
https://www.smilingbowtie.com/

Visit one of the many coffee shops in Toronto!
https://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurants-g155019-c8-Toronto_Ontario.html

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Chapters

• 0:06 Unpacking the Happiness Blueprint
• 19:00 Inspiring the Happiness Blueprint
• 31:58 Agile Within

Transcript

Mark: 0:06

Welcome to the Agile Within. I am your host, mark Metz. My mission for this podcast is to provide Agile insights into human values and behaviors through genuine connections. My guests and I will share real-life stories from our Agile journeys, triumphs, blunders and everything in between, as well as the lessons that we have learned. So get pumped, get rocking. The Agile Within starts now. Well, hey, welcome back everybody. This is Mark Metz, with the Agile Within. My guest for today is Antony Savellas. Antony, welcome with the Agile Within. My guest for today is Antony Savellas, Antony welcome to the Agile Within.

Mark: 0:51

Thanks for having me, Mark. Yeah, great to have you. Antony is a keynote speaker that focuses on happiness and he is also the chief happiness officer of his company, Smiling Bowtie. And Antony comes from Toronto Canada. So, Antony, yes, smiling bow tie. And Anthony comes from Toronto Canada. So, Anthony, yes, I'm coming to Toronto Canada for a day and I've never been there before. What's one thing you would tell me that I absolutely couldn't miss Dewey.

Antoni: 1:15

Oh, my goodness, this is a trick question mark, because the city is a very multicultural city, so we have a plethora of everything that you can think of. My favorite thing to do is to go coffee shop hopping. There's so many coffee shops in this great city of mine that I couldn't go a day without bringing people to at least four or five different types of coffee shops. They hold different types of coffees, different types of pastries, and a lot of them roast their own beans too. So it's very amazing that way.

Mark: 1:55

Incredible. So Coffee Drinker's Delight. If you're in Toronto, look up Antony and he'll take you on a grand tour. Yes, sir, all right, antony, and he'll take you on a grand tour. Yes, sir, all right, antony. So we're here to talk about the happiness blueprint that you've created. What exactly is the happiness blueprint?

Antoni: 2:14

Great question, mark. The happiness blueprint came about when a leader had asked me what makes you always so happy, what is your secret? And it made me start to think what is my recipe to happiness? I started to think about the things that I used to do with, the teams that I would work with and what made them happy, and I developed this model called the impact model, and it's the underlying foundation of the happiness blueprint, and it stands for inspiration, mindset, power, which is empowerment of people, alliance, which is based on relationships, care, which is based on psychological safety, and T, for transformation. So we're measuring and iterating. Now, when you take that model and you apply it to oneself, to a team, to an organization, we're focusing on those elements to allow people to foster that happiness. Now a lot of people have asked me Antony, how the heck do I apply this impact model? I'm going to tell you a story that can kind of sum it up in one go.

Antoni: 3:38

There was a time where I was a DevOps engineer. I was a DevOps engineer and through my journey, I decided to upskill all the time and I started to gather these certifications. These were my goals. So I started to say these goals, I want to achieve. What I found over time is that getting these certifications actually got me a better job. So I was all for. I want these certifications. These are my goals, and I have done some of the hardest technical certifications for cloud on the planet in order to best situate myself in the market.

Antoni: 4:27

As I joined different organizations, I started to study more. I would study on the subway, I would study on the streetcars to and from work and I'd fail exams and I'd redo them over and over and over again. And as I did that, I started to not only get a sense of learning and a sense of upskilling, but I was also inspiring others to want to do the same. And they kept on asking me Anthony, how are you doing this? Are you sleeping at night? Should we be worried about your health? I said no, nothing like that. It's. I'm utilizing my time correctly to and from work, I'm studying and I get to do some lab work on the weekends. And in response they were like Anthony, how can we do the same thing? Can you teach us your ways of doing it? And this started inquiry about how to get certifications, and this caused study groups. This created study groups. This learn, the willingness to teach actually landed me a better job that paid 40% more on what I was making.

Antoni: 5:54

Now, the whole thing to this story and how the impact model ties into that. Well, number one, I've inspired people, and I've also inspired myself, because I realized what I can do. I changed my mindset and allowed others to change theirs as well, because now we're all learning together, we're upskilling, we're getting better at it is what we do and then we're sharing our learnings on top of that. So I'm also empowering myself to to get better jobs, to do better in life, and I'm empowering others to say hey, you can do this too. On top of that, I'm building relationships, because people are asking me hey, how do you do this? And now we're working together.

Antoni: 6:46

And when you start working together on learning, you start spending an enormous amount of time together. So, naturally, the personal things are gonna start to come up. Hey, anthony, what do you like to drink? I actually really enjoy drinking coffee, so I was like the go-to coffee guy.

