A few weeks ago, I caught a segment on one of the morning news shows in which they featured the happiest country in the world, according to some new study. The country? Denmark. The reason? It is a country of low expectations. No lie. That was the reason given. Happy-enough looking Danes were interviewed and offered their support for this claim. They didn't really dream big and thus were never disappointed, most said. Voila! Happy!

As a red-blooded American raised firmly on the Puritan Work Ethic and the notion of having great expectations, this jolted my sensibilities. And it still does, except for one small thing: I've put this notion to work a couple times, and it's paid off nicely. While I'm not a big happiness-seeker in that I don't generally chase whatever I fancy might make me happy (I know better than that), once I learned the Danes are the happiest and Americans tend to be among the most unhappy people on earth, I thought a little experiment couldn't hurt.

I first tried it last week when I emailed a couple former colleagues of mine for some advice on a project I was working on. Normally, I'd have hoped for an immediate reply and been frustrated or disappointed if I didn't hear back on my time table. This time, I told myself I probably wouldn't hear back for weeks and tried to forget about it. When in fact, I heard back from one of the people within hours, I was elated. I still haven't heard back from the other one, but I'm okay. Not frustrated. Not stressed.

Then I gave the theory a go on Mother's Day. I have a habit of expecting a lot from people on holidays, and I always end up disappointed because no one can live up to my imagined expectations. So instead of envisioning my kids and husband singing my praises all day and waiting on me hand and foot, I lowered my expectations. When I got breakfast in bed and had a terrific picnic with my family at a local park that day, again, elation. It was a wonderful day. All my expectations were exceeded, and I felt really happy.

But the Danes apparently put this into practice in areas beyond emails and holidays. So I've been wondering if there are leadership applications for this. To be honest, I'm not sure I can promote the idea of having low expectations for staff or colleagues, but I wonder if keeping our expectations in check wouldn't keep our stress at bay. And I wonder if many of our frustrations in leadership are the result of expectations - for others as well as ourselves - set way too high. Would we be happier if we lowered these expectations? And would it be worth it?