(Third and final installment in my series on Chip Conley and Airbnb)

I tease Chip Conley that it seems to be his destiny to be a serial disruptor of the hospitality industry, first as founder and former CEO of Joie de Vivre, the second largest boutique hotel company in America, and now as the head of Global Hospitality and Strategy with Airbnb, a hot marketplace for people to list, discover, and book unique accommodations around the world.

One thing Joie de Vivre and Airbnb have in common is that people are buying experiences when they rent with them, not just a cookie-cutter hotel room.

Given that experience and emotion set Chip’s endeavors apart, it is not surprising that he is a student of what emotions drive us. At Joie de Vivre, Chip built a loyal employee culture and meaningful job design by using Maslow’s Need Hierarchy. He proved that people can create meaning even if their job is making beds and cleaning hotel rooms of strangers. Chip’s first book, Peak, is about that experience and how great companies get their mojo from Maslow. (Full disclosure: I met Chip when we asked him to keynote about Peak at APQC’s 2012 Knowledge Management Conference.  He later joined APQC’s board of directors.)

His newest book on creating meaning is Emotional Equations: Simple Truths for Creating Happiness and Success.

Chip says in the chapter titled “Is Anxiety Your Corporate Virus?” that anxiety is not only very debilitating, as we all know, but it is also the most contagious thing that happens in a company. For example, when people are worried about layoffs, they are highly uncertain and feel powerless. That combination is lethal to productivity as well as personal satisfaction and growth.

Fortunately, Chip has a variety of suggestions on how you can make peace with this uncertainty, and reduce the amount of anxiety derailing your organization and making people miserable.

Chip: One of the things you can do to obtain more certainty is have a private conversation with your boss, who is one of the senior leaders. Ask how the company’s prospects look. Inquire how senior leadership is thinking. Is there a risk there may be layoffs? Would your job be involved with that risk? On the powerlessness side, the best thing you can do is be powerful in influencing what you can influence. If you’re worried your job is on the line, don’t worry about your job being on the line. Focus on what you’re doing well and make sure you’re getting credit for the things you’re doing in the company. Generally speaking, smart companies don’t get rid of smart people.

If you are not in a smart company and they’re going to let you go, then it’s probably just as well that you’re leaving. I think the key is to look at uncertainty and powerlessness and what you can do to influence even one of the two.

Carla: I think uncertainty and fear are the things that haunt us the most.

Chip: And they can stunt us. Performance anxiety actually leads us to not doing things well. Anxiety is very debilitating and it is the most contagious emotion in most companies, especially when the economy is going badly. Yet, most leaders don’t think through emotions and the fact that in many ways, a leader is the emotional thermostat of the group they’re leading.

For more about Chip’s equations for leading a meaningful life and how to create your own equations see his book.

Check out the rest of my Big Thinkers, Big Ideas interviews on APQC’s Knowledge Base.

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