Antoni: 7:10

Now, when it came to psychological safety, well, since we're all there learning together, we're being vulnerable with each other. Hey, I don't understand this. Can you please explain it to me? And so we started to become more comfortable and more open with each other, and I started to reveal hey, you know what? I failed this exam twice. You really need to study this. We're measuring what we've learned. We're iterating. I have gone through so many learnings and have determined what is the best way to do things. And others have come back and said hey, you know what this actually worked for me, which may not have been the same thing, and that's okay. So tying the impact model into this story is a perfect example of how someone can use it in their everyday life and with their teams and, of course, with their organization.

Mark: 8:13

Very interesting. I want to take a step back and ask you, before we dive into the impact model help define for us what is happiness.

Antoni: 8:22

Happiness is different for everyone. The way I like to look at it is happiness is internal. It's what gets you up in the morning, it's what drives you, it's what causes fulfillment, it's what allows you to flourish, it's what it is that's important to oneself, so that way they can live their life without having that feeling of doubt and really owning who they are and what's important to them.

Mark: 8:53

Can someone be too happy?

Antoni: 8:59

That, my friend, is what we call toxic positivity. When someone is always looking at well, don't be so negative, you can always do better. Oh, better luck next time. When you hear things like that, it's not really empathetic, right? And as coaches, we look back on this and we say how can we help? Tell me about your troubles, what's bothering you I mean being happy all the time is actually not scalable and it's, in my personal opinion, impossible. We are humans. We're going to have shitty days and we're going to have those good days. So it's going to be that balance that that comes forth and we need to look at those bad times or those times of difficulty, and look within again, going back to the internal, find what makes us happy and bring us back to that place where we feel happiest, To bring us back to that sense of being in a better place, to being more positive.

Mark: 10:19

And I'm not sure which stage this would be, whether it would be in the forming or the storming, but it's something that I see quite frequently in teams as they're formed, as they're just getting to know each other, is they reach this point of we're awesome, we're great, we're kicking butt, we're nailing everything. Right. You've got one hurdle to pass and that's to get the team to rally together and become a team and believe in themselves. But then you don't want to be like that parent that tells their kid everything that they do is wonderful, right? If a kid goes in as a baseball player and strikes out five times, you don't say boy, you did a great game. Today there has to be some level of acknowledgement that yes, I like the way that you tried, I like these things that you did, but let's improve. So that was kind of where I was headed with the question. That was what I had in mind with. Can teams be too happy?

Antoni: 11:25

Right. So there's always going to be times where we need to take a step back and learn from our mistakes. Obviously, when, when crappy things happen, we're not going to celebrate them. That just doesn't make any sense. So you know when, when things like that happen, we need to find the learnings from it. We need to understand as a team what it is that we can improve on, and not necessarily come from a place of blame, so that falls into psychological safety.

Antoni: 12:07

Right, we want to be vulnerable enough to not be criticized for what it is that we're doing, for taking chances on things. And having that conversation as a team is what works wonders, is what builds teams together, because now we're working as a collective. Hey, we did, anthony, you did this wrong, and I see where we can get this improved. What do you think about this? And then it's a discussion, and that discussion it's where all the learnings come out of. And, yeah, it's not going to be a happy moment, but it is going to be a learning moment, and those learning moments, I think, are crucial to the growth of the team and the growth to each individual.

Mark: 13:10

So your impact model give us some insight. How does this work? Because this is a happiness blueprint and you're working with teams and every team is different. You've got one team that just has team dynamics, or maybe a lack of team dynamics, where they just they're not having a good time and you're trying to use this impact model to to help them to be more happy. And then we have a different team, like the one we talked about before, that's toxically happy. Everything is good, we don't have any problems right, Everything is overly optimistic. How does the impact model work with the variance of not only teams, but individuals within the teams?

Antoni: 14:04

That's a great question, mark. Now the reason why I called it the happiness blueprint because each blueprint is unique. They will always be unique. Now where it comes into play is that each team is going to have a change agent. Naturally, we need one change agent, and I tell people you can look at yourself as the first change agent.

Antoni: 14:33

When I walk into teams and I'm looking to create change, I do to show up as my best self to foster more happiness, and so the first thing I usually do is I get on camera with a big smile on my face and a positive attitude. For every single meeting, doesn't matter what it is, I show up on camera, a big smile and a positive attitude, and for me, that has always been the catalyst to here's what I am modeling, and there has been probably maybe one team that didn't actually take on this model behavior, but every other team that I've worked with has just been. They've been soaking it in. There are times where I talk about coffee. I talk about, hey, I need my espresso, or I need my espresso macchiato, and they're like oh, anthony, are you Italian? Actually, no, I'm Greek and my mom's Portuguese. So now people start to get to know me that way. So now I'm building a relationship with them and because I'm being open and vulnerable, I'm modeling that for them so that they can do it too.

