Is joy an underrated asset in your leadership? In our latest article, Matt Rusten explores why joy, much like humor, plays a vital role in building a thriving company culture. From increasing team engagement to fostering resilience, joy can transform workplace dynamics and inspire purpose-driven work. Discover three key ways to cultivate joy in your organization and why it’s essential for leaders who seek both results and fulfillment.
‘Do not worry.’ We’ve read Matthew 6:25-34 in the Sermon on the Mount, but what does that look like on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute basis? God knows our every worry, fear, and concern – and He can handle it. Many thanks to Darrell Passwater, Convene Forum Team leader, for his encouragement to think about how our lives might be different by truly living out this scriptural principle.
Got a quick minute to chat? I’ve been wanting to share something with you as you lead in the midst of the election cycle in the USA or when your political election takes place in your country. When the dust settles on the election and the new country leader is declared, one thing will still be as true as it is right now. You’ll still be the one leading your firm the day after the election. Your team members will still come to work the day after the winner is declared. They’ll still be looking to you for leadership, for a paycheck, for a sense of community at their workplace.
What do they want most that only you can deliver? It’s meaning. That meaning they’re looking for begins with you and your leadership. To be sure, what Washington DC does actually can impact your business significantly, however, the president of the United States or the leader of any country does not lead your firm. You do. It’s an enterprise entrusted to you to lead as a steward. It’s a place where people look to you for answers, where people want to be part of a team that cares about them and where people want to be valued, appreciated, and loved. The next president of the country will not show up this week at your office to encourage your team, fix a broken piece of equipment, hire the next team member, sell a big account, or cast a bold vision about how your team will reach your goals and impact the culture.
As we find ourselves mid-October and a blink away from a new calendar year, it is an opportunity to prepare for how we view transitions. Transitions allow for reflection and renewal, for letting go and beginning anew, and for learning from the past and creating the future. Instead of laying out trends for the next year, I would like to comment on a fundamental enabler of any transition: hope. Leaders who want to improve, CEO’s who work toward excellence, HR professionals who aspire to deliver more value, and employees who seek well-being all achieve their transitions by realizing hope.
Hope integrates many of the positive traits that shape transitions for others and matter to me personally: learning, patience, service, faith, humility, optimism, gratitude, and so forth. I send hundreds of formal and informal e-mails every month to invite people to programs, to thank people for attending programs, to check in on those I mentor, and to stay connected to those I care about. I begin almost every one of these notes with “Hope you are well.” Hope is one of my personal desires, tag lines, and biases and an enabler of any transition.
If I could implant one trait in my family, friends, and colleagues who are undergoing continual transition, it would be hope.
I enjoy unhurried conversations where joys, hopes, dreams, and fears bubble to the surface of our often too-busy lives. As a pastor and frequent speaker on faith, work, and economics, I not only really like a bold cup of coffee but enjoy catching up with congregational members at a favorite coffee shop.
I’m addicted to constantly checking my email. I want to stop, but I can’t. I think it’s mostly driven by fear. I’m afraid of missing something important. I’m afraid of missing out on an opportunity. I justify my condition by telling myself that I am known for being responsive and available. Responsiveness is one of my differentiators. Being available and responsive goes a long way in today’s business world. My clients and colleagues know that I’m always available and they appreciate it. However, I take it way too far. Constantly checking email is killing my productivity, increasing my stress level, and preventing me from ever having true downtime. I can’t live in the moment because I’m constantly thinking about what I’m potentially missing. A major side effect is that I can’t focus on one activity for more than a few minutes without being distracted.
The objective of the Business Owner’s Game is simple: More money in less time.
Successful business leaders play this game all the time to increase their revenue (or income) and reduce the amount of time they have to personally spend increasing it. The smart leaders have everyone at work playing the same game. The objective is to discover the “highest and best use” of everyone’s time, and get them focused on doing those things.
More Money in Less Time
Anybody can make more money in more time; it’s easy—just work more hours. Except you only have 168 hours in a week. So the better idea is to discover how to make more money in less time. A lot of people intend to make more money every year, but how many of them intend to do it in less time?
Why do we all have the first graph, but not the second one? Because we’re stuck in Industrial Age thinking about how money is made, by trading time for money.
