ClickCease
Matt Rusten
Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company

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.

Why Joy is Vital for Your Leadership and Company
Business, Faith, Faith at Work
Convene
Do Not Worry

‘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.

Do Not Worry
Greg Leith
Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the ...

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.

Who Will Lead Your Firm the Day After the Election?
Chip Neidigh
A Safe Place To Fall
A Safe Place To Fall
Dave Ulrich
3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

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. 

3 Principles of Hope That Enable Transitions

commercial growth

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Don't Just Go, But Grow To The Next Level

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However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete      the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.  

- Acts 20:24 (NIV)

In Western society, we always seem to be in a rush to go to the next level or to get promoted or gain more status, fame, or fortune. Going to the next level is not necessarily a negative as long as we are also growing to the next level of excellence in the process and as part of God’s plan and purpose for our lives and businesses. Don’t just go, but grow to the next level.

 

We’ve all heard the saying that someone has “arrived” or reached a certain pinnacle of success. But the truth is that we never really ever “arrive.” As Christians, we’re always on a constant dynamic and progressive journey as God completes His sovereign work in us. He is always working in our lives and businesses. We should always be growing in Him and keep growing until our last breath (1 Peter 2:2; 2 Peter 3:18). In order for our organizations to grow, we must grow as individuals. As the former chairman of the ServiceMaster Company, C. William Pollard, states in The Soul of the Firm: “If growth is to sustain itself, the people of the firm must also grow.”

 

The Station

 

“The Station” is a poignant essay by the late Robert J. Hastings. The premise of this provocative piece of work is that as adults we rush through life with this idyllic vision of a final destination or station. The notion is that that on a certain day or at a certain hour, we’ll pull into the station, and once we get there, all of our dreams will come true and all the pieces of our lives will fit together perfectly like a completed jigsaw puzzle. But until then, we continue to rush through life in eager search of our utopian station.

“When we reach the station that will be it!” we cry. The station of “When I buy a new 450SL Mercedes-Benz…!” “When I put the last kid through college…” “When I have paid off the mortgage…” “When I get a promotion…” “When I sell the business…” “When I retire…” “…then I shall live happily ever after.” But as Mr. Hastings, so eloquently points out, “sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.”

 

I share Mr. Hastings’ commentary to make the point that we should not be in a rush to arrive at a particular station in life or at a certain milestone in the commercial arena. Don’t rush God. Enjoy the present and enjoy the journey.

 

Grow with the Process

 

As a child, I remember hearing the lyrics of an old spiritual hymn that said, “I’ll believe I’ll run on and see what the end will be.” It’s important to keep growing in life and in business, but you shouldn’t run on without God and try to rush the process. And you certainly can’t see what the end will be by staying stagnate or complacent and refusing to be obedient to God after He has shown you that it is time to exit one season and transition to another.

 

Don’t try to rush the process. And don’t try to slow it. Grow with the process. And don’t be afraid to grow on to the next milestone in your divine exit plan. Example: It may be time for your business to expand internationally, be sold, increase the number of employees, merge with another company, or just chart a new strategic course.

 

God’s timing for our commercial growth, like His timing for every aspect of our lives, is always perfect. When growing from one business venture to another, ideally, you should grow into it. The Lord knows exactly when you are ready for a new season (Ecclesiastes 3:1). As you mature and make positive contributions where you are planted in the business world, He will often move you into a new season of professional growth and commercial opportunity.

 

The Bible tells us: “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6, NIV). We are never really done with God’s work. As the title of Nell Mohney’s book implores: “Don’t Put a Period Where God Put a Comma.”  So “keep on growing in knowledge and understanding” (Philippians 1:9, NLT). Keep growing personally and professionally, and be open to exiting one season and transitioning into the new, exciting, rich, and rewarding one He has for you. The best is always yet to come. Embrace your new season and grow on!