Antoni: 16:06

And once you start modeling that behavior of what that might look like for others, naturally in my experience you see the same thing. You see the same thing from others. Now I'm not saying that this is a silver bullet. It's not going to happen with everyone. There will be the odd person that will be so negative or so toxically happy or toxically positive that modeling this behavior will not work. And eventually what will happen is when a group of people start to behave in a certain way, there's going to be the outlier and that outlier that doesn't belong. They're going to have to make a choice Am I going to stay and take on this behavior, or am I going to leave and take my current behavior somewhere else?

Mark: 17:11

How do you help teams in that situation where you have somebody who is, we'll just say, influential? Maybe they've been with the company for a long time, they've got a lot of tenure, they know a lot of the people they wrote the original processes than the original systems, yes, so they kind of know everything, but they're not along for the ride. How do you turn the tide in that case where you've got this one person that everybody kind of looks to, but that person is overly negative?

Antoni: 17:45

that's a great question too, because I've dealt with people like that and it has gone either way. I've been with people on teams where they've been there forever and they've always been the cynical one. Yet after my time there, they've taken on this positive perspective and they've been happier because of it. Now, on the flip side, there has been people that refuse to change, and that's just because they choose not to.

Mark: 18:21

They choose people happy being unhappy yes absolutely they.

Antoni: 18:27

They want to sit in their misery and there's absolutely nothing that you can do about it. You know, people have tried, but in the end, Mark, the impact model is designed for people who want to change, want to change. You cannot change people. You can only change yourself, and this is what the happiness blueprint is, is is the key, is the key to.

Mark: 19:00

So let's pivot just a little bit and, anthony, tell me about your inspiration for creating the happiness blueprint. I'm curious.

Antoni: 19:08

Such a great question, mark. So there were a few different things that inspired me to create this, and I've gotten pieces from different places. Obviously, the first piece was the positivity and happiness that I bring every day to work, to teams and to myself every morning, but there were some other variables that came into play. I started really looking at positive psychology, and what is it that makes people happy? What is it that fosters that happiness? How do people go from being a little bit more negative to a little bit more positive? And then, on top of that, I also took some learnings from the centenarians.

Antoni: 20:05

Now for the audience, for those of you who don't know who the centenarians are, these are the people that live over a hundred years old, and a lot of them have lived in what they call the blue zones, and these blue zones there are seven of them around the world where they are specific regions in the world where they have the most concentrated population of people who live over 100 years old, people who live over 100 years old.

Antoni: 20:44

Now, being 100 years old, you probably have a lot of wisdom to share, and so I was looking into what is it that makes these people live this long, and part of it was the fact that they were always happy in whatever it is that they do, happy in whatever it is that they do, the relationships that they have, the constant exercise that they do, and really appreciating life in general. And so taking that wisdom, adding the component of positive psychology and then seeing all the things that I've seen over the time that I've been coaching teams, when you add that all together, it just it became something that I thought might give guidance for others to find their recipe to happiness. Why?

Mark: 21:35

would someone not want to be happy? I can't for the life of me, I'm not. I don't see how one would not buy into your happiness. Blueprint here.

Antoni: 21:47

Well it's. I want to be happy organizations. If you are a CEO and you got shareholders that you need to to talk to, that you need to make sure that they're happy. It's about the bottom dollar. Now, a lot of people look at it as well. How is happiness going to increase the dollar value of my company?

Antoni: 22:21

There's so many studies out there and there's so many people that can vouch to this, but they continue looking at it as a fleeting moment, as rainbows and unicorns, as clouds in a blue sky, and it's not the case at all. This is where we're talking about engagement. We're talking about fulfillment and we're talking about higher productivity, because people love coming to work. People want to get out of bed and are excited to go in on a Monday morning. They're not looking at the clock, thinking when can I punch out, and I have found over time that it's it's something that really needs more attention. I keep on hearing it from not necessarily leaders, but a lot of people in the trenches. They're like Anthony. We need to hear more of this. We want to talk more about our happiness. There was a survey that was released by Gallup last year and it stated that 77% of the global workforce are disengaged 77% Wow 77%, I kid you not.

Antoni: 23:45

And if this doesn't tell you that we got stuff to worry about, I don't know what does. And happiness is part of that. It gets people engaged, it makes people want to work, it makes people want to communicate, it makes people want to collaborate and it makes people inspired to do great things. And when you take care of your people, when your people are happy, your organization is going to just soar.

Mark: 24:21

How much of very classical project management do you come across? And when I say that I'm talking more of project management in the industrial age is much different than project management for knowledge workers.