A traditional employee thinks that way as well, but shouldn’t. The Industrial Age was wrong. Everyone working in every business should be on a manic pursuit to answer the question, “How do I make more money in less time?” Your business would make more money if all your people thought this way. And if you, as a business owner, want to build a successful business, you can’t afford to succumb to this old Industrial Age habit. Let’s learn the Business Owner’s Game.
The Game: Two Simple Questions
The good news is that the Business Owner’s Game is very simple. There are only two questions:
1. Is this (whatever I’m doing right now) the highest and best use of my time?
The answer to at least seventy-five percent of what we’re doing will be, “No.” Whatever we’re doing is rarely the highest and best use of our time. We just haven’t bothered to get it off our plate (short-term decision-making).
If the answer is no, and it almost always is, then move on to question number two:
2. If this is not the highest and best use of my time, then how do I do it for the last time?
The answer to that question will lead you to freedom.
If you are serious about getting things off your plate, you’ll come up with a number of ways to offload things that don’t belong there. Freedom Mapping is just one common answer to the question. But if you’re afraid, distracted, believe your business is unique (it never is), have a big ego, believe you’re indispensable (you almost never are), or a dozen other excuses, you will find 1,000 ways to not get things off your plate.
Business Owner vs. Income Producer
This is the most important game a business owner and everyone in your business can play. We waste more time and money doing things others should be doing than just about any other way.
If you are playing this game, you are a Business Owner (even if you don’t own the business, you own your destiny). If you aren’t, you are only an Income Producer, the fatal mindset of the “employee” (yes, Business Owners can be employees of themselves!) You may think you own a business, but all you really own is a job.
How Staff Members Should Play The Game
When Krista first came to work with us, we asked her to create a Freedom Map of the processes she ran. A year later we had her go back over this with the two questions in the Business Owner’s Game, to discover the highest and best use of her time. She circled everything in the process that did not qualify, and we hired Lauren who loved doing those things and was great at them. Both of them were firing on all cylinders now. As she gained experienced and the job changed, we had Lauren re-draw her Freedom Maps another year later, and hired Donna to do the things that were not the highest and best use of Lauren’s time. As Donna gains experience we will have her do the same thing.
Don’t Hire For Jobs; Hire For Effectiveness
We never hire someone for “a job”, but instead, we hire them to take over things that aren’t the highest and best use of someone else’s time. Does anyone ever get to 100% ideal use of their time? Of course not, but everyone in our company is always closer to it than they would be working anywhere else. And they all have more freedom and more meaning in their work as a result.
Get Off The Treadmill
What is the highest and best use of your time? How do you the other things for the last time?
Apply the two simple questions in the Business Owner’s Game to everything you do for one month and see what happens. It will transform your business if you are an owner, or your job if you are a Stakeholder. It will begin to give you the answers that allow you to make more money in less time, get off the treadmill and get a life.
We’ve likely all heard the story…you know the one…”There was a college professor who once pulled out a large jar and asked his class, after putting some big rock in the jar, is the jar full?” If you haven’t heard it, do a quick search for “The professor and the jar story”. Steven Covey relays it in his “First Things First” book as well.
I heard the story a long time ago (at least it feels that way), and I remember how it impacted me. It made so much sense. I kept trying to shove more in the jar, never really thinking about what my “big rocks” were. The list I came up with felt pretty reasonable and important – God, family, self and work. I’ve tried – and failed – and tried again to prioritize these in the order I had determined.
I wonder, though, is there another way to look at this? What about different kinds of rocks?
I don’t think many would argue with the above four – maybe friends would be there for some, church for others. Maybe the list would be longer or shorter, with more or less “big rocks”. What I found, though, was that I couldn’t practically implement my “rocks” (that sounds weird…but I can’t seem to find a better way to say it). After all, trying to be involved in what God was up to also included being a dad and a husband. And I was pretty sure He wanted to be around me at work, too.
Could I put different rocks in the jar?
So I’ve tried one – “keep the Sabbath holy”. For me, that’s Sunday. Could I really not check e-mail? Could I really have it just be a day of renewal? And if I did, how would it force me to move other “rocks” around to make it fit? So far, it is different around here.
How about you? What one big rock should you try to put in the jar? Can you find one that would push the other ones around in a way that gets you where God wants you to go?
I’ll let you know how it goes. Let us know what “rocks” for you…
