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

history

Audacity

In 1532, Francisco Pizarro along with 106 foot-soldiers and 62 horsemen found themselves in the city of Cajamarca in the Sierra of northern Peru. They were there to meet with Atahualpa, the ruler of the Inca Empire. The problem? Atahualpa brought 80,000 warriors with him to the party and he wasn’t in a conciliatory mood. Seems that the Spanish reputation for conquest and plunder had preceded them and Atahualpa wasn’t having any of it. So when the Inca’s arrived en mass at the city walls, the day before the meeting, Pizarro was forced to contemplate his options:

1. Turn tail and try and get away. 2. Hope that he could broker a deal that preserved their lives. 3. Do something audacious.

Pizarro opted for the latter.

First, he told his men his plan would unfold as events played out the next day – all he asked was that they be bold and courageous. Then he hid his foot-soldiers and horsemen in the stone buildings that lined the square in the middle of the city. The next day he waited until Atahualpa and approximately 6,000 warriors, attendants and ranking chiefs riding on litters had filed through the small entrances and crammed into the town square.

A brief dialog ensued. It did not go well, and Atahualpa rose on his litter and began shouting orders --which the Spanish interrupted were preparatory for an attack. Pizarro gave the order and his horsemen and foot-soldier came rushing out of the buildings and attacked the mass of Incas in the square. The suddenness and brutality of the attack panicked the crowed warriors. They began to press together and try and escape through the small entrances at the end of the square. Needless to say, they were easy targets for the lances and swords of the Spaniards. The conquistadors wreaked havoc among the warriors, destroyed the easily identifiable leaders and then captured Atahualpa himself. The battle spread outside the walls and at the end of the day close to 6,000 Incas were dead and the Spanish did not lose a single man! In a word, it was a slaughter.

So what can the entrepreneur and business owner learn from Pizarro and the battle of Cajamarca?

  • The size and apparent strength of the competition cannot always be the deciding factor. 500 to 1 are not always losing odds!

  • Understand the value of your key differentiators. The Spanish had steel weapons, a couple of cannons and most importantly war horses with skilled and experienced horsemen.

  • Take advantage of flaws in your competitor’s strategy. The Inca’s believed that their overwhelming superiority in numbers would win the day. They were so confident that their generals, chiefs and leaders all rode on litters up front in the battle line. It was a strategy that cost them dearly.

  • Be audacious! Humming and hawing and waiting for the stars to align is not a winning strategy. When faced with opportunity…GO FOR IT!

So in the battles of business and commerce remember the words of Karl Von Clausewitz:

“If the leader is filled with high ambition and if he pursues his aims with audacity and strength of will, he will reach them in spite of all obstacles.”

Here’s to AUDACITY!