Antoni: 24:38

Yes, I mean, you come across it a lot. I was just working at an organization where there was an agile transformation happening and people were still asking for Gantt charts, you know, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, it's, it's the fact that that's all that people know. And are we to fault them because of it? No, not at all. And at the same time, has have people showing them hey, here's why this actually works better than your Gantt chart. Here's a process that might work better for you.

Antoni: 25:27

And guess what? There are times where people don't want to work in agile ways and it makes them miserable because there's so much process overhead. And as change agents, as practitioners, we should respect the way of the people. If they are working in a project management way of working and they are happy doing it and they can prove that they are more efficient doing it that way, who are we to tell them that they're more efficient doing it that way? Who are we to tell them that they should change it? I'm probably like ruffling a few feathers here, but I'm just stating the obvious, right.

Mark: 26:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not a guy who has a lot of pet peeves. I'm fairly easy to get along with, but one of the things that we'll say doesn't make me happy. Sure Is someone who responds, or replies to say you just need to tell me what to do. Really, that's all you can bring to the table. We hired you at this position and you just have to be told what to do. You don't have any other opinions, you don't have any other strategies. I'm here to execute. So how would you answer that question when somebody would tell you you just need to tell me what to do, anthony.

Antoni: 26:53

Well, the first thing I would do is become aware the fact that they're disengaged. They just want to be told what to do so they can do their job and go home. That's it. Now, to get them back engaged is to find out what does make them tick. What do they get excited about by coming into work?

Antoni: 27:19

So it's about spending the time as a human being and create that relationship that will allow them to open up, to say I want to do this, or this is the reason why I show up, this is the reason why I show up. You know, if they are low on skill sets, hey, you know what we want to do. We want to make sure that you're ready for success, and here's a course to take. We're paying it all, no problem, you just need to take it on top of that. Again, it goes back to modeling it. What are we modeling for our people? What are we modeling for that person who is saying I don't want to do this, just tell me what to do?

Antoni: 28:09

Do you think that they've had great models in the past? Probably not. I mean, you're a parent. You would know that if you model bad behavior in front of your kids, they're going to take that on Right. So if you're modeling good behavior, and especially in the workplace, it's going to be infectious. People are going to want to do exactly that because it makes them feel good. They don't know why. It's just happiness and positivity and smiling. It's all infectious. People just want to do it. And the more people do it, the more people want to do it outside of just that group or that team.

Mark: 28:59

I'd like to share what makes me happy. Please let me know. What makes me happy is having conversations like this with real people, where I can build relationships and get to know at some level. Maybe I don't know your deepest, darkest secrets, and that's okay, deepest, darkest secrets, and that's okay, but having a real conversation and knowing the bumps, the warts, the scars, being able to openly share some of those and what you learn from them. And just be real. I use this phrase a lot, but we don't live in a Hollywood world. We talked about toxic positivity. Maybe that says something about me, about how many times I bring that up. But yeah, just be real. Be real, being able to understand where other people come from. So I, for one, want to thank you for coming on the podcast here today. Nobody can see my smile, but I'm smiling. Big Anthony has a huge smile on his face as well. Give us a summary of the happiness blueprint. What do people need to know?

Antoni: 30:04

The key to the happiness blueprint is understanding that we cannot change others. We can only change ourselves, and when we use the happiness blueprint and the impact model to find out what fosters happiness for us, we're able to model that for others and that, in turn, will spread towards a happier workplace and happier lives.

Mark: 30:36

That's a fantastic call to action. Thank you, you're welcome. If our listeners want to get in touch with you, which I'm sure they will, how can they reach out to you and how can they find out more about the happiness blueprint and maybe how they can participate in some of your trainings?

Antoni: 30:53

Yeah, so people can reach me at smilingbowtiecom. You can find what the happiness blueprint is in a little bit more detail there. You can also reach me old school by email at anthony at smilingbowtiecom. Or, if you are so inclined and you are a little bit more savvy, you can reach me on most of the social media channels at Smiling Bowtie is my handle. Or you can reach me on LinkedIn. Just look up Antoni Tsevelas. You'll find me there and be more than happy to have a chat with you. And if you're looking for somebody to come in to your organization to talk about happiness and positivity and how you can foster more happiness and get your people engaged, feel free to reach out.

Mark: 31:50

That's awesome. We'll put all those links in the show notes to make it easy for people to go in and reach out to you. So, Anthony, thank you very much for joining us here. It's been a pleasure, my friend.

Antoni: 32:03

Thanks so much, mark, I really appreciate you.

Mark: 32:06

All right, everybody. That's a wrap here for this episode of the Agile Within. We'll see everybody next time. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the agile within. If you haven't already, please join our LinkedIn page to stay in touch. Just search for the agile within and please spread the word with your friends and colleagues Until next time. This has been your host, mark Metz.